re: NWARC event - more personal musings

[Tessie McMillan <tessmc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for sharing this, Damian! A wonderfully unsolicited testimonial 
to the incredibly fun group the NWARC is. AND, when we have the convention 
in Seattle in 2005 you'll all see who has the best drivers &:-). I had the 
pleasure (or rather, that's a love/hate thing) of watching the event, 
instead of driving, so I got to see all of you, too. From the digest we 
had Steve Schaeffer, who actually drove the Ginetta, Dave Kingstone in 
his GTV6, Fred Wright and his wife Kathy Lombardo in their GTV6, Joe 
Faherty and son Patrick in his GTV, Bruce Ryan in his Sprint Speciale, 
Tino and Roberto Perrina in the Betta Fetta, and Phil Edwards in 
his Mazda RX7 racecar. Wes Ingram was driving his GTV Red Ryder and 
keeping up with a chipped *500 hp* 993 twin-turbo. (Which says a lot 
about both his driving skill and his programmable fuel injection.) Did I 
miss any digesters? We had our typical impressive variety of cars -- 
which would probably stun those of you who've not attended one of our 
events, including other Alfas not driven by digesters. I think the 
3-cylinder was a Subaru and not a Geo, although some of our members do 
track their Geos .... I had never seen an Enzo before; when it pulled up 
to the gate to sign the waiver (and NO, I wasn't so slimy as to try to 
touch it, but I touched the pen that touched the hand of the owner), all I 
could think was, "wow, here comes a car that probably cost more than my 
house." Followed by, "Wow, that's a lot of red." The owner, who was an 
ex-MSFTie, had just bought it and casually asked if there might still be 
room for him to register to drive in the event. I think Kathleen bent the 
rules to let him in so we could see it run. (She knows more about Italian 
cars than I do.) &:-) 

Er, Damian ... I think the word you are looking for is "friends", not 
"fiends" &:->. Tom Nuxoll was in the black GTV, and Jeff Butler was 
driving the Mafia 5-series BMW. The three of you (Thomas -- whom y'all
know from the digest, Tom and Jeff) passed us nose-to-tail doing about 
110 early on the front straight and still breathing easily. What a doppler 
effect! I was riding with Phil Edwards in his racecar, so had the 
pleasure (again, that love/hate thing) of watching you three.

Damian, I'll admit also that there have been times in the past when I was 
out on the track and had either Thomas or Tom appear in my rearview 
mirrors (but just for the few seconds before I got passed). Seeing a 
black GTV slip from my right side mirror through my rearview and over to 
my left side mirror (and then back through my rearview to my right 
sidemirror again) is STILL good for making me feel like I don't know jack 
about driving, either.

Tess


 > www.speakeasy.net/~magista/sir
>  
> The highlight was the ride around the track I got with Thomas Moll in
> his surprisingly fast Alfetta Sprint and the advanced drivers. It had
> been raining so the track was wet but that did not slow down these
> fiends. They are fast and can really drive. There is something about
> sliding at high speeds around a wet corner that will make you say to
> yourself, "Hmmm...I guess I don't know jack about driving." It was a
> wild ride, way better than any rollercoaster I've been on. I truly hope
> that someone got some photos of us and the black GTV all drifting
> sideways through turn 3b. It was like syncronized swimming. Perhaps
> Steve Schaeffer will post a little bit about this spectacle. 
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