The Adventures of Auntie Kay

[Music] let me tell you about my auntie K oldest living member of the family a woman of character and integrity who drove her car to church on Sundays loving every minute of it but somewhere along the line on weekday she took lessons from Barney Oldfield this is she my auntie K but don't call her sweet gentle or old or she'll hit you on the head she can be pretty short with dunderheads like me who get fumble fingered over moving vehicles and their component parts if she doesn't you like her [Music] let me ask you have you seen the boat swamping the water at 60 MPH in a jolting Gallop for the cup well my auntie Kay has and she can tell you all about [Music] it have you seen the sports cars sliding the hard right and gearing up to 100 mph have you seen the tight bright little racing machines called Formula 1 chasing each other down the straight at 150 mph have you heard the cycle snarling insults at each other and see them streak out in the championship race Auntie K has at home on the farm near Bradford Pennsylvania where she was was born she likes to sit on the back porch knitting not my auntie Kay she'll be cleaning and gapping a few spark plugs for the tractor more likely you'll find her out in the garage prepping one of her collection of antique cars for a little [Music] Spin and if you don't find her around here anywhere try a place like this any place like this whenever men and machines are in contact whenever engines are tuned stand the roughest test she'll be there somewhere maybe it's all the noise speed the Daredevil Walts of the Riders as they pursue the curving course [Music] [Applause] [Music] or they practice Precision of a pit crew refueling the winner for his final [Music] lap and after 2 hours and 150 pounding miles of bracket and Roar Just who do you suppose will say it is the final lap right my atie [Music] K and the winner can bet his prize money that by the time he changes clothes my auntie Kay will be on her way to some other place where men and machines are in contest I made the mistake of remarking one time that it seems to me these racing boats travel farther on land than they do on water and that they have to practically be thrown into the water when they finally get near it this I thought was funny too at least they don't have to worry about a wet track needless to say this was pure irreverence to Auntie Kay listen and you'll see what I mean when these motorboat boats are dumped into the drink Kenneth how many times have I told you not mot boats hydroplanes means it receives it support from the dynamic reaction of the water upon the plains of its H and I think you better let me tell about it nephew you'll get yourself in over your head again now as you can see your major opponent is the water it hangs on to you drags and pulls like so much glue to hold you [Music] back and here's another opponent right at the start you have to figure your speed and time and position so you hit the starting line just as that last yellow vein flops the black not before or you disqualified not too long after or you'll be Left [Music] Behind These are the little ones 48 cubic in first R of the day now you can see how you conquer the water your hydroplane steps right out of it and SS along like a flat stone skip across the river by a little boy clock beaten water beaten now you have to beat the other boats and the other drivers you don't sit down in these little ones you kneel taking the pounding and riding it like a wild horse as it fights the water to give you speed [Music] [Music] [Music] you feel the speed and know you're doing well until the water reaches up and slaps you down all you can do is wait for the rescue boat now but someone wins they always [Music] do but for you all the hours and all the preparation Ends Here and Now but you'll put in more work and more hours and try again some other day but for the crowd another race and they've forgotten the moment of excitement you made for [Music] them now just in case you think otherwise there's a great deal more to speed bolt racing than simply sitting in there bouncing around and steering around a course there's the wake of those to think about for anent a big problem if it's someone else's in ahead of you it simply makes a path you can't travel very long and get anywhere and they'll use it against you if they can to wash you out of the turns like this watch [Applause] it they both fight back into the races after that one [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] the way you work yourself around the buoys can win the race for you take it wide and you lose time and distance you better make up in a hurry [Music] as the day goes on other classes bigger ones fascinating [Music] that [Music] for [Music] now why do you suppose batti K retired sudden the driver got interested in all this noise and rushing around and people trying to travel faster than other people in all sorts of ways well I'm going to tell you one fine day at the tail end of a winter my auntie came finished up an early plowing on the little farm where she was born near Bradford Pennsylvania and got to thinking about some advantages she had not from corn or wheat or potatoes but back there in the woods back there where the sun had not reached the last wet fall of snow pumped winter and summer from deep deep down Rich Pennsylvania crude oil the finest she had seen it go to the refinery of the valley seed CED and sealed seed shipped to the far quarters Europe the Faris South America because it was the best she took