We had a great weekend at the American Le Mans races in Portland this weekend. It was hot, 93 degrees in the air and 112 track temperature. But, the races were very competitive. We even enjoyed the Mazda Miata series. They utilize a nice technique of "bump and drag" that the other cars were not using. Basically you ram the guy in front of you and then, if he does not spin off the track, drag behind him. This is repeated until he gets out of the way and lets you pass. Very effective. They also had a "drifiting" exhibition. These are 500 hp cars with very slick wheels. They would slide sideways up to 200 feet going into the corners. They went around a bunch of corners sliding sideways the whole way. It was AWESOME. As for the main race, you can't beat having 4 classes of cars all on the track at the same time. It makes it very tricky for the fastest cars (prototype 1) to weave their way through much slower cars. Once again, the Corvettes dominated the weekend taking the 1 and 2 spots in the main race for their class and winning the GT1 race, again 1 & 2, on Sunday.

My favorite car in the GT series is the Cadillac STS. Yes, a 4 door sedan racing against Porsches, Vipers and Corvettes. Unfortunately for Sunday's race, the Cadillacs have some dominated the series that their 3 cars were loaded to the max with "bonus weight." In the GT series when a car wins, they add weight to the car for the next race (up to 250 pounds). After the midpoint of the finishers, the losers have weight taken off the car. This keeps the series very competitive. It's a pretty cool concept. Even with the max weight, the Cadillacs finished in the top 10.

Another highlight was watching 15 year old Graham Rahall win his first race in the Star Mazda series on Saturday. He is Bobby Rahall's son and he kicked but to win the race. The Star Mazdas are like the Champ/CART/Indy cars only a little smaller. It won't take him long to be up with the big boys.

On a lighter note, there was much drinking, eating and revelry had by all at the races. We went down Saturday mid-afternoon and stayed in out motorhome through Sunday. Everything was going well until we threw a fan belt on the motorhome coming home on Sunday (right next to Woodland). Fortunately, my dad is a mechanic and he got the belt off (it was miraculously still intact) and reinstalled it. That carried us to Longview where the belt finally broke in half. It was ugly looking when it busted. After it came off the first time, we sent my friends wife to Schucks for a new belt. She arrived shortly after the belt finally broke. Once the new belt was installed we cruised right on home wth no further incidents.

On a much lighter note, I was reading an auto magazine over the weekend. There was a quote in there from a Formula One driver about women drivers that could have come straight out of Happa's keyboard. He stated, (this may not be the exact quote, but it's close) "Women drivers should wear all white, just like other domestic appliances." [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Happa, you are not alone in this world! There are others out there who share your warped point of view.

 

Dirtmomma, somebody is interested in buying my nephews quad and its not even forsale. So i started thinking off people with "little" quads forsale and you are the first person that came to mind. I'm not 100% sure on what exactly he is looking for. Can you post or throw me a pm with the list of quads that you got forsale. The guy that is looking works at Les Schwab down in Marysville.

 

Hope everyone had a blast that went to Sandfest [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] I aint heard tales of carnage from anyone we know yet so thats always a good thing.
interesting weekend for me. went and saw Motley Crue at the White river Amphatheater on saturday and sunday spent the day out on the lake [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Posted some new pictures from the lake on the link to OFC's Space below under the catagory WakeBoarding.

 

Ahhh, good afternoon PSAR peeps. Got a couple of days off here. Want to knock out a ride sometime on tuesday, we are gonna let Brandon run his 80 tonight at ss#3 up by the Sandvig farm. he loves all the power that thong put out for him.

 

OMG, DUNEFEST was a hoot.
Brett and I had lots of fun [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]
We got there first thing Thurs morning, weather was foggy, windy, and a little chilly.
Friday it cleared up, Fri/Sat/Sun were nice [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Nick and Berta decided to Stay instead of going to Sand Lake, that was nice.
Which worked out fine, my neighbors were right down from them and we stayed there. We even had three extra spots that didn't get used.
It was great to see those that were down there.
I think there were about 15-20 PSAR members and their friends, maybe even more.
Plus we had my neigbors and some of their friends.

It was fun watching the drags.
I think we got to see BigD, Chris, SandB, and Hap all run.
The riding was great, pretty crazy around the drag strip area camp area. They really need to limit the speed through such a congested area, we were suprised nobody got hurt there.
We went way to the South and East to ride, hardly anybody out there, what a hoot it was [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

There was a small Law Enforcement presence [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]........OK, it was a huge presence.
They were all over, in cars, on quads, on bicycles, etc.
Friday, at least 2 or three cops had people pulled over along the main road every time we came and went.
Brett talked to one of the State Troopers, and he said they all came down that way looking for some action, and to his suprise there really wasn't much (which is good for us). He said that they were just pulling people over for little things. No real big or serious incidents that we heard of. I think it went pretty well from years past, we'll see anyway when they start talking about it.

