Q:Barry S. - Ont.
A:My first event was Memphis 97, I had a fresh 455 HO motor in the Trans Am and shattered the harmonic balancer on the Friday afternoon. I hitched a ride will a fellow Canuck to try to track down some parts in Memphis and left my wife at the track with the car. We got stuck in Friday rush hour traffic and got back to the track just as a torrential down pour hit. What do I see but my car leaving the track on someone else's trailer. Seems a bunch of the boys from Texas pushed it onto Jack W's trailer and Jack was driving his 69 Camaro in the downpour with no wipers (and no gas as it turned out). I was out in the rain the next morning, under the car still on Jack's trailer changing the balancer. BTW - I had just met Jack for the first time that day.
Q:Pete S. - IN
A:My first event was in 03 as a complete drag race rookie. Thanks to the great folks there I was taught what I needed and had a blast ever since.
Q:Dorrie R. - VA
A:Our first event was St. Louis '99. We have always had a blast at the events - at the track, the hotel parking lot, dinners... I'm glad we are heading back to Memphis this year. I've enjoyed hitching a ride on the road course... first ride was with Randy B. in the E-Ticket... what was that speed down the drag strip... 135? 140? Then Eric in his Z06, Dean in his Comp. Looking forward to hitching a ride again this year... hmmm who has the fastest car???

Then there was the time it was raining in Memphis and about 20 of us were all huddled under two tents when Joe C. says... all we need now is hail... and the skies obliged. :)
Q:Mike M. - MT
A:I think it was 1998. Memphis and Joe doing a burn out under the canopy at the Holiday Inn. The tire smoke triggered the automatic doors to the hotel lobby and in went all the smoke on the freshly painted lobby. Needless to say we were not invited back the next year.

Another Memphis event was when a group of hungry event goers decided to make a trip down the street to the local Waffle House. It was raining and not wanting to get wet they took one of the pop up canopies and huddled under it then picked it up and made their way to the Waffle House. They did use the proper hand signals when making turns.

[ed note: we strongly discourage hotel burnouts now since there aren't that many hotels left.]
Q:Jim H. - NJ
A:I *think* it was the 02 event and I *think* it was in Memphis. My TA was broken (still is) so my brother Bill and I drove his 4 door, black, 4 bangin' Cavalier to the event to do some spectating. In the hotel parking lot, surrounded by some powerful f-bodies and a few big ol' Diesel tow rigs, the mighty Cavalier came to the rescue and was used to jump start a tour bus. All of the raw power of that car netted me a nice speeding ticket somewhere in VA on the way home from that event.

I also remember something about "The 4" (Indy, maybe 05?) but I'd rather forget, I'm sure Joe C. can fill in all of the details I've erased from memory. Lesson learned, it's easy to pickup (insert your own unpleasant adjectives) mid-western chicks when you're Big Pimpin' in a barely running TransAm. :-)
Q:Rob R. - VA
A:My big Jim H. moment was in Indy. Something about an old man in a 3rd gen....

Lined up and I hole shotted him and it was over just as fast. I kind of remember hearing something about being beat by an old guy as I crossed the beams.

BTW, for those that weren't there or too old to remember, this was a foot race to the 60' mark
Q:Bock F. - FL
A:My favorite memory is Marcus S. suckering me into running my 69 Z on the road course. It started a terrible addiction which I cant seem to quit.

[Ed Note: I seem to remember Bock's first ride on the road course with Randy B. Bock ended up lying down in the infield grass for about 20 minutes holding his head and stomach. Ha!]
Q:Joe C. - MI
A:I have soooo many memories that I just can't even put them all down....

1 is my burnout in my truck until the tires were 2 inches deep into the parking lot and we had 2 balls of rubber the size of softballs (I still have 1) at the same hotel that Jeff C. ruined the stone under the canopy with a burnout... same hotel that we left under the ez-up going to the awful house to juggle eggs...also, one of the things that are in common with all of these things is that Steve D. from Performance SS was either present or fleeing in all instances, including the creation of the original "_affle house" sign.

