WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD!

By Barb Peterson

Sue Green, Andrea Lacis, and Barb Peterson had been planning this trip for nearly a year - since right after the 2005 Runoffs at Mid-Ohio when we found out Runoffs were moving to Heartland Park Topeka. We all put in for vacation time; then I lost my job in May due to downsizing, Sue’s job followed in August, and Andrea’s boss needed to be ‘coerced’ into approving her time off. We decided we were going one way or another so we revised our plans to accommodate all of us in Sue’s motorhome (instead of taking hers and mine); mutually decided on menus, who was bringing which personal items (we didn’t really need 3 hair dryers!) and which food items, and when/how/where we would all meet up to leave. Andrea lives near Road America, I live in Brookfield WI (outside Milwaukee), and Sue near Harvard IL (which is also where the motorhome was located). Andrea met me at my house and we drove to Sue’s together on Friday; I had already made one trip to Sue’s and dropped stuff off, so we had plenty of space - especially since Sue was at my place on Thursday and took most of Andrea’s stuff with her!

We finally got on the road about 8:00 Saturday morning after multiple errands on Friday the 6^th, including loading the motorhome, last minute shopping and dropping off Sue‘s SUV for some bodywork. Sue drove and Andrea navigated; turns out all 3 of us got AAA trip-tiks, each starting from a different place. After a stop at the World’s Largest Truck stop (Fascinating: 3 full size semi cabs inside, one with trailer; 4 fast food, 1 regular restaurant, lots of shopping, plus showers/ dentist/ barber/movie theatre, etc.), and several other stops for fuel and food, we made it to HTP about 6PM. After a quick stop in registration, we had to ask for special parking help - the motorhome was overheating from idling so long while we sat in a very long parking line; seems HTP was escorting EVERYONE to their assigned parking/ paddock spot. But they got us in and settled before we had major problems. We were as far as possible from almost everything: registration for Sue and Andrea, Grid & ES for me. Not to mention that the online selection page for spots was incorrect, and we weren’t where we thought we would be; we had chosen an end spot on purpose. It didn’t work out that way, but it worked.

Sue and Andrea worked registration from 7-12 Sunday the 8^th; I had planned it to be my single day off, so I picked up our golf cart and meandered to find Grid, worker camping, shopping, tech (which is also where ES meets each morning). I picked up Sue and Andrea so we could all wander and shop before they went back to registration to work 4-8. I met with Phil Bresnahan, Jason Kepka, Kat Beimel, Russ Ferling, and Olaf Abrahamson who brought down the Chicago Region ES trucks and equipment. We got them settled in a camping spot and they went to work on the truck bumpers to make them pretty for the cameras. I even managed to watch part of the Trans Am race. We all did some shopping at the HTP shop; can’t go to a new track and not come home with SOMETHING that has the track logo/name…

Monday it was up early for all of us to shower, dress and get to our assigned spots. Sue and Andrea dropped me off at Grid on their way to registration. It’s freezing cold, and the grid tent does NOT have a heater! It does, however, have wizards and flying monkeys. Ok, are ya sure we’re in Kansas? Everybody’s short staffed this early in the week, so Sue and Andrea worked late. We all had part of the afternoon off, and took naps. The Topeka welcome party had awesome Kansas beef; the party of course had a ‘Wizard of Oz’ theme, and they shot off fireworks at the end of the night.

Tuesday I worked one of the Chicago trucks (with Phil, Mark Kolpack, and ‘Big Ed’ from New England region) in the morning, driving; got a trip around the track for familiarization. There were very few calls for ES. I sent Olaf off to the motorhome to make coffee for the guys. He scared our friend Sue Storer when he walked in; she was reading in the motorhome… Then I worked Grid all afternoon in COLD and RAIN! Clearly the weatherman lied: this is NOT 70 and sunny. Sue and Andrea worked registration again all morning. By the time I got off the Grid I was so cold all I wanted was jammies and my down comforter. So I stayed in for dinner while Sue and Andrea went to the worker party. Sue went off to the Production Driver’s party for about 45 minutes after that, but it was cold, and everyone was turning in early, so she came home.

