|
SRTforums Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Member Number: 8162
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,050
|
A week late, but "SRT Nationals Review"
2006 SRT Nationals.... My attempt to capture the weekend in words…
Now with a few days past since the weekend, I have had some time to sit and look back over the week that was The SRT Nationals.
I had been excited about it for a while, knowing that it was going to be different then last years event. Last years SRT Nationals were held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Though a decent enough of a track, the location over all was not very centralized and left for a lot of improvement overall. This year, Dale Seely organized Nationals. Seely has always been a well-known personality with-in the SRT-4 community for his performance in "One Lap of America". Confidence was fairly high that this was going to be a well planned and one to not miss out on this year.
The fun started with me heading out the door at 3:00am wed morning to meet up with our group from Chicago. The trip started out just as all of our other road trips, early morning, not much traffic on the road, we made decent time getting out of the state, but then, we hit Iowa. After making a stop to fill up at a station that only had 87oct and 89oct, many of us had never had that grade in our cars before since Chicago has 93oct at every station. We ended up wanting to see what kind of difference 89oct made on the car, if any, and sure enough, just after one of our "spirited driving" burst on the highway we saw what we didn't want to see. As we let off and almost down to speed limit, we came across an Iowa State trooper heading in the opposite direction. We couldn't see him since we were coming up a hill and a bend in the road, but the moment he saw us, he hit the breaks, crossed the median and came after us. We quickly got in a single file line, and we knew that we hadn't been hit by radar since no ones radar went off at any point. The trooper pulled up next to each one of our cars and pointed us over to the shoulder and you could see that he was saying, "Pull Over". He even happened to pull over 2 addition cars that happened to just be with us at that moment.
The trooper seemed to be at least a rational and decent guy. He explained under what law he was pulling us over. Apparently in Iowa, if 2 cars are doing 7+ mph over the speed limit and they are side by side, it can be considered "Drag Racing". If convicted, you face a license suspension of 1 year. There are some troopers that can go on a power trip at times when they find themselves in a situation as we had. A group of cars speeding, all obviously together, all loaded up with racing tires in the back seats. I have been in situations in which sometimes the officer attempts to antagonize the situation by trying to get you to over react to their comments, but this trooper was not that way. He was very straight forward, and after calling in our licenses to check for anything major like arrest warrants, he came back to every car, handed us our licenses, and told us the following.
"You are 24 miles away from the Iowa/Kansas state line, I will wave you guys on to the highway, you will get to the state line no faster then the posted speed limit, and everything will be fine. After you reach the other side of the state line, what you do is your personal business. Have a good day, and drive safely".
With that, we were on our way again, a few minutes later I was paced by a cop in a mini van. Good thing we took the cops advice to heart, cause there was no way I would have ever thought that the mini van had a trooper in it.
We arrived into Topeka around 3pm or so on wed, quickly unloaded our cars and started to unwind from the early morning drive. A few of us headed down to the track after talking with Dale to see what we had to deal with as far as coverage of the track for the DVD. As we rolled up to the track, it was HUGE. It was an all-inclusive area, with a full road course for HPDE, a 1/4-mile drag strip. To top it off, it is also the location for the Autox National Pro Solo event this year and, from what I understood, it had also just recently been repaved.
After hanging out a bit with Dale, and introducing ourselves to a few people, we headed back to the hotel. The hotel by FAR surpassed anything that I expected, honestly, for the price that we paid, I wasn't expecting much. As we walked in, it seemed to be like any other hotel with a check-in area, but as we got our room numbers, and we walked through the main lobby/atrium we saw that it was spacious. Ceilings had to have been at least 50 feet high, with skylights. A large breakfast area, with a few large to small fountains and nice seating areas. The Ballrooms where elegant and the staff was friendly. Slowly but surely, people started rolling in from all over the place, we quickly registered for our events and mingled a bit with some of the people that were in line with. Soon after wards, the opening banquet began, Dale opened the event with a speech outlining things that were planned. Ted from MPSC also spoke on behalf of MPSC, it was good to see Ted again after meeting him while on our trip to South Carolina the previous month.
