Issue No. 498

28 June 2023

Big NW Historics Is 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 - Biggest road racing event in Washington State this weekend - SOVREN's Historics
• Racing News - Formula E at PIR
• Other News -

1. Another member of the NW racing community died
2. Rose Cup race weekend is coming up
3. Lost in Time - Formula 5000 in North America
4. Pacific Raceways T-Shirts and hoodies are back
5. Full report on Ana and Andy's mini vacation - there is car stuff in this story

• Racing Humor of the Week - The Vortex of Danger?
• Lulu gets the last word

Opening Rant

It is a wonder how anyone can get anything done. Have you ever asked a retired person what they did all day? Usually the answer is slow in coming as they have to think about their day, then the answer comes - "Welp I got a shot at the pharmacy, gas in the car and a haircut." This the kind of answer you might get to which you might say, is that all? Wait don't ask that question because here is the answer you'll get. "Got to the pharmacy at 9 when they opened and was first in line, only to learn that the shot I needed won't be in until after 3 pm. The gas pumps were not working so I had to go to another station where their card machine wasn't working. At the third station I finally filled up. Being old but not stupid, I made an appointment for my hair cut and since I was aways away, getting gas at the 3rd station, I had to hustle to get to my appointment on time only to have to wait 30 minutes as they were a stylist short and thus backlogged. Now it is afternoon, so I had lunch, read the mail and then went to the pharmacy only to wait 45 minutes because now everyone was there to get their prescription filled. The good news was that I got all my tasks done for the day."

This fictitious tale is representative of so many people and their day. Yes the old saying is, "I don't know how I got anything done when I was working." Somehow we all cope and despite everything we get done the critical tasks and everything else is either never done or moved to another day. Sheekers, I didn't even mention the 10 minute delay due to a lane closure on the main drag in your town or even worse, getting stuck behind a city bus that for some reason is out of service with warning lights going and you can't get around due to everyone else getting in the left lane before you.

My favorite quote from racing legend, engineer, author and lecturer Carroll Smith, "We didn't have time to do it right but we found time to do it twice." Yesterday Ana and I went to Home Depot for the parts to make spouts for fuel jugs. Whilst there we bought 4 plastic boxes to neatly store racing gloves in the trailer/showroom. When we got home we discovered the lids to the boxes didn't fit. Back to Home Depot and after engaging 3 employees and spending 15 minutes looking, there were no lids to be found. Frustrated, we returned home (a 10 minute drive without traffic). Oh here a labor saving tip - Never go to Lowes or Home Depot on a Saturday unless you are planning to spend several hours there as every other home owner in the city is there buying stuff for the house or the yard.

Now today we had to go to Silverdale for new batteries for Big White as King is in the shop with a problem they can't seem to fix. Yeah THAT King Ranch that is in the shop more than out. Since we are in Silverdale, it is back to Home Depot for a refund on the 4 boxes we bought since there are no lids. I get a nice and quick refund, turn to find

Ana and she walks up with the lids that magically appeared on the shelf overnight. Great, only now I have to repurchase the boxes from which I had just received a refund.

Best bet is to not ask me what I did all day since you won't believe how little I accomplished doing basic stuff. The next time you shop at Armadillo Racing be amazed that we have anything to sell considering it takes 3 emails and two phone calls to order from one supplier. You long time readers have read about that over and over so we'll leave this rant and just get on with it.

Title

As of today, there are 167 entries for SOVREN's 35th annual Pacific Northwest Historics sponsored by Way Scarff Ford. This event is going to be one of the best in years. There are at least two special races. First is the Sprite Midget Challenge sponsored in part by Victory Lane Magazine. In looking at the entry list, this will have the largest field ever. Kudos to Stephen Newby who has put his heart and soul into making this event grow. Let's hope after practice and qualifying there are still some Spridget's left to race. Mechanical issues hit this group hard.

Saturday will have yet another round of the Emerald Cup for Formula Fords, sponsored in a small part by Armadillo Racing. Michael Nau and Cary Richards have been out beating the bushes for Fords and this field is growing each race. Looks like there are 22 entries!

Hey did you know it is the 60th anniversary of Formula Vee? With a great amount of effort several Vee guys got on the phone and rounded up no less that 18 Vees. This will be one really great race because as you know Vees run close and draft each other each lap so the leader on the penultimate lap will be hard pressed to keep the lead at the checkered flag.

