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PNSCA Banquet
By Chris | December 7, 2008
Last night the Pacific Northwest Super Comp Association had its end of the year banquet. Like any such event, it was a great chance for all the racers to get together, celebrate the champions, reminisce about the past year, generally wish it wasn’t cold and rainy outside. Unfortunately, Emily couldn’t make it, with too much homework to make the 10 hour round trip worth it, so I had to represent EMDUB Racing myself.
The event was held at an interesting place, the Nifty Fifty Bar and Grill, which besides being a bit of a dive, offered a challenge when it was realized that you had to be 21 to enter. While none of our racers were underage, some of their families and significant others were. After much negotiation with the establishment, including threats to move 50+ guests to another location, we eventually convinced them to allow the others in — if only through the back door.
Once that was settled, the annual meeting began. We decided on a couple of rules changes and drafted elected folks into the leadership positions. Ed Hauter graciously accepted the president’s job, John Young the vice-president, and Connie Woodruff the secretary-treasurer job. And I got drafted volunteered to be the webmaster. The PNSCA.com site is over a year stale and needs some help. Good thing I have nothing else to do…
Then followed festivities. There was a nice round of door prize handouts — the members all brought things, and Dale Green, the engine builder to many in attendance, brought loads of nice things for the crowd. I won a case of brake cleaner that was brought by Terry and Bambee Haddock (the Funny Car driver), a couple of hats, and other small items. I love it, I’m almost out of brake cleaner.
A wonderful letter from Steve Iverson was read. Steve was involved in a horrific crash at the Seattle national event this July. He crashed violently just as Emily and I were walking past the finish line. We saw up close the car and a rear wheel bound past us in a shower of sparks. After the better part of an hour of rescue including cutting him out of the car, he was taken to the hospital. He spent more than a month there, and the PNSCA took up a collection to help him out. Steve was told by his wife to never race again. Well, that didn’t last long, he couldn’t attend the banquet because he was driving to Texas to pick up his new car… Racers are hard to keep down.
Then the awards were handed out. Nice payouts all around, all the way down to 10th. The winner for the year was Bob Woodruff, who gave a moving and emotional speech thanking all those who helped make it happen. It was great to see him win, even though he beat out our friend Rick Dearinger by one point.
We ended with dinner that was, well… not special. I’ve seen less grease on the floor of a race shop. And they had but one waitress for 50+ people. Took most of an hour for the food to just be delivered, a few plates here, a few there… But the beer was cold and the company was warm.
It was a great evening, fun to get together with some super people, and it was just the proddding I need to get the engine out of the car for a freshen. Better get on that right away.
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