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Sunday, Sept 20, 2009

The 4th Coker Challenge is over! All-in-all I'm pleased. First off, we had a pretty good day: 16 seconds. That was good for a 9th overall finish for the day - actually, if you take away age factor, we had the 4th best raw score of the day. Not too shabby. Our legs were:

leg 1: 4 sec early

leg 2: 5 sec early

leg 3: 3 sec early

leg 4: 4 sec late

No ACEs today. . . :-(

The final rally results.... (drum roll please)... We placed 10th overall (and 10th in class) out of 51 cars. Now that may not seem like a great result, but I'm happy. My goals going into the race were a top-ten finish and at least one ACE, so I met my goals (and of course - having fun!). Our problem is running a 1969 car with no age factor. Based upon raw score alone, we would finish 4th for the entire race. Like I said, I'm happy. Congrats to our friends JeanAnn and Gary who not only came in 2nd place for the rally, but won the "Spirit of the Event" award. I can't think of a better winner for that award! Also, congrats to Ed and Brenda for a 11th place finish. Hey - rookie class 2007 is doing pretty well!!!! See ya at the next rally in 2010....

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Saturday, Sept 19, 2009

Today the weatherman finally told the truth. It poured! I mean POURED!! Luckily, we have a roof over our heads (Thanks Porsche) - others weren't so lucky and suffered. The weather made it difficult to stay on course and on time, but we managed. The good news: we got an ACE! This is really all Joe and I care about. With no age factor, its difficult to be competitive. Case in point - we actually had a better score than 4 or 5 other teams today, but they scored better due to age factor. Our daily score wasn't great (actually it was the same as yesterday), but our overall score improved = 14th out of 51 cars. The Porsche handled everything well today and I'm pretty happy about the ACE. Tomorrow, all scores count. They don't throw out any day 3 scores, so there are usually some surprises. Wish us luck!

leg 1: 6 sec early

leg 2: ACE!

leg 3: 10 sec early

leg 4: 4 sec late

leg 5: 8 sec early

leg 6: CNX

total: 28 sec

We were still 20th in class for the day. But overall rank after two days: 14th out of 51 cars. Not as good as Gary and JeanAnn (2nd) but getting better. . .

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Friday, Sept 18, 2009

After an uneventful trip from Texas on Wednesday, we spent Thursday going through tech inspection, registration, and wrapping up some administrative stuff. Friday was Day 1 for the rally. Joe and I are running the '69 Porsche 911T. Although we've run this car before, it has been two years. Plus there's a new speedo. The best way to summarize the day - we spent it scrapping off the rust. It definitely takes awhile to get back into the groove; and to be consistent. Some of our scores were good. Some were bad. No ACEs. :-( The real success story was our 17 second leg #1. We took a wrong turn and had to make up about five or six minutes. Translation: We hauled a** and passed 5 or 6 cars until we were back "in line" at the right spot. We ran up on Ed and Brenda (who were ahead of us) and stopped for 60 seconds for proper spacing. It worked. Except Ed and Brenda were off by 15 seconds. So we were off by the same amount. But hey, it could've been worse. If there had been a check-point, we would've gotten a max 2-minute penalty. . . so 17 seconds doesn't seem so bad.

leg 1: 17 sec late (thrown out)

leg 2: 3 sec late

leg 3: 3 sec early

leg 4: 2 sec late

leg 5: 1 sec late

leg 6: 15 sec late (thrown out on Saturday)

leg 7: 8 sec late

total: 32 sec

That puts us 21st overall and 20th in class (middle of the pack)

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Day 7: June 26, 2009

The day is finished. Another rally has come to an end. Our results sucked. Although we had fun, it's a bitter ending to a sad story. We scored a one minute five second today. That's like Dawn Johnson falling off the beam and getting a 1.5 for a score. Yuck! Rather than recount the whole gruelling saga, here are a few thoughts:

1) Once I accepted that our race was over Monday AM, a lot of stress and worry went away. There is something to be said for just racing for fun (and ACE stickers!!) and not worrying about money, prizes, and the competition. Joe said it best, "All I really care about are ACE's." Then you're just competing against yourself.

2) The Buick is not technically for sale, but if you want to make an offer. . .

3) When the temps exceed 95 degrees, open cars suck.

4) I have Dixie Racing Team shirts for sale ($20) for anyone who wants one

5) 2010 Ford Mustangs are GREAT cars; and the speedos are pretty dead-on.

6) Rex, Charlie, and Vic put on an EXCELLENT rally. Thanks guys!

7) Jim Menneto (President, Hemmings) and Corky Coker (CEO, Coker Tires) are dedicated car guys who make the hobby better. In addition to just being great guys, they deserve a big thanks for putting in the miles. Thanks Jim. Thanks Corky.

8) Joe and I have decided to go back to racing the 1969 Porsche 911T until I decide what to do with the Buick. I can either a) keep it and pour a lot of money into it to get it up to snuff; b) sell and/or trade it and get another car; c) keep it and just race the Porsche from now on; d) sell it, race the Porsche; and actually fund my kids college fund; e) retire.