That was a good year, but so were all the rest.....
Q:TJ K. - MD
A:(5? 8?) car group burnout in a tunnel in Memphis (under the airport runway IIRC)

630 miles in 8.5 hours door to door. Only slightly impressive (and not at all given the record set by the Cannonball crew) but I was in a caravan with a guy driving a ~ 13 year old firebird with an iron duke that couldn't break 90 except drafting downhill. :D

Open collectors runs around the track, resulting in gunshot sounds as I hit the rev limiter coming out of the first turn
Q:Dean F. - MI
A:Well, my first year was '98 in St. Louis. I had an absolute BLAST! I've never given so many people rides on an auto-X course in my life. Since then, I've never missed an event and hopefully never will.

It's the final day of road course action of Memphis '00. I'm passing everybody like they're parked and have quit looking in my mirrors. I've been signed off, so there's no instructor with me, and I'm enjoying the ride as I gobble up the track and the other drivers. Because there's always a lull in the action on the main stretch, I go through the (now standard) routine of checking gauges and my mirrors. Gauges are all OK, but when I look in the inside rear-view, I can see nothing but black WS-6. What the...? I give the pass signal and he passes me like I'm using a walker! No problem, I dog his butt! I pushed the gas to the floor, as if that would help. Within half a lap, I'm wondering where he went.

After the session, I went to find out who that "masked man" was. Turned out that Nick S. had "borrowed" a car, apparently just to teach me a lesson. He did! Always check your mirrors, cuz you're NEVER the fastest car on the track!!!
Q:Dave Z. - DE
A:1. Trailering "down the mountain" in the dark, on the way with some Molly Hatchet turned up to 60. Next time, I'll just choose to catch up in the flat sections.

2. Coming off turn 2 (Memphis) with a student who executed an absolutely bueautiful track-out(that I was NOT able to duplicate myself), with an almost involuntary "WOOO!". I learned that I should warn students ahead of time that if they were to actually do something 100% right, that the way they need to deal with the next section of track is DIFFERENT than when the previous section is done 80% right.

3. I took a ride in the 600HP vette to breakfast.. "It's not scary-- once the tires break loose all you can use is half throttle anyway" -yeah, that was comforting.

4. The part of the announcment on the radio that said "If you are in a mobile home, GET OUT!". :o
Q:Chris A. - NC
A:Doing carb tuning at the Memphis event one year, I made about 15 passes where I would shut down the engine and pull off on the return road to check my plugs. Every single car that went down the track stopped to ask if I needed any help.

What finally sunk in is that once you attend the event you become part of a family. The family is often dysfunctional, but a family nonetheless. :)

Another favorite memory was when a group of event guys were doing burnouts on a service road a couple blocks from the hotel. Tony R. asked me to do one in his car since he just couldn't seem to do one. I proceeded to take about 15,000 miles worth of rubber off his tires then reminded him that he needs to turn off his traction control first.
Q:Pat J. - IN
A:I think it was in Indy, but a few of us were hanging out in the hotel parking lot and someone's kid was riding around on a Razor scooter. Since nothing was going on, I threw a few cones out in the parking lot and made a slalom. Being the responsible adults that we are, we "borrowed" the scooter. Before long, it turned into a 15 turn scootercross course, we added numbers and a cupholder to the scooter and added the little-known, SCCA approved mandatory shot or guzzled beer halfway through the course. As night fell, drunken racing on a child's toy in the dark was ruled "not dangerous enough", so the sanctioning body deemed that all competitors must run the course with two large lit bottle rockets strapped to the scooter under your feet, and they would explode right about when you tried to make the second or third turn. After much heated competition, Kevin D. was crowned "Grand Master Scootercross Champion of the Midwest" by virtue of finishing the course 14 times out of 18 attempts, but making it through the drink station on 17 of them.
Q:Joe M. - OH
A:Jove M. realizing that although the Janis Joplin 8-track would play, he couldn't hear it over the exhaust.

Doug J. learning (and proving that we are never too old to learn) that the best way to stop a spinning trailer tire is NOT to use your hand.

Half of the caravan taking the REALLY long way around Louisville, and then driving like the wind to catch up with the rest of the caravan that took the short way. (I was trying to guide them, but it was like herding cats)

Tom B. trying to find something in the bed of his truck and accidentally setting off his fire extinguisher

Team Classic BBQ's

Oh hell, the whole damn thing's just a blast!
Q:Larry M. - OH
A:How about cajuns [Steve D.] doing burnouts with their cars still strapped on their trailers?