Issue No. 377
March 10, 2021
Greetings!

 Greetings and welcome to our weekly newsletter. This is our opportunity to stay connected with our clientele and share my thoughts about racing. Please be encouraged to respond if an article motivates you and if you are willing, I'll share your comments in a future newsletter. If there is an area of interest that you would like me to touch upon, please share that as well. Thanks for joining us.

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Yours for Racing,

Armadillo Andy
Armadillo Racing Inc

Interesting Things you may want to Know

In This Week's Enews

  • The Rant
  • Title - Racer are fired up to go racing
  • Racing News - Not much here in the Pacific NW
  • Other News -
  1. Swap meet report and its a good one
  2. Victory Lane Article on the Catalyst
  3. October Joint Race Update
  • A funny thing happened at the races - A new section for the enews

Opening Rant

OK so you feel you are reasonably good at your 'pooter and can use Word, Excel, and maybe Acrobat reader or maybe even the full version on Acrobat. You have used Paint and other Microsoft programs and maybe you are a Zoom wizard or a PowerPoint Ranger. Then someone send you files with extensions like .eps, .ai, .svg or even .psd. Whaaaa? Hummm....guess I'm not as smart as I thought.

Welp, just click on say the .eps and see if it opens. Nope and you get a nasty note saying that file extension isn't supported by Microsoft paint. OK off to the internet with a question "How to open an .eps file?" Viola there is the answer. Just download an app which is free and then insert the file you want to open with the .eps extension and you are in bidness. You are sorta in bidness except that this whole process takes 20 minutes and then with great anticipation, you see what is behind door .eps. And the answer is...... A company logo or some such foolishness that you could have lived your entire life without seeing.

On the plus side I now have about 3 new apps that will open those crazy files. Truth be told they were files sent from a racer that contained necessary data for a custom driving suit. Sometimes people just use programs such as Acrobat Illustrator which seems normal to them just not for me. This is also why I have a graphics guy named Brad at Pacific Printing who when I sent him these files, he opens them and sends them back in a .jpg which I can open.

Speaking of files, when you are doing some graphics like creating a new flag for advertising, the flag people want logos in vector files. Hello Brad can you make these files in vector format. Brad is a magician and for only $50 of his time (it took him a long time to convert the files) viola, now I have vector files and will soon have a terrific looking flag. I could show you a picture of it and yet would rather wait to show it off at the first race. It will be EZ to spot as it is 13 ft. high and looks great with Armadillo Racing logos, OMP, Bell and Red Line Oil. Watch for it. And now let's get on with it.
Title

OK this week's title article really isn't that beneficial. Just wanted to share that this year more than ever, people are excited about going racing. Wait, Andy what makes you say that? Welp, for one thing when people call to order parts and such I talk with them. People are sending in HANS devices for recertification as they are getting ready to go racing. Racers in sports cars, stock cars and just yesterday a guy with a Bonneville car. All are optimistic and excited to get back out to the track to go racing.

Later in the enews you'll read about the swap meet and we were talking to lots of racers there who are ready to go. For some, they didn't race at all last year. They have the car finished and can't wait to get out and go racing. Naturally an important factor in their decision to race is that the vaccine (or as my former boss, Aaron calls it, "The Rabies Shot)" is out and people are getting shot. Oh wait, can I say that people are getting shot? Mmmm....perhaps it should be people are getting THE shot. Actually when you put it that way it irritates me since it reminds me of those people who went to Ohio State University and always refer to it at THE Ohio State University. In fact back in the day when I was an Engineering manager I hired a guy who when to OSU. From the day he first came in, I would point out to him that if I had of been paying closer attention to his resume and seen the "THE" before Ohio State he never would have gotten an interview. Oops guess I digressed a bit, sorry.

So people are getting THE shot, the government is easing back a bit on restrictions and the clubs and tracks have learned how to put on races with all the Covidian restrictions so that all are safe. Then the racing magazines (Speed Sport News for one) say that spectators and racers are coming out to the track. The car counts sure seem to up on the East coast where their season is well underway.

SOVREN has one of the first events of the year here in the PNW on April 25-27 and entries are starting to come in. Yes we've made a big push to get racers to register early and they are responding. In fact I just took an order this week for 4 drums of racing fuel to be delivered for SOVREN's Spring Sprints with the email comment, "Looks like we are going racing." Hurray. A quick look at motorsportsreg shows 56 entries.

Hopefully you are excited to go racing. For many it has been over a year. With that remember that you are rusty. You may want to consider getting out to a pre-season test and tune or even a sport driving day to clear away some of the cobwebs. In fact I see that Turn2 has a track day this weekend at the Ridge. You might want to sign up. I'm betting that Bill Murray and the gang out at ORP probably have some track time available as well and Dapper Don Kitch always has lapping days with ProFormance at Pacific Raceways too. So get out there and get ready for all the excitement and action of the 2021 racing season.

Oh I should mention that Oregon Region SCCA has a double regional race March 27/28 at PIR. Some are headed down to Thunderhill for an SCCA super regional coming up the weekend of March 19th. LuckyDog has been hosting some events down south in Arizona too. The excitement and anticipation is growing for what maybe the best racing season ever.
Racing News

Wow I can't think of any racing news worth sharing. This has to be a first. NASCAR is having their usual political issues. Trans-Am ran at Sebring a few weeks ago. Around here, we just continue to plan and anticipate the season.