Day 1, though not much was planned but the "Meet and Greet". It turned out to be a fun day regardless, some of us headed down to the hotel bar, and we threw a few well-earned beers (among other drinks) back and relaxed. Some of the others people that were there for Nationals did the same. That night was the start of some of the friendships that we made threw out that weekend. We drank into the wee hours of 11pm? Everyone was so tired from our long drives in, that we pretty much all called it quits around the same time that night.
Day 2…
After a good night sleep, the next day began with an early morning temp of 95 degrees, and it wasn't even 10am yet! I could not imagine how it feels to be in a full race suit for some of the participants that were involved in the road course event. Most of the first day was spent trying to figure out how we were actually going to attempt to cover this event. Also, we spent some time walking around introducing our selves, as we would suddenly find ourselves in conversations with people from last years Nationals.
One of those people that this occurred with was Wade (Castrol) and CeeJay. We finally caught up with Dale and tried to see where we had been cleared to film for the road course event. As we waited to talk with him, CeeJay, which had been in a discussion with Dale, turned and asked if I was at Nationals last year, she stated that she remembered me from the bus ride back from New Orleans. At first, in all honesty, I could not remember her from the previous year. Not until she mentions that she came over to our area last year and asked us to sign her shirt, and then it clicked. Castrol on the other hand, I had chatted with a few times here and there on SRTForums, but this was the first time I had ever talked with him in person. We agreed to stop by later on and chat for a bit, especially since our set-up areas were right near each other. We continued on with Dale to talk with the track manager to make sure that everything was ok with getting out near some of the corners and filming as cars flew by at over 130+ mph at times.
After getting some good footage of a few driving sessions on the road course, we headed back over to chat with CeeJay and Castrol, who also happen to be in charge of the SRTOC (SRT Owners Club). For myself, that proved to be the start of a good friendship with them. We even had CeeJay sport one of our "CSCVidz.com" girl shirts that we brought along.
After speaking with the track manager, we were told that after lunch, we should come down to the road course staging area. They were offering 2 laps around the road course with one of the many instructors from sponsors such as "Woodhouse" and "Naykid Racing". We went off to the sections of the course that had been cleared for us to film at to capture some good footage. After wards we returned to see if we could jump in to one of the cars for an exhibition run on the course. As we waited for the cars to come down to the track from there respected pit crews, the "One Lap of America" SRT-10 Ram pulled up with Eric from SRT as its driver. He asked those that were waiting if they wanted to jump in for a ride, we were all obviously waiting for the Vipers to show up and jump in with them, especially since we had tickets to hand in for the ride and we only got 1 ticket. Eric asked me if I wanted to film him driving and that he also wouldn't ask for my ticket so that I could still ride in a Viper if I wanted to. He didn't have to ask me twice, I jumped in immediately and began to film.
I really wasn't sure what I was thinking prior to him taking off down the front stretch. I think I was thinking something along the lines of, "it’s a truck, how fast can it really go on a road course with hairpin turns and such". Oh my god!!! My thoughts were instantly changed as we hit 120mph by the time we hit the first curve, and took it at around 100mph. After a few S curves, we hit one of the back straight aways and we got it up around 145mph or so. I would keep looking over to the speed-o-meter to try to see what we were actually moving at, and it would go from 80mph to 140mph in just over a few seconds. Threw corners we stuck to the pavement as if this truck was at home on the road course. I was thrown into the seat after each apex as Eric would put the power to the ground and rumble the truck to the next corner, then subsequently thrown forward as he hit the brakes to make the following corner. On a few occasions, he did get the truck sideways. As we started lap 2, I tried to focus on the how a driver looked while driving on the road course. I focused the lens of the camera on Eric, to my surprise, he would look right into the camera and tell me details about the truck and how it should perform as we are barreling down the course at 110+ mph threw corners. Was he showboating for the camera? Or was he just that good? A little of both! I'm sure that he knows every inch of that truck like the back of his hand.
