Capri Swarm Meets

Thursday:

The early arrivals who were there to embrace the 3 days of planned activities started rolling in around 5-6pm. Some, who had travelled across country (Mike and Marcia Peissner) were already there to greet us! Rand Thompson had to leave his stunning 73 V6 Capri at home and resort to the back-up daily driver due to last minute distributor maladies, but kudos to Rand for coming anyways.  Could this be a Turtle contender already? (Tongues were wagging and there were whispers afoot …) After attendees had dinner at the selection of nearby (walking distance) restaurants, the beer sponsors hit Kroger and we settled in for some parking lot banter and friendship catching-up.

Friday:

Friday dawned bright and sunny. We gathered up all day-trippers after the complimentary Hampton Inn breakfast (always good) and headed for our destination: the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course. This is where Norm Murdock of Team Blitz and CCNA founder was running his recently acquired ex-Werkes vintage-race Capri in the SVRA Grand Prix of Mid Ohio. We set off from the hotel with 5 Capri’s for the the 57 mile, 1 ½ hour road trip to Mid Ohio. Many Swarm participants, who were travelling from the north, elected to meet us there instead of backtracking. However, some hardly souls wanted the complete Swarm experience, and travelled back from whence they had just come the day before!

After negotiating spectator parking and paddock marshals, we found Norm and his support crew alongside the GT-140 Motor Home. One special crew member wrenching on the car was Alex Bennardo. Norm had offered a hands-on crewing spot to a young Capri enthusiast and selected Alex from the applicants. Other crew consisted of Ashley Miller and Wendy Cochran (both long-time Capri owners) . Norm was somewhat new to the car as a driver but knew it well through its provenance in US Capri racing circles. Past drivers include Sam Posey, Horst Kwech, and preceding owner / driver Ross Bremer. Aside from some minor oil seepage from the 3.0L Essex-based Weslake engine, the car ran well, and Norm rapidly lowered his practice and qualifying 1 times as his confidence in the car grew each session. The Swarmers left the track mid-afternoon, after Norm’s last run so that we could staff the welcoming committee for the Friday evening arrivals at the hotel. Most people set their own schedule and said “see you at there”. However, one group of 6-7 cars left together, and luckily for Steve Burris that they did. His ‘73 2600 V6 started acting up within 10 miles of Heath (oh, so close, another Turtle contender already?). With so many close friends in attendance, Steve was not found wanting for tools, parts or unsolicited technical opinions …. We pretty quickly surmised that his battery was flat due to a failed charging system. Fortunately, Mike Rahamut had a fully charged jump-pack in the trunk of his ‘74 2800, and that provided the required voltage to get Steve up-and-running again and back to the hotel. The observant among you might wonder “How did Steve manage with a battery boost pack under the hood”? Steve’s ‘73 is tastefully modified with a show-quality under-hood appearance. He relocated battery to the trunk (his blue ‘71 2.0L car is stock/restored). Post-event update: Root cause of the charging system issue was over-zealous use of dielectric grease causing a bad connection. Clean up was all that was required to remedy this.

Once safely back at the hotel and a quick refresh/clean-up the pizza was ordered for the Team Blitz customer appreciation dinner. The beer coolers were found and we all settled in to catching up with new arrivals from all over the country. After dinner David Valone elected to provide the parking lot entertainment with the decision to realign his rear axle. It’s a long story, but a last-minute leaf spring change (pre-Swarm trip from Bristol, TN) had meant his rear axle was not located well due to a leaf spring pin – axle bushing issue. Borrowing the Swarm floor jack from Bill Davidson and (extra) axle stands snagged from Norm at the track David set about corrective actions. Needless to say, lawn chairs came out, some had blankets and most had beer (thank you beer sponsors). David had no shortage of “advice” and even some helpers… FWIW, he lamely claimed that this was not a “breakdown”, and was therefore ineligible as admission into Turtle consideration. Opinions differed on this matter and more beer was consumed. A calmer social environment was equally active inside the air conditioned conference room of the hotel, however this may have also been due to the proximity to all the leftover pizza, we’re not sure… Editor’s note: There is a place and a comfort zone for EVERYONE at a Capri Swarm. 🙂

Once David’s car was buttoned up, socializing continued into the small hours, both in the hotel conference room and the parking lot. This enabled us to still be there to welcome Les Roberts and his uniquely modified Capri. Les travelled all the way from Toronto, Canada, and he arrived around midnight. Thus, started another round of catching up and bedtime slipped further away.

Saturday:

With nearly the full Swarm crew now at the hotel, we took up half the dining space at breakfast and agreed on a leaving time. As is frequently the case with a large group, we ended up leaving for the National Trail Raceway destination in waves. Bill Davidson, Jeff Mathyssen, and Rand Thompson set off a little early to meet our hosts (the organizers for the Street Car Takeover event we were tagging along with this year) at National Trail. Shortly after arriving a panic phone call was received from David Valone, whose clutch cable had snapped leaving the hotel parking lot in Heath (surely this counts for a Turtle nomination, right?). No problem, Bill had a brand-new spare and so did Rich Booth, so we dispatched Rand Thompson back to the hotel as a parts runner with the Swarm floor jack. The SCT guys were a different crowd to NMRA with an age shift and different demographic, but the organizers were sharp as a tack, had their schedule together and ran a slick event. This played to our advantage in many ways, our cars were “different” to many showing and competing there, hence drew attention and many positive comments. The on-track drag racing part of the event started a little later than we were used to with NMRA but their communication with us was first class. So around 2-2:30pm a slot opened up in the racing schedule and we had our chance to grudge race. Competing (for fun) were:

• Rich Booth – Blue 2.0L Zetec 1973
• Jeff Mathyssen – Copper 5.0 V8 1974
• Mike Rahamut – Yellow 2.8L 1974
• Bill Davidson – Green 5.0 V8 1973
• Joe Bennardo – Copper 2.3L 1976
• Chris Rolls – Yellow V8 1974

Alas, another V8 contender (David Valone) was coping with “technical difficulties” in his clutch cable swap, maybe the peanut gallery assisting the night before in parking lot repairs were actually doing some good (who knew?)