Other News

This past Saturday, was the 2nd annual swap meet at Pacific Raceways. As all the vendors were outside there was some concerned over the weather. HA! at Armadillo Racing we are there rain or shine or snow or sleet. Not always happy especially at the Ridge in the driving rain and wind, and still we are there. OK so we had some cool weather, some rain, some wind and some calm, warming sun. The weather didn't deter the crowds though. At one point the track had to close down entries as there were so many people.

A swap meet isn't always the best place for a sports car person to sell off junk....er great racing items that are no longer needed, and hey a used shop vac for just $10 doesn't care what kind of race car is in the garage. There were lots of vendors spread out to be socially responsible and as mentioned lots of people looking to buy. For me it is always a surprise to see old racing friends that I haven't seen in years.

For example, Ray Danielson complete with mask, came up and said Hi. Ray a huge drag race engine builder and for years a racer and track official at Bremerton Raceways. He put the Chevy 454 engine in Big Brown, the Armadillo Dually we purchased from Mike McDaniel when it had a blown diesel engine. Ray had to make the conversion to the gas engine and did a great job. It was fun to see and visit with him. Then David Rising from the RPM foundation came out to talk about how SOVREN is going to work with the foundation to get more young people learning how to restore old cars using skills not taught in today's automotive classes. You know like how to tune a carburetor. Lots of other racer wandered by all day so it was quite a social affair although I couldn't tell who many were due to their mask.

If you weren't there, you might consider going next year just for the fun of getting out and seeing just how much old rusty junk is in people's garages that they dragged out in hopes of just getting rid of it, to say nothing of making a sale. We really needed to get rid of an overstock of great T-shirts so we blew them out for just $10 (regularly $22) and lots of them were sold. Heck, we even ate the sales tax. You coulda taken advantage of us had you been there. On the subject of old friends and T-shirts, Brad Barrie who lives near Armadillo Racing, was there checking things out. Brad designs many of the really cool American Iron shirts we sell (Camaro, Corvette, Mopar etc). Nice to see Brad and introduce him to our staff - Greg Marshall and Tim Julian. As we used to say in the minutes for the Bremerton Sports Car Club, "A good time was had by all."

Welp here it is nearly 7 o'clock and I'm banging away at the keyboard to provide you with some useful information and humor. I'm whupped as earlier today I was finishing up an article for Victory Lane magazine all about the new Garmin Catalyst. Always exciting to be asked to write for a nationally recognized publication, just that it really is a bit of work to do all the research to put out a good product.

Between writing about the Catalyst and concurrently working with Graphics Brad on an advertisement to run in the magazine as well as recertifying two HANS devices, I haven't gotten the enews done yet. Wednesdays are often long days. In fact I'm way behind with an article that John Ramsey at Pacific Raceways asked me to write for their twice monthly digital publication call Track Insider. Sorry John I'll get on it right away. Once I've written the article the first time, I'll have a better feel for the length and format. Hey if Dapper Don can write an article, then I sure can....or at least I think I can.

Since Brad did create a new ad for Victory Lane, leave me just show it to you. The ad size is small because it is only a 1/8 page ad and hopefully you can read it.
We held our every other week Zoom meeting to continue work on the details for the joint race event in October with SOVREN, SCCA, and Pacific Raceways. Things are looking good with a major press release scheduled for March 30th. With a nice title sponsor, plans for spectators, car corrals, and mock races for charities, this is going to be a winner. Remember that entry fees will be just $350 to include a test and tune on Friday. All the details will be pouring out soon. Standby.

After abusing me for months, Steve Ingersol, texted me last night to remind me to have a new featured section in the enews. Let's call it -

A Funny Thing Happened at the Races

Steve thinks that after reading a few of these stories, many of ya'll will write in to share your own funny stories which of course I hope ya'll will since I'm sure to run out of stories in just 8 or 10 months. Naturally Steve submitted the first story. Submitted really isn't the right term, he shared the story verbally and told me to write it up. OK Steve here you go.

A number of years ago at a Conference Race in Spokane it was hot. Any race running in July or August in Spokane is nearly guaranteed to be hot. Steve and Rick Delamar (your 2021 Conference Steward) were walking through the hot pit wearing t-shirts and shorts. Now everyone knows long pants are required in the hot pits in a Conference Race (not in Formula 1 cause those crew guy are macho). Marie Kirby was working pre-grid, saw Steve and Rick and informed them that they couldn't wear shorts in the hot pits. No problem, both of them just took off their shorts and walked out wearing nothing but a T-shirt! I'm betting that is a sight that Marie will never forget. It's one I'm glad I didn't see.
The End

Ana got THE shot on Monday and suffered last night with a headache and body aches. Happily, she was back up to speed this morning. So be brave like Ana and get The shot.

As mentioned last week, I ordered the book Time Flies: The History of PacWest Racing. Of course I haven't read it yet, but looked at the pix and read the captions. Here is something I'm betting many of you didn't know, Scott Dixon got his IndyCar start with PacWest. It is a very cool book and I'm excited to read it.

Until next week, be sure to tune in when we hear Lulu say, "Didn't Babe Ruth hit THE shot heard round the world or were ya'll talking about THE shot of Tequila that put me right on the floor. That's THE shot I'll never forget. "
About Us
Armadillo Racing services the NW Racing community from our 28 ft. trailer/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.  
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