Good EVening, uhhh...I mean early morning,
Woodburn was overall a great success! The best part
was seeing all the folks who get together year after year
for this groundbreaking event. ....the Chair Monkeys from
Colorado were there (Bill Dube', the two Daves, and Bill's
chip-head-buddy, Steve). Bob Rice wins the award for the
most miles traveled, coming clear across the country from
Connecticut. Roderick Wilde (always with a new lady at his
side), Steve Cloud (first pounding on his machine with a
hammer, then apparently trying to cut a front wheel off with
a hack saw - after which, made a slower run - then a "for sale"
sign appeared on the dragster - then after some additional major
work involving many different tools, he made some incredibly
quick runs and took the sign back off. An air powered car made
some nice runs, and was a huge hit with the crowd as it provided
a nice cool breeze on the hot, sunny, Woodburn day. Bill Dube's
driver Scotty made some impressive runs on the Killacycle II,
always wowing the crowd with it's incredible power. While I was
filming this, someone nearby me yelled "holy shit!", then
apologized for swearing on my video....I said, ....cool :^)
(I love that sort of emotional thing on a video)
John Wayland absolutely ruled with a secret weapon
(a button on his steering wheel) awaiting his command. The button
kicked in a bank of extra batteries and cut about 2 seconds from his
time without it. The White Zombie put on a great show, with fantastic
tire smokin' launches that created a concussion that you could really
feel hit you right in the chest! Rich Brown's RX-7 thrilled the crowds
with great burnoffs, and a spectacular launch where the power was just
too much for the sticky tires and he lost traction for an instant
before finally linking up and launching down the track. Bill Dube's
Killacycle II also had a loss of traction on one launch, when the
starting torque was just too great for the hot, sticky track and the
giant drag slick. Rich (Madman) Rudman did the best burnoffs, as
always, and it has become a trademark with Rich to warm Goldie's tires
well before every race. It was great seeing George Tylinsky, if things
hadn't been so crazy and exciting, I was going to tell him some stuff
about my solar-powered-geyser project. Everyone else who helped get
my EV Ghia (the little feller), to the OMSI show was there as well,
Victor Tikhonov with a full selection of Siemens AC dives on display,
and Eric Johnson with his pickup that he drove to the race from Portland
to put on display, had a great sign on the back that said "Breathe easy,
you're following an electric vehicle". The ever-popular EV-race icon,
Father Time, put on a great show, with several tire shredding motorcyles,
as did Bruce Meland with Kawashocki.
Lou Tauber, as always, did a superb job of announcing the racing
from the tower. A great thanks goes out to Lou for doing this thankless
job. Also, there were quite a few people, including myself, who couldn't
wait to meet the /Sheer/ man, and see those elusive Evercell batteries.
Yes, Jon made it to the track towing a genset. I think these are the
batteries to keep an eye on, probably the battery of choice for the
conversions of the 21'st century. Mark Mongillo was there with the cutest
car around, Fiamp....Bruce Parmenter was blazing around in his Blazer,
and there were just gobs of other people who I'm missing here.... but it's
getting really late, my fingers are typed down to the bone, and I think
I'll wrap it up and let others take it from here.....
John
