It has been a few weeks since we wrapped things up at PittRace (Pittsburgh International Raceway) in Wampum, PA.
It all worked out very well, and a good time was had by all. The weather was a large factor. We had hit heavy rain coming across Ohio, driving in on Wednesday. Then, we had some fog and sprinkles on Thursday morning while we went golfing, but that stopped before Noon. From that point on, we had absolutely perfect weather for the rest of the weekend: Sunny, breezy, mid 70s!
With the Covid restrictions, the bar/restaurant in the Ramada Host Hotel was closed. Even though Beaver County is in the "Green Phase", they can still only have 25% indoor capacity. This made it a challenge to find restaurants where we could fit 25 people inside for dinner on Thursday and Friday. Mike Nelson did a fine job of finding accommodations for us for both evening dinners.
As folks rolled in Thursday night, we received some messages from Kevin Ziemer. Kevin had left Wisconsin the previous week, visited friends, up and down the east coast, and was 42 miles from the hotel when his MTX grenaded. He made it in on a flatbed that night. To jump ahead a bit, Brian Morgan came in with a replacement MTX on Friday. A group of folks, just using tools that came with them, completed the MTX swap in 1 hour and 16 minutes! Pictures have been posted, and we'll get them gathered in one spot (eventually) on the website.
Friday brought the SHO Car Show, which we held at PittRace, which was very conveniently 2 miles up the street from the hotel. The Car Show Awards, which were presented at the Banquet on Sunday, were as follows:
Judged Awards Tim MacBrien Bronze 1989 Modified (White)
Ryan Haise Bronze 1994 Stock
Kevin Ziemer Bronze 1989 Modified (White)
Benjamin Kadic Bronze 1989 Stock (White)
Chad Corcoran Silver 1995 Modified
Tom Ochal Silver 1993 Modified
Tim Tyner Silver 1994 Modified
Aaron Nelson Silver 1996 Modified "SHO" Wagon
Lucien Frederick Gold 2018 Modified
Willie Orpurt Gold 1999 Modified
Best of Show – Judged Willie Orpurt 1999 Modified
People's Choice Awards Best Non-SHO Mike Nelson 2019 Tesla Model 3
Best Road Warrior Matt Delbaugh Michelangelo Turtle SHO
Best Engine Tim Tyner 1994 Taurus SHO
Best Paint Willie Orpurt 1999 Taurus SHO
Best of Show Willie Orpurt 1999 Taurus SHO
After dinner on Friday, the magic happened when the group swapped out Kevin's broken MTX in 1:16!
Saturday was the beginning of Carfest, and the Carfest activities. A number of us ran the morning Autocross (Carfest had four Autocross sessions, morning & afternoon on Saturday and Sunday). Quite a nice course, it took a first-timer like me through three DNFs before I finally learned the course, and got a clean 4
th run! Tim MacBrien, the most experienced autocrosser in our bunch, ran the quickest time.
After Willie's success in the SHO Car Show, he also entered his 99 in the Carfest Car Show on Saturday. And he walked away with another Best of Show! Willie does an outstanding job of cleaning and staging his car, which is in amazing shape for a 99.
A number of us also ran the karts on the Wilson circuit, which is an outdoor track, just under a mile long. The Dyno sessions were canceled just before Carfest by the company with the portable Dynojet.
Although the attendance at Carfest was also down significantly from 2019 (and they weren't allowed more than 50% capacity), it draws a wide variety of interesting vehicles. Autointerests also has HPDE Track Days for all three days over the weekend (Friday through Sunday).
Saturday evening brought the Streetlight Drags, along part of the front straight of the track. This is a length less than an eight mile, with no timing lights. Just a streetlight on a pole. When it turns green, you go! It's all in the launch! Most of us didn't fare too well, except Tim Tyner, who took the FWD category (the others were AWD & RWD). I believe that the ultimate final eliminator was the AWD winner.
Sunday was the day that we called the track day when all of the SHO folks would run. For all of us, it was our first time on PittRace. It is excellent! 2.8 miles (we ran the full track) of almost constant elevation changes (this is western PA, after all!). We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and personally, I like it better than Mid-Ohio, another fast track. You can use power here, and it's also a bit tough on brakes. Well, for some of us who cut it a bit too close with our pad life!
Sunday evening brought our Banquet. We were under a bit of a time constraint, as we were to start at 6pm, and we had to be out by 9pm. We really didn't get started until 6:30, and I was the last one to walk out at 8:58, so we made it! It is the shortest SHO Convention Banquet on record! But, we will adjust next year to give us at least a couple more hours!
Many Thanks to Doug Lewis, of Ford Performance Specialists, who generously sponsored our Banquet! Thanks Doug!
The catering for the Banquet was quite good! In addition to a few Live Auction items, we had three of the very limited edition SHO Ratfink tee shirts, courtesy of Ken Mallinson (see it in my Photobucket link below). And I was quite surprised at the quantity of items that people brought for the Silent Auction! I had printed 50 Auction sheets, but they weren't enough. Plus we had to add more tables outside of the dining room to fit everything.
Everything in both the Live and Silent Auctions sold! For the foreseeable future, the proceeds from the Auctions will go toward the Club, as we need to build up our funds to allow us to offer Conventions in the future.
Another Award at the Banquet is the Hard Luck Award. Brayden Deux won it in 2018, but couldn't attend this year. Lucien picked up the Award from Brayden as he crossed Iowa. But not before getting his brand-new-just-days-old windshield cracked in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We hoped that he would be the Winner, but Kevin Ziemer made the strongest case, and he won the Hard Luck Award. Tim MacBrien was a strong runner-up for the Award. During the Track Day on Sunday, his swaybar link rotated on his coilover, slicing the inside of the left front tire. They black-flagged the session, as another car was also off-track and needed a tow. Tim came in on the wrecker. Fortunately, the shredded tire didn't wreck the wheel, and just had some rub marks on the fender and bumper ("That'll buff out"!). Plus, these were his track tires, and he had a street set for the drive home.
We then gave out the SHO Car Show Awards. If you notice in the Car Show Award listing above, we had three White 89s present (out of the 318 total). And if Bill Strobel wasn't stuck in Peru, he could have brought his, to make a total of four White 89s!
There are a few pictures of the Banquet in my Photobucket below, that were taken by Jen Marcu. Thanks to her and Nick Marcu, who passed them along to me.
Jason & Sarah Kennedy of Autointerests have been putting on Carfest for a number of years now. First at Mid-Ohio, and now they've been at PittRace for a few years. They run a very well organized event, and PittRace is an excellent facility!
After the Banquet on Sunday, we of course went back to the hotel, and spent the rest of the night in the parking lot (of course!!). It was a great wrap-up for a small, but IMO successful, SHO Convention. We had several people who were attending their first Convention, and all expressed an interest in returning in the future.
We created one final Award after the fact. At the Banquet, I realized that I totally forgot the Long Distance Award, for the person who drives the farthest. I sent Lucien Frederick the Award for 1,875 miles from Blackfoot Idaho to Wampum PA.
Here are three links for pictures. One is my Photobucket, the others are Mike Nelson's Google Drive, and Chad Corcoran's Flickr:
https://app.photobucket.com/u/rsporter50/a/9f1e1c70-1591-48f5-8f4f-db253010bcaa https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QHC65c2ASUfCxUmRoTt7ldw5UJd-PqQI?usp=sharing https://www.flickr.com/gp/113673744@N07/2c3bwF If anyone else has Convention pictures, please include a link in the Comments below, or in an email in the Mailing Lists. We wish to start a section on the Website for each Convention, and we would like to include everyone's picture links.
Ron Porter
President – SHO Club of America