2002 Convention (better late...)

[C. Gutierrez]

Fellow SERCA & SE-R.net mailing list members,

Luckily enough I was able to attend my 1st convention this year,
though I flew out to AZ and did not drive my car, I don't regret
it. Not b/c it has 250k+ miles on it, no, it was my wife's bday Sun. &
wanted to celebrate it w/ my family. I want to get my "thank yous"
out of the way early here, but there's so many folks that work so
hard every year, it's tough to get'em all in.

THANKS & CONGRATS to all of the AZ-SERCA Chapter for making it all
happen, to Kyle & his wife Michelle for the invaluable things they did
to make it a success. Thanks to Brad for his work with Embassy Suites,
and the staff at ES in Tempe, they truly let you enjoy your vacation,
and help keep things going smoothly. To my good friend & roomie
Greg Vogel for allowing me (& Dave Allen!) to share a suite with, &
graciously letting me drive his car at the track event without a second
thought. His '93 classic w/ S3 cams (gotta get me some!) on Falken
Azenis performed flawlessly, and reminded me (& Scott Higashi) how
much fun a stock suspension classic can be! 3 wheelin' baby!! YEAH! :)

Friday's Arizona Testing Center (ATC) tour was real treat and the
place was friggin' huuuuge. The bus ride, all 3 buses, was probably
more fun than the tour itself, as it seemed like we were driving 1/2
way to New Mexico. We did get to see some vehicles driving around,
one certain B15 w/ real flashy paint job, and a Skyline were running
around the road courses. The 5 mile oval high speed test track was
incredible, so I can imagine driving it at 105 MPH & having the car
"practically drive itself" would be awesome. We tried to egg the bus
driver on, but it obviously failed. I would like to remind anyone
that did take pics of the ATC, *NOT* to post them online as this could
jeopardize our relation w/ Nissan. The "meet & greet" back at Brown &
Brown was a great time to chat w/ people who you may have emailed back
& forth from the main se-r list. This is also where the nametags,
registration packets & new SERCA member cards were distributed. A
few of us watched the drags at Firebird Int'l.  Raceway that night
to see a SR20 Development prepped B13 run a 13.2XX sec. pass, and
cheer on some other SE-R pilots there.

Sat. at FIR was absolutely a blast! If you've never been to a road
course w/ your car, you don't know how much fun you're missing :) 4
seesions each for all 4 run groups, and not a major incident, GOTTA
LOVE IT! Dicing it up out there with the B15 SR's and having a rear
view mirror full o' new SE-R, letting Kieran by to see if I could make
him squirm in his rental Max, trying to keep up with & at times ahead
of the G's of Brit Connor & Gil Espinoza.... man oh man, what a hoot!

Sundays' BBQ, which was the best Texas style *mmmmm, mmmmm*  BBQ
I've had anywhere (but TX :P) Michelle, Kyle's wife was right-on
with the food choice! The cars in the show all looked very cool,
but King Jeff's SE-R Cup B13 was absolutely sweet! I had to cathch
my 2 PM flight back, thanks to Larry Weeks for his GPS aided ride,
so I missed the raffle drawing, but heard a rumor that I actually
won something, woo-hoo! I can't wait until next year in KC (right
Brad? ;^), and meet more folks for the first time. If you've never
been yet, do yourself a favor & attend next year's convention &
make it what you want to make it, I know I sure did.

As Ryan already mentioned, and as I've been saying here in SoCal for
the last 2 yrs., it's about the friends we make here. These silly
little cars just bring us together.

Carlos Gutierrez
SERCA-SW R.E. '91 w/ 254k+ mi.
Valencia, CA