Just last week I shared that Steve Saleen, the Ford performance enhancer and racer, will be the grand marshal. Of course there will be some great Fords on display and don't forget the car correl with lots of street Fords being shown off. Ernie Nagamatsu has restored a Corvette driven by the late and very popular Dave McDonald and Dave's son will on hand as well.

All this plus a great vendor row with cool racing stuff to buy. Which segways into all the very new and cool stuff available this weekend from Armadillo Racing. Fully stocked with racing hardware we have books and T-shirts that just arrived. Yes there is an entry fee to attend as a spectator. The profits from the spectator gate goes to Seattle Children's Hospital as it has for all the 35 years of the event.

Looky here, you can get in for free if you would like to volunteer to work. Just go to motorsportsreg.com and sign up. Here's the link to make it EZPZ for you Volunteer

As a volunteer you not only get coffee and rolls in the morning, there is lunch and Saturday night you are invited to the huge dinner and social. Of course if you are racing you get the dinner as well. So come out to the Historics and just enjoy great old cars and all the fun of a historic and now legendary sports car weekend.

Racing News

Well shut my mouth and fill it with cornpone and chitlin gravy. I'm referring to the outstanding Formula E race last weekend in Portland. I truly thought few spectators would come and the crazy format of a little practice on Friday and everything else on Saturday just wouldn't work. I was wrong and congratulations to everyone at PIR, workers, staff and administrative personnel for pulling off this event.

A huge thank you to Tim Stanley for providing his insider report. Tim was in the pace car for the event. The car was a Porsche Taycan all electric with 616 Horsepower! The pace car driver was Bruno Correio from Portugal and at one point Tim noted that they hit 220 kph or about 146 mph when leading the field in one of the two full course yellows. There were about 22 to 26 cars with very close racing. Top time was roughly 1:09 sec. which is about 10 seconds slower than IndyCars.

The Formula E officials were thrilled with the expertise of the volunteer crew most of whom had never worked an FIA sanctioned event. Lots of pomp and ceremony for all the activities. And the crowd? Tim reported that the Formula E people called it a sell out. Who'd thunk? This was the first Formula E race ever conducted on a dedicated race track and that of course made this event historic. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make this happen and to impressing the FIA officials with the professionalism of our NW volunteers. To that Armadillo Racing salutes everyone who helped make this event a success, SALUTE!

Formula E Porsche Taycan 616 hp electric pace car.

Tim Stanley strapped in to assist with pace car duties (as Napoleon Dynamite would say, "Lucky.")

Other News

* Keith Kirby died. Say it ain't so Joe. Keith and his wife Marie worked turns for years and years and then saw an opportunity to create a bidness of paying workers while supplying much needed help at races and track days. Seems like just yesterday that I was chatting with Keith and he seemed in perfectly good health. Don't know what happened and it isn't important. We lost a great racing friend.

Long ago at a race at Olympia airport I met H.B. "Skip" Nichols and his crew from the South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia. They had built and were going to campaign a stock car. Keith and Marie were on this team and never stopped coming to the races. They recruited their granddaughter to work the races as well. So it was a family affair. I don't know what to say except that Keith was a friend and a race fan and the NW will be a little poorer with him gone. RIP Friend.

* With all the hubbub going on with the Formula E race and SOVREN's Historics leave us not forget that the Rose Cup races are just a week or so away. With collaboration by PIR, Friends of PIR, Cascade Sports Car Club and OR Region SCCA, this annual event is back again bigger and better than last year. I know it seems like every club racer I talk with is excited about Rose Cup. There will be a race for Spec Racer Fords, Spec Miata, Small/Mid Bore cars, Vintage, Stockcars and of course the Rose Cup race. As with most things details can be found on Motorsportsreg.com. Again to make it EZPZ here is the Rose Cup With over 150 entries all ready, this is a top flight club race and you'll wanna be there. Yes you can bet that Armadillo Racing will be there serving the racers, crews and fans.

* Having finished the books Indy Split and The Greatest Generation, I am excited to read about the Formula 5000 series in the book Lost in Time - Formula 500 in North America. This book by John Zimmerman tells about the series viewed by thousands of fans, important race car manufacturers, team leaders, and for a few years major sponsors. Drivers that competed were greats such as Mark Donohue, Jim Hall, David Hobbs, Sam Posey, Brian Redman, Dan Gurney,Al Unser Sr. and Mario Andretti. Races were conducted all over North America including 3 races at Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA with the lap record held of 1:14:31 by Brian Redman. As David Hobbs writes in the introduction, "Formula 5000 had fast cars, fast drivers, lots of power, noise and speed, and some very intense racing." Leaders at SCCA said people won't come out to watch single seater racing, they want sports cars. Thus this great series died. Welp more on the book and the series when I'm done.

