By
Brian Dagneault
The
Riverside Corvette Club held its Umpteenth Annual “Back to Back
Slalom” at the Lansdowne Shopping Centre in Richmond on August 21
and 22. President Blair
Sibbald (simply known as ‘Sappy’ in his more modest days before
his climb to high office) showed up from Edmonchuck with his much
better looking and probably more talented son, Sappy Jr., and
brought a Northern Alberta monsoon with him on Saturday.
You’d think with a leaky old 1970RAG top he’d know
better.
Fortunately
Laura McAlduff, Paul and Terry’s talented slalom course
designing daughter, had laid out a smooth flowing (no pun
intended) course that managed to dodge (can you mention them
in a Corvette newsletter?) most of the larger header steaming
parking lot car washes. Unfortunately
some, including our talented Newsletter Editor, Doug
Campbell showed up from Calgary with his “Dry” setup.
Some
(Verne)
actually had
the audacity to show up with tires that had
lots of tread! Unfair
advantage to Verne! Although
I don’t think bringing his son along to keep the tires warm
with an extra set of runs was much of a help.
While
racing in the rain always presents its’ own special challenges;
wiper distraction, fumbling for the defroster mid-run, T-top removal
to allow helmet clearance and such, it also provides for its own
special entertainment opportunities.
Stop Box hydroplaning is fun, splashing course workers is a
special talent, dodging bobbing seagulls is unique but my particular
favourite was trying to make it through the cross-over gate (centred
on a rather large tropical depression) around the far end and back
in time to crisscross through your own wake!
What fun. You
just never realize what unique activities you’re missing when
driving in the sunshine all the time.
Despite
this rare opportunity to play at off-shore boat racing a lot of
people actually stayed home! Fortunately
the more adventurous types showed up in suprisingly good numbers for
what was actually a pretty good day of racing.
There was of course the usual strategic maneuvering to see if
you could time it for a slightly ‘drier’ run (that being a
relative term) and the usual psych jobs, particularly between the
Trailer (Park) Boys made up of Jerry Woods, Lawrence Block and Rick
Pearson with Jeff Berg thrown in just to make things interesting.
Unfortunately
all the mind games and manipulations went for naught when a little
light bulb went on in McDuff’s helmet and he remembered he had a
brand new set of unused B. F. Goodrich KDW’s sitting mounted in
the trailer!
Hello 3 second improvement, thanks for the trophy, nice of ya’ll
to show up.
After
that, nothing but for the rest of us to do but go have some
fun, which we did. Good
to see at least three Midstyles (there being no such thing as
a C2) out sloshing around. Can
you see Dan Minuski’s primered 65 Roadster with a 502 RAT
against Calvin Jang’s mouse motored
show 65 Coupe?
Poor ol’ Tuffy didn’t know what to make of it all.
Sunday
dawned with weather more conducive to the ‘Dash’ element of the
two part weekend. Another
great course by Laura led to some serious competition and see saw
battles on the now ‘green’ race track.
No longer handicapped by Mother N. the ‘Dry’ setups came
into their own and McDuff had to take a step back to reality.
Not that there weren’t attempts at some rather novel innovations
to find an edge. Jim
Burt’s rear hatch popping open mid-run was rather reminiscent of
Jim Hall’s high wing Chaparral Can Am cars and probably did add
some needed rear downforce on the long straightaway but it also
raised the roll centre through the slalom.
We know he said it was an accident and it was because of the
body torque but really……………
Larry Eastick and his other brother Larry laid a whippin’ on their
brother Eric both days, but Eric still says two against one isn’t
fair. Brothers, it just
never ends!
With
the drying track, Jerry came out of the Woods to Block Lawrence from
a good finish and keep Rick Pearson from repeating in SS.
Jeff Berg beat up on everybody in S6 while Norma Berg carried
on the family domination in LS6 (does that mean all the ladies in
that class have a high horse big block? Just wondering.)
While
Glenda had her moment in the sun (in the rain) on Saturday, she got
a glimpse of the future on Sunday when Carmen put Mom on the trailer
(not literally, Lawrence is the only guy that gets to put the car on
the trailer) by 3 tenths. Look
out ladies; we have seen the future and she is Fast!
Speaking
of FAST, mild mannered Jennifer Pearson had to be coaxed out of the
telephone booth but when she did it was just a blur.
With a time that was bettered by only the 4 SS and one S6
competitors, Jennifer left all of us ‘also rans’ humbled and the
other 5 looking over their collective shoulders.
The
good folks at Riverside would like to thank all those diehard racers
from ECC, NEIGHCOCK, CU, KCC, VCC, BCCC and LMNOP who literally
weathered the storm to attend our event and help out in every
possible way on both days.
Your assistance and good spirits throughout made for a very
memorable event.
A
special thanks as well to Paul, Terri and Laura for organizing the
event, bringing along the indispensable tent and for letting Paul
out of the asylum to do the trophy presentations.
Easily worth the trip over the mountains all by itself.
Hope
you’ll all be back next year, and don’t be shy, bring your
friends.
More
Great Photos Below!
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