As we pull back into the pit area, I am all smiles. It was an amazing experience to ride on a road course with an SRT engineer who knows all the detail on the suspension of SRT since that was his job on the SRT project, that alone made the trip worth while. Since he didn't take my ticket, I had already had my chance so headed back to our area on the infield, and gave my ticket to Stuey, and told him to run down there and get a ride with an instructor. Though he had been in the road course event, he didn't hesitate at the chance of riding in a car that was designed for road racing. I believe he rode in the "World Challenge Srt-4". When he returned, he was also all smiles.
Day 2 went on with more road racing and more hanging out and meeting new people. One of the people that we always like seeing and talking to is Tim (Spfrker) from Alaska. Tim might possibly be one of the nicest and most laid back guys anyone might ever meet, literally a legend on SRTForums and in the SRT-4 community as someone that shows commitment and heart as he makes a 8,000 mile round trip journey for the SRT Nationals. 8,000 mile round trip is mind-boggling to say the least, which includes a 36 hour fairy ride just to get to and from the main land. At the time, he had approx. 36,000 miles on the car, approx. 26,000 of those miles came from going to Nationals each year. That is true commitment and dedication. As we chatted and caught up with him on how things were with him, we find out that he brought his Stage 3 kit in hopes that he could get some help from people at the event with installation. Tim admits that he just doesn't have the experience working on cars to do it all on his own. There was no way that we could let him come all the way to nationals and leave with out having that mod on his car. So the discussions began between myself, Phil, Coy (Coy), Eric (Gargoile), about how can we get this accomplished. Eric had also decided to set up camp at the track near us, and we got to talking about his video set up that he has threw out his car. A very nice set up with telemetry and bullet cams all over the car. It was finally decided that we would do it the next day. Tim would arrive at the track early, put the car on Eric's trailer, and let it cool till we arrived around 9am.
With that, Day 2 concluded at the track. The plan for that evening was a dinner at Hooters. Unfortunately, Hooters could not house all of the Nationals participants all at once, so we decided to take the outdoor seats since there was no wait for those compared to the 45 minute wait inside. As we waited to order, we saw Wade and CeeJay walk up to the door, I offer them a seat at our table and they accepted. It was a great time there, good food with new and good friends. I did make a round inside to chat with a few people that were eating inside. Let me tell you, there must be something in the water at the Hooters of Topeka. There is a rule of thumb at most Hooters, they usually have good looking girls and then 2-3 really good looking girls, but not at the Topeka Hooters, 90% of the girls were drop dead gorgeous, and the other 10% were not far behind. I almost didn't want to leave the indoor area because of the scenery, however, our waitress lured me back outside. After dinner, CeeJay and Wade were going to head back with us to the hotel and hang out for a while. It seemed as if the hotel bar was the center of everything that happened back at the hotel. Though not a very large bar, it did have decent selection of food and obviously the drinks that we all were looking for. "Cherry Bombs" & "Yager Bombs" anyone? At the bar, we ran into Coy, Eric, and Tim. I guess there is something about having the same interest in cars which provides the ground work for a conversation which usually leads to other conversations and suddenly you notice that you have new found friends. At one point we ended up back outside taking pictures of the cars with CeeJay posing. The night didn't end for most of us until 2 or 3am. With some people needing assistance back to the rooms from the bar. It was a night full of good times!
Day 3…
Day 3 began with an early morning wake up call from Mother Nature. I woke up to find that Joe (Big_Bopper) my roommate had just woken up himself. He had just turned on the weather channel to see what we should expect today. We knew it was going to rain, but the thought was that it had already passed over night. Just as I thought to myself, hope its nicer today and not as hot as before, a loud rumble of thunder rolled in. I got up and looked outside, and sure enough, it had rained, but it was just starting to rain again. From the 6th floor of our room, I could see far off into the distance that this storm still had a long way before it passed. I got up and headed down to breakfast where I ran into Eric (Gargoile) who had just sat down to eat. We went over some what had been decided and how the rain would play a part in the Stage 3 install.
