Well, THAT was fun! I'm sore, my feet ache, my back hurts, but that was fun. OK, I promised that I would write about the LeMay Car Museum, but something came up. I'll get to the museum down the line,have no fear about that. St. Serendipity happened to strike and dragged me off on an unplanned Adventure, and as usual, St. S was right.
Whilst meandering about Marin looking for Cheese, friend Steve Bedillion mentioned that he thought Jay Lamm (self billed as Chief Perpetrator) was unleashing one of his Automotive Extravagansas on the PacNW. This bit of motorized mayhem and madness is called the 24 Hours of LeMons. Allegedly $500 cars racing for fame and glory for 24 hours, most hoping more for survival than victory.
I filed this bit of info away, and Saturday AM, I was up early and thought to my self, "Self, let's see if Other Steve had the right info." Off to my folks' cranky PC (PLEASE let them get a Mac some day!) and Hey Presto, there it was. AND at the PacNW's brand spanking new race track. Sweet!
Now, we all know that new race tracks are only built in the boonies, hours away from allegedly civilized folk for whom the sound of race cars filling the air is anathema. Silly civilized folk! I couldn't be off for such a jaunt, but I'd heard the place was close. Off to Google Maps and what do you know? The Ridge Motor Sports Park is maybe 45 minutes from Oly, just outside of Shelton. WOW! I grabbed the camera, packed a few Cokes, rolled the TR out of the garage, told the Fam that "I'll Be Baack" and took off.
OK, you'd think that St. Serendipity had done his job. A cool, wacky race, a brand new track under an hour away, what more could I ask for? Well, St. S had more for me. I got there in time to see a gathering of white clad, scruffy, holloweyed folk, all listening to what could only be instructions. Now, I'm an old Flag Team member from a WAY back. I can spot a Race Workers' Meeting a mile away! I sidled on up, and sho'nuff, my instincts were right on the money. I hung at the fringes and when the meeting was over, went up the the Flag Chief and asked if they could use another worker (knowing full well that ALL races save the Big Ones ALWAYS need more workers), told her I used to flag for Cal Club (at which I could see a flash of instant respect) and she said she'd be happy to have me.
I DID tell her that I'd need to leave 3ish because of family commitments, but I'd be happy to fill in as needed. She said that I could work Pit Entry/Turn 16 as it was the only place accessable from the paddock area. Cool! I wandered about a bit, got a few pictures of the cars and headed for my turn.
The others were there, I inroduced myself to Robin, the Turn Marshall and she put me to work, Just like old times. Mostly. A lot of things have changed since I last flagged : NO ONE goes out on the track for ANY reason unless you are a Trained Responder! We didn't even have a fire bottle except for this giant thing no one was ever going to lug to an incident. We were using "simplified flagging (noBlue Flags-bummer) and a standing yellow before AND after a waving yellow! Huh? Well, ok.
I got busy with some crowd control (Robin has a voice that can cut glass and she'd mostly intimidated the hell out of all the spectators) by scrounging up some yellow tape and making a line about 5 feer from the pit wall, then swept up the crap in the pit entry, chased a few folk off the other walls, normal stuff. Robin was pleased.
The next sign of my growing acceptance was being approached by Dave Johnson, driver of one of the Emergency Trucks. Ememrgency was a bit light too, so he wanted to use me to DRIVE THE TRUCK ON THE TRACK for oil clean up! I guess that once word spreads that there's a Cal Club Flagger who worked F1, he must be able to do ANYTHING! Talk about a real compliment!
Sadly, the only serious oil we had to take care of was from a big ol' Mercedes Diesel that spread a nice line all through Pit Entry. All that required was a lline of oil dry and me scrubbing with the broom. Darn. given the thrown together nature of most of the "race cars" I thought sure that several of them would puke their guts SOMEWHERE, but alas, it was not to be. Still, it was nice to be asked!
Now, if you've never heard of the 24HoLM, you've got to be asking 'Just what the heck kind of race IS this?"
The idea grew out of the fertile (or is it fetid) brain of Jay Lamm. He'd organized a Concours de LeMons as sort of an Anti-Pebble Beach event several years ago, and, as is usual in the case of off beat events (think Doo Dah Parade), he and friends were sitting around in a bar and thought a race for these same rejects of the automotive world would be a lot of fun.
Over a few pints, they outlined the idea on bar napkins (were ALL the best ideas of modern civilization are set down) and there it was.
Cars were to be only worth $500. Originally, I think it was to be a claiming race, but that idea went away in place of penalizing racers for cars that were too nice. Any penalties were appealable by bribery of food and drink. On track infractions are penalized by forcing the entire team to embarass the hell out of themselves buy, among other things, disco dancing the length of the pits, or wearing a mime costume (complete with white makeup) and miming their infraction. Can you imagine how much more fun NASCAR of F1 would be if Jay and his mnions were in charge?