9) Best moment of the week: Getting an ACE

10) Worst moment of the week: Realizing Monday AM that the Buick wasn't going to make it.

11) Scariest moment: sliding through the intersection and praying to God that no cross traffic was coming.

12) Most humbling moment: 3rd place Touring class.

See you on the road!

leg 1: 8 sec early

leg 2: 2 sec late

leg 3: 14 sec late

leg 4: 6 sec early

leg 5: 32 sec early

leg 6: 3 sec early

total: 1 min 5 sec (Uuugghh!)

Final: 3rd Place Touring class (IE: Bottom of the barrel)

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Day 6: June 25, 2009

Man, there are a lot of hills in Missouri (Ozarks??). It's like a roller-coaster - up, down, up, down, up, down. It's difficult to maintain speed and looking at the speedometer all day makes you stupid. Every rally we have a Close Encounter with Wild Life. Today there was a goat in the road. Joe said, "Don't hit the goat." I looked up and sure enough. . . a goat in the road. I served, Billy lived.

So here's my plug for the 2010 Mustang: GREAT car. Interior is improved from the 2005-2009 model - plenty of power, great handling. Tomorrow is the last day, so we'll see what happens. Cheers!

leg 1: 6 sec early

leg 2: 5 sec early

leg 3: 1 sec early

leg 4: 8 sec early

leg 5: 10 sec late

leg 6: 5 sec early

total: 35 sec

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Day 5: June 24, 2009

Our happy week continued. To show that we weren't total wusses and to empathize with our rally comrades, we put the top down on the Mustang during the morning legs. It's amazing what smells surround you as you travel down the road - cows, skunks, roadkill...... ummmm, nice. Lunch was at the Precious Memories factory. My mother-in-law will KILL me when she finds out I didn't stop at the gift shop (she can't figure out how to get to the internet, so I may be safe if you don't tell her). For the afternoon, we put the top up. Temps were in the high 90's and let's face it, who wants to be hot and sweaty?? Turns out, it was the right choice. Rain hit us mid-way through the afternoon and came down hard. Did I mention I'm glad I had a roof over my head? Dinner was at the Hickory Hills Country Club. But the highlight of the day was our ACE (perfect score on a leg)!!! Yep, we ACE'd in a factory Mustang with a stock speedometer. I know it's mostly luck, but hey - small victories. Still having fun.

leg 1: 3 sec early

leg 2: 12 sec early

leg 3: 10 sec early

leg 4: ACE!

leg 5: 2 sec early

leg 6: 1 sec early

leg 7: 2 sec early

total: 30 sec

PS- I miss my Buick, but not as much as I thought.....

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Day 4: June 23, 2009

All in all, it was a good day. Actually, I feel kinda guilty. We ran the course in the 2010 Mustang and had a blast. Our lunch stop was in Nevada, MO (pronounced: ne-vA-da). The temp got to 101 but we were nice and cool. We're running touring class (no prizes or cash), and had a 28 second day. With no electronic speedometer, 28 seconds is a pretty good score. A fun time! The thing that amazes me is the level of competition. Usually, 10 seconds is a good, top ten score. Today, 10 seconds got you 21st place. The top ten scores were all between 5 and 6 seconds. Whew! That's wild. Mom, if you're reading this, we're in a rental car so stop worrying about me. I'm safe. :-)

leg 1: 11 sec late

leg 2: 3 sec early

leg 3: 5 sec late

leg 4: 1 sec early

leg 5: cnx

leg 6: 8 sec late

total: 28 sec

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June 2009

Day 1: Sat, 20 June - Arrived safely. Got checked into hotel. Took car out for speedometer calibration run. No probs.

Day 2: Sun, 21 June - Got the Buick tech'd, attended driver's meeting. The practice rally was interesting. We learned three very important things: 1) A car with rear-only brakes is scary. Really scary. When I drove the car at home, I knew I'd have to stay ahead of the braking, but I didn't realize how bad it was. We slid through three different stop-sign intersections. If there had been cross traffic at any of them, we would have had major issues. 2) Another thing we learned is that leather shoe laces make GREAT packing material for leaky water pumps. (Thanks Ed!), and 3) Driving 50 mph on the freeway in an open 1916 car is scary, really scary. Our times sucked. In the end, there's a reason old cars get an age factor.

Day 3: Mon, 22 June - The car was running rough from the very beginning of the morning - really rough. I couldn't get out of the hotel parking lot without it dying. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. We loaded the car onto our trailer; went to Enterprise rent-a-car; rented a new 2010 Ford Mustang convertible, and will be running the remainder of the race in "touring" class. Needless to say we were bummed-out this AM. But by mid-afternoon we were in very high spirits. We weren't bothered by the heat advisory (105 degrees) because the Mustang kept us nice and cool.

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27 June 2008

WARNING! TRAGIC TALE AHEAD!! NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!