Several observations can be drawn here:

• Rich Booth did a great job with his Zetec install and self-engineered EFI calibration
• Joe Bennardo is a stand-up guy, joining in with a bone-stock 2.3L daily driver
• Mike Ramahut could not have found a better place to break a Capri driveshaft (it was a UJ)
• Chris Rolls has lots of top end power and needs to work on traction / launch practice
• Jeff Mathyssen, a nice driver car with cast iron heads and a mild cam
• Bill Davidson, a ringer who regularly runs at his home track in Michigan

So yes, Mike broke his driveshaft on the start line, a little embarrassing, BUT very lucky and I’ll tell you why …

• He was surrounded by Capri friends all willing to help, console, and push
• Les Roberts left the event, went back to the hotel, and picked up his car trailer and rig down, and had Mike loaded up within the hour
• Norm was contacted and was able to detour between Mid Ohio and the hotel via Team Blitz HQ to pick up a TB spare 1974 2.8L manual driveshaft
• Back at the hotel, the car trailer was used as a “ramp / hoist” and the replacement driveshaft was fitted.
• Mike test drove the car under its own power before the banquet dinner !

So, where else in the USA could you have recovered from that unfortunate mishap so quickly? That’s what makes Swarm attendance and friendships made so great (OK, commercial over) It was now banquet time, and our guest of honor, Steve Saxty, who joined us at National Trail was present to tell us about his experiences working through the 80’s / 90’s at Ford UK R”D center in Dunton, via material excerpts from his book “The Cars You Always Promised Yourself”.

To say Steve’s presentation was outstanding would be a gross understatement. In such an informal setting (30-40 people) his conversational speaking style flowed and his material prepared especially for CCNA with a Capri focus was slick. He was both charming and friendly, he was happy to answer all and any questions and had time for everybody. It was the highlight on the day by far. We also had the annual awards ceremony, and the winners were (drum roll please):

Trophies and Awards

• Best Modified: Les Roberts ‘73 2.0L (custom billet twincam head on SOHC bottom end, turbo, EFI)
• Best Survivor: Joe Bennardo ‘76 2.3L
• Don Murphy Daily Driver Award: Bill Hicks ‘74 2.8L
• Best Restored: Larry Wells ‘71 2.0L
• Fastest Drag ET (Overall): Bill Davidson
• Fastest Drag ET (4 cyl): Rich Booth
• Longest Distance Driven to the Swarm in a Capri: Mike Peissner (2,300 miles!, from Reno NV)
• Swarm Swami: Bill Davidson
• Turtle Trophy: Steve Burris ’73 2.6L

Jeanne Murphy (lifelong friend of CCNA) brought the remaining Capri models, both slot car and static from her late husband Don’s collection to the banquet and offered them for sale. Pricing was extremely club-friendly, and many people went away with a little piece of Don Murphy memorabilia that night to remind them of a lost friend.

We all once again stayed up way too late both indoors and out in the parking lot around the cars, but that is where the material comes from for the BEST stories …

Sunday:

If we were all tired and groggy Saturday morning, Sunday was no better. So much so that we had a little trouble getting away to the autocross on time. In retrospect we should have cut and run when some were straggling, but we all stuck together as some of best photos in prior years have come from that 10-15 car convoy of Capri’s. This turned out to be our undoing, as the date change meant we were running with the Porsche club (very formal) and not the United Ford Owners of Ohio (very informal). Well, we missed the 10am drivers meeting and hence no autocrossing for us. Well, not quite all of us as Don Odiorne had gotten there early and registered with his rental Lincoln and was waiting patiently. So, he did compete and was justly awarded the Swarm autocross 2019 winner’s trophy. At least he was in a “Ford Family” product … (Hot Rod Lincoln? Anybody?? Really???)

We’ve had to adapt plans before, like for a rain-out at National Trails, only this time it was a chronological rather than meteorological snafu, so we elected for an early lunch and headed for a local tavern in Circleville for refreshments. This extended lunch thus ended another successful Swarm and allowed travelers to get a jump start on their journeys home, so until 2020, get those Capris out there, there are lots more events to show off your cars and spread the CCNA word.

See you at Capri Swarm 2020!

Capris in Attendance:

• Steve Burris – Green 1973 2600 V6
• Jeff Mathyssen – Copper 1973 5.0 V8
• Mike Rahamut – Yellow 1974 2800 V6
• Bill Hicks – Copper 1974 2800 V6
• Bill Davidson – Green 1973 5.0 V8
• Rich Booth – Blue 2.0L Zetec 1973
• Les Roberts – Turbo DOHC 4-cyl
• Joe Bennardo and Alex – Copper 1976 2.3 w/vinyl top
• Rob Harber and Catherine – Pewter 1972 302 V8
• Mike and Marcia Peissner – Black 1974 347 V8
• Norm Murdock – 1972 Ex-Werkes Weslake V6
• Larry Wells – 1971 2.0L “Col. Mustard”
• Chris Rolls – Yellow 1974 V8
• David Valone and Karla – Blue 1973 5.0 V8