WOW!!!!  What a blast!  Our adventure started on Tuesday, October 4^th, 4:34 p.m.  We filled up the motor home at Renner’s card lock in Arcata with a starting mileage of 28,275.  I think Mike was amazed we actually left only 4 minutes later than planned.  Cough, sputter, pop!  These are not good sounds coming from the engine compartment when we are on our way to AZ.  First stop, Harbor Lanes in Eureka.  Something is wrong with the newly rebuilt carb!  Mike tried this, tried that and then we finally got a hold of the guy who rebuilt it.  He came down to the bowling alley and decided – there must be a vacuum leak but we couldn’t find it.  Oh well, we have racing to do so off we went.  As long as we were moving it didn’t load up and it was decided the choke would be wired up after we stopped for the night.  We traveled as far as Galt, CA 329 miles.

With the choke wired up, we were on our way again about 7:00 a.m.  We had planned on getting to the track about 7:30 p.m.  It seems someone left the directions to the track on the kitchen table and then someone had us turn right when we should have turned left.  We didn’t make it until about 9:45.  The gate was closing and we were the second to the last rig they let in.  We got our shirts and wrist bands and the nice ladies wished us luck finding the rest of our team.  How could we miss Harlan’s car!!!  Harlan Tucker, John Widmann, Rich Givens, and Wayne Cox were all set up.  Unfortunately, another track kind of “moved in” on our space but we found a good spot and set up camp across from them.  It seems that Mr. Givens had hauled his race car all the way to AZ only to find that with a little pull of the gear shift, the car would easily shift from 3^rd to reverse!  Since Rich had already had a wild ride down the track, we all agreed it would be best to leave his car on the trailer.  There was talk of renting a car.

The schedule called for tech open at 8:00 a.m. with Test-N-Tune running from 10 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.  What a zoo!  There were 619 cars!!!  The people at Speedworld did a good job of getting cars down the track.  Did I mention it was hot?  There was a problem with the starting line so they shut down for a while and scraped the starting line and re-preped.  I was busy video taping everyone but I think everyone got 3 runs in.  I had a captain’s meeting at 5:30. 

Ryan Giacone showed up Thursday evening, unloaded his car and found things weren’t quite right.  Friday morning, Ryan could be found lying on an ant hill, under his car with Mr. Givens lending a hand.  Seems there was a problem with the flex plate, sheared bolts, and other not so good things.  While Ryan was lying on the ant hill, Harlan, Wayne and John ran in the gambler’s bracket and the rest of our team (minus Ryan) took their first time trial.  Unfortunately Harlan went out the first round but John made it to the quarter finals and Wayne the semi-finals.

Saturday morning, everyone got their first time trial of the day.  After that we had the Race of Champions.  Ryan Giacone represented team Samoa for SuperPro, Harlan Tucker – Pro, Rich Givens – Sportsman, and John Widmann motorcycles.  Everyone made it through round one!  Hurray team!  Second round we lost our Pro and Sportsman, leaving John and Ryan still representing team Samoa.  Well John made it to the finals taking home second place in the Race of Champions for the motorcycle class.

After the Race of Champions was complete they ran the first round of Pro and SuperPro.  Go team Samoa!!!  Well, after first round of Pro, Harlan was out, Mike Scoggin was out, LeRoy Duran was out and last but not least Ryan’s friend Mike Anderson was out.  Our whole Pro team was out first round.  The wind was so strong!  Nobody could run their numbers.  Go SuperPro!!!  Ryan made it through first round, Ed Parker made it through first round but Ryan’s friend Billy Gebhart didn’t.  Time to drink and bench race and get ready for tomorrow.

Total cars racing were 619.  SuperPro 171, Pro 221, Sportsman 136, Motorcycles 60, and high school 30.  Teams attending were Speedworld, Samoa, Tucson, Maui, Redding, Firebird, Las Vegas, Fontana, Inyokern, Sonoma, Fallon, Bakersfield, Irwindale, Palmdale, Albuquerque, Barona and Salt Lake City.

Sunday morning first call was for Sportsman.  Go Rich!  Did I mention he’d rented a Dodge Neon?  Ryan and his friends took Rich to town, all wearing their race shirts and hats and rented Rich a car.  Can you believe we even stuck the required stickers on it!  Rich won first round!!!  Hurray Rich, to bad he was too quick second round.

Motorcycles to the lanes please!  Go Wayne and John!  Both guys make it through first round but John had some kind of electrical problem.  Came back to camp and tried a few things but come second round, it died on the starting line.  Go Wayne!  Wayne wins second round.

Let’s give SuperPro a chance to run.  Go Ryan and Ed!  Both make it past the first round, both make it past the second round.  Third round Ed goes out but I’m pretty sure Ryan makes it one more round.

Back to the motorcycles, Wayne gets the bye in ¼ finals!  Go Wayne!  Now he’s in the semi finals, our only teammate still in the game.  Go Wayne!!!  Good light, great run but wait, his opponent is sitting up.  It’s in the bag?  Oh no, Wayne ran too quick!!!