Pacenotes – March 2016

• The Cooper Car Club USA has announced the celebration of the 70th Anniversary of Cooper Cars with back-to-back events in the Pacific Northwest this July. The festivities commence at the Pacific Northwest Historics, scheduled for July 1-3 at Pacific International Raceways in Kent, Washington, organized by SOVREN. The second round will take place the following weekend, July 7-10, at the Portland Vintage Racing Festival at Portland International Raceway, organized by SVRA. While the Kent event has no sound restrictions, the Portland weekend will see normal restrictions relaxed, with a 115 dB limit for this special event.

• Bob Harkey, an Indycar regular during the ’60s and ’70s, has passed away at the age of 85. Harkey made his Indycar debut at Milwaukee in June of ’63 driving Jake Vargo’s six-year-old Kurtis-Offy roadster, starting 9th and finishing 5th. He started a dozen Indycar races in ’64, taking Wally Weir’s Watson-Offy to an 8th-place finish in his rookie run at Indy and 7th at Milwaukee, and then driving John Pfrommer’s Meskowski-Offy dirt car to what would turn out to be a career-best 4th at Trenton that July. Upon retiring from the cockpit, Harkey worked for many years with Champion Spark Plug’s safety program. To the Harkey family and Bob’s many friends in and out of the sport, Vintage Racecar extends its sincerest sympathies.