Well unfortunately that makes (2) of our Buick national events that were dealt a bad hand by mother nature. First the BPG event and now the GSCA event. It appears that the other days were good and the car show, swap meet and racing all took place. Sorry I wasn't there, it sounded like fun. Everyone get back home and drive safely. See ya'll next year for sure!
Thursday was great after the rain stopped around 10 and Friday was great all day. Car show had more cars than last year and I thought the swap meet was great. I know I spent a bunch of money! The test & tune Thursday and the qualifying Friday went off as planned. There was a nice memorial service for Jim Rorabaugh on Friday. But Saturday was a wet mess...
Mike, it was so nice to finally meet you ! Yes, the swap meet was excellent. Lots of nice parts and good deals. It was a bummer today with the rain out but it was still FUN ! See you next year ! Peace WildBill
Bill it was great finally meeting you, too! I saw a lot of old friends that I hadn't seen in years and I made a lot of new friends! Plus, there were awesome Buicks everywhere! At least we had two great days before the rain put an end to it...
Nice event, my first time and I enjoyed it even though I did not make it up until Friday. Like everyone else, the rain was a bummer. My personal favorite car was the aquamist 70 gs 455 stage 1 There were a lot of nice cars there!
didnt hear why they called the races? did they not have track dryers? we hung around in swap meet area til about 3 didnt see anymore rain.
It takes hours to dry the track, I was there and think it was a good decision. Hopefully the money gets rolled over into next year. I can also say short of the concourse class the turn out hasn't been this good in years.
Call was made because shutdown area was under water and would not dry up. Even after track dryer and using the brush tractor, water was still seeping up and just standing there on the surface. Right call was made. As Herb and others stated, car count was strong, lots of fast cars, and quite a few cars I have never seen before, made it very exciting and a lot of fun for me to meet new people and see old ones. I apologize to a few of you i didnt get a chance to see, I got a little busier than expected towards the end of Friday. Show was pretty diverse as well, and seeing the '14 Buicks blended in with GS, Wildcats, and Turbo cars was pretty cool and eclectic to see. I can tell you this, it was definitely worth being up for over 45 straight hours. And getting your dinner tab paid by the man himself , Denny Manner (among several other Buick legends in the house at the time) was a real treat. I cant say enough about how much I respect the guy and how he definitely has bled Tri Shields since he started back in the day for Buick. Hes definitely the role model for continuing this hobby. Cant wait for next year! See you all there in the Limited!
i thought it was pretty cool to see Gary Paines "thumper" and Dave Mongeons "nobodys fool" cars there. it would be interesting to get more of the original super 16 guys and there cars together again. Cody
Car count was definitely up this year. It was nice to take part in the car show this year since the race car is in pieces. Would have liked to have seen them wait before calling it. It was done raining and we did have the track all day.
Yeah, we had all afternoon and possibly the evening. Could have run 1/8 mile at least. Most tracks make a lot more effort to get a race in and that's with just local folks there. A lot of racers came 15-20 hours EACH way! I only towed 13 hours each way. I've towed over 50 hours this year for "rained out" Buick events. Norwalk was total rain out but there other two BPG and this Nats...not so much. 50 hours....I could have towed across the country! Racers make the effort to get there.....tracks and organizers should make the effort to get the race in. My local track would have....and they don't have a jet dryer. I ended up racing at Mason Dixon Dragway on the way home....it had rained there until noon....grass was still wet at 2pm but track was dried and cars running......told they tech guy I took the long way to get there.....26 hours to get there.ou:
Cody, It was nice meeting you and your dad in the parking lot across from La Quinta, when I was with the Texas boys. Have fun with that Skylark! Chris
Had a great time. Yeah Bill where were you? Saw Davis and son, told them to say hi. We did run out of the Hampton lobby when those idiot mustang guys were around, caught some of the ruckus! :laugh: Bummer about the rain but, I am ready for next year. Friday was the best day I had in a year.
This is just the third time I've gone to the GS Nationals and 2 out of the three times I've had a bad experience with the GSCA. The Buick family is great and I had a great time meeting people and being around other Buick enthusiasts and the track was great on Thursday & Friday. When I got to the track on Saturday the gentleman at the gate told me they are definitely going to race, the rain is stopping at 1:00 and if necessary they will turn on the lights to finish all races. $40 + $18 =$58 to GSCA. 15 minutes later the race was called off. I asked about getting money back and they said I can get a voucher for next year. Now get this, out of the $58 I don't get the two spectator fees back just the racing fee.... $284 (including Q-16 $50) to GSCA for 2 days and 4 runs down the track. I can understand the race being called off but the GSCA deception, greed, and unwillingness to refund your money is terrible. Norwalk was rained out and they refunded all my money. BPG was rained out and I didn't have to pay for their rainout day either. Who are these people who run this GSCA organization??? Also, when trying to get my money back the man told me that they have to pay full price for the track rain or shine. I find this very hard to believe. All tracks have a rainout clause and if the GSCA does not have that rain clause then they need new race organizers. I will go to the GS Nationals next year and have a great time again, but I doubt very much that I'll bring my car. I'm not being negative towards the event, just how the GSCA run it.
I am sure you aren't the only one that feels like they got screwed. It was explained to me that with the cold temps the track would never dry and the liability was too much to risk a top end crash. I feel for you and everyone else that spent entry money and got nothing or close to it. 75 cars for the NATS wow and that up from last year? I missed myself in 2012 for the first time in years because of the date change. I guess our little club isn't appreciated by Dallas anymore. I still had fun and saw some old friends but its getting to be real expensive to see them this way.
how do we get a voucher for next year? i also paid for friday and saturday showed up on sat waited from 9 am till it was called when i left there was no one at the gate jake
Joe, According to the GSCA (when I was still a member) the GS Nationals have nothing to do with the GSCA. The person responsible for the Nationals is Bennett Jones. You will have to try to get your satisfaction from him. This is one of the reasons I very seldom attend the GS Nationals.
