I have to agree with Jon Goodale about my best Nationals memories not
actually having anything to do with the competition.
1980: My first Nationals, first concrete, 5th or 6th event in the car... We
headed West from St. Louis, stayed with a friend in KC, and started out again
at 0:Dark 30 for Salina. Little did we know that somewhere in downtown
Topeka you had to exit I-70 to stay on I-70 and not be on the turnpike, or
that you didn't really have to pay tolls on I-70. So who knew? So, I
started asking Jeff Roach (my navigator, and a Nationals spectator) where we
are. He kept telling me how far we are from Wichita (both of us were a
little shaky on Kansas geography.) Finally, I said "I KNOW HOW FAR WE ARE
FROM WICHITA! HOW THE @#$% FAR AWAY ARE WE FROM @#$%ING SALINA????" He got
real quiet, then explained the relative locations of the two, and our
position. Well, we made really good time from Wichita to Salina, espcially
for a G/S Civic...
I do remember finally getting the car to slide a little on the final run of
the event. That concrete stuff sure is sticky!
1982: (2nd Nationals, haven't missed one since) I was headed East on I-80,
having moved out to SFR in late '80, and somewhere in Wyoming I was talking
to truckers on the CB and they asked if I knew who was driving a white van
with a Shelby on a trailer headed East, about a half hour in front of me. I
figured it must be Frank Stagnaro and Mary Rice. So, I stepped it up from 75
to 80. A couple hours later in Western Nebraska, another trucker reported
seeing them, but said they were about 45 minutes ahead. Up to 85, check the
radar detector... By Eastern Nebraska the reports were that they were well
over an hour ahead... Got to Gurnee, Illinois to find out she had beaten me
there by nearly 2 hours. Guess Mary was in a hurry!
I do remember a series of "W" shaped corners where we were low in 2nd gear,
but too close together to go into 1st, then upshift to 2nd and Joe
(Goldblatt, car owner and co-driver) said "The other guys are staying in 1st,
we should, too." I remember looking at the tach between coe\rners and seeing
that it was past the last numbers (7000? 8000?) and reading "1/2 Full" on
the gas gauge below...
1983: There were these 2 kids, obviously from the Northeast by their
accents, one tall skinny kid, one shorter heavier, that wanted to know if my
CSP RX-3 had fiberglass fenders. Later I found out they were Chuck Noonan's
Junior spy team scouting out the competition in CSP's innaugural year. Last
week I found out that one of them is a cop, now!!!
I've got a bunch more, but don't want to bore y'all (any more than I already
have!)
CHD
|