[Fot] Nomination for FoT membership

[Bill Babcock]

Sorry to hear about the fatality. We really are playing a rough game  
here. We had two bad accidents at the SOVREN Fall Finale this weekend.  
FOTer Jeff Quick hit the wall straight on in his TR4. They took him  
off in the ambulance on a back board, but he's okay. The car is  
completely flat across the nose and about a foot shorter. Hard impact,  
straight in. Could have been a bad one, I'm glad he's OK. I'm pretty  
sure Jeff wears a HANS device. Another driver pretty much wrote off a  
very nice Alpha.

We get away with a lot because of all the retrofitted safely  
equipment, but I've met more than a few old time drivers who expressed  
amazement that we don't have more fatalities. they basically say  
"those cars were damned dangerous back when we built them, what do you  
think has changed".

What has changed is the safety gear, and I believe in keeping all of  
mine as up to date as possible. Fresh belts before the expiration date  
or when they show any damage or have been "exercised" as with a  
Corvette shoving one self around a bit, Hans device. Good helmet.  
great roll cage. Other than that, you pays your money and you takes  
your chances.

Pat's a great guy, it was a pleasure to meet him last year. Next year  
is Peyote's fiftieth birthday. Big doings planned. T shirts, peyote  
buttons, and a new motto: "Pissing off drivers with nicer cars for  
fifty years"

I agree, Diane has a fine rear end, in fact a stellar one. Peyote's,  
however, is a tad lumpy.

On Sep 22, 2008, at 11:32 AM, BillDentin at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 09/22/2008 11:37:23 AM Central Daylight Time, Billb at bnj.com 
>  writes:
>
>
>> I thought Tony was already a member or I would have nominated him  
>> long ago. Not only does he drive the wheels off the TR250K (and  
>> anything else he sits in, except his truck which he drives like a  
>> little old lady), but he also maintains it, and the Bill Hart  
>> Devin, AND John James's TR4, and he brought Peyote back to life  
>> this year, and will finish making it far too pretty over the  
>> winter. Yes, he's going to replace the "Aluminum foil sack of  
>> walnuts" rear end that I carefully fabricated on my $200 English  
>> Wheel. Some people have no respect for amateur bodywork. Like Diane  
>> for example, who is paying Tony to replace the rear end.
>
>
> On the Peyote?  Diane's rear end is fine.
>
> I saw Pat Starr at ROAD AMERICA over the week end.  He borrowed a  
> trailer and hauled his Morgan (same car he's raced since the 1960s)  
> down to ELVF.  He is still a great driver (2:51.892), less than two  
> seconds short of his best lap ever.  At the cocktail party Saturday  
> night (Peter Egan spoke) Pat was talking about the Peyote and  
> describing clear plastic spoilers they used to run on the car in the  
> rear.  Interesting.
>
> Bill
>
> PS...Sad to say...there was another fatality in the second Race  
> Group 2 practice session on Friday.  Dr. Surjit Hermon lost control  
> of his 1957 Eastgate (LOTUS XI continuation or replica) and hit a  
> stationary Mini Cooper S parked off course near the apex to Turn  
> 13.  High speed (80 mph +/-) impact (sideways).  Suspected broken  
> neck.  I had raced with this guy many times.  He was competent,  
> courteous, never aggressive.  He apparently lost control, tried to  
> correct, and went sliding sidways into the Mini.  The VSCDA has been  
> running vintage racing events for thirty years and never had a  
> really serious accident, much less a fatality.  Now two in a month.
>
>
> **************
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Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
Billb at bnj.com
503.936.7660
www.bnj.com

Editor
Ke Nalu e-Magazine
Paddlesurfing's Web Journal

Bill at kenalu.com
www.kenalu.com
blog: www.ponohouse.com/ponoblog

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