Austin Healey Rally &
"British on the Green" at Green Field Village
July 30, 1993 to August 01, 1993
By: Tom Mitchell
RallyMaster
I wasn't sure I could do it. I mean how DO you DO one? How do
you come up with the clues and the route with the best roads? How do
you make sure 99% of the people will not get lost and make sure every-
one enjoys themselves? How do you help eliminate the fighting and
arguing so drive and navigator stay friends?
I wasn't sure I could do it. "Do what" you ask? Well maybe I
should introduce myself. My name is Tom Mitchell and I was the
RallyMaster this past weekend for the Austin Healey Club. We had
decided to tie a Spring Picnic/rally with the Triumphs "British on the
Green" held at historic Green Field Village. My first problem with
the rally was driving it through and writing at the same time. After
four hours of frustration, I realized I had grossly underestimated the
time and effort needed to do this rally. When they asked me to be
rallymaster we were going to hold it in and around Ann Arbor, Mi. I
live there, so no big deal. I know the roads, in fact I almost already
knew the whole route I wanted. Then the rally got moved closer to
Detroit, because we couldn't get rooms in Ann Arbor. (there were a
couple of races at the local raceways). I called my brother Dave and
said "help"!!! Dave would like a British car someday , yet has to
wait. Dave took a day off work and I met him at the rally starting
point. We were able (in eight hours) "to come up with part
of the rally". We had to change it many times due to detours, bad
roads or the route just didn't fit. I went home to type it up and to
see how it looked so far. Then went back and reran it. I was able to
get the cars from the starting point of 275/Michgan Ave. through some
beautiful scenic routes to Dexter Mi. Now what? How do I get them
back. Some of the roads were terrible. I was also waiting for my
surprise activity for phase two, to be confirmed. By Monday night,
with only five days to go, it didn't look good. I wanted to try and
show them the (nitrous oxide) V8 Austin Healey that has been in the
process of being built Connie Kalitta's for the past 6 years. The
owner was Connie chief sprite car designer/builder. This was one
of the first kit cars produced almost ten years ago. They had hired my
brother Dan to finish the car two years ago. Dan had thought he could
complete the work in about two months, right Dan? There have been many
changes wanted by the owner, so it's not really Dan faults it not
done. One change was "roll up windows", this model didn't have them
nor was it designed to have them. So Dan had to design them, get the
parts made (they can fabricate almost anything onsite) or order what
couldn't be made. (ie glass). Oh I should say my brother has a
regular job working midnight 6-7 days a week too.
For those of you who don't know who Connie Kalitta is, he and
his son race cars. His company is like Federal Express, except that
they do the BIG Stuff. You need 200,000lbs delivered? They can be
airborne in 90 minutes. They did many trips for Desert Storm, relief
trips to Russia and even deliver pigs and water buffalo.
The problem was they don't usually do tours of the complex. So I
call my brother Dan, and he calls Pete Sanderlin. Pete is the Director
of Operations, Dan knew he might have a possible soft spot for British
car buffs. Pete himself has a Jaguar he is restoring. Pete says sure,
in fact he direct the tour and will not only show us the Healey, but
the SPRINT cars being built. He will show us though a few of their jet
engine facilities, plane refurbishing and even let us walk through a
few planes. Now if we can only do it, maybe next rally I met with Pete
on Thursday July 29. Pete and I went over the tour plan. Now the big
problem, with only two days to go, was the route changes from Dexter
Mi to Willow Run airport. Pete rides his bicycle all over and knew
the good roads off the top of his head. Whew...Thanks, Pete!!! All I
had to do now was come up with the new clues/questions for the new
route.
The Rally went very well. No one got lost. In fact I had
changed the time to meet with Pete from 1pm to 2pm just in case. Yup,
you guessed it, almost everyone showed up early. Although no one
knew why they were there. Pete was there and my Brother Dan (in a
borrowed Jaguar, the showoff!) came after work ten hours. (Thanks Dan,
you can sleep now) The tour was fabulous, Pete showed us planes, jet
engines, the operations area, Sprint Car building facilities and of
course the Nictrous Oxide V8 Austin Healey (it about 98% done). We saw
planes waiting to be restored and planes waiting to be retrofitted.
Sure would make neat club house/garage? Or maybe we could just get a
747, I'll be we could get a lot of Healeys in there!
We made it back to the hotel by 4:30pm, with the Bar-B-Q
starting at 5pm. The food provided by Bob's Bones, he does ribs and
all the fixings. All in all it was a great day, or at least I thought
so.I could now relax and stop worrying so much. I thought for sure one
of my directions was wrong and everyone would get lost.
Rally Results:
The winner was Tim Keer, he's from England and drove his TR6
Navigator: Brian Thornton (local bloke)
Second Place was Frank Broome from Ohio in his BJ8
Navigator: Peggy Broome
Third Place was Bruce Gearns Michigan in his sprite
Navigator: Debby Gearns
Did I mention that I had taken the week off to paint my MBG-
GT? I had decided that I HAD to have a British car on the road.
Rallies are no fun in Detroit Iron. One week ago my MGB-GT was
completely striped of chrome, windows, lights ect. The only thing on
the body was front and rear glass. Well even though it was 95 degrees,
muggy and I had made promises to my wife (like spend some time with
her, sorry honey I lied! I didn't mean to, really) I decided to forge
ahead, good thing I was too dumb to know what I was getting into.
Anyway after many setbacks, and trying to organize this rally I was
able to paint and reassemble my car. My brother Dave spent until 3am
with me on Sunday so I could goto the "Britishon the Green" show at
"Green Field Village". Thanks Dave, couldn't have done it without you.
There must have been about two hundred British cars at the
show. Fantastic show! Lots of Morgans, Healeys, MG's, Roll Royce's,
Griffen's TVR's, Trumphs ect. .
I NOW have a British car on the road and can now tinker with
all those little things that are still wrong. I have also learned a
lot about body repair, painting, time management and even what affect
the weather has on painting. I had started this two months ago meaning
to do a QUICK paint job. I replaced fenders panels, rockers panels, I
learned to "lead" on vertical panels, and more. Even though the cars
looks great to my family, I can see all the flaws and places where I
should have taken more time. Maybe my next paint job and major panel
repair will be better, this was myfirst time.. Ok, honey I'm ready to
start on my Healey....just kidding...I'll wait a month or two. time to
drive, enjoy my vacation's work and finish the little stuff. I sure
hate to go back to work, I mean real work. Now if I could only
convince my Boss that I really didn't have a vacation this last week,
so it shouldn't count...nawh
Who wants to do the next Rally?
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