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Chris:
I apologize for being so slow in getting back ( and I still haven't got through those log books yet....soon I promise) in a conversation with Charlie Williams (noted Midwest engine builder whose shop Smiley ran out of) this past day he reminded me that the first Mk 21 was bought from Ippilitto (Race America) by a shadow corp (M.A.A.C.) for Smiley. At the end of that year Charlie Williams purchased the car with the intent of running it in Atlantic the next year. This the car that Loring drove at Westwood, with the original Twin Cam. He also ran the car in the next 2 races (Gimli and ?) but since they were dry races his performance against the BDA powered cars was what you would expect(and a great dissapointment to all), this combined with the fact that they were underfunded to begin with, shelved their effort that year. The car actually traveled to most of the rest of the races that year in the top of Tim Coopers trailer. As near as Charlie can recall, the car was sold to a club racer in the south where it ran sporadically for the next 3 years. Charlie Williams believes that the car was sold to Canada where he believes that it still resides (as he has gotten some inquiry's about it's past in the last couple of years.)
All of this is complicated by the fact that it was common practice around here to take the ID plate off the cars and throw them in the top of your toolbox (don't ask me why, and now, looking back, it seems extremely silly, but back then they were just last years race cars.)
Loring works for Skip Barber in Massachusetts today and may still have some of those ID plates to this day. I will see if I can contact him to fill in some of the gaps.
Sorry for this rambling but that is the danger of me talking off the top of my head, will refer to the log books I kept (as well as a few calls to old freinds)to fill in the gaps in my memory.
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