Apologies to the 900-some SOLs who *aren't* in the San
Francisco Bay Area, but major events are upon us and it's
time to start rounding up participants.
Date: Tuesday, August 16
Time: Noon
Location: Terry's, Mountain View (Castro Street, across from 185)
Occasion: Lunch with Scott Fisher, Mike Gendimenico, and anyone else
who wants to join us
Agenda: Discuss routes, ideas, and wish-list for the upcoming
Day Before The Britcars Day mountain road tour
Sorry I can't think of the address at Terry's offhand, but it's in the
first block off Evelyn (which is the frontage road for the Caltrain
tracks). There's parking behind Terry's in the city lot (free), or
if you're taking the train the lot is directly across Castro and
around Evelyn. (It's the Downtown Mt. View station, which is at Castro
Street, NOT the Castro station, which is at Rengstorff. No wonder
people in California don't trust public transportation! :-) We're
going to look over Mike's maps, make some plans BASED ENTIRELY ON
PLACES THAT I HAVE PERSONALLY VISITED WITHIN THE LAST MONTH AND A
HALF, and generally have fun.
Date: Wednesday, August 24
Time: 6:30 pm, continuing till 9 or 10
Location: Stoddard's Brewpub, Murphy Avenue, Sunnyvale (at Evelyn)
Occasion: Roger Garnett's Bay Area visit
This is becoming the official meeting place of out-of-state SOLs.
In the past, oh, nine months I've had dinner there with Mark Bradakis
and Pat Vilbrandt, in the company of up to a dozen or so other local
SOLs. (It may have been a year ago, but it seems like yesterday... :-)
Roger Garnett is going to be in town that week, and we're trying to
get together a good selection of people so he can put faces with logins
and know who's involved out here.
Again, parking is available in the area, and there is a Caltrain stop
(the Sunnyvale station) just around the corner. Stoddard's, for those
who missed it last time, is a brewpub with a good menu, largely featuring
grilled and barbecued treats. What we did for Pat's visit: we arrived
between 6:30 and 7:00, sat in the bar and sipped fresh-brewed ESB or
porter while we waited for the entire party. A little after 7 we
took a head count and asked for a table for 10 or 11 or however many
we were. That worked really well for us and for the restaurant, so I
plan to do it again.
Date: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, August 26-28
Time: More or less continuous
Location: Laguna Seca Raceway, Highway 68 between Monterey and
Salinas
Occasion: Monterey Historic Auto Races
The Historics are pretty much the premier vintage racing event in the
world, with all due respect to the Historic Mille Miglia and the Nassau
Speed Week. This year the guest of honor is Ferrari, fresh from their
104th Formula 1 victory at the Grand Prix of Germany a week or so ago.
Things should be electric. I'm camping there Friday and Saturday nights,
with tickets for the whole weekend. A number of other SOLs will be
there, but I'll let them speak for themselves. We ought to arrange a
time and place to get together. I've finally become a Godforsaken
video-toting mindless electronic-industry consumer/stooge and bought
a video camera. Maybe I should take a group picture, make a QuickTime
movie out of it, and ship it off to the file server... :-)
Tickets to the Historics can be purchased from SCRAMP (Sports Car
Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula); Kim posted the number
and prices several weeks ago, but it amounts to $30 a day (the early
discount prices have expired). Camping is $25 a day, first-come
first-served, and can be a lot of fun. There are showers on the
track if you need to clean up and cool off before heading into town
to rub elbows with the millionaires. Also in town that weekend are
the Dean Kruse Collector Car Auction and the Pebble Beach Concours
d'Elegance, but I like watching (and hearing) race cars in motion,
so I'll spend all three days at the track.
Suggestions, questions, or RSVPs to me, either at fisher@avistar.com
or SEFisher@AOL.com. Or y'all can call me on the telephone, too, at
(415) 462-5841.
Hope to see at least some of you at each event!
--Scott Fisher
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