I've always liked racing and have always liked the underdog. Anything unusual would grab my attention. I have raced many different types of cars and motorcycles and was looking for something different It's 1982....
Now here is here I got into trouble! I did not have any front wheel drive experience so I thought that the new IMSA Renault Cup would be a good place to get some. I bought a new LeCar (R5) and ran the two years that IMSA ran the LeCars, then bought a new Encore and ran the two years that the Encores were used. After racing the Encore for two seasons and driving it on the street and to all the races, I sold it to my daughter who drove it on the road until it had over 195,000 miles on it without any major problems. When she traded it in to a Pontiac dealer in Va., it ran fine. It never had the headgasket replaced or any other major work of any kind. She had nothing but problems with the Pontiac GrandAm she bought! Renault Cup was the most fun I ever had!
For 1986 I converted my sponser, Gary Scheeff's Encore from a 1.4 to a 1.7 and ran in an IMSA class called ProStock.
In 1986 a good friend of mine, Ron Leaman bought Bobby Archer's Championship winning Renault Alliance along with Cat Kiser's and James Reave's Alliances (you can't have too many Renaults, I currently own 4). In 1987 Ron ask me if I would like to run one of the Alliances in the Radial Series and of course I did.
In 1988 he called me up and wanted to know if I would like to convert one of the Alliances to run SCCA GT-4 and try and get to the SCCA Runnoffs in Atlanta. Again I did and won the first four Nationals I entered and went to the Runoffs where I finished 9th.
In 1989 I built a Renault LeCar th run in SCCA IT-C regional racing and ran 3 races with it, getting two trophies, after which I sold that car.
In 1993 I bought 3 old Renault Cup cars from Bob Ritz and converted them to run in SCCA IT-C and sold two of them along with another old Renault Cup car that belonged to Bill Gallup from Florida. These cars were great for taking drivers schools and for the first year of racing but with the 1.4 engine they were not front runners although they would trophy once in a while. Last year the SCCA decided that the 1.7 engine would also run in IT-C so I converted the Encore I sold to a buddy Jon Brown to a 1.7 and that car showed much promise. I am now finishing up a 1.7 Alliance for myself and plan on going out this year and showing what fine Renault can do.
The Renault worked great and I will do an update on this page soon. I have won several races with the Renault in SCCA roadracing and won the 1999 Mid Ohio track championship in my class, IT-C, there. I won WOR games the past two years at Mid Ohio (1999-2000) in this car against fields of aprox 25 Hondas, VWs, and Datsuns.
I will be glad to share preparation tips or any other information I have on these cars with anyone interested, just email me at the link below.
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