We arrived at Cordova Raceway around 4:00 PM. It was again pleasant to be greated by familiar faces at the check in gate. The weather was forcasted for sunshine and comfortable temperatures with “no rain”. Yee Haw! We were not dissapointed, it was picture perfect.
Bryan & June Huffman, Steve Rice & his son Stevie were already parked when we rolled in. Shortly after, Bill Eveland came to complete our group for the evening. A few test’n tune runs were made by Steve and Bill to try and work out some Spring gremlins.
Saturday morning the rest of our group trickled in including Joe & Ellen Kaufman, Bill & Cathy Wamboldt, Glen Steinhoffer, and our very own “Beach Boys” Ted, Joe, & Brandon. Last but not least, Randy Tavoletti and his crew. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, one of our members was unable to make the trip. Tom Hanson, who lives in the Cordova area, graciously accepted an offer to make some passes with us. His 42′ Studebaker was a nice addition to our group. This put us back to an even number of 12.
We were scheduled to make 2 passes on Saturday and 1 pass on Sunday. However, it escalated to 3 passes each day.
Attrition set in Saturday afternoon. Bill Eveland had done quite a bit of work on his Pontiac over the winter so some adjustments were in order. After a couple runs, his drive shaft decided it couldn’t handle the new power and went south. New member, Glen Steinhoffer, had a fuel cell leak that put his Willys out for the rest of the weekend. The last pass on Saturday evening sent Randy Tavoletti to his trailer when his power glide said “no more”. Joe Beach had a rear end problem but after some serious wrenching, he was up and running. Due to our group dwindling, our Chairman Bryan Huffman recruited a fast little straight axle Nova, pitted across from us. He ran a couple of rounds and dropped out when his shifter broke.
Since we were so busy racing, trying to squeeze in our Saturday evening potluck was tricky. We decided to wait until our last pass of the evening was over. Thanks to Cathy Wamboldt’s quick and talented grill skills, we were enjoying burgers with all the trimmings and the rest of the wonderful food our group always supplies. Nobody eats better than we do.
Sunday we ran smoothly with the group that was left.
A few of us will be ordering parts and putting things back together. It’s all part of racing and I am sure they will be up and running soon.
It was fun to see everyone again and we are looking forward to the next race.
Jesse & Bertie James
