[s-cars] Steamboat 2004 Event Report - (long)

[QSHIPQ at aol.com]

"Ok, thanks Mr. Lawson.  Anyone else?  Yes sir, you there with the grin"
"My name is Justy, and I'm addicted to sliding sideways...."

Steamboat Springs Colorado welcomed many quattro owners over the last few 
weeks.  Qclub ran a rather large event a couple weeks ago, I understand it was 
full to the seams.  After Steamboat 2003 fiasco (summed: Cancellation without 
restitution, since fixed - thanks to our new ACNA president:) my group of 
pirates decided to invade the BWDS territory without ACNA involvement.  Gruppe-q 
(www.gruppe-q.com) was formed last year as an avenue to establish advance 
techiques at track events.  Our mission really is to provide quattro driving venues 
that give a higher level of instruction, as well as, simply more track time.  
We started with this event for all the obvious reasons.  On to the report....

Ingo R, Bob D, Dave H, and myself hit the road from Chicago in the middle of 
a winter storm.  Lost count of the offroad carnage at 200 cars/trucks thru 
Iowa.  The "no tow rule" was in effect for all of IA/NE, which made for some 
interesting situations for the high traction quattros.  Watching out for chasing 
yahoos was a bit stressfull, and even Hackl did a play by play of an 
overzealous 4matic trying to hang on with 2 wheels off, he lost the battle.  WG and Lee 
R were running slightly ahead of us with road updates, but we passed them up 
at Des Moines when they took a overnight.  No incidents to report on the trip 
out, just a lot of miles at low speed.

Sunday evening we had a drivers meeting and dinner at the gruppe-q condo that 
was well decorated with my personal supply of quattro WRC brick-brack, the 
center of attention was the dining table with a Radio Shack urq banked in 
position via cotton balls.  Several books adorned the room, as well as, a plethora 
of A1/S1 rally models.  Security got tight every time someone picked up my 
covetted Lewandowski book, but no inventory losses at the end of the day.

With ground rules firmly established, we anxiously awaited our Monday morning 
session.  The conditions were perfect: -4 degrees, a really slick track, and 
16 quattro enthusiasts ready to tackle low cf...

Cars:  16
4 UrS cars
7 Urq's
1 v8
1 90q rally car
1 5ktq
1 LT15ktq
1 90cs sportq

Drivers: 8 intermediate, 8 instructors
Prerequisite:  1 BWDS driving class
Track:  Steamboat multiplane test track #2 ~1mile

As has been the favorite of past reports, I will continue the tradition of 
the "Best of" (Scott J - tm) series...

Best Improvement:  Once again goes to Ingo R.  A step forward and back as he 
had more tows than last year, but better driving than any year.  Without 
question a ride not to be missed, even I wouldn't, and never laughed so hard in 
doing so.  Great rides Ingo!

Best Looking:  Bob Pastores awesome custom built urq looked right off the 
showroom floor.  With factory abs, sport q seats and the cleanest euro 
accessories, even Lawson's pimp daddy polished fuchs couldn't compete.  No parking lot 
princess either, Bob put it thru it's paces very well.

Best on Motorola:  "Ingo is in *again*".  Even better, just about all 
participants that got a ride recited that call.

Best Tow:  Bob D and WG took over tow duties this year, but the best Tow had 
to be Ingo's new car getting towed by Ingos old car (Bob D's old and Hackl's 
new rides respectively).

Best Back on the Horse:  Duct tape specialist Dave Hackl repaired WG Giles 
Urs6 after a bank incident.  3M silver was almost a direct color match.  WG back 
out the second day sporting artistically applied bandages with aplumb.

Best in car video:  Ingo R in car video with a full spinout including the 
young lady codriver covering her eyes and screaming in delightful fear.  Watching 
the action at the condo tv, we all were laughing hard.

Best at car video:  TBD.  I haven't collected all the video yet.  Lawson's 
commitment of his urq to the uphill carousel was very impressive tho.

Best Instruction:  Brandon Rogers ride with me (Hackl chasing).  No boost mea
nt more creative lines, we jumped just about every snow bank going around the 
track.

Best Prep gone Wild:  Once again, tho looking to relieve myself of this 
trophy, I got it again.  First day lost the downpipe flange, the second day snapped 
the k24 shaft in two.  

Best Eats:  Bobbie Collins (Mountain Momma) great feast at the Sunday dinner, 
as well as, making sure the whole crew were properly fed thruout the event.  
Great behind the scenes action.

Best Prep:  Justy, Hackl, and Mountain Momma share this one.  Coffee, lunch, 
dinner and plenty of pre/post event beer and wine.  Kudos to MM for the urq 
diramas and WRC model presentations in the condo.

Best stuff:  Ingo R again take the prize.  No one went further up turn 3.  
Ingo solidified this award er, many times.  So several got the same ride up the 
same bank.  The definition of "ditto"?

Best left alone:  Travis at BWDS saw us at 8am and again at 5pm.  The rest of 
the time he was able to get track work done.  Self policing of tows and 
pushes gave a chance for everyone to take a social break on track.

Best Turn on Track:   Turn 10 this year.  A long straight away with a kink 
from 8 to 10 gave some fantastically creative turns (and not).  I believe this 
to be officially staked "Pederson Corner", since he left the most parts there.

