MH99 Recap

[Scott Mockry <scottmo@teleport.com>]

As many have already said, the Monterey Historics were a blast!

Great to see Tom Nas again and to raid his collection of brochures and
toys. Thanks Tom!

Finally met Dan Simos, after 6+ years on this qlist. Great to meet other
long time qlist members, as well as the old favorites. Mike Veglia with his
great photos, my bank account is going to suffer soon!

As usual, Scott Justussan, Ingo Rattenburg (sp?) and Bob Dupree with his
"Oh-my-god-what-a-great-sounding-LT1-V8-5000TQ-on-steriods" car provided
great conversation and Audi talk. 

I was lucky enough to be behind Bob's V8-LT1-5000TQ during the parade
lap(s) which made for clear sailing through the many curves and corkscrew.
Met Igor Kessel and his nice wife, they rode with me during the parade with
Igor making sure the video camera was running and pointing in the right
direction.

Chad Clark and Dave Scott entertained on Thursday night at the brew bub, as
well as Michael Williams, Adam Dickerhoff  (sp?)and Todd Pheneger (sp?) and
others whose names escape me.

Ingo used his German and convinced the Audi Techs to remove the hoods on
the Pikes Peak Car, the 200TQ Trans Am and on the S1 which wasn't running.
The cameras were flashing away, and I killed several rolls of film on the
engine bays alone.

The sights and sounds of the chirping 200TQ Trans Am, the IMSA 90 Quattro
and the Pikes Peak car were certainly worth the price of admission. The
Audi Hospitality tent Lunch on Saturday and upper deck viewing was very nice. 

On saturday the Audi Technicians had the 200TQ up on blocks running through
the gears while they checked out the alternator output. What a wonderful
sound. Earlier they did a leak down test on the car and changed the plugs. 

Hung out with the Anderson Bros on Saturday night along with some NW Audi
enthusiasts which provided much laughter and good cheers.

I thought Saturday was fun, hell, Sundays parade lap and another dose of
the sounds of the chirping 200TQ Trans Am, the IMSA 90 Quattro and the
Pikes Peak car, made this day the best.

Sunday night, a few friends with connections at Audi-Germany, crashed the
Audi press dinner. Talk about great food and drinks!, even a band was
cranking out the tunes. To bad we got there a little late, as they were
winding things down :-(  As we were leaving we ran into some folks from
A4.org, and VW Vortex, some new VW/Audi on line magazine. Apparently they
will be driving the new S4 and one of the TT's from the press pool across
the country for a long test drive. 

On monday, ran into Scott J., and the LT-1 crew after breakfast, more Audi
talk, another cup of coffee, some good byes, and I was on my way back  to
Laguna Seca for another brief look. Audi had rented the track and had
Emanuele Pirro and Hurley Haywood giving test rides in the new S4 (blue), a
Silver TT Quattro and a blue FWD TT. Tried to get a ride, but no press pass
or credentials. :-(   

They had the cars going sideways through the corners and down through the
corkscrew. I think I saw Hurley driving with his left arm resting on the
window sill. Just another casual drive in the country for him. The S4 was
the car of choice, they had to bring out another one to keep the lines from
getting too long for the journalists. Those cars sounded great and were
being hustled around the track.

Well, it certainly was the best Audi event I have ever attended, thanks to
all who showed up, and made it possible!

Hopefully my pictures will come out well, and be up on my site soon for
viewing.

Scott Mockry