the time to learn about her oil and she could talk about viscosity and pooed SAE ratings were the best of them that teacher too she took the young motor minded to the automotive laboratory at the refinery and made sure they understood the importance of good lubrication of oil and grease sometimes we call her the wizard of ooze well all of this gave her romantic thoughts and she got the feeling that there might be some fun an excitement going on with her oil and she wasn't good on it so she parked her tractor got her everyday car ready and went hunting now my auntie Kay is not just a watcher she wants to know what she's watching She's determined to find out what the internal combustion engine is full of oil from the farm and what it's all about even if she had to push it around to learn anywhere she could find them she asked questions she helped at whatever they'd let her do anytime they needed an extra pair of [Music] hat she won their confidence they taught her that fine cuing of a competition car was a job of instinctive skills and DEP affection for each part and piece that a tire could run a temperature that the shell was a skin a thin one with the sole purpose of wrapping it all up in a reasonably neat package Against the Wind she went over them and under them and into them to learn all of this was important the Buffs told her because the cars would not win by feet or yards but by stopwatch seconds and parts of seconds that a tenth of a lap a second is almost 2 minutes in 100 laps somewhere along the line she made a friend of a Scotsman named Ireland inis Ireland an international Grand Prix driver who told her how you came upon those tents of a seconds on the corners he said all of your training experience and carefully schooled reflexes transmitted to the machine so that you become one with it supplying the missing ingredient of brain knowing now she was ready to see and one day nestled in the hilly country Central New York State not very far from home she came upon Watkins Glenn Watkins to the natives The Glenn in racing Publications throughout the world in a bustling little garage off Main Street a world of nothing but sports cars pleasure cars built not as the Beast of burd so many of us must have the family and package carrying omnus but a machine with special abilities to meet any challenge of the road can offer needing only a single human being who will understand it and care for it head on a high Windy Hill outside of tow the Watkins gled racetrack there you go again not RAC trck a Grand Prix Road circuit let me take it before you lose all my friends there are the sports car races today amateurs who like their cars and want to see what they can do given good driving against others 262 entries in 11 races each in its own class some right out of the factory others fashion to the owner's taste [Music] all kind thear Sprite Lotus 7 Alpha [Music] Romeo this one his owner calls alofa Lotus body Alpha Romeo engine and Alpha Lotus is better than none [Music] [Applause] [Music] and when you're all ready your car and you you commit yourself to race trying to pick up a fraction of a second here another one there the shortest distance between two points is a straight line the straightest line is the shortest race by [Music] second it begins right here can you out guess the starter by a fifth of a second when you dig out then put it in your pocket and go after to the next fraction and lose it to events beyond your control roll bar and safety belt that's what they're for this driver ended up all right the cars of the same class there's not much difference in speed you don't win your race packing everything inight Hollywood style as my friend the Scotsman named Ireland explained you win it here on the corners where all of your skills and reflexes with throttle gears clutch break wheel combine the shortest distance and highest speed you can make and keep your car on the [Music] circuit you use the weight of your car to break the traction of your tires and to deliberately slide it around to reach the point where you can pour on the coal for the straight away 1/5 of a second sooner but there is a [Music] limit for [Music] everyone and the weather fine day for the fans that once every time around the Sun in your eyes or mechanical trouble maybe your brakes [Music] lock two of you can't take the same Short Line around the corner and the one who gets it wins the piece of a second and it could be worse than that if you make a bad move your competitive spirit says finish the race anyway or if your car isn't really well today somehow someway stay in front of someone don't be lapped unless there's nothing you can do about it [Music] what [Music] for every race a winner you have everything combines to make it so your car your skill the weather the traffic patterns the circuit itself a hundred circumstances of one kind or another 25,000 people came to see the sports car races at the Glenn some curious but most of them sports car box they come early participate fully build their own scaffold grandstands and at the end of the day they tear them down and hurry home and so do I but not for long because soon she heard that at ID Wild International Airport the racing cars were arriving for the Grand Prix of the United States the tight little bright little formula ones designated for Grand Prix competition at the famous circuits of the World Spa Monza Monaco zort the others this one for the Lotus Factory team to be driven by a Scotsman named Ireland and back to the gled he came by Chopper anything