<VV> Cedar Rapids Midwest Regional Convention

[Louis C. Armer, Jr.]

      Yes I am a bit late in reporting in on the Maiden voyage of "Darth 
Voy", (2003 GMC Envoy XL)
Darth Vair and Ms. Liz and Chuckster. We pulled in the home launch pad last 
Wednesday about
8 pm which was about an hour before "Cindi" did 40+ million $$$ in damage 
to the Atlanta Raceway.
I was too tired to worry about Darth and just let him stay on the trailer 
and hoped that the  violent
weather would stay south of us. It did and all was better the next day.
      We completed a 2200 mile trip that included spending the 4th with my 
favorite cousin and her
husband and their family. I also visited with my 87 year old Aunt Amy who 
road in Darth Vair at
the 2001 Chicago Convention. This trip she showed no hesitation in climbing 
up in "Darth Voy"
and directing us to her favorite restuarant.
      Liz and I thoroughly enjoyed our first Regional in Cedar Rapids. 
Iowans are super people and
the locals as well as the ICE bunch were gracious hosts and hostesses.
      NECC put on another excellent race event at Marshalltown on the 
Monday before the Regional
began. Scott Trunkhill and I had a blast competing in WTBRT #112 (12) and 
although we weren't
quite as fast as the "Pros", we competed well enough to worry YenkoRob. On 
my final run I turned
a 43.3 first "split" and was on my way to completing my fastest run when I 
pulled a beautiful 270
on the back straightaway. I finished with a 59+ but the form was a near 
perfect 98<GGG>.
       Much later Monday night Darth Vair and I spent the witching hour at 
the "Blue Lagoon" ..........
NO it's not a local bar, it's a 24 hour car wash. On the trip from Atlanta 
to Cedar Rapids it had rained
a total of 20 minutes but the 20 minutes were in downtown Nashville TN with 
semi's surrounding us and
undoing a week of cleaning and waxing in a very short order. Darth cleaned 
up nicely but it was dark, I
had been up for 18+ hours and missed a few places. We returned to the 
Concours parking lot, parked,
put the car cover on and it promptly rained within 20 minutes.
      Tuesday morning was a bit hectic for everyone as it had rained during 
the night and was still raining
in the morning. We all managed to wade through the mess and before long the 
weather cleared and the
Concours and Car display went off without further delay. Late Tuesday 
afternoon was for Valve Cover racing
and the track was set up like a drag raceway. To start the race you had to 
release your racer by pushing a button
that released the start gate in your lane. If you pushed too soon you would 
red light and lose that heat. Darth
Racer and I had a co-race driver and she was GOOD. Cathy, Bob Dunahaugh's 
granddaughter, joined us in the
competition and we finished 2nd out of 16 racers.
       Wednesday Liz and I spent the day cruising around Cedar Rapids and 
visiting several parks along the
river front as well as visiting the Czech-Slovak museum, the Czech village 
and just enjoying the ambience of
a small metro area (120,000).
      Thursday I "hired" another navigator for Darth Vair (Jamie Reinhart) 
aka "Iowa Ringer" and we had a ball driving
Devious Merv Wacker's scenic, challenging and "sneaky" rally. We even 
encountered "Bambi" on a twisting
hilly,YES hilly, road near Coralville Lake. No, we didn't become a 
deerslayer and went on to finish in 2nd place.
Later in the evening Ms. Liz, Darth and I caravaned with our large group of 
Corvairs to the local cruise-in where
the locals were wide eyed when at least 40 corvairs invaded their turf.
      Most of Friday was spent at Hawkeye Downs raceway. Darth Vair and 
WTBRT #112(12) both enjoyed a new
experience with their first oval track racing. Michael LeVeque was very 
generous in offering his Falken street tires
for Darth to use in his runs. It provided quite an improvement in handling 
over my BF Goodrich TA's and enabled
Darth to finish in 2nd place in IS-3 class. One again I proved my "ballet" 
moves in WTBRT and did a near perfect
270 which Scott caught on video. 270's always make me smile profusely !!! 
<GGG> Ole #112 has now completed
232 runs since August of 2003. We just keep on racing and loving every lap 
and run in this "grassroots" special.
Darth Vair has now competed in 9 CORSA or NECC speed events since 1999. I 
was extremely pleased and
very proud to hear at the Banquet and Awards presentation that Darth Vair 
was also the highest point scoring
Corvair in Concours with a Gold score of 96.58.
      Liz and I wish to thank all the Iowa guys and gals who pulled off a 
great Corvair convention and all the helpers
who gave of their time to make the week both enjoyable and memorable. They 
had "Trouble in River City" but we
all left !!! <GGG> Look out because we will be back.

Chuck Armer

ps. "Buttercups" replacement (Darth Voy) averaged 14mpg on unleaded regular 
gas in tow for the 2200 mile trip.


CORSA Tri-Membership Chairman
CORSA MEMBER
Corvair Atlanta, BOD
Corvanatics member
http://carmerjr.home.mindspring.com/
1965 Corsa Coupe
1964 Greenbrier
1966 Monza Convertible