Retirement

[Jerry Kehoe]

Thanks to all during the years. Jerry

[RussMcB]

Thanks to all during the years. Jerry

Jerry, I hope you don't mind if I copy/paste your PDF text here. It's a pretty interesting history.

I'll remove it if you'd like.

Let me know if it's really possible to retire from racing. I've been considering it for 40 years but haven't been able to give it up.

Best of luck to you.

Russ

________________________________

Hard to imagine but after 50 years and about 400 races it really is time to retire from racing! From a start in karts including a homemade one with a hardly running Briggs motor to a Bug kart with a beautiful metallic blue paint job and Clinton 2 ½ HP then a King kart to my first FF, an early Lotus 51 with a Renault trans, wet sump motor (that I traded a 63 split window for, genius huh?) with some local Midwest Council races and a SCCA drivers school at RA. Then to a BT16 (?) FC with a double downdraft Holbay F3 motor (which as most of these, rarely ran right) and my first real dream, a BT29 with a twin cam then I found a FVC to put into it and ran it for a few years thanks to a relationship with Steve Jennings who took care of all of my motors over the years and taught me lots on prep work and friendship! At that point and continuing to this day a friendship with Marc Bahner who taught me lots of fabricating lessons along with the books from Carroll Smith really were key in learning even until this day! In my day most of us had to work on our own cars in every detail or not be able to afford to race. Remember when regional entry fees were $40 and a set of tires was $350?Somewhere along the way FA became Formula Atlantic and I remade the BT29 into a 2ltr Can-Am car for the series and ran some of the races. Then I decided to convert it further with the mistake of having an Olds aluminum 213 inch motor built and installed it, it worked but never made more than 300 HP and rarely had brakes that would stop it for long without boiling the fluid! Should have put in a Chev or Ford but like McLaren I learned the hard way.Then I created the Can-Am chassis which still had the Olds but with a Frisbee body that I ran for a season. Still no HP but absolutely amazing downforce! Finally sold that and bought a March 802 that I ran in WCAR and club racing until I found you really needed an R T4! Sold the March, bought the Ralt and ran it in the series and club racing for several years. Got the idea to install a 60 degree Chev V6 in the RT4, built that and it worked pretty well, weighed no more than with the Cosworth and was pretty cost effective and fun to drive. All the while making all the parts, etc to do it! Then after a conversation with Jennings regarding the BMW V12 and how reasonable it was to run I created everything to put one in my RT4. This included creating a real bulkhead, adapters, FI, ignition, headers, oiling system and once installed it only increased the WB by about 4 inches and about 100 lbs heavier with about three times the torque. The car was very good handling, fun to drive, cost effective and I won bunches of races including the Pacific Coast runoffs, regional championships and after putting about 125 races on it in all forms I sold the roller to Charlie Warner who converted it back to a stock RT4. Think mine was the first without the legs on it and a real bulkhead! Finally I found the March 87B as a roller and as usual figured I would put the V12 in it. It was like all of those cars designed for a DFV with the front half of the car joined to the motor and rear half by the four bolts and the stressed DFV. As usual I created a stressed pan, additional cage to do the same with the BMW and installed it in 2006 and it worked really well, was featured in Roundel, and Vintage Motorsport and I raced it all over including tracks like Fontana, Willow Springs, Portland, Sears Point, Laguna, Salt Lake, Portland, Phoenix and Road America. Best part about it is I never had to touch the motor for all of those years and it almost always ran perfectly and drew a crowd anywhere it was. Other than travel and a set or two of tires every year that represents the cost of running it! Reality of age at 77 and my family bugging me I finally just sold it to a guy in New Jersey who I hope enjoys it as much as I have enjoyed building and running it. I already miss racing! I miss the feeling that even when the current race is over already planning on the next one, what can I do to be faster, what improvements can I make, etc. Damn hard to realize my era is over! Met lots of people over the years, raced with lots of them, lots of memories, mostly good with a few not so good with losing some along the way. Had to learn how to design, weld, machine things, always ask why not!

[Rick Kirchner]

going to miss seeing you a couple of times a year. And you don't look a day over 65!

[tige00]

Yes Jerry you will be missed, my brother and i started racing in 99 and you were always a big inspiration to us, we are almost done putting a sbf 302 in our march. I know it sounds odd but try to enjoy retirement.