First of all let me thank those of you have have already sent in your checks for the Saturday luncheon, this is very much appreciated and it makes things a bit easier on me...at least mentally anyhow. The deadline is September 9th for me to receive your checks so don't put it off too long. By the time you get the next update it may be too late to get your reservation in! If you need a form, email me and I will send one to you.
Now, I have an interesting idea that I borrowed from Wayne Thomas; founder and President of the Firehawk Association of America. What Wayne is doing for the Rally back in Ohio to get full participation in all events is making those FAOA members whose dues are current eligible for a special prize. Here's how it works: If you attend all three events of the FirehawkFest (Lunch, drag racing, either as a spectator or participant and the car show on Sunday) you will get 1 entry in a special drawing that will be held before any other door prizes are given away at the car show on Sunday. So the person who wins this will get first pick of all the prizes that are available and so far we have some pretty nice prizes in there including a set of 4 Firehawk SS20 passenger car tires. Check out the Firehawk web site for a complete list of sponsors at: www.firehawk.org
I made a few trips to Sacramento Raceway Park and talked to the owners and they are going to accomodate us by letting us hold a round of eliminations on Saturday evening when they normally only have heads-up grudge races. Everyone who wants to participate in the drag racing will have time to make several time trials and try to figure out a dial-in time for your car. There will be plenty of "experts" at the luncheon to help you figure all this out if this isn't making any sense to you. Once everybody has a "dial-in time" then we can start the racing action. We are going to use a handicapped start where the car with the slower time (dialed-in) will leave first. The slower car will leave ahead of the faster car by the time differnce dialed in by the two cars. In essence, that means that the two cars will hit the finish line at the same time. But once you factor in temperature changes, driver's reaction times, missed shifts, etc, etc, etc... it's anybody's race. Consistency and reaction times are what will win this event. You must have a helmet if your car is faster than 14.00 seconds and that means almost all of you will need one. You must wear long pants too; no shorts. And once the sun goes down you will appreciate the long pants as it gets pretty cool after dark. I am having a jacket made up as a prize for the winner of the drag racing event. It is a satin type finish in black and will be emblazoned with "Firehawk Association of America" across the back. You will be able to see the jacket at the luncheon and if it does not fit you, I will make one in your size and ship it to you when it is done. To offset a partial cost of the jacket I must charge all entrants an extra $5 who want to race in the Firehawk Eliminations. This is in addition to what Sacramento Raceway Park charges for their admission. They charge $35 for the car and driver. Spectators are $5 each.
There will be other drag racing throughout the evening as it is a regularly scheduled grudge racing night so you can race to your hearts content and you do not have to enter the Firehawk Eliminations if you don't want to. I am just trying to recoup some of the cost of the jacket by charging participants $5 each. If you want to purchase one after seeing what they look like see me at the show on Sunday and we can go over the details.
I have scheduled the luncheon to begin at 1PM on Saturday at Cattlemens Restaurant at 12409 Folsom Blvd, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670. Their phone number is 916-985-3030. They are located just down the road from the Hallmark Suites (our host hotel). I will be at the Hallmark Suites sometime on Friday evening if any body is checking in for a Friday night stayover. If anybody needs directions to either the Hallmark Suites or Cattlemens Restaurant let me know or you can try www.mapquest.com too.
Following the luncheon we are cruising over to the drag strip for some fun and the Firehawk Eliminations if you are interested in trying to win the jacket. If you do not wish to race your Firehawk you are welcome to join us there as a spectator and watch the action.
I talked to Pat Gumm from the Pontiac Club and they will be mailing out the applications for the car show right now so you should be receiving yours any day in the mail if you have contacted her for an application form. The form only idicates one class for Firehawks but she has told me that we will have two classes because of our numbers attending the show. Make sure you mail the application back to her so they can get a good number for the Firehawks attending the show. This will help in placing all of our cars together and securing us two classes and therefore twice as many awards from the Pontiac Club.
I hope this covers everything. If it does not, let me know and I'll be happy to answer any of your questions.
Regards,
Bob Deffenbaugh
1993 Firehawk #110 and Organizer of the West Coast FirehawkFest
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