Convention Wrap-up

[Torry Skurski]

Well, after leaving CA at about 6pm on Sunday, I finally made it back to
Georgia on Tuesday night.  First of all, I want to thank Carlos
Gutierrez, Thomas Fox, Kyle Davis, Greg Vogel, Mike Kojima, and the rest
of the Southeast SERCA region for putting on the convention this year.

I began my journey on Tuesday night before the convention.  I had worked
a full 8 hour day, came home and showered, then hopped in my car to head
for California.  I drove straight through, stopping only twice for a few
hours of sleep each time.  Almost exactly 40 hours later, I was in
Lancaster at the Desert Inn.  The only people there before me where John
and Lionel, who had driven from Louisiana and arrived at about midnight
on Wednesday night (I arrived at about 7:30am on Thursday).

I hung out with John and Lionel all day on Thursday getting his car
ready for the track.  Later that evening, SE-R people started to slowly
roll in.  Shortly after that, we were drinking beer and eating pizza.
We had heard on the phone that the SoCal crowd was supposed to be
arriving to the hotel at about 10pm.  We were making bets whether or not
they would get there before midnight.  Turns out, they were somewhat on
time from what they had said.  Our "driver's meeting" Thursday night
consisted of beer, food, and talking about the girls walking around in
the apartments with the windows open, across the parking lot :-)

Bright and early, Friday morning, we headed to the track.  And what a
NICE track it was.  I got excited to see that there were decent
elevation changes.  The most elevation changes I've ever actually driven
on were at the Dallas Convention in 2000, at the Motorsports Ranch
track.  The track day started out on a bad note, when Cookie and Frank
had wrecked their cars on the very first session of the day (which I
happened to be in as well).  I came in frustrated after the third
session, because I was stuck behind two slower cars for the entire
session, and nobody was flagging them to let me pass.  That was my only
complaint for the day.  By the 4th session, there were only about 4 cars
on the track, and I was really able to push it 100%.  By far, the most
enjoyable moment of the day.

Friday night we decided to head over to Outback for dinner.  Before too
long, we had a table of 14 people.  To our surprise, we were seated
immediately.  Not long after, more SE-R folks trickled into the patio
where we were seated, and we soon owned the patio.  Many people were
more than *happy* after a few drinks, including a particular someone who
was "breaking the law, breaking the law."  Afterwards, we headed over to
another place for more drinks, and so the latecomers could get some
food.  Luckily, both these places were well within walking distance of
the hotel ;)

Saturday morning, we headed over to the dyno.  Everyone seemed to
complain that dyno numbers were really low.  The dyno operators also
seemed to need a class on "what detonation sounds like."  Aaron Lebeau
and John Abbot were the only two that dyno'd that broke the 300 HP mark,
but then again, most of our cars are tuned for a road-track, not a drag
strip.  Saturday night, we all hit up the happy hour at the hotel, went
out to eat, and basically repeated Friday night.

Sunday morning, we headed to NNA, where the raffle and car show was.  We
also were allowed to check out Nissan's storage garage.  Wow what a neat
place.  Unfortunately, I dropped my camera while waiting to get in, and
broke the lens.  So I didn't get to take any pictures there :-(
However, I was still excited to see many 240Z's, the #83 GTP IMSA car,
Steve Millen's #75 GTS IMSA car, a 1937 Type 15, and even one of the 3
Atlanta Olympic Quests.which I had actually driven, back in 1996!!  Back
to the parking lot, we saw the new Altima SE-R, an R-tune 350Z, and a
few other tricked out Nissans.  Not to mention the ones in the parking
lot.  My favorite being the 510 with a CLEAN SR swap, Glen's S13, and
Aaron's B13.

Sunday night I left, and about 50 hours later I was back in Atlanta.
It's funny how the drive back always takes longer than the drive there!
But it was well worth it!  I can't wait till next year, so I can drive
to my 6th annual SERCA convention, wherever it may be!