Sigh. I'm reminded of Charles Dickens. . . It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Mostly worst. In the final day of competition, the good news was that nobody died, most of our leg scores were below 5 seconds, and we didn't hit the horse in the road. The bad news is we suck. We got lost. Yep, good 'ol Dixie Racing took a right turn onto Rural Route DD when we should've gone straight. Ouch! We didn't figure it out until the road ended and turned to gravel (a BIG rally no-no). We were 15 minutes down the road, and by the time we got back on course we were 30 mintues late. 30 minutes!! That's a life time in a sport that measures victory and defeat in seconds.

The speedster hauled a** and we made up some of the time, but still clocked in 13 minutes late on leg three. The max late penalty is 2 minutes, so our day was done.

Leg 1: 2 sec early

Leg 2: 4 sec early

Leg 3: 2 MINUTES late

Leg 4: 2 sec late

Leg 5: 6 sec late

Leg 6: 3 sec early

Leg 7: 5 sec late

RECAP: My final thoughts -

Rallying in a vintage car is fun. It's more fun when you do well and don't suck.

The cars are cool but people still make the event. We had fun with Ed and Brenda, Charlie and Jane, Gary and JeanAnn. Thanks guys! And we missed Bill and Terry a lot. Thanks Joe for hanging out in the rain with me. . .

VCRA puts on a great rally. The clover-leaf format is logistically simple and the days end up being shorter. Will I do it again? Yep - you bet. However, hanging out in the same location for a week does not carry the same epic sense of adventure and accomplishment that travelling cross country does. There is no sense of, "To finish is to win." I kinda missed that sense of accomplishing something heroic.

This was Dixie racing's last rally for 2008. See ya in 2009!

At the end of the rally our final position was 41st out of 55 cars (29th in class) Ouch. Life has some tough lessons.

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26 June 2008

Tonight I'm keeping it short and sweet. We had an okay day. The weather was beautiful (no rain!), the sights were scenic, the car ran outstanding, our scores were okay. Charlie, thanks for saving my cookies by picking up my camera (actually my daughter's camera). As it stands tonight, the rally results through Stage 4, we're 27th out of 55. That may not seem good, but this is our fifth rally ever and we're running in Gold Cup class (senior veterans). If we were running it Silver cup, we'd be 1st in class right now, so I can't feel too bad.

Leg 1: 5 late

Leg 2: 5 late

Leg 3: 12 late

Leg 4: 7 late

Leg 5: 1 late

Leg 6: 1 late

Adjusted score: 22.94 seconds

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25 June 2008

So-so news today. We had two really rough legs in the 30 second range. But then again we had three great legs at 1 second each. Go figure. The top three excuses for the poor legs include: 1) I missed a turn and had to backtrack. 2) I got caught in traffic and didn't estimate the right correction. 3) I was supposed to increase my speed by 5 mph and at the critical moment couldn't remember whether to step on the gas or brake. . . . (I stepped on the brake). Staring at a speedometer for hours at a time makes you stupid.

A few thoughts: Thanks goodness for friends like Gary and Jean-Ann. So far they've loaned us sun-glasses (mine broke when I took a rock to the eye!), a stop-watch, and cleaning supplies. The four corners of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas are beautiful - very scenic. Lunch today was in Claremore, OK. They did a very nice job of feeding us; the t-shirts and coolers were nice too! As we were fond of saying last year - our scores don't reflect the level of fun we're having.

Leg 1: 3 late

Leg 2: 30 late

Leg 3: 1 late

Leg 4: 1 early

Leg 5: 32 late

Leg 6: 1 late

We finished 35th overall out of 55.

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24 June 2008

First the good news: no rain today and no accidents. Now the bad news: our performance was sucky - the same as yesterday (and Sunday for that matter). Our problem is this: Our speedometer calibration run indicates we're early, but our scores are coming in late. I'm not smart enought to know why. The basic inputs are: driver's ability to hold speed + navigator's switchology + correction computations + speedometer calibration. We may have issues with all of the above!

Lunch today was in Jopklin, MO and they did a SUPER job. The root beer floats were the best. Our course took us through some areas that were struck by tornados a few weeks ago. The damage was horrific! Houses torn apart, trees uprooted, etc. Looked like a war zone.

Leg 1: 19 late

Leg 2: 4 late

Leg 3: 11 late

Leg 4: 9 early

Leg 5: 1 late

Leg 6: 10 late

Leg 7: 3 late

Final score: 42.18 seconds - an ever so slight improvement on Monday. After 2 stages we're 35th overall out of 55.

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23 June 2008

Hello from Rogers, AR. It's Monday, June 23rd and the 2008 Hemmings Challenge Vintage Car Rally is under way. A brief recap:

Saturday: Joe and I left Texas on Saturday morning and had an uneventful drive to Rogers. The trip took about six hours including two stops. We checked into the hotel, ran the car through technical inspection and registration, and met up with some old friends.

Sunday: We ran a practice rally to sort out any last minute details. The car is in good shape but we had some minor details like bad batteries and a slight speedometer malfunction. Got everything fixed up but were disappointed in our practice scores - not good, not bad, just in the middle.