After breakfast, Phil and myself headed down to the track, and we found destruction, some of the set up from the sponsors had been destroyed, the storm that rolled in must of really pounded the infield. The open set up area was just that, a large open paddock and grass area, winds would have no trouble blowing anything away. The Kicker display lost a huge canopy, I believe some of the vipers which were parked under tents were damaged by the tents as they blew over. Those that decided to camp out at the track seemed a little worse for wear but they made it threw the night with out any real serious injury.
As we arrived, the sky was still overcast, and you could see the big dark clouds coming off in the distance as a constant breeze pushed them right in our direction. We had to keep to our word and began on the Stage 3 install for Tim. I began dismantling the exhaust end as Phil began with the sensors and the PCM, as we began a few people saw and offered their help. Coy was one of the first ones there to help with what ever he could, even if it was just for comic relief at times. Ron (Daytonagts) also came by and helped with tools and wrenching on things as they came up.
About a hour into the install it began to rain, at first it was just a drizzle… and then it started to come down pretty good, luckily for us we had our tent with us. We placed the tent over the entire front of the car, which helped out a lot. Though later on in the day, it proved to be a problem when we jacked the car up on the trailer, and it ever so slightly made the car higher, with the wind, that was still relentless, the cars roof received a few scratches. Tim took it in stride, we think that it will buff right out as they didn't seem to be all that deep, but time will tell.
Day 3 was the Drag strip day, and we still had the duty to try to film as much as we could of all the events. Mark (Stelth3d) stepped up and filmed a lot of what happened that day. I told the guys at the Stage 3 install that I had to step away and do some filming, but I knew that Phil could handle it on his own and could lead the group in the install.
There were some impressive cars there, all makes of SRT's and a couple of GLH's, Shelby's, and Daytona's. One of which ran an impressive 8.1x @180 mph. We had, on the SRT side, a car that could match that, and that was the Darrell Cox Racing SRT-4. From what I had heard is that the DCR car had run high 7's already. When the car fired up, it was as if the event suddenly stopped and everyone would make it over to the drag strip. We all knew what kind of show we might be in for, hopes were set high on each of their runs.
The first attempt down the 1/4 mile, they brought the car down into the water box, and it revved up and began its burn out. You could hear the turbo's spooling up and the smoke began to billow out from under the wheels. The anticipation was high for this pass, we all wanted to see a low number out of this car. As it started to brake spool, the sound that the engine made was incredible, and as the driver let off the brake, it jolted forward and… nothing, we heard what sounded like a pop, and the car shut down. Killed the torque converter.
About 2 hours later, they brought the car back after they fixed the problem, pulled the car into the water box, again the engine revved up and you could feel the power that was waiting to be put down to the ground. As the burn out began, the smoke started to pour out from under the tires, and suddenly, BOOM! You saw the hood pulse upward, and everything shuts down. For a split second I thought that the engine might have blown that time. Later on we find out that the head gasket blew.
Damn if the DCR crew isn't full of stubborn headed people, because about an hour and a half after the head gasket blew, here they came one more time. They knew how the SRT-4 community was looking forward to seeing them run at Nationals. They did not want to disappoint the people that have backed them and supported them. You could feel the anticipation in the air for this last run. The burn out was huge as before, and the car sounded strong. It pulled up to the line, the starting tree began its countdown, and the car spooled up and shot from the line like a cannon. Unfortunately, for the 3rd time in a row, there were problems. Later on we got the actual numbers, the driver was on the gas for .8 seconds of the run and let off, he crossed the 60' mark at 1.2x and just let it cruise down to the 1/4 in a time of 15.3 @ 39 mph.
On the day, they blew 2 torque converters and a head gasket. It was very unfortunate that they never were able to get a run in. Later on, I chatted a bit with one of the DCR crewmembers and they confirmed what went wrong. Hopefully they can figure out all the bugs and put together a good run for themselves and for the srt-4 community.
