1964 VIR

April 19, 1964 VIR SCCA nationals. #85 Corvette Stingray (Lang) Disqualified!
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SCCA Sports Car Magazine reported:

There can be no question that the feature race was that only in name. The three production runs and Saturday's formula race proved much more interesting. A strong field of 12 cars started the AP-BP go, led by the Cobras of Graham Shaw, Mark Donohue, and Harold Keck; the Sting Ray of Dick Lang; Bob Grossman's GTO; and the BP Corvettes of Don Yenko and Bob Mouat. Keck was in the race only through a fine display of sportsmanship on the part of Graham Shaw. Keck's Cobra had snapped an axle in practice Saturday, and the good Tombstone sent his plane to Columbia to fetch him a spare.
It was evident on the first lap that Lang hadn't read the script as he led Shaw, Donohue, and Grossman across the line. Keck was seventh with a mangled right front fender, having rammed Donohue in the rear at the end of the back stretch. After several abortive efforts, Donohue finally slipped past the Sting Ray on the 5th lap, with Shaw following suit on the 7th. Grossman was still within 10 seconds of the leaders who were running under a hanky. Keck was another half-minute back after having been black-flagged to see what great chunks of rubber the bent aluminum was tearing out of his Goodyears.
In his spectacular early dash, Lang apparently had over-revved slightly, taking some of the edge off his top-end tune. As he fell back, so did Shaw who began to experience cutting-out under hard acceleration. Keck started catching Grossman two seconds a lap, finally nipping the Ferrari on the 18th as Donohue took the checkered flag 16 seconds ahead of Shaw and another second in front of Lang. The Cobra had averaged 80.6 mph, one mph faster than the Genie-Ford's winning speed. Yenko took 6th and BP, Mouat having pranged a pole on the 15th lap while running 7th.
Unfortunately for Dick Lang, the race did not end with the checkered flag. The Sting Ray's rear fender wells had been altered to accommodate a pair of monster tires. Same old protest; same decision. Lang was disqualified. His subsequent appeal is now pending action.

Click here for a summary of the race.

Update: Dick Lang filed a counter-protest against the Cobras since they were running the same-sized tires. The matter was resolved when both sides agreed to file no further protests and Lang agreed to accept the DQ (since he didn't win due to the engine problem). Lang raced the rest of the year with the same set-up and no further protests were filed.

Another Photo below (click on photo for larger view):


Nice photo here (click on photo for larger image):