Vernon Head thought of the name one summer's evening
after an autocross in Sacramento. We were with a large
group at a Chevy's, I recall there was some beer
involved, and we wondered if we should dare chair
another Round One event and risk the humiliation and
pain that came with it. The last three years been such
disasters. I suggested we make it more than an
autocross event, but something to remember, a
"happening", something to distract entrants from the
reality that they might have to autocross in the dark
or that they might not even be able to run at all. I
said, let's make it a charity event. Vernon suggested
souvenirs. His idea was commemorative pencils, but
that would mean asking the Steering Committee if we
could do this, offer commemorative pencils, and we
knew they'd never go for it. My own idea for the name,
based on the hours spent waiting in line for an
autocross run back then (90 cars per run group!) was
"Day on the Grid", named after the "Day on the Green
concert series held at the Oakland Coliseum in days
gone by. After a few beers, we agreed that Vernon's
name, Boondoggle by the Bay, was much better. If we
hadn't thought of this name or other ideas, we never
would have chaired it again. We needed something to
give us something to look forward to. The ensuing hate
mail had always been such a turn off. No one else was
paying much attention to our conversation, but it was
the type that made my stomach hurt from laughing. The
name stuck somehow, and we chaired it for a few more
years. But when they say it's Boondoggle IV or
whatever, that is, like, so wrong. It is way, way
older than that.
-Katie Kelly
--- Rob Lipton <rlipton@prev.org> wrote:
> in regard to sf autox, how is this event different
> by virtue of the
> specific name, i.e. is there anything that different
> that happens at
> this autox compared to others, (except for the
> really really really
> large turnout),
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