The drag racing continued into the afternoon/night. Mark and myself coordinated to better cover the filming. Some of the times that were being put up didn't seem to look right. I saw a few 13.7's @ 115+ mph out of some SRT-4's that would indicate bad 60's but I knew that the track was prepped well as I stood right behind the starting tree for filming and saw the crew prep a few times threw out the night. Out of all the cars that I saw there (Srt-4, Srt-6, Srt-8, Srt-10's), the Srt-8 Jeep Cherokee seemed to be the most impressive for a vehicle its size. I saw a 13.3 out of one of the drivers in a Srt-8.
In between session of drag racing, I would head back to the install team to see how they were doing and to lend a hand with what I knew. We had reached a point where we could install the new turbo and exhaust manifold. Just prior to that "Ethan" from SRT, basically one of the master-minds behind the performance plant of the SRT-4, came over after hearing that we had taken the task of installing a Stage 3. He thought we were nuts for basically doing the install in a parking lot 1,000's of miles away from home for the owner of the car and wanted to come by and check it out. Ethan has always been a really down to earth type guy that is never afraid to sit with a Srt owner of any type and talk about some of the details about the car. Now he is careful about what he does say because he does have to keep it professional, so that people don't then go on to say, "Ethan said it was ok to blah blah blah on our cars". He pulled up a chair and talked with us about Stage 3 for about 20 minutes as we had a few questions about certain things that owners had noticed after having the kit for while. I even ran video of our little Q & A session with him, though I will have to have him clear its context before I can release it or include it in the DVD. It's one of those moments when you feel privileged to be able to just kick back and talk with someone that knows so much and is willing to share it with you.
The install went on from there with the turbo going in with out much of an issue. Though we did show a little bit of know-how, we did what was known to many as something to never do. We separated the Stage 3 Turbo from the manifold, to top it of, we did it right in front of Ethan. We confirmed that though it is strictly frowned upon to separate the 2 for the install. As long as you are careful and slide everything together gently, there is no real reason you can not do it. We attempted to install it as 1 unit, and rock the engine forward with the motor mounts loosened, but it did not work. After the turbo was fully in and we made it to a good breaking point, I left again so that I could film some more of the event. After a few more hours of filming and hanging out with a few people track side. I was called back to the install party as they were wrapping up the exhaust and just needed help with a few items that they were unsure of. I returned, took care of the oil cooler as some of the guys installed a new exhaust that Tim had also picked up. The last thing on the list was the fuel pump, which Phil and Coy took care of after Coy gave Phil's leg some much loving! One of those things that you just had to be there for. After a long day of working on the car, first in the rain, then in the sun, it was nearly time to put the key in place and fire it up. I stopped Tim from starting it up as I wanted to get my camera for this moment, and sure enough, after a long day of filming, all of our cameras were out of power. For an instant I didn't know what to do, but Eric came through with his camera and we captured the moment when Tim first turns over the engine, and the car fires up!
The look on Tim's was that of absolute joy. We did the standard checks for fluid leaks and engine temp, the car took a while to warm up, and once it did, it did not over heat. Everything pointed to a good install. On the day, we installed a Mopar Stage 3, Ported TB, which some how Tim got for free for being "that guy from Alaska" and a full Magnaflow exhaust. All in about 12-13 hours which included a ton of breaks. On the way back to the hotel, we paced Tim, just to make sure we didn't get a sudden spike in engine temp. Once we got about 3 blocks from the hotel, and we knew that things were working well. I pulled up next to Tim, Phil lowers the window and says, "Tim, you haven't even had the turbo spool yet, give it a little gas off this light". The light turns green and Tim rolls threw first gear, hits it for a moment in second gear and the car pulls quickly ahead. Unfortunately there is a light ahead and besides we just wanted him to feel the power for a moment. As we pull up next to him again, he is laughing and smiling from ear to ear. I don't believe anyone can possibly be happier than Tim was at that moment.