that moves with a motor in it she noticed something for the first time the circuit itself a final challenge to man and machine this one built specially to test both for the beds corers straightaways Hills and dips here was something to find out about so at her Motel she built a bottle of it and found a way to get to know it [Music] well cat you just hearer from the start you get across to the left hand side of the road cut in close to the right and accelerate hard the clubhouse 's are on the brow of a hill which you have to drive blind you put your car into a slide just before you can see over the top of the hill here come through this F curve into the main straightway where you reach the highest speed at the end of about 150 mph Mar she knew how the circuit was driven because she was told by an expert Sterling boss of England sometimes called the fastest driver of the world to whom she dragged her model for explanations on the spot she would remember his words as the race progressed but first there was practice they call it practice but it's an important part of the race fastest practice laps determined grid positions in what order the cars will line up for the start and the international Grand Prix drivers are here to try for the first position skilled professionals from Australia England Scotland New Zealand Sweden Belgium and the United [Music] States and when the last one is in there is excitement for they are fast weather warm and fair track drive it will be a good race to watch the crowd piles in now streaming into the infield the international Grand Prix Champion an American takes a bow though he will not drive [Music] today engines are pried and flord here John Cooper with one of his Coopers competing today with the lotus's brms and [Music] portions Walt hin who will drive for the owner International Sportsman Briggs [Music] Cunningham pit activity among drivers mechanics and friends until at [Music] last the Grand Prix of the United States on the grid it's braam Graham Hill boss and McLaren up front as the starter begins his [Music] dance boss dives by Hill after braon and the pack pours after them heading through the 's down the front straight into the loop out of the loop into the shoot Hills brm drops a patch of oil this could be [Music] trouble boss in number seven ahead on the back straight down to the hard right leading the parade around the 90° turn first lap it's boss braam Ireland gery Gregory McLaren a 100 times they'll pound around the circuit 230 [Music] Mi Moss still leads the patch of oil gives Ireland trouble on the second lap the back straight toward the Big Bend through the [Music] bend after the hard right they pick up their pit signals [Applause] [Music] the pack cap know that RAM and boss have forgotten about them it's Bram now with boss's four-cylinder Lotus pushing at him in the loop but the Cooper V8 has the bit extra to back him off this [Music] [Applause] time braam number one boss number s both heavy-footed now in a duel that asks the limits of skill and performance shooting like rabbits with the HS growling behind nipping at each other in their [Music] eagerness behind them hansin avoids jier and Spins out as he enters the back straight [Applause] B keeps plugging away the 60,000 people here today see the duel between the Front Runners wearing on drivers and machines circuit after [Music] circuit behind the leaders there's still more race and suddenly halfway through boss is all alone brub his waterliner leaking has hit the pits where the race is over for number [Music] one had no consolation that a few laps later boss is in there too The Duel is [Music] over the Scotsman DED Ireland inherits first place pressed by Hill he almost loses it looking for him but Hills in the pits to trying to get back out gley slipstream Salvador but can't keep it up for Long Hill shows admirable calb as he tries to restart to no avail [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you enter the s's blind Sterling boss told by atti K of the loop and shoot he said this uh corner here called The Loop and the loop is taken from the left hand side of the road ducking down again into the right and letting it Swing Out wide at the end as you come out of it and then you come down into what's known as a sh which is quite a fast Corner because it's banked up on the left hand side fairly steeply for a road type circuit and you start on the left and swoop down the banking into the dip and then out and into the back straight and of the hard right he said of course isn't quite straight this is uh quite an acute corner here although it has been made easier for this year's race and we start right on the left cut very close into the right and slide out to the left again and across in front of the pits down to the start and finish line here [Music] near the end now salvadori and gurny battle for second spot and Clark no La gets into the ACT salvadori trops down hard to save off gery and his engine blows gery RS by but it's the Scotsman named Ireland in the Green Lotus at the Finish gy Brooks and McLaren finish in that order salvadori finishes on his feet the time 2 hours 13 minutes 40 5 and 8/10 seconds average speed 103.7 [Music] mph in The Winner Circle for his Just Desserts the winner of the Grand Pre of the United States in is Ireland of Scotland salvadori who almost made it pushes it in or ittis the reef and the kiss and another race somewhere else and by a k of course feels she do it all the [Music] time as for my AE K to go home in what [Applause] [Music] next for