FRIDAY
After spending the morning gathering last minute
things for the event here in Winston, Gary and I point our convoy
south about 1:00. We stop at Chuck and Tina's to pick up even
more stuff, then get to the hotel around 3:00. Lamar Turk from
Peachstate is already there, carrying his autocross tires in
the car with him. My kind of guy. We spend the next two hours
trying to get the registration materials together, being ready
just in time. Folks start checking in right away, with couples
receiving two golf shirts, two banquet tickets, entrance to all
of the events, plus a bag of goodies including awesome GT1 posters
done by Michelin, all for a mere $100 if you registered early.
Hooking good sponsors is what makes this possible. Once most
everybody gets registered, it's time for dinner and some good
old fashioned socializing, at least for those like me who think
that dirt is useful for protecting your car's paint, while those
with other opinions were busy stripping that dirt away in preparation
for Saturday's concours. To show my support, I drank a toast
to them while I watched in the parking deck. It seems that Providence
wanted to add a special challenge by arranging a rain shower just
when most of the registrants were arriving. My offers to let
them practice on my car came to no avail.
At the banquet in addition to the delicious food, trophy presentations,
and tons of free door prizes, we were treated to messages from
our Zone Rep Danny Saxton, our National Treasurer and Carolinas
member Dave Lumpkin, and as a special treat, Master Service Instructor
Chuck James from Porsche Cars North America, who gave a very interesting
slide presentation on the development of the Boxster. We gave
away THREE sets of tires, none of which were won by me, drat
it all. With the banquet over and all of the door prizes disposed
of, we moved back to the hospitality room for more socializing
and mass consumption of beverages.
SUNDAY
I love the smell of Castrol and Dunlops in the morning. After
skipping the concours, failing the tech quiz, and performing
miserably in the rally, it was time to be somebody. Gary has
the results in a separate article, but you've already guessed
who got the glass in the 993 class, along with sixth overall
(second on street tires). Along with the perfect weather, this
was the smoothest autocross I have ever participated in. Everything
was more or less on time, lunch was brought to us, and everything
clicked in a fun and very safe event. Gary's getting good with
putting these things on. Once we gave the trophies away, cleaned
everything up (which everybody helped with, thanks guys), and
got ready to leave, I was suddenly exhausted, almost too tired
to drive home. A big weekend, one to remember forever. Thanks
again to all who helped make it happen.
SATURDAY
Showtime! After a leisurely breakfast, I cruised outside
around 9:30 to admire some of the nicest Porsches I have ever
seen. We had it all, from a 1951 split window 356 to two 1997
Boxsters, with everything in between. These guys go through
some kind of torture to prepare these cars, but the results are
worth it. The judges had their work cut out for them to find
flaws in these beautiful examples, but it appears they were up
to the task. Unfortunately Gary and I couldn't hang around,
we had autocross prep work to do.
After catching lunch at the nearby (as in across the street) South
Park Mall, we were rally ready. This was going to be a gimmick
rally; that is we had all the time we needed to answer 20 questions
that related to the surroundings along the route. Estimated time
was 2 ½ hours. Charlotte has a quaint habit of naming segments
of the same piece of asphalt seventeen different names, while
calling completely different pieces of asphalt the same thing
(or very nearly the same thing, as we were to discover). Kathy
and I drove the shortest distance while getting lost, thanks to
a side trip to K-Mart to buy a map. Our abysmal finish was mitigated
by the fact that we were back at the hotel at 4:00. The rally
was won by the Tomkos, who you will note also won Sun Fun's Winery
Rally a couple of months back. We better watch these two.
After John Nelson and his able crew gathered in all of the sheep,
the group retired to the courtyard at the hotel for cocktails,
just before the banquet. Peeking out into that courtyard (I was
supposed to be getting my banquet speaking notes together), I
saw the entire group laughing and having an enormous time. There
was no better measure of the success of the event than this moment;
I knew that we had pulled it off.
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Last Update: 23-May-1997 1:00 AM ET