We all find parking in the lot and quickly head down to the hotel Bar for a night cap where we find Wade, CeeJay, Nimo, Aaronneon, Back-n-black, and a few other characters enjoying a few drinks. The night wasn't going to be too long for myself, as I had to get up early the next day and head down to the track since it was time for the Autox event. By the time that I had my drinks and downed them, wrapped up with everyone that was still around, and got into bed, it was 3:30am, so much for the early night. Guess the episode of "Futurerama" that I stayed up to watch didn't help either.
Day 4…
Some how, some way, I was up by 6:50 or so in the morning. Although I was tired, I was not hung over, which was great! The Autox section of the trip kind of snuck up on me. Thought I knew it was on Saturday, you sort of loose track of which day is which while on most trips. I arrived at the track and quickly swapped my rims for my autox rims and tires. I headed over to tech and registered for the event. The Autox event was a simple course, about 80% of the people that were going to autox had never done it before, and it would not of been too fun for those first timers if the course was more complicated. I didn't see much of a problem with the layout that would prove to be too confusing, but I didn't account for a certain section. It simply put a end to any hopes of a good performance as I just could not adjust for it.
The course was a short straight to get up to speed, a left turn, then a right, into a slalom, followed by a long sweeping right with a pair of short offset gates. They were there mostly for speed control, but you could position yourself to get pass them with out loosing much speed, which in hindsight was my undoing. After the offset gates you continued the right hand sweep into a hard right. Then into another set of offset short distance gates which took you to the slalom, and then the finish line. Most of the first timers put up marks around the 41-42 second mark I believe. The best that I could muster was a 34.1x. I did great on the first half of the course, but when coming out of the right sweeper into the hard right, I would over shoot the path to the gate. Time after time I would forget about slowing down enough to make the next gate and then when I would react, it would be too late and I would plow through the corner just barely making back through the gate. One of the runs, to save the gate, I almost thought about pulling the e-brake so that the back end would come around, but it was too late and I just plowed through a cone. Later on someone told me that the rear tires were lifting off the ground so I had the suspension too stiff and again didn't adjust for it enough as the day went on.
As far as the event went, I was just not running well enough to compete, but I still had a blast. I had talked with CeeJay the previous night and she was interested in riding along for a few runs and so she did. After the first run, we crossed the finish line and she says "oh my god, that was nuts". Although, how could I compare, she got to ride along in one of the Vipers the previous day on the road course. Jenny also jumped in after CeeJay, and I took her for a lap, though my time did get better and better with each pass. I just could not get anywhere near the leader of the SM class. The leader of the class was none other then Stuey. Stuey was on his game, with a best time of 32.7 I believe which put him in 1st place for SM. I think that the combination of road course time, instructor help and tires really made the difference for Stuey and helped elevate his driving skills to new levels. He and I had competed in a few autox events through out the year, and he had yet to beat me, but this time around, he really put a hurting on me. Even on my best day, I don't think that I could have kept up with Stuey on that day. He had his "A" game at Nationals and it showed. Most importantly, he brought home the victory for the CSC.
We continued to video the event, we even placed the sticky pod cam on the side/tops/back of a few cars to gather some interesting footage. A few individuals there had some video for themselves, which they gladly shared later on. One was from a 2001 Viper, who was a really cool guy that hung out with us later that night. There was also a pair of go-karts which they used "helmet cams" for some really cool footage. I hope they send in that footage as well.
After the event, we went back to our area to hang out and kick back for a bit. Through out the event, people would come by and take pictures of our cars, we had 9 cars drive down from Chicago, we had almost 14 cars saying they would go, but last minute issues prevented some people from coming, but people liked how we displayed out cars. We ordered some "CSC" flags to fly over our cars at both ends of our lines, we also had "CSC/Boomba" show car stands made to display car information. There was a man taking some pictures and then Tim brought him over and told us that he is with "Mopar Magazine". He asked if he could take pictures of the cars, I said of course. Then he asked a few things about the club, so I began to speak about how we run things with CSC, he then pulled out a recorder and began to record everything, and asked a few more questions. Later on he told me that it might appear in an article for the magazine. He asked if we could line up with the cars and take pictures, sure thing. He kept asking me who was in charge, or who was the leader, and I told him that we have a board group, and that we all run the club, but then he said, "ok but who is in charge, like the president of the club". I told him, I guess I am, I'm usually the most outspoken and usually the most involved with things, so he literally places me in front of the cars that we had positioned and asked everyone to stand between the cars as I stood in the middle. Its going to be an interesting picture if it does get printed LOL! Regardless we couldn't thank Tim enough for bring that guy by and for possibly getting us printed in "Mopar Magazine".
