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Earlier Run | |||
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Action || Results || Report || People || Lowland || Speedsters |
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Gene Kicha, left, orchestrates his Safety Check staff into two lines to check all speedsters and lowland tourers if requested |
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| Rattler and Friday organized the event, but Gene Kicha from Spokane, WA, organized the Safety Inspection Team. He called on experts from both sides of Washington State to review each speedster for items that may be “unsafe” if left unattended. He ran two lines so that the large number of cars could be checked quickly and without too much delay. A surprising number of missing cotter pins and lock washers plagued some beleaguered participants. But, Gene had a mini hardware store of pins and washers available to help safety any car that was short the mandatory locking devices. Bud Cheney from Idaho Falls, ID, also provided much needed “new” repro parts for anyone that might have needed one as well. Loyd Beaver of Corvallis, MT assisted a few with welding and machine work when needed too. Bottom line was that if a car needed fixin’ it could be done on the spot thanks to Rattler’s support team. | ||||
| Saturday night is usually dinner on your own, but Reed and Carol invited everyone up to their fine spread in Victor for a BBQ dinner in the hay barn. Their log home is situated on a knoll overlooking their green lush field and the Bitterroot Valley. The surrounding outbuildings have “T” parts galore and kept the hungry horde at bay while hamburgers and hot-dogs were grilled to perfection. | ||||
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Beth (left) and Phil Horine of Portland, OR take home movies on the way to the Photo Shoot. The Sapphire Mountain Range is in the background. |
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| Sunday dawned with clear signs of fall in the air at the 3,270ft level that the city of Hamilton rests on. The crisp morning required layering up. The forecast was perfect. Partly cloudy with a chance of thundershowers with highs about 75 degrees. Forty-eight speedsters and seventeen lowland cars lined up at 7AM for an 8AM departure for starting positions 1-25. 26-48 would depart five minutes later. Once the national anthem was played and the maps passed out it became apparent that the maps were not the same for everyone. Perhaps a little trickery and deception at the starting line from our event host. Out of the hotel parking lot the loud deafening roar of the first twenty-five exhaust notes woke up the small town in a hurry. The route went south through town then every other car turned west on New York Avenue or continued to Main before turning west. Cars joggled north, then across the Bitterroot Valley to Eastside Highway. The first checkpoint was a block off Eastside Highway in the tiny town of Corvallis. Many missed this one, or had to turn back to pick it up. | ||||
| A thirty-minute coffee break in the morning at Fort Owen allowed enough time to see some of this historical site. After coffee it was time to get back to nature and visit the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge. Other than a few wild birds the only “wildlife” spotted were crazed speedster drivers that wouldn’t listen to their navigators. Sort of like Lewis and Clark not listening to Sacajawea and getting lost up the “River of No Return.” The route to lunch remained, for the most part east, of Highway 93 and the Bitterroot River heading south again then west towards Victor. Right smack in the middle of town on Main Street was another checkpoint. It was the only thing happening in Victor on this late Sunday morning. A few miles later found us all back at the Olsen’s for a fine catered lunch. | ||||
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Does this look like a driveway?? Well no it isn’t…it is the infamous Humble Lane that was “gated” for the early arrivers!! The Bitterroot Range is off to the west in the distance. |
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| After lunch was gobbled the 2nd half route maps were passed out. Some of the drivers and navigators wished they could too! Our route jumped back over to the Eastside of Highway 93 again and north to Humble Lane. For those that were in front after lunch, they found the road looking more like a driveway than a road. Lo and behold there was not one, but two closed gates on it. A quick discussion with a nearby property owner convinced the owner that the gates should remain open for the forty plus cars to come. More treachery on the part of the host?? Don’t know!! But all cars did get through. | ||||
| That didn’t much matter to yours truly and his navigator. Our “Sacajawea Wanna Be” decided that a trip through the Sapphire Mountain Range to find the navigable route that Lewis and Clark couldn’t find might be up Willow Creek Road. After a half an hour of some of the most wretched gravely roads this side of the Continental Divide we decided to ask a local for directions. The local said we were not on the map anymore. Nuff said !! We finished 31st out of the forty-one that finished the route. | ||||
| Amazingly, the top five finishers were separated by less than ten points. Da Juan Kimbell and navigator Kurt Recknagle in car #444, a Model T speedster from Richland, WA narrowly nipped veterans Walt and Mary Berdan from Bellevue, WA in car #118 by only one point to take the top prize. Kurt commented at the awards banquet that he encouraged Da Juan to “pass everybody” and did so passing Walt and Mary on the final 4-lane road back to the hotel. Da Juan commented also that she now knew more about Model T engines than she cared to, after slipping in her third engine just days before the run to find the right combination. Evidently the combination of engine, driver and navigator worked well for the happy couple on this run. | ||||
| Rounding out the top five was Royal and Connie Little from Yakima, WA in a Model A #115 finishing 3rd overall, Darrel and Jeanine Pitts from Bellingham, WA in car #117 in 4th and finally in the 5th spot was Mark and Kathi Eckerich from Cheney, WA in car #129. Three Model T’s and two Model A’s dominated the top five spots giving the Fords another sweep with all cars hailing from Washington State. The top non-Ford finisher was a 1928 Chevrolet driven by Helen Reichlin, Mt. Vernon, WA in car #280 in 16th place. | ||||
| Defending champions Dave and Jill Howie finished 12th overall after Jill promised to “eat no dust,” and Memorial Weekend winners Bill and Jan Hills finished dead last of all the finishers suffering two flat tires in their newly acquired PACO bodied 16-valve Roof overhead powered Model T. It’s huge straight pipe bellows out the sweetest exhaust note when uncorked. The car is a great example of a 20’s era speedster with Model T lineage and otherwise performed flawlessly. | ||||
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