Monday: The first day of competition. The three words that best describe today are: rain, rain, and rain. The morning began with light showers. We got the car ready to go and started in the 40th position (out of 55). By the time we got on the road, the rain REALLY started coming down. We were flying down the road DRENCHED!! Then all heck broke loose. I couldn't see out of my googles - they were fogged up, Joe couldn't write times and corrections on the instructions because they were soaked, and to top it off - our spiffy electronic stop-watch quit working (not waterproof!!!). We lunched in Van Buren, AR and had a chance to dry off. Needless to say, we weren't excited about our scores. . . and we were right:

Leg 1: 14 late

Leg 2: 9 late

Leg 3: 15 late

Leg 4: 10 late

Leg 5: 4 late

Leg 6: 6 late

Final score: 42.92 seconds which put us 28th out of 55. Sigh. We did fix a bad ground on our fan and managed to buy a new stopwatch. Tomorrow is another day!

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10 April

Wow! The Great Race 2008 was cancelled (postponed) today. Weird! This was the press release:

"Bill Ewing, CEO of Great Race Sports, regretfully informed participants that the Great Race 2008: New York to Paris has been postponed as the approval to travel through China has been recalled and the permits have been placed on hold."

Dixie Racing had planned on racing the first week and using the $10,000 credit we won last year, but I guess not now. Looks like we'll be going to Rogers, Arkansas in June with the VCRA.

Mojo is a strange thing. . .

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6 April 2008

VCRA's Bluebonnet Rally in San Marcos, TX is over. Dixie Racing ended up placing 6th overall for the competition and we're pretty happy. We had an fantastic finish on Sunday, scoring a 6.66 sec day for 2nd place. Not bad bad for a couple of sophomores! In fact, I feel like a Junior Varsity ball player who has played against a senior varsity team and done pretty well. The VCRA event didn't have a bunch of rookies - these guys are the old-school-hardcore-pre-war rally guys. Who knew that nitorgen in the tires was so important?!?! Go figure.

A few highlights from the weekend: 1) I pinched a nerve in my back and was uncomfortable all weekend, squirming and fidgeting all the time. Joe said it was like racing with someone with tourettes. Hey, at least I didn't cuss! 2) Nothing beats a good BBQ and the best we had all weekend was at Express Barbecue Depot in Schulenburg. Awesome!, 3) We had two aces, so if I had been smart and signed up for dash-for-cash instead of run-for-fun we would've won enough money to race all weekend for free. Sigh. Oh well. Thanks to Rex, Charlie, Larry, Dick, and everyone else for a GREAT weekend. Recap:

Day 1: 28.86 sec (14th place)

Day 2: 10.36 sec (7th place)

Day 3: 6.66 sec (2nd place!!!)

Final Results: 6th Place

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5 April 2008

It's day two of VCRA's Bluebonnet Rally in San Marcos, TX. Let's recap:

We got down here on Thursday, April 3rd to tech and register. The trip was uneventful and we were settled in pretty quickly.

Day 1: Our goal was to correct the lessons learned from Granbury. The day was successful - communications was fixed, nitrogen in the tires solved our calibration issue, and I had replaced the starter before leaving home. I also figured the shift points. Our day 1 scores weren't great, but they didn't totally suck:

Leg 1: 1 sec - early

Leg 2: 2 sec - late

Leg 3: 14 sec - early (Train delay)

Leg 4: 2 sec - late

Leg 5: 20 sec - early (brain-fart)

Day 2: Today we concentrated on execution (IE: driving & simple math) and had a GREAT day. . . except for the missed shift and taking a wrong turn. The weather was beautiful and spring flowers were in bloom, but there aren't a lot of bluebonnets out. What's the deal with that?

Leg 1: 2 sec - late

Leg 2: 2 sec - late

Leg 3: ACE!

Leg 4: 9 sec - early (missed shift)

Leg 5: 1 sec - late

Leg 6: 16 sec - late (missed turn)

Bottomline: After 2 days, we're 7th out of 23. Too bad we're not running for cash

:-0

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March 2008

Here's a quick re-cap of Great Race Texas 2008: overall an excellent time! It was the first trial with the new speedster, which offers a TOTALLY different racing experience than the Porsches. Duhh! Once Joe and I were shoe-horned into the car, it was actually not bad. I expected it to be more uncomfortable than it was. The car is fast and handles like a tractor, which is always a fun combination. But it does beat you up quite a bit - I felt like a WWI fighter pilot flying my Spad on patrol; the sun and wind beating against me. . . Cool!!

Day 1: Snow. Can you believe 9 inches of snow in Texas in March? Me either. We scored a DNF - heck, we didn't leave my driveway until mid morning. We got to the hotel, teched, etc and took the car out to get ready for the next day. . . . .and the starter failed. Humm, not a good start.

Day 2: After a push start (thanks guys) the car did GREAT. Joe and I are starting from square-one and re-learning rallying in the new car. We finished mid-pack but to borrow a phrase from last summer, "Our scores don't reflect the level of fun we're having."

Day 3: More of the same.

Conclusion: We need to recalibrate the speedo/tires. There is a big difference between bias-ply and radial. We need a new starter. We new to fix our comm/head-set problems. And I need to learn when to shift. Aside from that we're rerady for April and VCRA's Blue Bonnet rally in San Marcos. See ya there!!!

