Hope this long report will go through.
Keith Turk is half way to a red hat. Even that ghastly purple and gold fire
suit was dimmed by his happy expression as he pulled into impound.
Warnerville was jumping this morning with over forty ... yes (40) cars and
bikes trailing out for the record back up runs at 7:00 AM. George Nelson
pushed the Phoenix on it's wild record run. When the times were announced
the salt erupted with cheers. The Phoenix team had arranged for Dave Newby
to be out on the salt, in their pit, for the record run. Great gesture and
they dedicated the run to him. George said he only used a bit of nitrous
and not much boost to get the truck going. We cracked a cylinder head and
ended up changing both in about five hours. That's the time it took Cec
McRae to put the D motor in the 998 Nish streamliner. Terry wants to get
that record back from Jack Costella. Ed VanScoy damaged the motor in his
Corvette enough that Mitec Mike told him to take it home before he really
did some damage. Jon Amo was running around with a pad and pencil recording
names, speeds and taking pictures. I'm sure he will be posting something
very soon.
Salt Talks was a huge success last night. Great attendance, interesting
time putting faces on email handles, plenty of food and people hung around
until it was much too late to see faces in the dark. The Amo boys were
great hosts and Jon put a few miles on his truck running to the market three
times for additional food. Wm. T. Smith performed as chef as did Jon and
Nancy on their little grille as they served up the "pasties" to an
appreciative audience. People were asking for specific people so they could
put faces on the names they have corresponded with on and off the list.
Some things were explained ... like where "Big Ditch" is, who "Seldom Seen
Slim" actually was, Doug Anderson showed up in "Boogie Woogie" to answer
that question. From where I was standing I think everyone had a good time,
even little "Garmen". Keith took his time about getting there so there
couldn't be too many comments to Tanya about him ... didn't work. Everyone
dumped on him but she stood it and even hugged him a couple of times to
prove she has a tough skin.
Next year they may have to move to the parking lot of one of the casino
hotels after everyone eats so they can continue the conversations and
associations. I went down to the Stateline Hotel/Casino where the street
rods were congregated. There must have been twenty or so cars down there
and people hung around and talked until late! Lots of rat rod types, some
carefully crafted to look bad but with tons of money poured into the car
itself to make it mechanically very sound and usable. When I left, Doug
Anderson was still sitting on a front tire and loving the association with
everyone. No one will have a better time at Speedweek than Doug!
The long course cars slowed down a lot this afternoon because of some spins,
motorcycle streamliners that went down and similar problems. Several spins,
reports that the course is a bit slick in spots and everyone appreciated the
91 degree weather rather than the higher temperatures earlier in the meet.
I have some shots I took at Salt Talks and I'll get them posted to the
picture post soon. There have been many cars with problems that packed up
and went home, others are just showing up for the first time. I looked for
three days for Rick Byrnes, knowing he was on the salt and finding I had
missed him half an hour before. It's such a huge affair that it's easy to
miss people. Then there's tom Bryant ... he flew in this morning after his
wife and boys had driven in and set up the pits earlier in the weekend.
When the car wouldn't start I'm ure he wondered if someone was playing games
with him ... but apparently it was a starter solenoid.
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