The event continued on with the music from "Silver Judist" a band from South Carolina. One of the band members is the nephew of Ted from MPSC. They began to play on stage and they were really good. Good, as in, someone should sign these guys, good. After their first set, we stopped by and talked with the band, we some what of an understanding that we would use their music for the DVD, after hearing a few of their songs live, it just cemented the deal. After wards, the award ceremony and the raffle was done. There were a lot of awards handed out for all the events, and I hope to have everyone's name listed on the DVD that won an award. As for the Raffle, it was done by the VERY lovely (and I'm sure on not the only one that feels this way) and beautiful Jennifer from DCR. So many items were given away, A full Stage 3, a AGP 50 trim set up, a DCR ported head, Clothing from vendors, gauges from vendors. There must have been about $7,000 worth of items given away in the raffle, if not more!
After everything was wrapped up at the track, it was one last trip back to the hotel for the last night of hanging out and the closing banquet dinner. As everything else that came with the event, the closing banquet dinner was great, good food and good closing speeches. Self admittedly, Dale, though not use to speaking publicly, did a great job summarizing the nearly weeklong event. After Dale, a few other people spoke on behalf of the event, one of which being "Hybrid Kid", who delivered a speech which really hit home about being safe and driving responsibly on the road. Though something that should come as common sense, but when a family has gone through so much, and can so eloquently convey their message, you can't help be have it really hit home.
Once dinner was over with, it was time to really have some fun and hang out with all the people that we had met and become friends with through out the event. Again, the center of everything was the hotel bar, which was really full on this night since it was a weekend, and everyone was there for a couple of last drinks before we all headed out in the morning. After chatting it up with Dale and a few other people that lingered for a while in the banquet hall, I made my way down to the bar and found everyone hanging out. Coy, Tim, NeonDan, Castrol, CeeJay, DaytonaGTS (Ron), Eric (Gargoile), Nimo, Lulu, noTe, Stuey, Show, Mark, Brad, George, and a bunch of other characters from the weekend.
With it being the last night of an event that was truly outstanding, we couldn't help but really party it up that night. The drinks were flowing, and the good times continued. Right across the bar entrance was a small banquet hall, on this night, it was hosting a wedding reception. Some how, Dale and another person made their way into the party and started a conversation with the groom. Some how, they were able to get all of us invited to help with the beer that the groom had already purchased and that they had no real way of consuming. Someone came over to our section of the bar and told us that next door there is "FREE beer!" With those 2 words, almost instantly, everyone got up and asked for their tabs. I don't think anyone has ever seen such a mad dash from a bar into another room as we had that moment. The poor bartender that was working the wedding party was suddenly over-whelmed by orders. There was approx. 30 minutes left of drinking time and plenty of beer to go around, so people were basically asking for 3 beers at a time and literally shot gunning them as fast as possible. With in the 30 minutes time, I believe that I had 5 beers and I know that many others out did me. We all even got the groom to pose with us for a group picture, which turned out great! Eventually last call was made at the wedding party, and people stocked up with 2-3 beers in hand before we walked out and back into the hotel bar. Slowly but surely, we started to loose people that needed to get to bed for a few hours sleep before they went on their way home. We said out good byes to Coy and Tim, Lulu eventually had to call it quits as well. Then came Castrol and CeeJay, who decided to head out that night around 2am. We wished them a safe trip and said our good-byes, and they were on their way.
