Issue No. 563

24 September 2024

SOVREN Races This Weekend

Abbreviation Listing - To ensure all who read the enews know what the abbreviations used in the enews mean, a list is provided at the end of the enews. Reminds me of the T-shirt with the meaning of the flags in which the definition of the blue flag is "There's a race going on and you're not in it."

In This Week's Enews

       The Rant

       Title - Big race car show at Doxon Toyota on Saturday

        Racing News - Lots going on in the next few weeks

        Other News -

1. A Texan wants to build a 300 mph street car
2. Another story about a flag raiser at The Circuit of the Americas
3. Let's have a sale over the next 3 races to end the season

  Racing Humor of the Week - Senna

       Lulu gets the last word

Opening Rant

Do you look around and see what people are driving and then maybe some of you ask if that person would be interested in racing? Welp I do that all the time. If people are wearing a racing cap or T-shirt, I'll comment on the shirt or ask them if they race. If someone is wearing a racing shirt, they are usually very interested in talking and it isn't surprising that they often don't know about club racing here in our area.

Oooh....here's a story (Yikes No Story)....it's a good one. In 1977 I moved to Bremerton to work for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation as a field engineer. I had just finished up a few autocrosses in Texas and wasn't really thinking about autocrossing as I thought that autocrossing was just something done in Texas. Yep that is a true story. So I'm walking down the hall at the Trident Training Facility and a guy is talking to a friend about racing his Mazda and lost 3 of the 4 lug nuts. Welp I spoke with the guy and he told me about the Bremerton Sports Car Club and that is the beginning of my motorsports history in Washington.

Just two days ago in the grocery story a guy saw my racing shirt and wanted to talk about racing. Then just two days ago, Armadillo Greg told me of a guy who it turns out spotted him with a SOVREN decal on his car and they talked. Turns out the guy is racing this weekend (Greg forgot the guy's name and still the guy said he'd be out racing this weekend).

So always be on the lookout for racing people, they are everywhere. As you know, once you are a racer, you sorta always stay in racing. Then when you see someone, be sure to talk with them and get them involved. So many friends came out to the sport because they heard about it from a friend. Now let's get on with it.

Title

This weekend September 28 and 29th at Pacific Raceways is SOVREN's Fall Finale. As mentioned last week, this event will have track rides on both Saturday and Sunday so that the workers, family and crew can get a few minutes on the track. So if you've never driven Pacific Raceways, this can be a fun event for you.

This event is late in the year and still gives people the chance to run your car and get SOVREN point toward the 2024 season. With good weather planned, his is a fun event for you and your family. So come on out this weekend and enjoy so great vintage racing and perhaps get a ride around the track.

Racing News

This past weekend was the race car show at Doxon Toyota where a host of race cars came out to encourage and promote the Pacific Raceways Invitational as hosted by Doxon Toyota. There were a number of cars and free pizza. Many members of the Doxon team came out to see about the cars and ask about the event. Here are some pix for you.

A Toyota from the ProFormance School and several Doxon employees lined up for a pix.

Here are just a few of the cars at the show

A few more cars in the show

And racers taking about the coming event

I keep talking about this event each week and the entries are slowly coming in. When I say that we have the best event, I mean it. For $575 you get an all day driver's school on Friday, Racing Saturday and Sunday and the best trackside dinner on Saturday night. You get a victory lap with a special event flag on Sunday and the best trophy anywhere. See below -

General Manager of Pacific Raceways John Ramsey is holding one of the first place trophies.

It isn't too late for you to enter and yes we know that several SOVREN racers are waiting to see if their car makes it though the Fall Finale before they enter the Invitational. Did I mention that Dan Lacey will be doing the announcing and of course there will be vendors too (of course Armadillo Racing will be there as you might expect). Oh wait, there will be goodie bags for most drivers and workers and of special note, a full color 24 page program. Yes this program, done by Cathy Fuss of LuckyDog, has pictures, articles and is a great way to show your friends what you do. If you raced last year, it is possible that you'll be in the program too. There is a place for your car so if your not sure of where your car will place, just give us a call (it's on the sign in page on motorsportsreg.com. OK, here's the link PR Driver entry

The food vendor this weekend will have a special just for this event called the Octoberfast - with some German food for you to enjoy. Just ask anyone who has raced in the past 3 years and they will tell you that this event is fun and you should attend. If you have a car and want to enter, just do it and then call if you think you need help entering. Looking forward to seeing your entry.

