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Spring 2007
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| | MVSCC’s Fun Event
New
Friends and No Aliens Found at Grissom ARB
Grissom
Air Reserve Base is in Peru Indiana, also the home of the 434th Air
Refueling Wing
and the
Grissom
Air
Museum
.
Tucked away just 72 miles north of
Indianapolis
, it’s a short
3-hour drive from
Dayton
Ohio
.
Wayne Penix
and I set out late
Saturday afternoon in his luxurious Ford 250 towing a seriously underpowered D
prepared Miata. Wayne had graciously
offered to let me co-drive his Miata and after considering the drive I only
hesitated momentarily before leaping at the chance to flog someone else’s car.
 There
were only two wrecks on I-70 on the way over, one a truck pulling a 5th
wheel, both on their sides. The
emergency crew was peeling the roof off the truck as we went past.
Then there was the yard work trailer on 31 just north of
Kokomo
burned to a crisp.
Guess they put hot fuel leaking equipment on it and headed for home.
Have to remember to check the Miata for fuel leaks.
Arriving
at Grissom we checked into the newly completed Grissom Inn on the base.
The rooms are very nice, quiet rooms, DVD player on the TV and Cable,
with a refrigerator and stove in the room, all for under $22.00 per night.
Sometimes it’s nice being a government worker eligible for space
available.
Sunday morning
around
6:30
we met up with the
set up crew on site. Over the next
couple of hours as people trickled in, the course was set up, people were
registered, cars were teched with the new fangled bar code labels, and the
course was opened for walking. This
is when you get your first perspective on how large Grissom really is.
It is a de-activated runway that was designed for cargo planes.
And it’s BIG, acres of
concrete in the shape of a Christmas tree, and did I mention it’s BIG?
Kent Weaver designed a great course with a minimum number of cones and a
maximum amount of fun. Description
of the course follows: through the start into an immediate left hander, right
sweeper, left hander, garage, right sweeper, left hander, right sweeper, offset,
135 degree left, right turn, offset, 6 cone slalom, left hander, right turn,
offset, finish. We each got 4 runs
per heat, in a Run, Work, Run, Work format for a total of 8 runs!
Our first car was off at 10am. We
had a good collection of auto-crossers, from the FTD C-Mod to a Mini Cooper.
One of the closest battles was between C-Mod and F-mod, finally won
by a narrow margin of .005 seconds. Codie
“Banks” Smiley-Knabe in a Formula Junior Kart continued to impress till
getting hit with the Smiley curse and losing his clutch right before his 4th
run. Melissa in G-Stock Ladies won
the first ever “Cone Dragon” award for totally messing up a cone and
dragging it half way around the course.
Kent
“Mr. I put the
cones there, I can take them out” Weaver took home the coveted Kone-Killer
award. Yes, there’s nothing like
good old American Wide and Heavy Iron on an Autocross course.
Some One Lap of America drivers showed up close to lunchtime for a couple
of runs. Check out the pictures for
a shot of the street legal Radical. Runs
were over, course was cleaned up, the truck was packed, and we were on the road
back to
Ohio
by
3:30pm
.
 Exhausted
but happy, we discussed the “woulda-coulda-shoulda” of the day and what
needs to be done for the next event most of our way home.
Thanks to
Linda Smiley
for chairing this
event and to
Wayne Penix
for letting me
drive his car. You’ll definitely want to join us at Grissom next time…see
you there!
(Reported
by Jim Begovich all photos courtesy of: Gail Richardson)
For
Event Results Click Here
For more pictures of the day please
see
Gail Richardson's
Photo Page and Wayne
Penix's Photos
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