When the AL-GA contingents arrived mid to late Tuesday afternoon, there was a non-trivial number of racers in the house thrashing on their cars and making some laps on Tom Thumb's venerable American King. This was a day earlier than I can recall us arriving for a previous R4, so I didn't really have a firm standard for comparison. The goal for Tuesday was just to get to the raceway to grab some primo pit locations, as the raceway was closing at 6 PM.
Wednesday was another short day (10 AM to 8 PM) but the number of racers in the building appeared essentially to double. So Jay Guard, Bobby Robinson, Taylor Davis, and I, joined by FL's Doc Dougherty adjoined to the nearby Mexican place for a little food washed down by lots of fermented grain adult beverages.
Thursday, the final practice day before racing actually begins, was a longer day still (10 AM to 10 PM) but since I didn't have any thrasing to do or any 'semi-official' duties to perform, I had decided to play tourist for the day. I headed for Dayton, OH, about 60 miles away, to visit what is probably the most fabulous aviation museum in the Western Hemisphere, the National Museum of the US Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. I was able to visit 'America's Packard Museum' in the restored original 1917 Packard dealership building downtown and to have lunch with an old friend who lives in Dayton. Ran into a well-known Sunbeam Tiger restorer whom I had met back home at the national Sunbeam Alpine/Tiger meet last fall; I didn't even know his shop was in Dayton, so that was just serendipity. It was terrific day of playing tourist.
Got back to Tom Thumb at 6:15 PM and holy cow! The parking lot completely full with several cars double-parked, like I had to do. Inside, it was like a sardine tin: every pit space was taken and the place was hopping as everyone waited with bated breath to get their hand-out motors for Friday GTC classes. I didn't stay long, as there really wasn't anywhere for me to sit down. So after greeting some familiar faces who had arrived during the day while I was sightseeing (as well as greeting some racers who hadn't been regular R4 attendees in recent years), I headed out to a local joint for the traditional Greek gyro that Jay and I have become addicted to when we're at the R4 (he'd has his for lunch, but it was going to be my supper.)
I checked in with grand pooh-bah McMasters to see how many racers had entered and snagged their hand-outs for tomorrow's GTC conflagrations. The number so far was 58 racers and he expected several others to show up either tonight or in the morning. Seems pretty obvious the turn-out at R4/10 is going to be pretty spectacular, perhaps approaching the all-time record for total entries.
So after my gyro and rings, I gassed up the car (still haven't paid more than $1.99 a gal since we left GA!), grabbed a bag of ice for the cooler, and another bottle of my 'cough medicine' and headed back to the Motel 6, where a huge percentage of the out-town R4 racers are staying. There are five rooms on the first floor to the left of the office and I believe every one of them houses a pair of Retro racers. A rough count based on asking racers where they were staying suggests there are are at least three times as many other rooms rented to racers in other parts and floors of the place and that may be a conservative guesstimate.
The track will be cleaned tonight after the racers are ejected, which of course strikes fear into the hearts of all of them, especially those who have been testing and tuning for one or more days and gotten happy with their results.
Tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun combined with a bit of stress for those entered. But for my money (what little I have...), I am absolutely convinced there's going to be some of the tightest, most competitive Retro racing to be found anywhere... at least, until next year's R4/11, of course.
The raceway opens tomorrow at 7:30 AM and as always, there will be a pack of snarling people waiting at the door for the lock to be released.
As they say on TV, more information will be shared when it become available... Stay tuned!