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Feb 2008

We are retiring our old number 69 and will be racing under the number 5 for 2008 (and beyond). The #69 made sense when we campaigned a 1969 Porsche, but now it's just plan silly. People look at you funny. Mothers hide their children. And teenage boys snicker. Plus, Joe was tired of women leaving their telephone numbers on his clip board. . .

:-)

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Feb 2008

The 911T is still not sold but that hasn't stopped us from getting ready for the 2008 season. Right now, we're planning on Great Race Texas (March), Blue Bonnet Rally (April), and Great Race NA week one (May/June). The '29 Ford Speedster pictured on the home page is our ride. It's scored as a '32 due to the flathead V8 up front. If there is a drought in Texas this year, it's cuz Joe and I have already started praying for no rain. . . . :-)

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Nov 2007

Here's my ad (sniff), I can't believe I have to sell this car (sniff):

1969 Porsche 911T - VIN: 119120875; burgundy with black interior. Good running, solid mechanicals, well sorted. This car is a great example of a (mostly) original 911T – strong engine, excellent tranny, no major rust issues (some minor rust), placed 2^nd in class in the 2007 Great American Race (Rally). The car comes with 160+ pages of documentation from 1972 to present and the names/numbers of owners 2, 3, and 4 (me). For more detail, go to: www.motorheadhotspots.com $15,000.

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Sept 2007

Here is next year's Great Race North America schedule:

Wed, 28-May, New York
Thu, 29-May, Grand Start

Day 1, Fri, 30-May  New York to Albany
Day 2, Sat, 31-May  Albany to Watertown
Day 3, Sun, 1-Jun  Watertown to Ottawa
Day 4, Mon, 2-Jun  Ottawa to Toronto
Day 5, Tue, 3-Jun  Toronto to Sudbury
Day 6, Wed, 4-Jun Sudbury to Sault St. Marie
Day 7, Thu, 5-Jun Sault St. Marie to Thunder Bay
Day 8, Fri, 6-Jun Thunder Bay Rest day
Day 9, Sat, 7-Jun Thunder Bay to Winnipeg
Day 10, Sun, 8-Jun Winnipeg to Regina
Day 11, Mon, 9-Jun Regina to Saskatoon
Day 12, Tue, 10-Jun Saskatoon to Edmonton
Day 13, Wed, 11-Jun Edmonton to Calgary
Day 14, Thu, 12-Jun Calgary to Revelstoke
Day 15, Fri, 13-Jun Revelstoke to Vancouver

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Sept 2007

Okay. Now that the 2007 race is a memory, it is time to think of 2008. If you go to the very bottom of this page, you'll find a Model A speedster body and chassis. It was almost three years ago that I began collecting parts for an eventual speedster. Unfortunately, the pieces and parts look much the same today as they have for years. Not much work is getting done on the speedster. I have decided to liquidate everything with which I can bear to part and buy a race-ready car. To be sold off: Emmick/KT100 go-kart, 1969 Porsche 911T (sniff!), 1980 Triumph Spitfire, and a bunch of Model A parts. Interested? Email me: admin@motorheadhotspots.com

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Aug 2007

Now that I have had some time to reflect.

It amazes me how "car crazy" America really is. We show up in typical small town America and not only are the GR race cars on display but every car club within miles are there showing off their pride and joys.

I have seen parts of America that I normally would not have seen. It has taught me to slow down and really appreciate the view. Getting there really is half the fun. Travelling down Route 66 was truly a high point for me. From green valleys to desert to high plains to mountains, America has it all. What a great country.

The GR is some what like a career in aviation. Hours of boredom interlaced with seconds of terror. We would travel an hour or more down a road that was straight and flat for miles-on-end and the only instruction was, "indicated speed - 50." No doubt Bryan has nightmares about the number 50. On the opposite end is what we referred to as the mixing bowl. Going into a neighborhood and doing an endless number stops, turns and speed changes all within a few minutes. To say it was exhilerating would be an understatement.

I learned long ago it is not what you do in life that you remember most but the people you do it with. The two separate nights we spent in the parking lots installing the speedo and patching up the suspension, folks would come up and ask what they could do to help. Begging for parts, tools and expertise seemed like the natural thing to do just because veterans and rookies alike really cared about each other and wanted the best for their fellow competitors. Bryan you're a great competitor but you know what is important and for us it was having fun. But winning sure is damn fun! During the first week, Bryan coined the phase, "our scores don't reflect how much fun we are having." I quickly learned you really know how to drive and I needed to concentrate on my stop watch buttonology. I never heard of the Great Race 10 months but after crossing the finish line in Anaheim and downing some cold Dom Perignon it was experience I will never forget.

Joe,
Navigator, car 69

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Wednesday, 18 July

It’s over. After 15 years of waiting and two weeks of hard work, my Great American Race is over. Here are a few things I learned & observed:

1) America is huge, expansive, and wonderful. We only see a small part in our daily lives – the backroads offer a better view.

2) It’s fun to be asked for your autograph. It’s even more fun to be asked by a pretty girl.

