I'm home from the Shelby Bash. It was a first class run event, just like last year. The weekend turned out to be one of the most memorable weekends of my life. I'll try to keep in order since there's a lot to cover.
The Wednesday drive down to Palm Springs was great. cali_kr expertly led the pack. It was fun successfully moving through traffic in the greater LA area as a large team.
The hotel, Agua Caliente, was a nice place with a large parking structure to park the cars.
Thursday morning we went to Vegas. Lots of fun driving as a group in the completely awesome desert southwest. I met Mike and Brian who now own Kendall's old LS, and Rick, a great guy from Carson City. The drive was just amazing and I got to see the London Bridge for the first time! That evening we were socializing at the Guitar Center. All the cars were parked together and it was a fun night.
Friday morning we were at the track early and had a great day. The suspension mods made a HUGE difference and the car was handling great. I was in the advanced run group and found some very good drivers. The Shelby Focus was pretty cool to see out there. It's no match for a Boss but it's no slouch either!
Friday night we went to CaddyShack, the officially licensed Shelby golf cart company. It was a real treat to get a picture with Allen Grant after he signed my shirt. I told him I wore the shirt all day and didn't pick one up there like most everyone else. His eyes lit up and said, "if you'll just..." and I replied, "oh I'll just..." We had a chuckle and he signed the shirt. We talked for a few minutes and he was a really nice guy.
Saturday morning we were back out at the track. Everything was playing out to be another phenomenal day at the track when I slid off and hit a tire wall. The wall helped absorb most of the energy of the car, but whipped around both sides of the car in the process. It did its job and prevented me from being injured. I don't really want to get into the details of the crash other than to say the car really did protect me well as I slid in backwards. It's really a bummer since it was the last session and there was only a lap or two left.
I called AAA and we flat bedded it over to the Shelby American parking lot by the LV Motor Speedway. I was whisked back to the hotel by another Nor Cal guy, Jared in his supercharged '13 GT and got cleaned up and down to the banquet.
Sunday morning was the car show but along with some totally awesome to the nth degree folks from the Seattle Mustang Club, we trailered it back to my house, only about 550 miles away. Al and Chuck were going to trailer Chuck's GT500 back to Seattle, but offered to drive 5 hours out of their way on their non stop trip while Chuck drove the 500. That's a great example of the character of the folks on the trip. Much to my surprise their tow rig was a Raptor!
In the end it was an incredible weekend that just didn't turn out well. I'm sure the bright side will emerge and I'll be back in the saddle before I know it.