W.O.W. Motorsports at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in the Brabham BT21
Behind the wheel of the Brabham BT21, powered by an elegant Lotus twin-cam 1600, running on twelve-inch rear tires, and having a curb weight of just 1025lbs, W.O.W. Motorsports and driver Wes Wigginton laid down an impressive weekend at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit. From day one with this team, it was striking how organized and detail-oriented they were. Everything and every tool had its place, its process, and its order, and operations were executed with such precision and professionalism that it was easy to forget that there are only two people on the race team. The car was prepared extraordinarily well by head of race engineering, Mitchell Holmberg, proven by the overall lack of mechanical problems experienced with the car. Despite running a few degrees hot over the duration of the weekend and melting the coolant overflow line on the nearby headers, the car itself was never an obstacle to overcome which left room for Wigginton to focus entirely and leave it all out on the road.
The car, a 1967 Brabham BT21, holds a rich heritage in 1960’s F1 and European F3. Jack Brabham founded his F1 team in 1960 and ran an open-wheel Brabham F1 car running a stock class V8. His team would go on to see vast success by winning four Drivers’ and two Constructors’ World Championships in its 30-year F1 history. While the original F1 cars had four extra cylinders on W.O.W. Motorsports’ car, the team at W.O.W. did an excellent job designing the paint and aesthetic of the body and it was a delight to see and a blast to shoot a beautiful car with such a rich history flying around the track up with the top drivers.
Wes Wigginton, founder, and driver of W.O.W. Motorsports, despite it being his first weekend in the car, put down impressive lap times and proved the limitations and capabilities of his car. By the end of the weekend, Wigginton was head to head with a Formula Atlantic, two Formula Continentals and a Lotus 23B in his Group. While we did not place on the podium, Wigginton walked away with the third fastest lap time overall, from any class which is beyond impressive enough considering it was his first race in this car.
While off the track, CVAR (Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing) is a tightly knit community in which everyone is friendly and apt to help others. At first glance, this league looks like nothing more than several teams of 60-80-year-olds out to have a nice weekend. However, what shocked me most about that weekend was that when the green flag was waved, these quiet gentlemen became full-on racers. Skate steering, power sliding, and hard passing around corners, these drivers were nothing to be gawked at as they put down lap times competitive with those of any younger class of driver.
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