Cars with extra decoration and themes are stongly encouraged, so the pair of BMWs covered in tartan fabric and a crew all in kilts (just TRY and call in that! "Car 256, PLAID done spun and continued") and a giant Caddy, painted light blue and sporting a model of the Parthenon and a huge Greek flag were "normal". As was the Chrysler mini van, the Jeep Wagoneer (#43, painted bright blue and calling them selves Team Petty Cash), and my personal favorite, Team Stirling Moss, decked out with racing stripes of, well, naturally, moss. Yeah, the real vegitation. Damn stuff kept blowing off. "Control, this is 16, we have moss on the track." Well, after all it IS the PacNW. Moss covers EVERYTHING!
Anyway, it was all in good fun, the cars are actually made to have full approved safety stuff, the racing is really pretty good (although there is a wide gap in talent), and it's all reminiscent of the Good Old Days. If you get the chance, go see one of these races! Jay is now putting them on all over the country. Check out www.24hoursof lemons.com.
I filed this bit of info away, and Saturday AM, I was up early and thought to my self, "Self, let's see if Other Steve had the right info." Off to my folks' cranky PC (PLEASE let them get a Mac some day!) and Hey Presto, there it was. AND at the PacNW's brand spanking new race track. Sweet!
Now, we all know that new race tracks are only built in the boonies, hours away from allegedly civilized folk for whom the sound of race cars filling the air is anathema. Silly civilized folk! I couldn't be off for such a jaunt, but I'd heard the place was close. Off to Google Maps and what do you know? The Ridge Motor Sports Park is maybe 45 minutes from Oly, just outside of Shelton. WOW! I grabbed the camera, packed a few Cokes, rolled the TR out of the garage, told the Fam that "I'll Be Baack" and took off.
OK, you'd think that St. Serendipity had done his job. A cool, wacky race, a brand new track under an hour away, what more could I ask for? Well, St. S had more for me. I got there in time to see a gathering of white clad, scruffy, holloweyed folk, all listening to what could only be instructions. Now, I'm an old Flag Team member from a WAY back. I can spot a Race Workers' Meeting a mile away! I sidled on up, and sho'nuff, my instincts were right on the money. I hung at the fringes and when the meeting was over, went up the the Flag Chief and asked if they could use another worker (knowing full well that ALL races save the Big Ones ALWAYS need more workers), told her I used to flag for Cal Club (at which I could see a flash of instant respect) and she said she'd be happy to have me.
I DID tell her that I'd need to leave 3ish because of family commitments, but I'd be happy to fill in as needed. She said that I could work Pit Entry/Turn 16 as it was the only place accessable from the paddock area. Cool! I wandered about a bit, got a few pictures of the cars and headed for my turn.
The others were there, I inroduced myself to Robin, the Turn Marshall and she put me to work, Just like old times. Mostly. A lot of things have changed since I last flagged : NO ONE goes out on the track for ANY reason unless you are a Trained Responder! We didn't even have a fire bottle except for this giant thing no one was ever going to lug to an incident. We were using "simplified flagging (noBlue Flags-bummer) and a standing yellow before AND after a waving yellow! Huh? Well, ok.
I got busy with some crowd control (Robin has a voice that can cut glass and she'd mostly intimidated the hell out of all the spectators) by scrounging up some yellow tape and making a line about 5 feer from the pit wall, then swept up the crap in the pit entry, chased a few folk off the other walls, normal stuff. Robin was pleased.
Sadly, the only serious oil we had to take care of was from a big ol' Mercedes Diesel that spread a nice line all through Pit Entry. All that required was a lline of oil dry and me scrubbing with the broom. Darn. given the thrown together nature of most of the "race cars" I thought sure that several of them would puke their guts SOMEWHERE, but alas, it was not to be. Still, it was nice to be asked!
Now, if you've never heard of the 24HoLM, you've got to be asking 'Just what the heck kind of race IS this?"
The idea grew out of the fertile (or is it fetid) brain of Jay Lamm. He'd organized a Concours de LeMons as sort of an Anti-Pebble Beach event several years ago, and, as is usual in the case of off beat events (think Doo Dah Parade), he and friends were sitting around in a bar and thought a race for these same rejects of the automotive world would be a lot of fun.
Cars were to be only worth $500. Originally, I think it was to be a claiming race, but that idea went away in place of penalizing racers for cars that were too nice. Any penalties were appealable by bribery of food and drink. On track infractions are penalized by forcing the entire team to embarass the hell out of themselves buy, among other things, disco dancing the length of the pits, or wearing a mime costume (complete with white makeup) and miming their infraction. Can you imagine how much more fun NASCAR of F1 would be if Jay and his mnions were in charge?
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