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Canada Day marked the first ever VCMC Alumni Invitational event where past VCMC members, heroes even, were invited back to the club they once spent time, money, blood, sweat and tears and show the new kids on the block how it was done, back in the day, in 12 feet of snow, barefooted! Ok, minus the 12 feet of snow and shoes are required =P
VCMC welcomed 80 drivers to a beautiful day, just overcast enough to keep things cool with the sun making appearances to keep the pad nice and warm. The 3 teams fighting for bragging rights were well represented: 22 Alumni dusted off their helmets (hmm… likely newer than that given safety requirements) to put the Newbies in their place, who were out in force with 30 representatives (quantity making up for quality?) while the Seniors brought a team of 25 to the fray.
In contrast to regular events, morning runs gave the rusty Alumni a chance to get back on the bike and give those old Velocity skills a refresher. Not only did the skills need warming up, the time was likely needed to get accustomed to new cars on the track. The afternoon runs were the runs that would show who's top dog at VCMC. Autocrossing is just like riding a bike, you never forget how to do it!
The event gave Alumni a great chance to catch up and hang our just as they did in the good ol' days. Checking out each other's cars much like back in the day, but wait… what is wrong with this picture? Muscle cars were everywhere, Camaros, Corvettes and Challengers, oh my! What happened to the Civics of the golden days? Handling vs Horsepower? Did these guys forget something over the years… or did they know something the Seniors and Newbies didn't?
Chatting and laughing it up throughout the practice runs, the experienced Alumni stayed loose as bragging rights were put on the table as the afternoon runs started and the sun started to wear on everybody, and heads started to nod particularly for anyone who partook in Jen/Bill/Carson/Tracy's on-site BBQ goodies! Would the younger Newbies and their young metabolism, energy and endurance be key? Or would years of experience and wisdom from competitions past pay off?
Once the dust settled, the BBQ all packed up, we have to sort out which team has the bragging rights. At least until the next Alumni battle, here are the representing members of each team:
Alumni - Top 5
Rob Lu
Arnold Yee
Don Nimi
Henry Lu
Bill Rhodes
Senior - Top 5
Jim McLaughlin
Mike Marich
Richard Arienzale
Brian Hemming
Mitch Burton
Newbies - Top 5
Owen Kirby
Victor Chow
Dean Chen
Tony Morris Jr
Avril Morrison
Tabulating the cumulative times of the representing team members, we have the Newbies in third place with 170.813 secs, the Alumni with 168.813 secs and the Seniors 166.090 secs taking the bragging rights!
The Alumni show us they've still got that speed from years gone by while the practice of the Seniors gives them the edge and the Newbies still have a thing or two to learn from both groups
Regardless of the results, old faces were renewed, old excitement rekindled and hopefully we will see some of the Alumni out more often in the remainder of the season to bring the fight back again next year!
Check out the forum for post-event discussion, and pictures and video.
and for kicks, i did another calculation including the BOTTOM 5 of each team the results were the same
Zach