The night continued for some of us, as we met up with the band that played at the event, lets just say that they do try to party like rock-stars and leave it at that LOL. Though I am not 100% sure what time my night ended, I knew that it was late and that I needed to get to bed.
It was tough to say good bye to so many new friends, Coy wants to start a North West Chapter of CSC LOL. Eric (Gargoile) left us with an open invite to North Carolina to hang out sometime. I have being wanting to drive down to the Florida Keys, and might have to make time to hang out with Nimo and Lulu since Florida is their section. I plan on heading down the Houston to hang out with Wade and CeeJay before next years Nationals, maybe catch a Cubs vs. Astros baseball game. There are so many other people that we met, that it's difficult to remember everyone, but these are the ones that stood out. Last but not least, there is Dale Seely. We give him a LOT of crap. We make fun of him when ever we can and are constantly on his case about all sorts of different things, but as we told him in person after the closing banquet, its all done out of respect for the guy. We know that he will take it in stride and shoot right back. It's all done with playful intentions, and never mean spirited. The LER crew proved to be a great bunch of guys and we will definitely have to meet up with those guys sometime.
And with that, Nationals was over. The next morning, those that remain, which weren't many, got up and got ready to head out. Fortunately for me, I had Monday off and so I was not in any extreme hurry to get back. I told the group that I was going to be doing the speed limit the entire way, and if we separated, I hoped they had a safe trip and that we'd meet back up once back in Chicago. Sure enough, with in the first 10 miles, I got caught behind some slower traffic at the beginning of the tollway. The tollway is probably about a 40 mile stretch between Topeka and Kansas City, I was with in distance of the convoy as I could see them about a mile or so ahead. I actually caught up with the tail end of the group at the end of the tollway where we had to pay. Once again, slower cars, which at times took forever to pay the $2, held me up. On top of which, I had forgotten to charge up my walkies, so as I lost sight of the group I also lost which route they were going to take. Later on I found out that they went up north to Iowa, I proceeded on to St. Louis.
On the way to St. Louis, I kept seeing signs for "Isle of Capri" casino. I must have seen the signs for about 30 miles. I guess I fell for the marketing ploy since I got off the highway in a very small and quiet town of Booneville, Missouri. For such a small and tiny town, I didn't expect much and kind of started to regret getting off the highway. As I made my way down a side street after following a sign, which pointed me to the casino, I came across a very nice structure. It was almost like a resort. There was a large hotel that was connected to a decent size casino. I played Blackjack for about 2 hours, unfortunately, I should have stuck with my earlier feeling of regret as I lost $150 at the table. Afterwards, I checked out their buffet, which was actually quite good. I called Phil to see how they were doing and they had also recently stopped for lunch. That is when I learned for sure that they indeed did head up north first to Iowa.
The rest of the trip went on with out any real event. Someone in St. Louis drove next to me and took pictures of my car as I drove through the city. The drive through Illinois was with out any event, I arrived home around 11:30pm, which was only about 3 hours later then everyone else, and that was with my 2 hour casino stop. I got home, and slept for about 14 hours, I had to catch up on the lack of sleep I was on from all the fun. So with that, the trip was over.
As much as I have wanted to capture the event in this summary, as long as this post is, I know that I have only being able to convey about 10% of what the experience was at the 2006 SRT Nationals. The drive on the road course was worth the trip alone. All the drag racing with so many people with the same interest was worth the trip alone. The hanging out at the track through out the week and weekend was worth the trip alone. The new friendships and experiences that happened at the hotel was worth the trip alone. Put them all together and words come up short on describing such an event.
The 2006 SRT Nationals was, with out a single doubt in my mind, the best event that I have ever been part of or participated in.
I can not wait till next year!
|
. I know we probably crossed paths many times at the nats just didn't know it 
You can thank Wade for being the awesome guy he is and thank us for not being theives 
" . . .We confirmed that though it is strictly frowned upon to separate the 2 for the install . . .".
10.583 @ 130.87
. Thank GOD for direct deposit because I got paid at 12 AM that night, just forgot at the time 
Linear Mode
