by Dick DickinsonThis will be several random thoughts, hopefully helpful in some way or another. But, before I start, YES, I am the proud owner of a runway light at the Fairmont Airport. I was just so thankful that when I went to pay, it was the same airport manager who I took on a run with me during last year’s event. It does pay to be nice to people.
At Fairmont I was pleased to note the car counts were up. There were 49 competitors on Saturday, with 14 novice and 3 lady drivers. On Sunday there were 45, with 5 novice and 3 lady drivers. We may have lost some drivers from Saturday who may have come back, but the timed runs on Saturday did not start until almost 1:30 PM. It’s a long pull from Duluth, the Twin Cities and South Dakota. We owe the drivers as many runs as we can get in.
The South Dakota event is firmed up. It will be August 18 & 19, 2001, at the Card Center, in Sioux Falls, located at Benson Road and I-229, across from Boyer Ford. For information contact 605-882-3990. Watertown is out for this year, as the resurfacing will not be completed. I can hardly wait until next year; Watertown was a very fun event.
Next stop is LaCrosse on August 5, 2001; see you there. Due to work, I have not obtained feedback on the first LaCrosse event, other than that rain caused an early halt to the competition.
To the Editor:
I’d like to thank everyone who helped me organize the Jack Pine Sprints this spring. Lois Bjelke stepped in to help with pre-race registration and used her Suburban to haul stuff to and from the track. Joe Lodl of Chicago Region came from Madison to be our Chief Registrar. Susan Porter, also of Chicago Region, lent us her experience, patience and good humor in Registration. Chief Steward Pat Farrell solved my scheduling fiasco (sorry ‘bout that Pat).
Other help and helpful input came from: Lynn & Grace Anderson, Greg Youngdahl, Kathy Goettsch, Steve Dunsworth, Steve Bjelke (and his recruited crew), Ed Jacobson, George Kendall, Deb Dahl a.k.a. the ice cream lady, Candace at SCCA’s national office and a host of others. I hope you all had as much fun as I did. Thank you all.
We still need people for registration, equipment, club merchandise, and assistant race chairs for the September events. When each person takes responsibility for one little area, no one person has to bear the weight of it all.
Shannon Murphy, Race Chair.
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on new front Goodyears and my best set of last year’s rears, and hoped for some fast times. A last minute glitch with my new set of lap belts put me at the back of the 21 car FF/FV/F500 group, and after two laps the smoke was back again. The wet spring had brought on a bumper crop of mosquitoes, and several corner workers later said they were sorry to see me park
it, as I was effectively fogging the facility. We pulled off the rear deck and there was mucho oil, as the hot rocker cover was obviously bowed upwards at both ends with oil splashing out under G-loading and hitting the hot headers. Our qualifying was over. Bolts holding the cover had been severely overtorqued back at Andresen’s and it took some serious hammer reshaping plus some cover clamps borrowed from Dave Hopple to set things right. Of course I was buried at the back of the 9 car FF grid (Hopple on pole) next to F500 leader Steve Jondal.
At least my problems were diagnosed, unlike those of Bill Bergeron, who continued to suffer from a persistent high speed miss in his FC and was ready to call the whole racing thing quits. The gremlin had also jumped back to Steve Thomson’s newer Van Diemen, and he was changing ignition boxes after parking on the first qualifying lap. Front row FF qualifier Jeff Lewis was pondering a cracked water outlet where his motor bolted to the Van Diemen frame brace, finally opting for silicone sealant and stop-leak as a temporary cure. Dave Bowman was out of business with some expensive noises coming from his engine bay. Mike Vrchota was a welcome FV returnee, and he was busy shaking down his new XTC-41.
Before heading back to the Cities Saturday afternoon, Art Jaworski presented me with a beautiful photo of a ’63 Rambler station wagon he took on his spring trip to Argentina. Art said it reminded him of my first tow vehicle, although my ’66 Rambler had many product improvements, evidenced by the company going out of business about 5 years later. By that time my car was certainly in a crusher somewhere, unlike the pristine South America restoration. After buttoning up the car we headed to the tech barn to drown our sorrows in cool beverage.
Sunday dawned with beautiful blue skies, but the Weather Channel warned of serious rain headed our way. Another tradition
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Tonneau On-Line July 2001
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Copyright 2001, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