3) Starting the race with the correct speedometer is a MUST!

4) Running the latest year group (1969) means you have to work twice as hard to win.

5) The revised award process is good. More people get to share the excitement of winning, collecting a trophy, and taking home some cash.

6) The event is good. People make it GREAT! People like Greg, Ray, Dick, Rick, Wayne, Jack, Brian, and Charlie, who helped us fix our broken car and asked nothing in return. Fellow racers like Jeff, Robert, Bob, Charlie, and fellow rookies like Brenda, Ed, Garry, Alex, Charlie, Jane, Bill, Terry, Gary, Jean-Ann shared in the excitement and marvel. And every person that came up to me in a small town and said, “Gee mister, that’s a cool car!” People made the event spectacular.

7) Porsches are tough little cars. In many respects they are perfect for rallying: light, nimble, responsive, plenty of power, easy to fix, etc. There really is no substitute.

8) My best memory: seeing my wife and kids at the finish-line in California.

9) Driver-Navigator teamwork is AS important as a properly set-up car and calibrated speedometer. Great teamwork produces great results. Thanks Joe!

10) My best moment: Stage 10. We finished the day with the highest overall raw score of ANYONE! Because of the age factor we placed 2^nd overall that day.

11) My worst moment: stalling the car on the side of a steep hill; flooding the carbs; smoking the clutch and believing for a fraction of a moment that our race was over. Whew! Close call.

12) Cold Dom Perignon tastes good. It tastes even better in the hot sun at the finish-line.

Final results: 2^nd place finish in rookie class; 23^rd place overall; $10,000 in prize money; and seven Aces!!!

PS- We spent two days at Disneyland and capped-off a perfect summer vacation. . . . J

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Friday, 13 July

The last day of competition. The good news is that we didn't make any huge errors. We stayed on course, left on time, and the car held up wonderfully. The little Porsche is sagging on the passenger side about one 1 1/2 inches due to the broke suspension, but it continues to perform. Getting up the hills (mountains!) to Big Bear was a treat. A lot of cars had issues. Our temp spiked, but we made it okay. Big Bear was beautiful and the entire town turned out to welcome us. The streets were lined with thousands of people, yelling and cheering - it was cool! We made into Pomona safe and sound. They didn't give us scores; we won't find out how we did until tomorrow when they announce the overall winners.

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Thursday, 12 July

Well, we didn't have a great day, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Temps got up to 116 but the car ran fine - no over heating. The driver screwed-up and stalled on a steep hill, but we recovered nicely. Bottomline: we placed 5th out of 18 in rookie class today and remain 2nd overall in rookie class after 12 stages. Tomorrow is the last competitive day, so wish us luck!

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Wednesday, 11 July

Not much time tonight. The quote of the day, "There's a cow in the road, go right!" I looked up, and yep - cow in the middle of the road. If I had stuck my arm out while passing, I could've slapped him on the butt. Cloud cover kept Arizona cool and Flagstff is just plain beautiful. The suspension held and we enjoyed our fifth consecutive podium finish. Bottomline for the day: Another ACE, 3rd place rookie class, $250, still 2nd rookie class overall after 11 stages. Gotta love it!!

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Tuesday, 10 July

I don't know how many people are actually reading this blog. Maybe nobody besides my wife and parents. If I were at the movies and saw a story like the one we had today, I wouldn't believe it. I'd said say, "Aw, that's fake. It could never happen." We left Clovis NM and made our way through the desert to Albuquerque. The course could be described as two parts straight and narrow mixed with one part hilly potholes. The heat wasn't bad - the temp only got to 106. The Porsche ran fine. Then trouble. We hit a pothole so hard today that it popped the front trunk lid open and broke our right side front torsion-bar bracket. The car continued on and made it to the end, but not before we had a deer jump out in front of us and nearly hit the car. Whew! At the end of the day we had a score of 12 seconds. Turns out it was good enough for another 1st in rookie class and $1,000. But wait, there's more. . . We had the best score of the day. Yes, you read that correctly - the BEST score of the day. But, because of our lack of an age factor, another older car came in first. We came in second place overall! Can you believe it!?!? We picked up a second check for $1,500. Amazing!!! We've now just about paid for our entry fee. Back at the hotel, we got help from Greg and Charlie and were able to cobble together a temp fix for the torsion bar bracket. I feel like a little kid who keeps waking up to Christmas morning after Christmas morning. Today was the sweetest one yet.

Leg #1: 0 seconds - ACE!

Leg #2: 0 seconds - ACE!

Leg #3: 4 seconds - early

Leg #4: 1 seconds - late

Leg #5: 7 seconds - late

Score: 0:11.94

We finished 1 out of 18 in rookie class, 2nd overall today!!! We're 2 out of 18 in rookie class and 24th overall for the 10 stages.

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Monday, 9 July

After more than a week on the road, the rain finally made an appearance. The day started great and slowly came unraveled. Actually, it was sort of a good news/bad news sort of day. The bad news first: rain, hail, and gusting winds messed up our final leg. Also, we got lost. Yep, took a wrong turn and lost several minutes goofing around. The good news: we made up the lost time after getting lost and ending up with an Ace for the leg. :-) We managed a 3rd in rookie, with two more aces, and $250. Not too bad. One final thought- one of the best smells in the world is a light rain on hot asphalt. It smells like summer.

