It’s an experience you won’t likely
forget in a while. All this, as several
people on the beach are yelling
“
To the
Right! No to the Left! Ahhhhhhh! You
Got It!”
The timing equipment is a six inch by
six inch tan box, with a couple of reset
switches, two little red lights, and a little
square window which breaks down and
reads the all encompassing time in the
seconds. This little tan box is attached to
the
“
miracle computer” which has all of
the weekend entrants’ names, the classes
they will run, the times to the thousands
and mph with which you can actually
make a grown man jump up and down,
holler to the top of his lungs and do the,
“I set a record” dance on the beach!
This whole Straight Line set-up was
taken from just the little brown box, that
is still used today, to include a computer
program that is, with a lot of forethought
and insight by three men, Mark Grim,
Don Maher, and a very talented genius
of a friend Dr. Staush, to a completely
accurate and down to the thousands of a
second set-up that it is today!
The Mess Tent is commonly referred
to as “Kim’s Kitchen.
”
You have never
seen the amount of hands that come
together to put up this 10X10 outdoor
kitchen, the comments of where do the
tables go, do you want the BBQ here or
there? I’ll help fill the soda cooler! Do
you want me to put the table cloths on
the tables? Where are the donuts and
coffee? Can I eat the cookies now? And
especially “What are you cooking today”
“
Pulled Pork subs with Cole slaw and
corn on the cob, Tri-Tip with scalloped
potatoes and French bread, Carne Asada
with beans, rice and salad to name a few.
I can bet that if wives could see how
quick things could be set up in a kitchen
by their husbands, there would be
PROPWASH
14
April 2012
2012 West Texas Shootout for Autism Awareness
(Continued from page 13)
Each day we provided racers and their families with lunch. My mother and sister
purchased and prepped food for the racers. My childhood friend Cash Claridge did the
cooking for us each day. Saturday night, the racers all gathered for a group dinner at
Pelican’s Steakhouse in El Paso. Racers shared stories and also enjoyed a great meal
and a few adult beverages.
As great as the racing was, we were able to donate $1,000 to the Autism Society of
El Paso after the completion of our event. This $1,000 helps the Autism Society to
better support families that need guidance for children with Autism. Local Autism
Society chapters offer family classes and workshops on Autism. This great
organization provides a much needed support system for this debilitative disorder. At
very minimum, we hope to double the amount we donated in 2011 after the 2012
event.
I received a lot of great feedback from the event and honestly look forward to this
coming year’s event. Our club will have a bit more time to prepare. We have been
working with local businesses as well as businesses within our hobby. We are
working to provide racers a great experience. We will be providing racers with lunch
each day as we did last year, but we also plan to have breakfast items available for the
racers each day as well. Along with Shootout Trophies, we will have Trophies for 1
st
-
3
rd
place this year. I have handed out and sent out over 100 dvd’s with information
about our event as well as general information about NAMBA and model boat racing.
"The Little Big Inch Pipeline 2012 West Texas Shootout for Autism Awareness" will
take place on April 28-29, 2012 in El Paso, Texas. I am anticipating racers from
Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Numbers are looking
excellent and we hope that you will consider attending this great event for a great
cause. More information concerning this event can be found on our website at
www.riogranderacers.com. Hope to see you soon!
Straight Line Events and Their Record Holders
By Kim Grim
NAMBA Trophy Chairman
The Straight Line Event Begins:
The day starts out about 5:00a.m. Still dark outside, a lot of the time it’s foggy and
cold, as the Amigos Race Team members along with several of the weekend’s race
participants quickly arrive at the event site at Legg Lake in El Monte, California.
Everyone pulls in to the Straight Line area of the park, jumps out of their vehicles and
even though the “Team” is there, no one just sits around and watches. Everyone lends
a hand to set up the race site, pitch an easy-up or 10, set up tables, start generators, set
up camps etc.
Then it comes to the unloading of the trailer. The 24 foot filled to the brim with
boat stuff trailer, is needed to put on the weekend’s event. Then we have to put the
timing equipment together, running lines to the timers that have been a permanent
fixture at Legg Lake for countless years. It also involves rowing out on the lake to the
island and checking to make sure the infra-red lights are in line, and that they make the
correct connection to the their counterpart on the beach. Everyone should try just once
to correctly align two infra-red beams the size of a nickel from 450 feet away!
Everyone sets up in the morning waiting
for their turn to run the speed traps