Cal Club Autocross Forums

So some of the guys and I were sitting around at the race down in San Diego doing a bit of bench racing and we were recalling the good ol'days and how much fun the Night of the Living Dead events were.

So I was wondering if we could still do something like this?

The second thing that I was thinking of was that what if we could do this in some fashion as a charity event for Karen Zeterman to help raise some money for any medical bills that she may have or even to treat her to something nice?

I don't know, I was just thinking, let me know, I've never put a event on from start to finish but I would sure like to help Karen and do a NOTLD event again.

Thank's
Marc

Thanks Marc, very nice thought ... but, no worries. The deductibles weren't that bad and insurance is covering pretty much everything. Since her income won't be that great ... although THANK YOU CA SDI, she can probably write-off the "overages."

I've been turning down out of town work ... but again, no biggie


Night of the Living Dead IS fun ... and if it ever comes up again, it should be the Renee Angel Memorial Event

Beginning of the night:

(Ladies and Gents: Jeff Barco!)

End of the night:

"Bitches in ditches!"

Mako- Agreed about Renee Angel event. Another special lady in my book.

I still recall her coming unglued when I was just a snot nosed kid running my Tacoma and we got late in the day and lost our 3rd runs. I wrote something stupid on my tailgate about it for everyone to see... Now that I'm a little older I don't think I would do that again but God SHE WAS MAD!!! Oh God if you were there the words between the two of us. We both laughed about it later but damn....

Well I would love to do another NOTLD, what do you and everyone think of that? Maybe when Karen's ready to race?

Marc Leininger wrote:Well I would love to do another NOTLD, what do you and everyone think of that?

We quit doing NOTLD for several reasons. Here are a few, in no particular order:

1. I was chased around the middle (way off racing line) by an Evo who got a little sideways and then lost. (The Evo got lost. I apparently "won" the game of who was most maneuverable. Evos can't turn for crap while giving chase.)
2. We were notified that there are sound ordinances in play that we would be violating.
3. It became harder to justify the changing conditions with the increasing number of non-headlight cars.
4. If we made it a non-points event, we couldn't even cover costs. Seven of ten people seemed to only come because it was in the overall points chase.
5. The year we dropped it, we got so many written or verbal thank-you messages that we realized it was an event theme whose time had passed.

KJ Christopher wrote:

Marc Leininger wrote:Well I would love to do another NOTLD, what do you and everyone think of that?

We quit doing NOTLD for several reasons. Here are a few, in no particular order:

1. I was chased around the middle (way off racing line) by an Evo who got a little sideways and then lost. (The Evo got lost. I apparently "won" the game of who was most maneuverable. Evos can't turn for crap while giving chase.)
2. We were notified that there are sound ordinances in play that we would be violating.
3. It became harder to justify the changing conditions with the increasing number of non-headlight cars.
4. If we made it a non-points event, we couldn't even cover costs. Seven of ten people seemed to only come because it was in the overall points chase.
5. The year we dropped it, we got so many written or verbal thank-you messages that we realized it was an event theme whose time had passed.

KJ... Your a jerk!

You smashed my dreams and then had the nerve to spit on them!

But on a serious note. I can see your points hold water. I wish they hadn't, but I don't think there's much I can do about it. I have my memories I suppose.

Thanks for the input.

How about doing it with the Lone Pine Time Trials....
That was always Graig and Renee`s pet event.
Maybe doing it on fri nite, and run the time trials on sat/sun
Or........run a separate event on sat nite.
Just a thought, I`ll crawl back under the rock now.

Yeah ... Friday night after the welcome kegger!

John Ward wrote:How about doing it with the Lone Pine Time Trials....
That was always Graig and Renee`s pet event.
Maybe doing it on fri nite, and run the time trials on sat/sun
Or........run a separate event on sat nite.
Just a thought, I`ll crawl back under the rock now.

^^ Under that rock is about how much light there is out there at night (I usually stay at the track). You'd need a small fortune in lighting, which would evaporate our meager profit to give to charity pretty fast. Unless we could get 8-10 people with tow hitches to 'borrow" some CalTrans night lighting on the way up there..................

Mako Koiwai wrote:Yeah ... Friday night after the welcome kegger!

Even Better
Every one knows you drive better after you down a couple of frosty ones.

Er....Apologies to members of M.A.D.D.

Rick Brown wrote:

John Ward wrote:How about doing it with the Lone Pine Time Trials....
That was always Graig and Renee`s pet event.
Maybe doing it on fri nite, and run the time trials on sat/sun
Or........run a separate event on sat nite.
Just a thought, I`ll crawl back under the rock now.

^^ Under that rock is about how much light there is out there at night (I usually stay at the track). You'd need a small fortune in lighting, which would evaporate our meager profit to give to charity pretty fast. Unless we could get 8-10 people with tow hitches to 'borrow" some CalTrans night lighting on the way up there..................

Didn`t say it would be easy. Couple of generators and alot of shop lights and.......................never mind.
Back under the rock I go.

Just time it with a full moon ... NO headlights allowed.

THIS Saturday outside of Lonepine:

The NOLD "night of the living dead" was one of my favorite events of the year. I loved driving with my headlights illuminating the dark track. I ran at Devore and Norton and finally at Speedway. As the years passed the lap time got shorter and shorter and more people were jumping class to run in the early group. I still had a great time every year but it was getting more difficult to manage and potentially dangerous for workers. One year I ran at 3: AM worked till 5: AM and then drove to San Diego for a second Auto-x. I miss the NOLD but understand why we don't do it anymore. It was a huge amount of work and expense to run it. It messes up the points for many. Some people were so tired after they were not comfortable driving home.

I don't think it should be a points event but how about this?

Limited entry "fun" event, no early runs, run in conjunction with an existing weekend event. AAA wants us out by 10. Dunno El Toro's rules. So just keep it down to a couple hours. With no problems you should be able to get 250 runs in, so maybe 80 or so entries. I'd make it two run groups, no classes, just for fun. Done at dark-early season so all runs are with headlights. No headlights? Not for you.

Does that cover everything on KJ's list except man-eating Evo's? BTW, at nite circle track events held up here you had to show up with white shirt and light pants or you didn't get through the gate. Even spectators. Lot's of people got turned away, but they learned fast.

Mako Koiwai wrote:Just time it with a full moon ... NO headlights allowed.

THIS Saturday outside of Lonepine:

Bill Martin wrote:I don't think it should be a points event but how about this?

Limited entry "fun" event, no early runs, run in conjunction with an existing weekend event. AAA wants us out by 10. Dunno El Toro's rules. So just keep it down to a couple hours. With no problems you should be able to get 250 runs in, so maybe 80 or so entries. I'd make it two run groups, no classes, just for fun. Done at dark-early season so all runs are with headlights. No headlights? Not for you.

Does that cover everything on KJ's list except man-eating Evo's? BTW, at nite circle track events held up here you had to show up with white shirt and light pants or you didn't get through the gate. Even spectators. Lot's of people got turned away, but they learned fast.

This is exactly what I thinking.
El Toro would be cool since it flat and open. We could set up the course with a really forced flow like the last event in the rain. If you got turned around out there you had your eyes closed. Not to mention we could do something like hand out diver bands at the end of a course walk to ensure that everyone has actually walked it

We could do it as a Fun Friday Night event before a Saturday practice and Sunday Race so that we wouldn't need to pick up the cones that night and we could just run it the same direction as the practice that way it would be different enough for the racers on race day.

"Come on KJ. come on, come ooommmnnnn, I promise I'll feed him and take him for walks everyday!"

I think it would be great fun. Everyone that ever went out to these events seemed to have a blast.