The Prairie Lady Newsletter 3rd Quarter 2010

Dec 13, 2010 by admin

Mid-America Region Members:
With our upcoming Technical Session in St. Louis the weekend of October 22-24 at Hunter Engineering, we cap off a year that included tours through southern Kansas to view the wonderful collection of Lawrence Smith and later to Omaha NE to visit with members from Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri and visit the shop of new members Tami and Greg Werner.
In September many of us travelled to Des Moines for the annual Salisbury House Concours D'Elegance event.
All in all a pretty good year for events in our Region and we look forward to seeing more members in attendance next year.

Our Region has also grown in membership this year over preceding years and we welcome all of you to the Region. We will be publishing a list of members for distribution after the first of the year.

We would like to offer more driving events next year and if you live in an area of the region that would be interesting to show other members, give us a call and we can start the planning now for the spring. We would sure like to see more members out driving next year. We generally have excellent mechanics travelling with us on these events. If you are concerned about driving any distance and want to participate, we always have members available to assist with the driving so you can be comfortable and have fun. Many of us swap cars to drive on these events and you get the thrill of driving a more historic and classical car or experience the ease of driving a modern car. Spouses, young adults and friends are also invited and encouraged to participate in any event we sponsor.

Election of officers

The end of year is also the time for our regional election of officers. This year we have been well served by;
Gerould Sabin as editor of the newsletters and the Prairie Lady,
Steve Davis as our treasurer and northern region VP,
Mike Coup as VP of the southern region,
Lisle Kauffman as assistant treasurer,
Simon Curzon as technical VP,
Ralph Curzon as activity VP and Chief Judge.

It has been a privilege for me to serve as Chairman and having the opportunity to visit in person or on the phone with so many members, Thank you.

If you are interested in serving on the board or want to nominate someone for a term of one year, please submit your nominations to Jerry Sabin at gsabin@kc.rr.com by Sunday October 31, 2010 and we will send out ballots for voting in November.

Tech Seminar

I hope to see many of you in St. Louis later this month for our Technical seminar and tour of the Hunter Car Collection (Should not be missed, look in the RROC directory to see the RR/B's listed under Stephen Brauer, I count 31. The total collection is much larger.) There is still room for a few more cars and the technical, hands on seminar is well worth the trip. Please RSVP to Simon Curzon scurzon@gmail.com so we may plan for your needs.
Happy Motoring,
Tim

Salisbury Concours D' Elegance

The 2010 Salisbury Concours D' Elegance was held in Des Moines Iowa the weekend of September 10-12 and proved to be more enjoyable than previous years. Normally on Saturdays of the event a driving tour to various small town points of interest takes place and participants enjoy the camaraderie of caravanning with each other on the open roads. This year was somewhat different and a very pleasant surprise to all of us!

The Saturday morning drivers meeting took place at 7:30 am and a group of enthusiasts gathered with 30-40 cars to hear what was planned for the day. This was not going to be a typical tour day as it was divided into four segments with a common theme of raceways, current and historic.

In the first segment we travelled 48 miles from Des Moines to Newton IA and the famed Iowa Speedway, the 7/8 mile banked tri-oval track was designed by Rusty Wallace for both NASCAR and IRL racing. We were informed that we would be allowed to make 3 laps around the track at SLOW speed. Not sure what they meant by slow speed but Noel and Nancy Friday were grinning wide as they passed the finish line at a reported 70 miles an hour in their beautiful 58 Silver Cloud!

Also along on the trip were fellow members Dr. Arthur Weaver in a 94 Silver Spur, Tim Stockwell and son Alex (doing the driving) in a 96 Bentley Brooklands and Steve Davis driving his super modified RR that looked remarkably like a Corvette.
Segment 2 continued on for 31 miles to Knoxville, IA and the Knoxville Raceways' National Sprint Hall of Fame and Museum. The raceway is considered the Sprint Car Capital of the World. It's semi-banked 1/2 mile dirt oval is home to the famous Knoxville Nationals which celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year with a $1 million purse. The history of the track dates to the late 1800's when it began as a horse racing track. A distinguished list of inductees into the Hall of Fame include the Chevrolet brothers, Fred and August Duesenberg , A.J. Foyt, Harry Miller and Barney Oldfield.

Segment Three began with a 30 mile meandering drive to the highlight event of the day, racing at the historic Greenwood Roadway circuit. This track was opened in 1963 and hosted many major auto, motorcycle and go-cart events, including SCCA races and one round of the United States Road Racing Championships, predecessor to the Can-Am Series. The Greenwood circuit consists of a 3 mile asphalt track with a 2,600 foot straight, 13 turns, several chicanes and significant elevation changes through the woods, all of which made this a very exciting driving experience. To top it off, we were allowed unlimited laps to test our skills.

The final Segment consisted of a 38 mile return to Des Moines, passing by the historic site of the Des Moines Speedway in West Des Moines.

The evening was capped off for members of the Mid-America Region at the home of Steve and Martha Davis for cocktails and a wonderful dinner. Martha also provided a great introduction to the evening by serenading us with a few bagpipe marches to get the night off on the right tone. We had special guests in attendance as well, Mr. Mrs. Jim Stickley from the Lake Michigan Region of the RROC. The Stickley's live in Cedar Rapids, IA and have a 1914 Silver Ghost (RRCCW Oxford 66RB) as well as a 1921 Springfield Silver Ghost (RRCCW landaulet 28MG). In addition they were showing at the Sunday event their 1936 Lagonda LG45 Rapide.

Many of you may not be aware that Lagonda was enduring the post-depression era and battling financial problems. A notable victory in the 1935 LeMans 24-Hour race did little to help with the company's problems. It was rescued by entrepreneur Alan Good, outbidding Rolls-Royce. He hired W.O. Bentley as his chief designer along with many of Bentley's racing