Leg #1: 4 seconds late

Leg #2: 4 seconds late

Leg #3: 0 seconds - ACE!

Leg #4: 0 seconds - ACE!

Leg #5: 7 seconds - late

Leg #6: 28 seconds - late

Score: 0:42.79

We finished 3 out of 18 in rookie class, 14th overall today!!! We're 4 out of 18 in rookie class overall for the 9 stages.

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Saturday, 7 July

A day off. We spent the morning at Fifth Gear Automotive in Lewisville. Bill Bernick and Rick Jordan run a fantastic Porsche focused shop that specializes in racing. They changed the oil, checked belts, hoses, etc. and most important, they redid the bracket for the speed sensor that we hacked together in the parking lot at midnight a few days ago. She's all ready to go. No more excuses.

And while others lounged around the pool at the hotel, I got to mow the lawn. . .

:-) Ahhh, the benefits of being home!

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Friday, 6 July

Victory!!!!. Just like a hollywood movie! We were up until midnight installing the speedo with the help of Brian Smith. We did a rough calibration in the parking lot and fine tuned during the calibration run this AM. Presto! A decent run. In fact, we placed FIRST in Rookie Class for Stage 7 which was worth a trophy and a $1,000. In addition, we got our first perfect leg which is called an "ace" - a zero second score!!! It couldn't have happend on a better day because Bryan's wife and two kids were in the crowd and helped share in the celebration. Wow. Just like the movies. . . . Tomorrow is a day off and we'll be back on the road Sunday.

Leg #1: 0 seconds - ACE!

Leg #2: 1 second late

Leg #3: 8 seconds early

Leg #4: 7 seconds early

Score: 0:15.92

We finished 1 out of 18 in rookie class, 18th overall today!!! 6 out of 18 in rookie class overall for the 7 stages.

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Wednesday, 4 July

Plauged. "Troubled by or encroached upon in large numbers." The day started okay. About ten minutes after our lunch break our speedometer broke. Nothing. Nada. Gone. We drove the rest of the day using RPM sounds and gear-selection to guess our speed. Fourth gear at high RPM must be about 50 mph. . . right? We're getting the parts now to fix it but won't get it done until the break. So tomorrow's run into Norman will be "blind." The funniest part is we still did better today with no speedometer than yesterday with everything working. Still, it could be worse. Some of our comrades have hard-broke or gotten ill and had to go home. That makes us PMC (partially mission capable). Happy 4th!!!

Leg #1: 16 seconds late

Leg #2: 27 seconds late

Leg #3: 17 seconds early

Leg #4: 54 seconds early

Score: 1:53.43

We finished 8 out of 18 in rookie class today. Still 8 out of 18 in rookie class overall for the 5 stages.

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Tuesday, 3 July

Uuugghh! We had more fun than our score indicates. Here's what we learned today: 1) You can take a time delay for safety and the judges will credit it back. You cannot take a time "advance." Had we known this, our Leg #4 score would've been 16 seconds; 2) Run your own race. Don't worry about others around you. We thought we were on course, but doubted ourselves and made some bogus adjustments. Turns out we were on course. . . 3) Don't stall the car. :-)

Leg #1: 11 seconds early

Leg #2: 30 seconds early

Leg #3: 1 minute 28 seconds late

Leg #4: 1 minute 16 seconds early

Score: 3:23.98

We finished 17 out of 18 in rookie class today. Sigh. On the bright side, we're still 8 out of 18 in rookie class overall for the 4 stages.

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Monday, 2 July

Traveled the backroads of TN today. Lovely! Here are a few observations/reflections: 1) As the driver, I've seen a lot of the speedometer, while the navigator has seen a lot more scenery. I'm so fixated on the speedometer, that I'm oblivious to what is going on around me. Joe even got to take an 18 minute nap today. . . 2) I've decided that the myriad people we've seen sitting on their lawns and waving to us are like life-saving breadcrumbs left along an evil and sadistic labyrinth. Case in point: We saw another racer deviate from the course we were on and were SURE we were lost. Just as panic began to set in, we saw a lawn full of people waving to us and realised, "Hey, we're on-course!!! Cool!" 3) Stanley: We're traveling with a 1998 bottle of Dom Periginon Champagne that we've nick-named Stanley. We take pictures of him along the route, we keep him cooled in an insulated bag. And at race-end, we will open and enjoy him in celebration of our completed adventure. If you would like your picture taken with Stanley, just ask!!! We fixed our issue with the weber carbs, but haven't fixed our timing issue:

Leg #1: 1 seconds late

Leg #2: 23 seconds early

Leg #3: 24 seconds late

Leg #4: 31 seconds early

Score: 1:28.56

We finished 5 out of 18 in rookie class, a slight improvement.

