A BIG "Five Cent Racing" THANK-YOU to all of the people who helped make this year's Carlisle meet a success:
Alan Merklin for his tireless negotiations with the Ramada, even when they seemed to be changing their minds in mid-stream. Also, for his equally tireless negotiations with Rillo's when they really were changing their minds in mid stream (several times).
Bill Drayer for, once again, giving us some great cruises to dinner, AND setting up things at the Caddy Shack. Bill had some family issues (his Dad had Pulminory Fibrosis) which took him home early Saturday and we all missed him a lot.
Cory and Teresa: Cory for making all of this year's awards (his ideas were WAY better than anything I came up with, believe me) and making them all personal to the winners. Absolutely terrific and he was supposed to be recuperating from his neck accident so maybe this was good therapy??
Teresa for providing (FINALLY!) a professional audio system (I still had my voice at the end of the evening!!) a knock-out digital video projector, AND a really spiffy slide show of 356/550 stuff during dinner. She also put together all of Jack Crosby's slides for his travelogue.
Chris Nichols, for taking a LOT of truly great pictures of the meet and (I believe) putting together Dusty's slides for the "West meets East" Dusty show. Chris, it seems, also puts in yeoman service helping out others with car troubles and this year was no exception. He also had to put up with riding with ME to and from Carlisle for the past five years - No easy feat, believe me!
Jack and Russ Crosby, and Dusty and the Lovely Miss Sharon for taking the time to stop and take some great pictures of their trips and THEN provide us all with commentary of the slides at dinner. It's always a risk asking people you don't really know to do something like that, and I'm happy to say that it turned out better than I had hoped!! They were GREAT!!
All of the folks who donated such terrific Raffle items, and especially Henry Reisner for the side trim, Carey Hines for the Repro Leitz Luggage Rack, Al Shapiro for that Reyn Spooner, Speedster Hawaiian Shirt (and we all know those ain't cheap!!), Dave Salvato for those two great grill badges, Leon for the Steering Box, Lane for cleaning out his entire garage of spare parts, and all the other folks that I'm too brain-dead to remember what they sent or brought. Several people commented to me after dinner that it was the best Raffle ever!
BTW: The money we raise from the raffle is the ONLY source of income for this meet. It pays for things like the group tent and table set-up, the awards (which are never especially cheap, 'cuz we give really good stuff!) and so forth and if we need to place a deposit on something it covers that, too. Some years I've gone a Hundred or two in the hole, and other years I make it back, so I guess everything evens out in the long run. All in all....it's a good time on a shoe-string budget (just like "Five Cent Racing").
Lastly, thanks to all of YOU who showed up in spite of the crappy, chilly, cloudy and rainy weather. Thursday was beautiful for traveling and dinner, then Saturday was the only half-way decent day and even THAT was chilly and I don't think my feet will dry out for another day or so, but I wouldn't miss seeing all Y'all for the World.
Jim Ignacio! Wear that Pineapple Hat with pride! Those are all your East Coast friends who signed it!! We were all honored that you went all this way to see us, and please try to convince Vince that we're only half as weird as he imagined....(of course, he has a VIVID imagination...)
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Gordon
1993 CMC, 2110cc, mild "Outlaw"
Satisfied Organizer of "Speedsters Meet Spyders at Carlisle 2008"
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