Mt Washington

[Brett Dikeman]

At 8:48 PM -0400 5/7/03, Dan Simoes wrote:
>Has anyone considered writing to Subaru or Mitsubishi to see if they
>would pick up the gauntlet?

The mountain wanted an absurd sum- supposedly, they approached other
sponsors, and the bill was too steep.  I remember hearing a figure in
the million dollar range.


>>>Audi pulled out.
>>>whomever sponsors it now probably has tight purse strings.
>>
>>
>>Audi *was* the sponsor.  So now there is no purse to string.  I am a bit
>>surprised that whatever efforts have been made to get another title
>>sponsor have not paid off yet.

Sponsorship wasn't(supposedly) the only problem.  A variety of
reasons were tendered, including "oh, the lodge burnt down"(what does
that have to do with the hillclimb?) to the final reason- "we need to
resurface the road".  It was getting kinda bad in places...very
narrow and also sides were starting to slope downwards, which could
be pretty spooky  It still stands as the only road that scares the
crap out of me driving it, and I've done it three times in our little
parade....so I can see that reason as being legitimate, I guess.

That was, I think, 2 years ago?  So supposedly, the road's been
resurfaced, the lodge has been rebuilt.  Now they just need a
sponsor, and they're not going to find one until their asking price
drops.  $1M(if correct) is completely, totally, 100% unreasonable.
What is this, Formula 1?!

I think it's dead as an Audi-related event, even if it does start up
again.  Half the reason people showed up was Frank Sprongl kept
winning, and with Audi sponsoring it, we got a free parade up the
mountain, which was just cool as beans.  The last year they ran it,
he didn't do well, and he's no longer racing any Audis.  Audi's gone,
not interested, see ya...so I can't see a parade, even if we had to
pay for it(the mountain always let us do it for free since we chipped
in $5-10 per car for charity).  Sube is going to let a bunch of guys
in Audis parade up mid-day?  I don't think so.

I'm not happy about it, but I can hardly blame Audi for pulling out.
Frank was doing poorly, there was a very serious accident with that
legend car driver, and they probably stopped and said "what the hell
are we doing involved in this?  We don't DO rallying anymore."

Don't get me wrong- I really want to see the hillclimb come back(it's
a great race), and I might even still go, for at least one day, even
if Audi's not sponsoring.  After all, they get a couple of Audi
drivers besides Sprongl- our own Bob, for example...bunch of VWs too,
and they're in the family.

If I remember right, the plan last year was to replace the Mt.
Washington event- Paul/Chris were toying with ideas for a
family-friendly weekend, maybe near the cape, towards the end of the
year.  Both ended up busy as all get-go, with no time.

   Memorial Day is certainly fun, and Audi has a strong presence(3
cars- 2 from Champion, one from Stasis) -not to mention, Champion
sends a spare car up for next to the tent,  Galatti/Bell had lunch
with us and signed stuff...Bell even hung around for a good hour or
so with his family to watch some of the other racing...but the price
is just way out there compared to Mt. Washington's price, which was
mostly for the t-shirt and banquet ticket(and a few bux for the
parade).

I've got high hopes for the Vintage Festival this year, heard from
someone in the DKW club of America(I didn't even know there was such
a thing!), maybe we can get Bruno to bring some of his cars...we have
a club member who has a SportQ, maybe he'll come this year...etc...I
could certainly use help getting the word out to people with unusual
Audis(just realized I forgot to email details to the DKW club, damn!
Better take care of that...)

Brett
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