We had a great time at the Nevada Open Road Challenge race. The post we
were assigned the last two years has always left us with the car on the road
side of the gate. An overly zealous "County Mountie" kicked us off our
location Sunday because we couldn't get the car behind the heavily chained
and padlocked gate. This left us free to join Rich Fox at his post. We had
a good visit and an interesting discussion on several subjects as we waited
for the race to start. Rich has had some interesting rides.
Ed Van Scoy sounded very strong as he went by us at over 150 mph. I had a
chance to visit with he and Linda on Saturday at the park where all the cars
were teched and on display to the public. They have a group of fellow
Corvette owners who are as involved with their marque as salt racers are
with salt flats cars. Ed is always delightful to talk with and so is Linda.
She isn't the long suffering wife, she just lets him do his thing and enjoys
herself. She was going to drive the truck and trailer down the course to
the best viewing spot and load him on after the race at the far end. That's
a 100 mile jaunt pulling an empty trailer.
Jim Marz, another salt racer and good friend of Skip Higginbotham was there
too. We were at the same motel as he and Rich Fox. I had a nice visit with
him out by the pool. Jim ran in the 130 mph target speed class. Sounded
strong on the course. I believe he is a lurker on the list.
Mike Cook's partner Larry Stock was there with a Pantera running in the 145
mph class. Always interesting to walk around a car and see a Bonneville
Rules and Records book on the windshield. Guaranteed conversation starter.
The Ely locals are used to seeing that collection of 250 race cars, exotics
like Pantera's and DeTomaso Mangusta's, Viper's, a new Shelby, Ferrari's, a
Lotus, Acura NSX all decked out with race numbers and decals. The more
common Corvettes and Mustangs hardly raise an eyebrow but the preparation in
some of those cars is very impressive and on the course many are faster than
the exotics. The park on Saturday is a lesson on race preparation of stock
appearing cars. Just seeing (and hearing) those cars driving along the main
streets and parked at restaurants is quite a sight in the middle of Nevada.
At the race, the cars were started in 30 second intervals this year so we
saw some passing at a rather short distance along the course. Hope to hear
results soon. Not the best organized and managed race you'll ever see.
Glad Rich made it home to California in good shape. Even with a much
shorter drive we were tired when we got back to SLC.
I'll get Jon Amo to talk me through loading a few digital shots onto the web
pages so you can see some of what we saw.
Wes
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