The September meet was a real good one – temps in the low 90s, minimal wind, and 5 runs if you wanted. The lack of wind can be a problem with hanging dust but, it looks like the 91 entries were able to cope.
The El Mirage 200 MPH Club held its annual picnic in the SCTA building on Saturday night and all reports I heard indicate that it was a big success. A good job was done by the organizing committee of Jim Snyder, Miler Mike Stewart and many others. The club was able to welcome two new members on Sunday, both on bikes. First was Ralph Hudson on his 1000-APSG entry at 203.774. The second new member is Greg Watters riding the Watters & Higgins & Noonan 750-APS-BG Suzuki with a 201.073 mph speed. Greg hails from Australia, so he came a long way to run with us on the dirt. Good job and welcome to the “Dirty Twos”.
Other record setters include the Lattin & Gillette V4F/VCG, a new entry for the team with their Bantam coupe. William Lattin drove the little coupe to an 85 mph record over the 80 mph minimum. Dennis Mariani continues to push the F/StR, Mariani Farms entry, record up to higher levels with a record of 170. Willie Boelcke runs the Low Sodium C/GRMR, this meet he set the class record to 192. John Beck had a run in the Vintage Hot Rod C/BStR #511, John builds the horsepower and drives, this time to a 207 record. Rick Yacoucci used the unblown flathead at this meet while the other engine is prepped for World Finals. Rick’s Costella-Yacoucci-Pappas-Stevens XF/GS entry recorded a fine 183 record. The Eyres Moreland Holt entry in H/BFMR class was driven to a new record of 157. Tom Holt took the last record at Speedweek in this car and got the call at El Mirage. Miriam Macmillan, the lady of all jobs, was able to get another record in her H/BGCC Hondata entry at 186 mph. I guess Miriam was still on a red hat high from Speedweek as she moved into first place in points with this record. The final car record at the meet was done by the lovely Michele Brading. Michele drives the Costella-Dennee entry in K/FL, she took the class record at 158. Glen Dennee is Michele’s father and a long time racer in many different forms of motorsports.
In addition to the previously mentioned new two club members Ralph Hudson and Greg Watters we saw seven more bike records on the other side of impound. Ralph Hudson rode his 750-APS-F class bike to a 191 record in addition to his 1000cc record. John Noonan once again took bike top speed and a record on his Noonan/Derwin/Moreland entry in 1650-APS-BG class at 248. David Isley rode the Isley Racing entry to a new record of 161 in the 1350-SC-PBG class. “Papi”, Steve Chappell, took his first record of the year with a fine run of 191 in the 160-P-P class. Jim Higgins was on hand to help team mate Greg Watters and decided to enter the 750-A-BG class with the Higgins/Watters bike. Jim was able to up the class record to 195 for a successful weekend. Scott Mattern(?) rode the Team McLeish TZ bike in the 175-A-BG class to a new record of 133. The final record of the meet was by Bill Anderson on/in his Screwball in SC-PF class. Bill rode/drove the sit in bike to a 120 speed.
I could write that our next event is the World Finals but, that would be a fib. I am late with this El Mirage report and we have all returned from a very successful meet at the salt. So, our next event is the October 24th meet at El Mirage. Only two events left and points races are on our mind. Everyone be safe, go fast and have fun as someone we know tells.