 Cars that have rolled into our shop have varied from McLaren to Stanguellini.
Today: Aston Martin. A few weeks ago, Ted Wittcoff, who owned our 1977 All American Racers Eagle DGF #005 from 1982-1986, sent me the following photos from his time owning the car.
Ted purchased the car from Dirk Piz, and sold the car after a shunt in 'The Kink' at Road America in 1986 to a fellow in California who thought it would be a good car to convert to a sports racer. Luckily, it never went that route. Although, two of the 13 DGF's were convered to DSR/CSR cars during their lifetime, and one has been converted back.
What appears to be 1977 All American Racers Eagle DGF #005's original logbook photos, courtesy of third owner Ted Wittcoff, who owned #005 from 1982-1986.
Too cool. If you look closely, 'Tank' is still on the side of the cockpit from Bob Tankersley's first years with the car, and 'Dan Gurney Eagle Racing Cars U.S.A.' is on the side panel behind the front wheel in blue. We dig yellow, this car never had a bad livery in its life. All the more of an honor to keep it right, and flying. 365 days ago, Eagle DGF #005 went for a drive in California, close to where it was hatched. It came back with the Rolex Award of Excellence for the Formula Ford class at the Monterey Reunion, held at Monterey’s renowned Laguna Seca circuit.
In our five years racing the Eagle in vintage competition, earning the prestigious award was perhaps the highlight of what we have done with the car- as it not only coupled what we did on track, but how many view the car, its restoration and its place in history. And about that history- we never forget to mention who built DGF #005: All American Racers. Dan Gurney’s shop in Santa Ana. The same Dan Gurney who is tattooed on my right arm, and the same man who in my sole meeting with him told me to keep the car flying. In 2017, Eagle DGF #005 won the Monoposto Cup for Club Ford cars. Dan passed away before I could fly out and present the award to him. But, I knew that the award belonged in Santa Ana, so I met up with Justin and Danny Gurney the following April at AAR, and a handshake deal was made that any major award #005 took home, I’d make sure a copy was made for AAR- as the reward of their efforts from 43 years ago are still echoing with every time the car hits the racing surface. After Monterey, I kept my word and worked with first SCRAMP, and later the new managers at Laguna Seca to get a duplicate award made for Class 3B from the Monterey Reunion. It turned out Rolex has their own private engravers modify the silver cups, so I had to make some more calls. Around New Years’ Day, I got connected to the right person, they said it wouldn’t be a problem, but did I perhaps want to have something engraved on the back? Sure- AAR Eagle DGF #005, let the future know what car took home Formula Ford’s first Rolex Award at Monterey. I was going to fly out to Santa Ana to present the award to AAR this March, but COVID nixed that. Then I asked FF lover and all-around swell guy Paul Pfanner if he’d personally drop it off at AAR if I shipped it to him and COVID tapered off, but again, that was also thwarted by 2020. Then a phone call occurred around April 15th- and it wasn’t my tax man. It was Kathy Weida, VP of All American Racers, and an employee of AAR going back to 1974. We discussed a historical footnote, but we then got on the topic of the Eagle DGFs. She shared with me the fact that at that time, one of her duties was to market and sell the DGFs, and she recalled the day Bob Tankersley came by to pick up his chassis, #005, which was produced in a vivid yellow. Kathy shared with me her memories of the DGF project, and how attached she was to the car’s success. An email followed with some amazing photos of David Loring on-edge, pitching his Eaglet around Riverside. As we talked, she made it really simple for me to figure out who to ship the trophy to when it went out to AAR last month to entrust it went to the right place- the woman who made sure the Eaglets found their homes. Thank you Kathy. I’ll keep it flying. Special thanks to Andrew Wait, Rolex, Barry Toepke, Boardman Silversmiths, Paul Pfanner, Justin Gurney, Kathy Weida and all the rest of the All American Racers. - Jacques
 For reasons of safety, Paul fashioned a steel 'ass tray' for the Elden, similar to what is in the Eagle. I'll most likely only run a fiberglass strip of a seat in the car, as I do in the Eagle to fit properly.
Lots of thinking has gone into the car to remedy many of the sins that came about in the past 40 years of shortcuts and low dollar fixes
Yesterday, via the Formula Ford Vintage Facebook page, we found out Ted Wittcoff owned our Eagle DGF between 1982-1986. He purchased it in 1982 from second owner Dirk Piz, and sold it after an accident in the Kink at RA in 1986. And here we thought it never raced East of the Mississippi!
Ted ran in the CenDiv and also ran the car as #46, and as #48, something we never thought it did. You never stop learning, especially when it comes in the form of uncovering the past. More soon... |
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Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration
KettleMorainePR@gmail.com Hubertus, Wisconsin 'Where History and Integrity Meet' |