[Yikes, now that I’ve finished this little ditty, I’m serious competition for the length of Rick Bostrom and Ken Killam posts! :smile: Sorry about that ... but then again, you don’t have to read it!]
Been reading all the very valid gushing about Spokane, and with another race weekend around the corner, I decided to do some gushing of my own.
I LOVE SEATTLE! I know I’m supposed to call it Pacific Raceways now, but to me it will always be SEEattle – INTernational – RACEWAY!!! Do you remember those radio commercials?
I started flagging in 1990 in response to an ad Roger Salomon placed in our local newspaper looking for new workers for the then-fledgling Indy Race in Vancouver – which race went on to last until 2004 when sadly development took over the racetrack site.
I remember well my first trip up the mountain to Westwood and the thrill I felt when I set eyes on my first race cars – up to that point, the sum total of my knowledge about racing was that I had HEARD of Mario Andretti! Seriously! I’d never even seen a race on TV. But from that first visit to Westwood, I was hooked. Sadly, Westwood also was the victim of real estate development and is no more.
I also remember well Roger telling me about races in Seattle. In those early days, I thought – NOT LIKELY am I gonna travel all the way to Seattle! (Little did I know what was in store for me over the next many years and that in fact Seattle would be one of the closest tracks I travelled to!)
My first trip to Seattle was probably in 1991 – I don’t remember the exact date, but I DO remember the exact feeling ... excitement equal to that I felt on my first trip to Westwood!
And here we are, some 22 years later, and I’m STILL excited about attending races in Seattle. I enjoy all the other tracks too, but Seattle holds a special place in my heart. If IRDC were to ever leave that track completely, it would probably be the point where I would hang up my whites.
But the other reason I wanted to send a love letter is to thank IRDC for what THEY do for the workers. As best I can remember, I think they were the club who first started helping out the travelling workers financially by contributing a bit of money to our expenses. They’ve always provided us with lunches and an end-of-day BBQ, and while it may not be to the tune of $6,000 (WOW!), it undoubtedly does take away a fair bit from the club’s overall profit.
This past weekend while many of you were in Spokane, I was at our home track in Mission attending a CACC race. With a number of our experienced volunteers off to help out the short-handed group in Spokane, we too were left with about the smallest number of workers I’ve seen at a race weekend. Thankfully our E-crew stepped up to the plate and helped [wo]man stations on Saturday, and on Sunday a number of novice drivers helped out.
We ain’t no spring chickens! Our numbers are going to continue to drop until I don’t know what you’re all going to do. Lots of attempts have been made at figuring out how to draw new cornerworkers, but none of them have been overly successful. I think kids now are too used to instant gratification, and the idea of standing on their feet in all kinds of weather from dawn to dusk waiting for that glorious moment when a fantastic race unfolds before their eyes – it just doesn’t do it for them. They’d rather have their eyes glued to the myriad of electronic devices at their fingertips! (Then there’s me who doesn’t even know how to retrieve a message from my [for emergencies only] cell phone! But I digress ...)
My regular Saturday Seattle travelling partner is in the midst of moving to the Okanagan ... SNIFF!!! ... so I’m driving down on my own this weekend. That means getting up at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, heading out the door at 4:30 a.m. to drive to Kent, stopping for a bite to eat, then getting to the 8:00 a.m. morning meeting on time – hopefully!
Why? Because I love Seattle. And so I want to thank IRDC for what YOU do for US – it really is appreciated! I’m looking forward to another great weekend with you.
Love,
Bonnie
Been reading all the very valid gushing about Spokane, and with another race weekend around the corner, I decided to do some gushing of my own.
I LOVE SEATTLE! I know I’m supposed to call it Pacific Raceways now, but to me it will always be SEEattle – INTernational – RACEWAY!!! Do you remember those radio commercials?
I started flagging in 1990 in response to an ad Roger Salomon placed in our local newspaper looking for new workers for the then-fledgling Indy Race in Vancouver – which race went on to last until 2004 when sadly development took over the racetrack site.
I remember well my first trip up the mountain to Westwood and the thrill I felt when I set eyes on my first race cars – up to that point, the sum total of my knowledge about racing was that I had HEARD of Mario Andretti! Seriously! I’d never even seen a race on TV. But from that first visit to Westwood, I was hooked. Sadly, Westwood also was the victim of real estate development and is no more.
I also remember well Roger telling me about races in Seattle. In those early days, I thought – NOT LIKELY am I gonna travel all the way to Seattle! (Little did I know what was in store for me over the next many years and that in fact Seattle would be one of the closest tracks I travelled to!)
My first trip to Seattle was probably in 1991 – I don’t remember the exact date, but I DO remember the exact feeling ... excitement equal to that I felt on my first trip to Westwood!
And here we are, some 22 years later, and I’m STILL excited about attending races in Seattle. I enjoy all the other tracks too, but Seattle holds a special place in my heart. If IRDC were to ever leave that track completely, it would probably be the point where I would hang up my whites.
But the other reason I wanted to send a love letter is to thank IRDC for what THEY do for the workers. As best I can remember, I think they were the club who first started helping out the travelling workers financially by contributing a bit of money to our expenses. They’ve always provided us with lunches and an end-of-day BBQ, and while it may not be to the tune of $6,000 (WOW!), it undoubtedly does take away a fair bit from the club’s overall profit.
This past weekend while many of you were in Spokane, I was at our home track in Mission attending a CACC race. With a number of our experienced volunteers off to help out the short-handed group in Spokane, we too were left with about the smallest number of workers I’ve seen at a race weekend. Thankfully our E-crew stepped up to the plate and helped [wo]man stations on Saturday, and on Sunday a number of novice drivers helped out.
We ain’t no spring chickens! Our numbers are going to continue to drop until I don’t know what you’re all going to do. Lots of attempts have been made at figuring out how to draw new cornerworkers, but none of them have been overly successful. I think kids now are too used to instant gratification, and the idea of standing on their feet in all kinds of weather from dawn to dusk waiting for that glorious moment when a fantastic race unfolds before their eyes – it just doesn’t do it for them. They’d rather have their eyes glued to the myriad of electronic devices at their fingertips! (Then there’s me who doesn’t even know how to retrieve a message from my [for emergencies only] cell phone! But I digress ...)
My regular Saturday Seattle travelling partner is in the midst of moving to the Okanagan ... SNIFF!!! ... so I’m driving down on my own this weekend. That means getting up at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, heading out the door at 4:30 a.m. to drive to Kent, stopping for a bite to eat, then getting to the 8:00 a.m. morning meeting on time – hopefully!
Why? Because I love Seattle. And so I want to thank IRDC for what YOU do for US – it really is appreciated! I’m looking forward to another great weekend with you.
Love,
Bonnie
