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tales of Glen Watkins, a very brave little bear

To: "Bill Strohm" <wstrohm@socal.rr.com>,
Subject: tales of Glen Watkins, a very brave little bear
From: "datsunmike" <datsunmike@nyc.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 10:00:00 -0400
RE: The Glen Racing Results: tales of Glen Watkins, a very brave little
bearAnother little tid bit from Dick.

Mike

PS - Glen Watkins needs some racing goggles so he can see better - and maybe
his shifting will get better too :)

----- Original Message -----

Hi all,
Well, there's another part of the story of The Glen. A very brave little bear
named Glen Watkins (well, it says "Watkins, Glen" on his shirt) rode with me
for the first time(s) in the qualifying race and the main event. He was well
restrained by his bungie seatbelt. He stayed in his seat for the entire
qualifying race, but for the main race, he wanted to wave to the crowd. On the
warm-up lap, I picked him up just for the Roadster crowd (and most of my crew)
at turn 6, but then snuggled him down under the bungie. Just after the finish,
I picked him up again, but the speed was too great for my grip, and he flew
out of the car. I breathed a sigh of relief when the Porsche behind me swerved
to miss him as he landed on his butt on the track, but didn't know how he
would fare with the other 40-odd cars (wonder if they flew the "debris" flag
for him).

In victory circle, my one remaining crew member was there, and I asked him to
go down and try to find poor Glen. Rich was less than thrilled with this
request, but finally agreed. Glen was in fine health on the wall at "pit out",
bragging about his exploits. As Rich walked the entire length of the pits with
Glen in hand, he received many jeers and insults. His comeback was something
like "we do whatever we have to to humor the driver so he'll drive fast".

Glen was somewhat of a celebrity at dinner that night with the Datsun folks,
and even all the SVRA people (the race organizers) know of his exploits. I've
been promised that he will receive his very own photo ID/driver's license. But
I probably need to make him a full (bungie) harness with "a leash", so that he
doesn't "fly" again! And I need to teach him to shift better: boy was he
missing shifts that race.

So Glen will be a standard fixture/good luck icon in the future, and I hope to
relay his far fetched stories to you for many years.

Regards,
Dick

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