Four Wheel Drift-Internet

Volume 3 Number 4
December 2006

By Don Mallinson, President

It has been a while since I posted here, so let's do a little catching up.

Your Hmblsrvnt as pace car driver at a past vintage car event!

Convention #14

The SHO community went back to Indiana for 2004 and had a great time.  This go-round, instead of traveling down the state, we headquartered in Indianapolis, the racing capital of the world, and enjoyed a great midwestern city, and some fun track events.

We had a great car SHOw and lots of great food.  Corn fed mid-western beef is about as good as it gets, and we also found some good fish far away from the sea or a big lake!

Drag racing happened at the famous Indianapolis Raceway Park, where THE U.S. Nationals take place every year.

Our other track event was a fun day at Putnam Park Raceway just SW of Indy.  This beautiful road course is a favorite testing location for Indy based open wheel cars.  We put our many SHO full fenders on the line and had a blast.

The banquet raised another great amount for the American Red Cross, and we gave away many fine trophys, and had a good time.

Convention #15

Next we went South to Memphis.  Home of great music, BBQ and as is tradition with the SHO Convention, lots of heat!

Our track events all happened at one facility, the Memphis Motorsports Park.  Home of the NHRA O'Reilly Nationals.  We had Road Racing on Wednesday on a combined drag strip/road course that was a LOT more fun than it looked.  Top speeds were over 130 for some.  The heat was on as there was little shade and 100+ degree temps.  But the SHO group is tough and we had few failures or problems other than sunburn.

The drag event was combined with a fun autocross, the first one for several years, as autocross parking lots are much harder to find in the middle of the week than drag strips or road courses.  My son Ken Mallinson was in charge of this convention, and he designed a truly fun Autocross course with some speed, some sweepers, and lots of diving turns.  It ran all day in the lot next to the drag strip where many SHO's had runs down the 1320.  AGAIN it was well over 100 degrees, but again we had few problems, and the run to the hotel and cool rooms and good food was appreciated.

The banquet again featured lots of trophies, including one honoring the loss of our good friend John Weidenbenner to cancer.  In his honor we awarded the Best of SHOw trophy in his name, and it will be called that for the future events also.  We also changed our national charity to the American Cancer Society and we raised over $3000 in John's honor.

Convention #16

We are proud to annouce that 2007 will be in Kalamzoo, MI.  A great central location, easily reached by anyone in North America.  We have great events planned, and as usual, we will find the best local food and refreshments. 

For track events we are going to US 131 Dragway, the fastest track in Michigan! and for our road course event, we are going to Grattan Raceway, a favorite test facility for Michigan based magazine writers!  If we wind up with 100 degree heat again this year, at least we will be able to cool off at the outdoor pool at Grattan!  Yes, a swimming pool at a race track.  Don't be scared off at the thought of your truly in a swim suit!  :)

See you in Michigan July 16-19, 2007, forms and more info posted on our web site here:

http://shoclub.com/SHOconventions/16/conv16.htm