Been meaning to share an experience I had last february with any of you
that are interested. A while back there was some mention of some rallyes
that are put on up in northern Cal called the melee(a wild and fun time)
not to be confused with the California Mille(a very serious and
expensive rallye) as well as the other quite serious and expensive
touring rallyes like the Colorado Grand and the Copperstate 1000 both of
which cost over $3500 just to enter. Some of the same people who go on
those others wanted to do something less expensive (free) so several
ex-police and other retired guys laid out a course that would use some
of southern Cals largly empty backroads. And the first ever NFIBMT
rallye was born and in case your wondering it stands for the (No Frills
Iron Bottom Motoring Tour) a 2 day 950 mile very fast site seeing rally.
The fax I got just said to be in Julian Ca on Feb 20th at 7:30 am and
maybe I could find out more. That was the problem there really wasn't
anyone to ask about this because the guy handing out the instruction
sheets with the directions had a shirt on that said Unofficial
Disorganizer and I knew that I could be in trouble. You see I was
invited by my friend Jay Lamm the editor emeritus of Sports Car
International who goaded me into going when he asked if he could park
his truck and trailer at my shop and unload his Alfa. Not knowing what
to expect and remebering him saying that I really should go because I
never knew who might show up I agreed to let him park and offered to
meet him there the next morning.
At 0 darkthirty the next morning I am flying out to Julian only to pass
a motel and see Jays Alfa sitting there still and as I pull into Julian
I am astonished to see a whole slew of really cool old cars(Oh yea I
forgot to say the cars had to be 25 years or older)at least 3 old
porsches, 1 mini-cooper s,2 Jag XKEs 5 Alfas, a hudson hornet,a tr-3,a
citroen,a 73 chevy impala, a lotus racecar,a 1955 chrysler 300 hemi used
in the LaCarrera Pan American race,a 1934 Railton terraplane,a
corvette,my Z and several others that I cannot remember. They originally
thought maybe 6 people would show up and by the way Julian is way south
and a good chunk of these people were from the San Fran Bay area like 7
of them and 1 from Vegas 1 from colorado and 6 or so from my area and 3
or so for La La Land. Some quite famous people were there one being a
restorer from the bay area who was on the cover of autoweek last year
(quoted as one of the most important restorers in the world) and a
certain bay area celebrity very famous for his Collector car roots
Martin Swig was supposed to be there but was a no show.
With very loose instructions and no navigator to read to me I was
resigned to follow Jay and get to hopefully see parts of Cal that I have
never seen. Good thing it was mostly out in the wide open spaces as it
is hard to look at stuff going triple digit speeds for most of 900
miles. Got to see Joshua tree park very quickly(did you know that there
are what is called federal speeding tickets handed out in state parks
that you pay the fine on the spot and get no points on your license)It
wasn't me but one of the Jags so I guess he could afford it. Stayed in
Furnace Creek in the middle of Death Valley and talked about the day
over a great steak dinner and plenty of drinks. Next morning was through
the desert and back out to 395 fro the return trip south. Nothing like
climbing out of the valley and cresting a hill to see the whole sierra
nevada mtn range all covered with snow in the distance and stretching
across the windshield. Because of a late start due to some other pretty
cool stories I could tell but won't some of the people from the north
headed that way instead of all the way back to San Diego. The ones that
did go south with us had a cool stop at a wrecking yard out of the past
that I knew of on the way and when we got back and split up Jay said he
would have to do a story about this 2 day race. i saw some very
beautiful country that I have neglected to see since moving here and
would highly recommend anyone having a couple days to kill try to make
it this year.
If you want to read about our trip and jays great sense of humor get the
June/July 1999 issue and read Death takes a holiday. This year my car
will be ready and we already have 4-5 Datsuns committed to help make
this not so european in looks. Also this year they have put out the word
on the internet and in the Miss Information Calander of events and the
tentative date will be Feb 18-19 and we run it backwards this year.
Sorry this was so long but i hope you enjoyed it and hope some of you
will come out and do it so the datsuns will be as well represented as
the others. Thanks for listening!
LES
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Les Cannaday
Dennis Currington
Classic Datsun Motorsports
345 Olive Ave
Vista, CA 92083-4915
(760) 940-6365 (phone/fax)
http://www.classicdatsun.com/ - Classic Datsun Motorsports
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