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I'm
currently having visions of the summer of 1998! If you remember,
that was the year I burned the midnight oil to get the Seven to the British
Meet. Well, not only do we have the British Meet coming up again,
and very soon I might add, we have the track day approaching fast as well!
I'm under the gun yet again to get the Seven prepared for another event.
Several little things need to be done and it will indeed be a challenge
to get the car to the track in time, but I'm going to try my hardest.
I
took a day off from working on the Seven recently to go on John Zender's
Woodside Rallye and I had a great time! John's been bugging me to
go for a couple of years now and I always had some lame excuse not to show
up and all I have to say is, that was my loss! I didn't make it to
Mike Schlict's Mt Hamilton fun run last time because I was sick, so I didn't
get a chance to try out the new Konis I installed on the Europa.
I was eager not only to prove to John that I would be at his rallye this
time, but also to see how the new shocks performed on the twisties.
To
my surprise, there were only three of us participating: James McCoy, Scott
McQuown, and myself. It was a shame there weren't more people attending,
especially since John had picked some really good Lotus roads and the day
had great weather in store for us. I really encourage everyone to
take advantage of these great club events, they're great fun and they're
guaranteed to hook you into attending next time.
After
some doughnuts and orange juice we embarked on one the most circuitous
routes to Duarte's in Pescadaro that one could imagine. I was the
last one to take off from John's place and although the average speed was
supposed to be 34 mph, I paid attention NOT to do any more than 5 mph over
the speed limit on the city streets. That wasn't really a problem
because I didn't have a navigator and I had to read all the directions
myself. Phrases like: "Continue to the top of the hill and if the
area looks familiar, go right. If not, continue straight", and "At the
intersection, don't turn right, and don't turn straight" kept |
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the
speed down to a crawl in some instances.
John
had us driving all over the place but the fun really began up in the Woodside
hills. As I mentioned, we traveled on some great Lotus roads, most
of which I had never even seen before, and there were some unusual items
we had to pick up in our travels that served as checkpoints.
Taking
off last, I didn't think I would be running into anyone but I was wrong.
While on one of the more unknown roads on the backside of the hill, I ran
into James McCoy. I was looking for a checkpoint item when he came
rumbling up behind me and mentioned something about taking a wrong turn.
We picked up our checkpoint items and continued on our way. James
took the lead and it wasn't long before he was gone from my sight again.
I caught up to him going down Skyline, but he took another wrong turn and
went down 84 at Alice's Restaurant. I wanted to honk my horn and
tell him that I thought he was turning too soon, but hey, it's a rallye
and it's every man for himself!
Did
I mention that the roads we were on were great? I was having a great
time, knowing full well that I was probably in last place but enjoying
every minute of it. I was also pleased because the shocks on the
Europa were working very well and I now know that they'll certainly be
welcome come September 29th!
I
don't recall where I had to go next but I do remember heading down 84 to
pick up a bit of information for my next checkpoint when who should pass
me going the OPPOSITE direction but James. As he passed by I waved,
and he responded with the palms of his hands facing up, shoulders shrugged,
and small grin on his face. That told the whole story. Moments
like that are priceless, and they always serve as hilarious topics of conversation
at the local meetings.
Well,
the rallye was so intricate that I can't go into all the details, but the
fact that I rolled into Pescadaro with an elapsed time of 3 hours and 7
minutes should give you some idea of what it was like. I was a little
tired by the end and as I drove up to the crossroads where |
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