It was fun, and we look forward to next year. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Before we left on Wednesday, I had to take my buddies pressure washer back to him..........
He forced me to trade him the pressure washer for his piped and jetted Z400 [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]
He loaded it up in my trailer and made me take it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
OMG, that thing was so much fun down there. Although I didn't ride it like it was mine, I had to be kinda careful on it as it was not mine, it was so much fun. Now I can hardly wait to get one for Tam so we can share it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]


Stan, glad to hear your belt problem wasn't to bad, and you to made it home safely..........
There is something to be said for traveling in a Pack, hehehe

I just want to know if I will ever be able to take a trip and not have something go wrong [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]
This time it wasn't terribly bad, we at least made it home [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]
just after leaving Winchester, I noticed my volt meter was kinda low.
Didn't pay much attention, but kept an eye on it....
Just after getting into Washington, my ABS light came on, then I lost my blinkers and stuff, volt meter went dead.
So I turned off all my lights and AC. Meter came back to where it had been (still low).
Ran ok for a while, then the mad rush was on to make it home before dark (although not much chance of that)
Stopped at Scatter creek rest area, checked battery and it was at 11.6 V, yikes.
So we decided to make a mad dash as far as we could, but had to turn lights on as it was getting dark.
Made it a couple miles and lost everything (about MP 99). Got off the off ramp, and luckily I had my generator and battery charger for charging the trailer battery.
We sat for 1-1/2 hours letting the battery charge, then made a mad dash for the last 40 miles home.
Wahoooooo baby, we barely made it to Bretts, only had a few more miles left before not enough juice left. I would not have made it home to my house.
Gotta find a alternator before Friday, can't miss the races and Pacific Raceways.

On the way home, I used my big ol' truck and trailer to block 3 lanes of I-5. Some guy was broke down in the middle lane with his hood up. Do you think anybody would stop and help him, NOT...... I'm sure hundreds of cars past him, because in the slowdown it took us a while to finally get up to where he was. So we stopped traffic (hehehe, that was fun) and pushed him off the road. Took us less than a minute to get him off the road and open it back up for everybody. That has always been something that really drives me nuts, it takes just as long to drive around somebody and keep going as it does to stop and help them, but nobody ever does. That's pretty sad.
We came across another car that was obviously involved in a hit and run in the fast lane. She was pushed into the concrete barrier and was stuck blocking the fast lane. We were way over in the right lane and by the time we got to see what was going on we didn't have time or room to get over and help her get off the freeway. Oh well, guess you can't help 'em all.

While were were stopped, not a single car stopped in the 1-1/2 hours we were sitting there with the hood up. hehehe
I can understand why people would not want to stop in the dark to help somebody, these days you just never know.
But I'm sure there were many vehicles with 2 or 3 buddies (safety in numbers) that could have at least stopped to ask if we needed help.
But oh well, sadly that's the way it is these day.


HappaBuddy,
You are so right, you should have came.
It was a blast.
Next year I hope to reserve a block of spots so we can all camp together if folks want to.
We'll just have to decide where ?????????????

Oh well, to find and alternator I go [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Well Sean, it sounds like you had a good time all in all. Sorry about your truck, but its a Ford, what did you expect [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

We are thinkin bout goin to down on the 18th for 5 days(countin travel). I don't know where we will stay, that is still in the plannin stages.

Glad you made it home safe.

 

Saturday was awesome. The crab was yummy. Nothing better than getting to chow down on it less than 30 min after it's pulled from the water!!
My mom loved what I brought her, she didn't wait at all to eat it all up!
I definitely worked my knee over, but no better way to get it back to normal. I wasn't up for heading to Paula and John's, maybe next time. However, the pain pills did very little to alleviate the SUNBURN. LOL. My brace left some really funky burn lines. Geez.

Cool on the boat. That should be a blast. Thanks again for inviting me crabbing. I had a great time.

Glad to hear all the Dunfesters came back safe and sound.

Sean, I think I said it before when you asked about what sport quad to get, (and I am rather biased to what I own) but I really recommend the z400. I am glad you got a chance to try it out for yourself. You will love it when you get your own. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

I am off to enjoy the cool sunny afternoon.

 

Ok Jayna glad to hear all is good [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] yep hopefully we'll be doing it again w/ our own boat but it's fun to go w/ those guys they know what they are doing LOL believe it or not [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] OH man didn't even think about the sun burn around your knee LOL, I bet thats just lovely!!

Still keep your eye open for a smaller boat also though ya never know [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] we'd still like to have a little bow rider to ski behind .

Man today's weather was a good little break I don't need to see sunshine for a day believe me, so today was awesome weather [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

well ya all have a good night, gotta go finish cooking dinner yummy yummy, steak on the barbie, crab,nice salad, & baby red spuds [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]