Sue and Andrea dropped me off at Grid again on their way to registration Wednesday morning. It was another cold icky day; none of us packed for this! I want warmer gloves, a scarf and earmuffs!! You can bet they’ll be on the list for next year; I don’t care WHAT the weather prediction is the week before the event. Scott Sanda was paddocked right across from us; he was not having a great week; he picked up something heavy, and had back spasms which made it tough to drive. He was doing better earlier in the week, but still said he had a good time. Worker party had Kansas beef again - I see why everyone raves about it.

Thursday dawned cold and dreary again; the weather was NOT very nice! I worked a truck all day, again with the same crew and at the same corner. It was the last day of qualifying, so the drivers were all pushing the limit. There was only 1 serious call: a prod car went in sideways at 4, and the driver got knocked out for a short time. He wound up being transported, but no serious injuries. Sue and Andrea did registration again for the morning; they say they have learned a lot working with folks from all over the country. There’s an awesome hard ID card program that they want to get for BVR. We all had special edition Runoff’s ones made - very cool. Sue, Sue Storer and Andrea spent part of their afternoon at Wal-Mart in town, and did some shopping at the SCCA store.

Friday: another cool rainy day, and we had to start early (7:00, with cars on course at 7:30) due to the number of races. They ‘held’ the first group for TV - the grid chief was NOT happy, and gave drivers a 2min and 1min after control called to send them out, as they shut down the cars due to overheating. Wish I could have heard the conversation in control when she went up there! I got to split the GT2 race: Scott Sanda started 19, finished 15 and said he had a good time. Sue and Andrea again worked registration all morning; they stayed extra hours almost every day, as the help was needed. The SSC’s managed to take out 6 cars on lap 2 or 3, so that was exciting. We all napped part of the afternoon; none of us are used to getting up this early every day. I won a mixed bag of goodies, and Andrea won stuff from Burt Levy, a favorite racing author.

Saturday dawned sunny, and it finally warmed up to upper 60’s by mid-afternoon. It was my last work day, and I spent it on the Chicago Region ES truck at 14. The ES crew got pizza for lunch, bought by our chief. Sue and Andrea spent their last day in registration, and scored some worker giveaways from Toyo Tires and the SCCA tent. We all went to the final worker party, as they gave out the specialty worker of the year awards; no one from BVR/Chi/Milw won any of those. But I won one of the Wizard of Oz contest prizes - a small ruby slippers statue and a notepad - thanks to Sue’s help, as she had gone online to check answers none of us knew! We headed back to the warmth of the motorhome early to read and watch movies.

We couldn’t figure out how it got to be Sunday so quick. We slept in a bit, and then we all (including Sue Storer) went for breakfast during warm-ups. Then we did some last minute shopping and packing before watching the first couple of races.

The GT1 race was AWESOME; Max Lagod went from 23^rd on the grid to finish 2^nd. He had blown up 2 engines in his Corvette during Trans Am weekend before, and drove home to Illinois on Monday as he had no extra motors. On Thursday he decided to pull out the old Camaro, fix the Cam shaft, and drive back. “Hello, crew? C’mon, we’re going back”… They got back to HPT Friday evening, tech’d the car Saturday, and it hit the track for the first time in 2 or 3 years for the Sunday morning warm-up. Given that the 1^st two laps were done under yellow flag for a car off at 2 with a missing wheel, Max drove like a madman. It was a phenomenal race to watch as the lead car got a flat the 2^nd last lap, and the 3^rd place car broke a couple laps before that. We went to Winner’s Circle to congratulate him before heading back to Illinois. Sue bought a new house the Friday after Runoffs, and had to sign paperwork on Monday morning. We had an uneventful trip home after meeting Andrea’s brother in western Iowa to get 300# of beef for her; it came in 2 huge coolers that we had to tuck in the motorhome with everything else we had. We reached Sue’s house about midnight and were all asleep by 1 am. Andrea’s husband picked her up at Sue’s on Monday morning, and I finally left for home about 2pm, after making arrangements to return Tuesday to help Sue pack the rest of the week and move on Saturday.

Runoffs was a blast, and we’ll all do it again (I haven’t missed one in 25 years). This year had some issues, but new events like this one almost always have glitches to be worked out the first year. Renting the golf cart was a great move on our part; it would have been long walks for all of us without it. I liked the Grid layout. Sue and Andrea learned a ton in Registration, and have lots of good ideas to bring back home and share. I have some suggestions for ES, but overall it was a great week. And no, we never did get to see the Wizard. No way, no how.