Best Kept Secret of Torsen - it takes two to tango:  After several 
unsuccessful attempts at track mastery with Pederson's S6 wagon, torsen specialist Justy 
tried a different approach.  Finding Mike busy enough with the pedals and 
wheel, resorted to helping teach the 360 technique by grabbing the handbrake mid 
spin.  Bingo.  Laughter made it even better.

Best Stuff/Tow Count:  A close tie, but I believe Mr. Pederson takes the 
award from Ingo based soley on quantity of plastic left on track.

Best Question:  "When are we going to eat?"  Uh-oh, Pizzo needs the feedbag 
again.

Best drive to/fro:  Hackl scaring the locals on Bertoid Pass with his Mikkola 
imitation car fully loaded too boot.

Best local hangout:  The gruppe-q condo.  Fine food, WRC paraphanalia, 
comfortable R&R and visitation.

Best Appropriate Ascription:  My flatbed driver mother must have known, his 
given name:  Park.

Best coordination:  Rallying the troops to get my blurq down the hill, and 
the late night help of Brendan Rudack and Dave Jones at Autosportwerks in 
Broomfield.  Chad Clark, Ben Howell, and Pizzo for the k24 retrieval and delivery.  
Ingo for the AAA+ membership.

Best carnage:  The snap of the k24 shaft on my turbo.  Fogging the hills of 
Steamboat wouldn've made an EPA official have seizures.

Best spreading of the word:  A .5mile long James Bond fog behind my urq, 
hence wishful thinking I'd get up Rabbit Ears Pass.  1 quart oil = 1 mile = bad 
turbo?  Understatement: See Park.

Best Fuch count:  Ingo - 20ml spacers, myself x2 sets, Lawson - pimpdaddy's, 
Hackl's mint. 

Best Sound:  The LT1Q at WOT still made Bob and I grin.  Peter Gollege did a 
great job of making her dance around that track.

Best tire:  Blizzack for this one.  Not even a close second.  This was the 
most ice in the 9years I've attended.

Worst Tire:  Michelin Artics.  A big kudos to Dupree, Rogers and Pederson for 
dancing with them.  I certainly proved I couldn't.

Best Loaner:  Mr. and Mrs Riley with the Amazon Blue urq.  After jumping a 
snowbank and some wild 360's scaring the BWDS driving school assembled at the 
bottom of turn 11, Justin insisted that his wife take that same ride.  My 
pleasure!

Best Loaner II:  Barely obeying Lawson's "no snowbank" rule at the kink (turn 
9).  A skim of the rear bumper at 65+ was duly noted by Lawson.  Both of us 
still grinning ear to ear afterwords, so I called it a statistical anomoly to 
the rule I try to follow diligently over the years.

Best mods:  Without question, Brendan Rudack's wild AAN 90quattro rally car.  
The side exhaust and massive rear handbrake lever made for quite a show.  The 
bull bars protecting vital parts proved most...  Useful?

Best Spider Man:  Chad Clark kept the bar pretty high with his urs4.  No 
match for the lockers, but he sure did keep many at bay.  Taking his wife's A4 
wagon on track was a great site as well.  Nice going Chad!

Best Promise for Next Year:  The bar has been raised in driving style and 
speed high enough that Justy vowed this to be the last year of left foot braking 
with his racing Serells.  

Best Quote (TIE):  Justin Riley - "Nice shoes" (see above).   Mike Pederson a 
simple - "Thank you Scott" (see Tango above)

Best Post Event Activity:  The Hot Springs in Hot Springs Colorado.  Never 
has the world seemed so peaceful.

Well, that's about as far as I can go with this.  As always the comraderie of 
this event pre/at/post is a great practical extension of internet contacts.  
A big thanks to Mark Cox and Travis for the laisee-faire approach to our 
event.  To my mom, Mountain Momma, for her great efforts and organization, sure 
made for a low stress food/gathering program.  Dave Hackl for sharing the anal 
approach to planning, easily made for all smiles at the event.  Scott Hirst for 
the excellent job in Marshalling the troops at the track.  Bob Dupree, for 
coordinating the insurance and safety for the event, and unselfish use of his 
5ktq for tow.  To WG Giles, also for the tows, as well as, helping to add the 
professional vision we wanted for this event.  Lawson (Cindy *and* Dave), for the 
coordination of travel once in Boulder, and the use of his condo at Winter 
Park.  Ingo, for adding laughter and unique perspective to driving and having 
fun, no one that rode will forget.  To my wife, whom once again tolerated many 
late night calls and hours at the shop prior to this event.  Steve Eiche, once 
again you've proven the worth of backup.  Some day, we hope you will just join 
our fun.  Chad for coordinating my k24 swap and continuing to raise the bar 
in our driving chases.  Too all the participants wives for allowing the boys to 
escape with the mistresses we call quattro.  To 7 dedicated drivers of 
ur-quattro at this event, a toast to you all for fulfilling my dream of a quattro 
event heavily dominated by heritage.

Another year of great memories.  Ck back with the gruppe-q website, we are 
working on pics/video asap.

End of Report.

Scott Justusson
Eventmaster Emeritus
Steamboat 2004
www.gruppe-q.com


"Don't worry about the laws of physics, they find you" - Mario Andretti