With SOVREN this weekend, and the Invitational the next weekend, we are all done. No Way. The same weekend as the Invitational, is the 25th Anniversary of the Annual Revival of our cherished Maryhill Loops Hill Climb. To celebrate this milestone, they are planning several events which will be of epic proportions and one of these events will include Flying Aircraft! To enter, just call Starke Shelby and he will set you up. Starke's number is 206.388.6152 or 206.230.0203  or an email starke@nwinsctr-ni.com.

The the next weekend in Portland is the 8 hours of the Cascades enduro. More on that soon. To register for that event here is the link: Enduro All these events need volunteers so if you would like to help, just follow the info on motorsportsreg.com.

Well, the Formula 1 season is getting interesting with McLaren getting their cars going. This past weekend, Lando Norris won again and yet that sneaky and persistent Max Verstappen was there in 2nd place. It isn't over yet so when our season is over locally, checkout the F1 races on TV. Or you can checkout the NASCAR season as they get into the final races. This past weekend, I see that my driver, Kyle Larson won again. He went 462 laps out of 500 to win the race.

Other News

* What a surprise yesterday when my monthly subscription to Texas Monthly came in with an article about a guy who wants to build a 300 mph street car. The guy from Sealy, Texas, John Hennessey has been building high performance street cars for years. He has built trucks and cars with his current car the F5 and all but one has been sold. This car did 193 mph at COTA which is about 20 mph slower than a Formula 1 car. The top speed of the F5 is 272 mph back in 2022 and statistics say the car will do 311 mph. Overall he expects to build 99 of these cars at a value of about $2.7 million dollars. The article is about 8 pages long and tells a most interesting story. One of the great quotes by Hennessy is "You're not just buying a car. You're buying a piece of experience, and you're buying a piece of history." If you've ever been to COTA, you know the toll road just to the west of the track. Welp, Hennessey arranged to use the facility before it opened to the public and one of his cars (a Hennessey Cadillac topped 220 mph and promised the whole world would know about it. They stated that the toll booth could and did clock the car at high speed.

* This same issue of Texas Monthly had a short (1 page) article about Austin Lee who is the chief flag handler at COTA. The flags are 40 ft. tall by eighty feet wide and each one weighs 86 pounds. They put them up for all the major races. It takes 4 or 5 guys to raise one flag with no wind and 10 to 12 with wind. They have a winch to raise them up once the 9 grommets are connected. So there's a job that most people don't find on their resume.

* This is an unusual comment in that we are going to put things on sale for the remaining road races this season. First, we have books for sale. If you've never looked at our books you'll be surprised at what we have. Just this week we received IMSA - How John Bishop created the World's Greatest sports car series a brand new book called A.J. Foyt Survivor Champion and Legend, with a published date of next month, so this one is brand new, and Ray Evernham, Trophies and Scars. So we'll put all our books on sale for 10% off with a real deal of buy two or more and get the others at 15% off. Really you should come look as we have some great technical books as well as drivers books.

How about T-shirts. We have lots of them and we'll take $5 off each shirt. Then we have flags which normally sell for $25 with 2 for $40 and we'll just take $5 off each flag and $35 for two. Sadly we promised some flags for a racer or two and found that our flag guy has over 150 flags just not all the cars/manufacturers are available.

Lastly we are a Garmin Catalyst dealer and have them in stock. Right now Garmin is offering $100 off so you can get your Catalyst for $899.00 (a good deal). I did notice that several clients of ours purchased their Catalyst from some other source. We have them in stock and would love to set you up without you going to another source and paying the same price.

Racing Humor (or in this case maybe the truth)

The End

Maybe you don't get out much to car shows and such. Still the enews is to inform you of opportunities for you to see and get involved with racing. Oh yes, I know that most of you actually want to see how the Horns won (again with a huge victory over Louisiana Monroe 51-3) and you want to see the rant and Lulu. These items are just to keep you interested. A racer recently told me that he loves the rant because it actually relates to his own feelings about travel, computers and other items that drive most of us crazy. It is also sad that we have several racing friends who have passed away as well. So the enews just keeps you involved and we are most appreciative of your reading and for those who write to tell stories for publication.

Be sure to check in next week when we hear Lulu say, "An alligator crawled into the race car this week. Never leave the door open and and a package of pork rinds in the front seat."

Abbreviation Listing

1. MPH - Miles per hour
2. NASCAR - National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing
3. NW - Northwest
4. PNW - Pacific Northwest
5. SOVREN - Society of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts
6. TV - Television

About Us

Armadillo Racing services the NW Racing community from our 28 ft. mobile showroom.  Information on products, a calendar of events and much more can be found on our website ArmadilloRacing.com. We hope you'll come visit. If you would like to email me directly you can just reply to this enews or write me at Andy@ArmadilloRacing.com.