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Sunday, 1 July

A full day of rallying with views, rain, and fun. We left Spartanburg, SC and enjoyed a beautiful drive through the Smokey Mountains. It was breathtaking! Our lunch stop was at the Wheels Through Time museum which is a MUST for any Harley fan. The afternoon brought rain showers as we made our tortured way through what can only be described as a "mix-master" route. Finally, our arrival into Chattanooga and Coker Tires HQ. Our results were, again, just okay. We haven't fixed our issue with early arrival:

Leg #1: 35 seconds early

Leg #2: 13 seconds early

Leg #3: 6 seconds early

Leg #4: 15 seconds early

Score: 1:08.66

We finished 6 out of 18 in rookie class, a slight improvement.

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Saturday, 30 June

The Big Day. We marshalled in downtown Concord around 1000 hours. The town and people of Concord were very friendly and a good time was had by all. They fed us, thanked us, and asked a lot of questions about the cars. We were green- flagged at 1316 hours. The race was on! The results were okay. We didn't totally suck but were far from excelling:

Leg #1: 10 seconds early

Leg #2: 10 seconds early

Leg #3: 15 seconds early

Leg #4: 17 seconds early

Score: 0:51.74

We finished 8 out of 18 in rookie class. The good news is we think we know what is wrong and will fix it tomorrow.

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Friday, 29 June

Spent the AM doing speedometer calibrations. We're at a disadvantage because we're running with a stock speedometer, not a fancy electronic one. After the calibrations, it was off to Lowes Motors Speedway. . . to drive! That's right, 'ol #69 got to take laps around one of NASCAR's finest. AWESOME! That's the only way to describe it. Pictures will follow eventually. The banking looks a lot steeper when you're on it.

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Thursday, 28 June

Departed Virginia Beach, VA at 0600. We had an uneventful drive to Concord, NC (about 5.5 hours) and checked into the race headquarters at the Embassy Suites hotel. We registered, passed tech inspection, got the stickers put on the car (looks GREAT), and attended rally school for rookies. So far so good. Took some pictures but have no way to get them on the website yet.

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Apr 2007

Here is an updated list of overnight cities. Come see us. In fact, if you tell Joe, "You're a a berry sex-cee mon" I'll buy you a beer!

Sat 6/30 Official Start-1:00pm - Concord, NC
Sat 6/30 Overnight - Spartanburg, SC
Su 7/1 Overnight - Coker Tire, Chattanooga, TN
Mon 7/2 Overnight - Lane Motor Museum, Nashville, TN
Tues 7/3 Overnight - Germantown, TN
Wed 7/4 Overnight - Fort Smith, AR
Thu 7/5 Overnight - Norman, OK
Fri 7/6 Overnight - Lewisville, TX

Sat 7/7 Day off Day off — Irving, TX

Sun 7/8 Overnight - Abilene, TX
Mon 7/9 Overnight - Clovis, NM
Tues 7/10 Overnight - Albuquerque, NM
Wed 7/11 Overnight - Flagstaff, AZ
Thu 7/12 Overnight - Colorado Belle, Laughlin, NV
Fri 7/13 Overnight - Fairplex / NHRA Museum, Pomona, CA
Sat 7/14 Finish - Anaheim, CA

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Jan 2007

Here’s some info on the racecar. The VIN is 119120875 which decodes as follows:

11 = Type 911

9 = last digit of model year – 1969

1 = engine type – T (vs. E or S)

2 = body – Karmann coupe

0875 = chassis numbers

The car came with 129+ pages of maintenance records dating back to May 1972. Every oil change, clutch replacement, door adjustment, and light bulb replacement is documented. Awesome!! Some of the highlights:

Sep 25, 1974 - Ziebart rust proofing

Mar 5, 1980 – Replaced speedo; 35,656 showing on the used speedo; actual mileage = 76,170

Apr 17, 1982 – Engine and transmission rebuilt

Nov 21, 1982 – Replaced speedo; 61,618 showing on the used speedo; actual mileage = 79,608

Feb 20, 1985 – Car repainted original color

Apr 4, 1986 – Chain tensioner update

Apr 25, 1986 – New gas tank

June 20, 1988 – Update with weber carbs

Based upon the above math, our car has 99,867 original miles. As noted below, Stuttgart Service has the car now and is doing the race prep.

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Dec 2006

Greatrace announced the route. If you live near any of the overnight cities, come on down, see the cars, and say hello.

Sat 6/30 Start: Concord, NC
Sat 6/30 Overnight Asheville, NC
Su 7/1 Overnight Chattanooga, TN
Mon 7/2 Overnight Nashville, TN
Tues 7/3 Overnight Germantown, TN
Wed 7/4 Overnight Fort Smith, AR
Thu 7/5 Overnight Norman, OK
Fri 7/6 Overnight Irving, TX
Sat 7/7 Day off Day off—Irving, TX
Sun 7/8 Overnight - Abilene, TX
Mon 7/9 Overnight - Clovis, NM
Tues 7/10 Overnight Rio Rancho, NM
Wed 7/11 Overnight Flagstaff, AZ
Thu 7/12 Overnight Laughlin, NV
Fri 7/13 Overnight TBA, CA
Sat 7/14 Finish Orange County, CA