Virginia City Hillclimb: Bucket of Blood Saloon: Long Story

[scottmo <scottmo@prodigy.net>]

Hello,

All this discussion around the cost $$ of the QCUSA
Virginia city Hill event brought back memories
of my brief visit to the Virginia City Hill Climb event
in 1994 on my way back from a business trip. I won't
make any judgements about the cost of the event, but
even if you decide not to spend the $$ to participate
 you may want to go there and check it out as a spectator.
 Here is the story of my visit,

I arrived late saturday afternoon at the Reno airport,
 rented some GM slush-mobile and drove the 30-40 mins
 and arrived in Virginia City, the road out there was 
very curvy and fun but unfortunately the GM mobile (boat)
was leaning starboard most of the way but I managed to 
pull into dock without a scratch on it. I had made 
reservations previously at one of the "few" hotels 
available in Virginia City, something
called the silver spoon or silver nugget, hell I don't 
remember what it was called. I got directions to the 
"cabin in the sky" restaraunt just a few miles on the
way out of town where the saturday evening
dinner was happening for the big QCUSA/Ferrari event.

I showed up not knowing anyone at the dinner gathering.
The people were very friendly, Darlene Lindsley from
QCUSA was very nice and she introduced me to the big
honcho Frank Beddor, I hooked up with some friendly
folks who were from the Ferrari group and they commented
how I was much friendlier than the some of the other
 Audi folks at the event. Go figure......

Louis Ruf was the guest speaker after dinner and he 
talked at length about how he got started modifying
 Porsche cars yada yada yada and then we watched the
video he developed called "Fazination on the Nurburgring" 
 that highlighted the "Ruf CTR" Yellow 911 that was driven by
"sideways Stephan". The Video was incredible and if you
have not seen it or would like to get some idea what
it is like to drive on the famous 14+ mile Nurburgring
it is well worth it. QCUSA had the video available some
time ago for $20, but I suppose you could contact RUF
directly and get their latest version. The CTR was 
sideways through most of the course and apparently
was running up to 200 MPH on some sections. A must see..

After dinner I joined my "new" Ferrari friends at
the "Bucket of Blood" Saloon back in Virginia City,
This saloon is famous for the many gunfights that 
broke out during the Wild West Gold Rush era. We 
ran into one of the of S4 owners sometime around Midnight who 
was  heading out to the Mustang Range for some 
female interaction. One of the S4's 
running in the event on Sunday had the Nitrous Oxide
 supplement to help eleviate that terrible turbo lag 
that can occur above 5K feet elevation. His car was featured
in one issue of "Turbo" magazine. 

Well back to the
story, we were in the Bucket of Blood saloon and
it just so happens that this same weekend another
club was in Virginia City having a little get-together.
This club was a "drinking" club that basically did nothing
but drink all day and all night, well by midnight on
Saturday these guys were pretty well lit and were just
waiting for the after-burner to kick in. The Bucket
of Blood saloon had pretty much cleared out by 1am and
it was only me and a couple of Ferrari club members
sitting at the bar drinking beer and talking, 
but a few of the "drinking club" guys  were still there.

 One of them (drunk like a skunk)decides to stand up on top 
of the bar. The bar tender did not appreciate this much
so he trys to talk the guy down, mean-while this drunk
guys friend attempts to get him down and that is 
where the "fun' started. 

His buddy decides that breaking a beer bottle over 
his friends head will get his attention and get him
 down off the bar, "Just like on TV........"
so pretty soon this guy is lying on the floor with
blood pouring out of his head screaming that he
is going to die, needs his  last rights etc.....
 The weirdest part of  this whole thing was when 
the paramedics showed up to take care of this guy they 
made everyone else clear out of the bar although 
we seemed to be invisible and were allowed to continue
 to sip our beer at the bar and view the whole affair. 
Definetly a Kodak moment.....

Sunday was fun after I woke up with cotton mouth
had breakfast and made my way to  the starting line.
Ferraris of every shape and color were there, 
along with Ruf Porsches and 3 or 4 examples of Sport 
Quattros,(courtesy of Frank Beddor Enterprises) many
 uR Quattros, along with Some Detroit iron. 
Frank Beddor had several mechanics there to tend after his Audi
and Porsche cars.

I met Ned Ritchie at this event and he proceeded to take
me out for a ride in his 300+ HP beast and scared the 
paints off of me as we drove out of town towards Carson
City chasing some BMW. I later hitched a ride with one
 of the events participants in his 86 5000CSTQ sedan 
around the  challenging 5+ mile course. Definetly a 
E ticket ride.

So, before you die,you must make it out to this event,
you never know who or what you will run into......

Scott M.