 If you want to stand around Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration's 1981 All American Racers Eagle-Cosworth before the Weathertech International Challenge at Road America in July, it'll be on display with the Vintage Indy squadron for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Sonsio Grand Prix presented by AMR, June 10-12 at Elkhart Lake's Road America.
If you want to know all about AAR Eagle #8101, its futuristic design, and to learn about the life it led, stop on by!  45 years ago, a narrow, offset, aggressive-looking Eagle started 8th. It was all-out attempt by a team going through a transition period.
Years later, Monday morning quarterbacks would call the car a flawed creation. Had it the engine that it was supposed to have later that summer, the car would have been talked about much differently. Long live the Sidehack, and those who aren't afraid to try in the face of millions.  Patina is not a crime, especially when it was caused by sand from a track no longer in existence, demolished in 1981.
Akin to damage from falling icicles come spring time. Flesh wounds from an long-lost assailant. Evidence of something that once was, testing all who tried to conquer it. The chips indicate that it was there for its final laps, and survived nearly half-a-century after Ontario Motor Speedway's demise. The car lingered on after the intended driver said adieu before the end of the campaign. It lingered on after a new head designer dreamt up its replacement. It lingered on, and has been a topic of many conversations by those who saw it in the summer of '77, and those who were captivated by the oddity that it was-and-remains. So I guess what I'm saying is you should probably make it to the Weathertech International Challenge at Road America this July if you want to see an absolute time capsule of an Eagle if there ever was one. Long live the Sidehack.  The Sidehack Eagle wheels were Cerakoted this week courtesy of @734blasting. Next up, proper Goodyear rubber and new hardware.
 The tires are too wide for the Enkei Eagle mag wheels, so there is some fiddling to do still.
If you've enjoyed the discovery, restoration and shakedown of Michael Argetsinger's former 1973 Elden Mk10B here at KMPR, you'll be pleased to know that this fall, the Formula Ford will be returning to its spiritual home of Watkins Glen, New York, to be on display at the International Motor Racing Research Center for the Sixth Annual Michael R. Argetsinger Symposium on Motor Racing history, taking place November 4-5.
After the event, the Elden will spend the winter at the IMRRC to help commemorate 75 years of racing in Watkins Glen in 2023. We couldn't think of a more proper event and setting for Michael's car to take part in then within the walls of the center that he championed so tremendously. Although Michael never raced the car in the United States, subsequent owners ran the car at WGI before it was parked in the early 2000s.  A Paul Castagnoli shot of The Sidehack Eagle working its way down Indianapolis' famous pitlane during the month of May, 1977, with driver Pancho Carter behind the wheel.
The #48 machine would end up using endplate ramps that are currently on the car during the 1977 500, and removing the customary endplates as seen in this stellar photo.  Don Ludewig's service was this morning at Road America. He was a stellar man, and he'll be greatly missed.
We knew Don traveled all over. His friends brought out his photo albums, and what we didn't know was Don was a stellar photographer. I turned a page and found he was at Phoenix in March, 1982 for Chip Mead's last race aboard Eagle #8101. Cheers Don. |
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Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration
KettleMorainePR@gmail.com Hubertus, Wisconsin 'Where History and Integrity Meet' |