Sunday July 13
The Boys from Bayshore, Charlie Doerge & I, set off for the NECC Time Trials & Racers Reunion at Summit Point, West Virginia. We got our "typical" late start due to my crewing for Gardella Racing the night before at Wall Township Speedway. (By the way, we won the heat & won the feature, and with a DNF finish the next day, still took over the points lead in Legends class. Photo credit to John Ryall for the 2 Bayshore Boys graphics.)
The trip down brought a nice surprise along the way. As we entered West Virginia, we saw a sign for "free water", "free coffee" and one for "free food" spaced out a few feet apart just before the "Welcome to West Virginia" rest stop. It seems that a local soccer club was doing a fund raiser under the banner, "take a safety break" and giving out free food & drink. And of course they had the "donations jar" on the counter. We helped their efforts with a couple of hot dogs each and a donation.
Arriving at Winchester, Virginia (yes Virginia) we quickly unpacked and headed for the car display area at the rear of the motel. The tech meetings had already started so we jumped right in and took a seat. After the tech meetings a brief break and then the drivers meeting started. (The NECC was doing all the preliminary work, tech inspection & drivers meeting the night before the event, so in the morning we were ready to run as soon as the track opened.)
After the drivers meeting, it was back to the car display area for some tech talk and car weighings. (Thanks to Chuck Sadek #89, a number of drivers were able to get some preliminary numbers on their cars weight distribution.) Somewhere around 9:00 PM, Charlie & I decided it was time for dinner. And it's a good thing we did, last call was 10:30 PM. So after the burger & beer, we headed back to the motel for a good nights sleep.
Monday July 14
A 6:00 AM wake up call and hit the showers. Breakfast was a quick cup of coffee and a donut. Here Terry Stafford makes a last minute equipment check and it's off to the track. Once at the track, we made our preliminary tour checking track conditions and corner station locations. Ken Klingaman & Seth Emerson set out to "cone off" the blend line and passing areas.
Track operations for the most part went very smoothly with huge amounts of open practice time. How much time you ask? Well, at the latest count, (I am still assembling data so it may be more.) the #17 of Stew MacLeod & #71 of Bruce Carlton are tied for the "Iron Man Award" at 47 laps each, or the equivalent of 94 miles on the track. View a listing of the Top 10 Iron Men. The timed runs, using transponders, were done in typical NECC fashion, single car format, three hot laps in which to turn your best time. We actually ran two cars on the track at once staggered at 40 second intervals. By the time that the dust settled, Eddie Meadows #62 turned FTD with a 1:25.946 during the official timed laps. (Chuck Sadek #89 ripped off a 1:25.009 but that was during open practice and therefore an "unofficial" time.)
Summit Point 100 MPH Chili If you missed it, you missed out on some GREAT CHILI.
It's always great to go to one of these gatherings and see old friends. Bob Peplow & Jeff Vanden Bulke joined us on the cat walk for a while, as did Rick Stansbury & John Ryall. I spoke at length with Brian Blackwell about Corvairs & web sites. Discussed car weights with Michael LeVeque. And of course it is always good to see Terry Stafford, Sean Galvin, John Ross, and the entire NJACE group. My thanks to John Ryall for the photo of the "race control" crew. Charlie is holding the white flag and I am right next to the BLACK flag. Yes, I was the guy given you drivers grief all day long.
OK Brian, I have basked in the glow. Now let's set our sights on the next NECC event.
![NECC Time Trials Summit Point, 'The End'](/nj3/nightshadeink/necc/images/summitpointjuly2003/thumb3.jpg)
The End
Comments & Rebuttals to: Roy Buckridge - Bayshore Corvair
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