Actually I know little about this series and already the book has educated me to just how great the series was. From 1968 to 1976 the series ran which was before I got involved in racing so I missed out. As with the book Indy Split, I learned how incompetence by the sanctioning body leaders killed a great and most importantly an affordable pro series.

* After a nearly 5 year absence, we have recreated our very popular Pacific Raceways T-Shirt and accompanying Hoodie. The shirt and hoodie will be available this weekend at the Historics.

As you might guess, quantities and sizes are limited so come by early this weekend for best selection. The previous printing sold out so be sure to get yours while you can. Shirts are $30 and Hoodies are $48 plus tax. Oh wait for you loyal readers, we'll eat the tax, so if you mention you read about the shirts in the enews, you can save nearly 10%.

* And now the brief story of Ana and my mini vacation to Grand Coulee dam, Lake Chelan, Wenatchee, Cashmere, and Leavenworth, WA. First leave me say that while traveling the world is so fun, there are many great adventures to be had right near home. I would say that there is a cost savings, except that with the price of gas, food and lodging coupled with incredible traffic and road construction most vacations are more expensive that you would think. I suggested that we tent camp and Ana said, "NO!" so that ended that discussion. Anyway let's just do pix to tell the story.

Who knew the worlds greatest waterfall was in Washington state. It was about 13,000 years ago and was about 10 times bigger than Niagra Falls.

We took the dam Tour. Here's Ana on top of Grand Coulee Dam

You can see the whole dam from Crown Vista. Did you know Grand Coulee dam was built for irrigation purposes and that hydroelectric power was a secondary benefit?

With 27 turbines, Chief Joseph dam is the 2nd biggest power producing dam in America.

Lake Chelan was beautiful when it warmed up and stopped raining.

View from Ohme Gardens above Wenatchee. Of special note here, our hotel provided a complimentary bottle of wine from Patrick and Ryan vineyards. This winery was named for the sons of Terry Flanigan a long time and very successful SCCA, Conference and SOVREN racer. Terry passed away a few years ago.

It is cherry season in the Wenatchee area. Just look at that beautiful bunch of cherries.

We thought we'd tour the famous Applet and Cotlet facility in Cashmere. To our surprise there was a big car show. Here are just a few pix of the show.

Cashmere car show

Datsun 2000 roadster shown here for former Armadillo Waldo who owned one years ago.

There is a story from Waldo. Went to the Datsun dealer in Groton, Connecticut for tune up parts, only to be told Datsun didn't make a 2000. Later, Walt returned driving the car and went in to order parts from the same counter guy. The guy was miffed when he repeated that Datsun didn't make a 2000. With glee, Walt pointed to his car out front of the dealership and said, "There is the car Datsun didn't make."

This Courier photo is for Steve Ingersoll who loves these type of cars.

Well that about covers the mini vacation. We drove home through Leavenworth and the 10,000 plus tourist buying everything from T-shirts to Wine and eating German food. Man we were lucky to find a parking spot where we only had to pay $3.50/hr. Other places were charging $20/day to park. Note to file, do not visit Leavenworth on a Saturday in the summer. Welp summer? It rained of course which dispersed the crowd in a hurry. Still Ana and I found a delicious crepe to eat before our parking meter ran out.

Racing Humor of the Week

Is this a result from the Vortex of Danger or lack of situational awareness?

The End

Just a parting comment on the book The Greatest Generation. Found in my mom's house, I just started reading before bedtime and was quickly engrossed in learning about the people who served in World War II, which included my father and the families at home which included my mother. The effects of the war were significant on the nation and how we all pulled together and made America great. A good read if you want some insight into your parents or in many cases your grand parents.

Tune in next week when we hear Lulu say, "When at Disneyland, we had E tickets for the best rides, is Formula E an E ticket ride?"

Abbreviation Listing

1. EZPZ - Easy Peasy
2. FIA - Federation Internationale du Automobile
3. KPH - Kilometers per hour
4. MPH - Miles per hour
5. NW - Northwest
6. PIR - Portland International Raceway
7. RIP - Rest in Peace
8. SCCA - Sports Car Club of America
9. SOVREN - Society of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts
10. WA - Post office designation for Washington State

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 at www.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. We hope you'll come visit.