Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Congregation Grows

Things got real busy for me right about then, but most of the things that happed were good news.
A friend of ours, Mike Norton, is one of the owners of Bull’s Corner, our usual watering hole and about the best eatery in LaPlace. He had not been around the day we brought Hugh’s car back from Florida. We had stopped by for a cool one on the way to the house (and maybe to show off just a little). Keith and Pat who are both diehard racing fans were there and rushed out side to take a look.
Hugh’s car has a very tight cockpit and it was way too small for Keith who is a really big guy. Pat jumped right in and made himself at home.
Any way, Mike heard us talking racing over the next few weeks and decided it sounded like fun to him. He had raced a Porsche in the past and wanted to get back into the sport. We helped him find a car and next thing we knew he bought it.

It is a Zink C4 that a couple of guys in Virginia had found in a barn and restored enough to use it to go through drivers school and run for their first season. The only problem was that it was in Virginia and we were not.

As it happened I was about to make one of my regular trips to north Florida for meetings related to a house I had designed for my Aunt Louise. Hugh was planning to go with me and we were going to make a side trip to Milledgeville for a quick visit with our cousin Marion. (Marion is the author of Their Last Lap at Indy which was published under one of her pen names, DeNonie Barber) It was also sort of a nostalgia trip for Hugh since he had attended Georgia Military College in Milledgeville and would have a chance to see what forty five years had done to his old campus.

I had talked with Bill Coursey, who was selling the car to Mike and discovered that he had family in Macon which is near Milledgeville. Bill is neat guy, and like most Vee people was more than willing to go out of his way to help other Vee drivers. He is the headmaster at a private school in Virginia and was taking his vacation during the summer break period. He also was planning to visit with the family in Macon. Since the car was being sold with a trailer, we had timed out trip to coincide with his and he dragged it down and met us in a parking lot on Hugh’s old campus.
He and his racing partner, Rick Krason, had obtained the Zink and cleaned it up nicely. Rick is a veterinarian and a neighbor of Bills. I think they are buying another car and will continue to race Vees.

We drove back to LaPlace and got in touch with Mike. The next day we delivered the car to the new home he and Bonnie were finishing out. I would give my eyeteeth for the garage space he has under the house. You could put six cars in there.

So here we were, less than six months after we started this thing and already we have three cars in the class. I have just heard from Barry Boussard that he is buying another C4, so that will make four.
If Gregg and Tom get the one they are looking at then it will be five. With five running it will not be long before we have a real field.

Who said I couldn’t preach?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The number 2 car looks like one I built for pine box derby when I was a boy scout. Sleak and silver.

FM must stand for Freakin Magic!

3:23 PM  

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