I'd emailed Mert that I was gonna git on the road by 6am...close...made it by 7:30. :-( Which meant that I didn't get into the stands till during the red flag after the #11 went into the wall in T3. Jeffy was firmly on the pole and that's where I had him in the Pick 6, but I had my man DJ on the outside pole...hummm...bummer! The MGD is now 20 oz. for $4.50...think it was 16 oz. last year...maybe Roger's little boy Greg has had a positive impact on the operation!
When I was fussin' with the scanner after Quals, I managed to land on a freq to hear The Lovely Brooke (tm) describing to someone how 'neat' it was that Jeffy was driving the Pace Car around doing hot laps for a Pepsi dignitary. Then he was to practice the IROC cars prior to (ahem!) "coptering" to Hollywood for the NASCAR(FU) festivities held last night (and to be shown on ESPN to all this evening...'cept I b'leeve we'll all be at Orange Show Speedway watchin' all dem Pintos!)
Got to Mert's about 4:30 after dodging around the roadblock southbound on Cherry that would have forced me onto the 10 westbound..."Jes' need to go a couple blocks soth, Ossifer!" Daughter Tina (with relations in AZ) was just about to leave, so barely made it before getting to a locked house...had stopped for a twelver of Dogs (of the Red kind, not the Tina-type), so the welcome to jEff would be appropriate. Later to learn that he had work related plans, and you don't ever mess with a self-employed man's $ opportunities!
Mert arrived and heated up some great bar-b-cue pork (from the Farmer John kitchens?) and we proceeded to confuse ourselves with his new 400 (!) channel scanner from Chicken Shack...has a few buttons I recognized, but also a bunch of others...good luck, Mert! Picked a departure time for Sat morning...real tuff, since he lives only 1.7 miles from the track! Was crashed before 10pm.
As I told Ronnie...really UGLY air down here this trip!
Mert has all the confidence in the world that traffic on Cherry won't
be a problem, so we wait till about 8:15 to get moving. He's right...straight
up to the main gate and scam the parking nazi with a tale of needing to
meet someone at the Admin Bldg...park in the lot amongst all those with
passes hanging from the mirrors and tote cooler and scanner bags around
the front of the building and across the lawn to the fence by Gate #10.
Banner is hung (early!) and the people-watching begins. The first
to arrive is Henry 
Kelley,
one of only two Hawaii fans I know to exist! He's tent-camping in
the infield and relates his story of hooking a ride into the infield in
a friendly motor home cuz' they wouldn't let a pedestrian with a tent in...weird!
The next (and last) to make the Saturday Reunion is Mark Cuevas, who has
been to Reunions at Fontana and Sears Point in the past. He's still
working at UCLA and still insists on wearing the #3 regalia. After
lugging the cooler and Banner back to the car, I drove it into the less
obvious Lot #1 (still Reserved Parking) and tucked it between two big SUVs
for camoflage.
Mert picked up Saturday tix in the lofty Row 31 seats in PSL territory...20"
wide with vestigal arm rests and seat bottoms that fold up (for the Track
Seat Archivist!). 2nd round Quals lead to the typical heart-aches
for those that go home and misery for yours truly that the #88 will be
pitting *waaayyy* on the west end of the world. Mert is delighted
that Bee-yull's pit will be directly across from our Sunday seats in Section
5...we'll both be less than delighted with Sunday's results. :-(
Met a fan from NC who is spending the summer in CA with her grandfather and let her use the second set of headsets for the Winston West race. Kenny and the full-pump Skoal crew continued his lock on Saturdays in Fontana...Mert and I speculated on whether or not there would be any "West 'Whacker" comments afterwards. We spent the first part of Happy Hour confirming Cup freqs for nearly everybody...missed B. Labonte and could tell that the #3, #12 and the #94 were all going to be competing with a concession stand, track parking nazis and a local construction company (in that order) for radio air time. Once on Sunday, one ofJeremy's crew keyed up and insisted the two little kids quit talking on their freq...they didn't.
Mert and I hung out at the Skoal trailer afterwards so Mert could get Kenny's sig to complete the office decor at his new job and he also got Andretti's...both were at their trailers for over an hour Saturday afternoon. We had made phone contact with Eldo and expected to meet up with him that night, but he didn't get back to his hotel till after we had decided to go find something to eat...made arrangements to try again Sunday night.
Sunday:
Got
on the road about the same time Sunday morning, even though the Reunion
was to start later...just in case...but not necessary. Mert had a
revised plan...we used the VIP gate and told the first nazi we were on
our way to the Credential building. When he questioned us, we told
him
we were with the Bradberry #78 team and he bought it! As we
neared the Credential bldg, we switched the story to meeting the #78 guy
at the Admin bldg and that worked, too! Then as we approached that
building, we told the next nazi at the entrance to Lot #1 that the lot
at the Admin bldg was full, so he let us in through his gate after I left
my pass holder with him. It was full of old tix from last year and
he didn't even notice!
On Sunday, by special arrangement, we had a live band ('Manhattan',
but no 'Transfer') at our Reunion site! They did Doo-Wop, and pretty
good, too! 
We
hung the Banner a little further west behind the band and popped cool ones.
As it approached time for me to be re-claiming my passholder (and 'leaving'
Lot #1) I left Mert to play host while I took the cooler back to the car
and resumed my scam. The nazi had been moved to a different gate,
so his supervisor roared off on a golf cart and when he returned with the
passholder, he told me I could go ahead and stay in that Lot...Mission
accomplished! 
When
I returned to the Reunion, Art and Sabrina Lubboch were there, signing
the Banner for Vegas, too, since they were at that race but didn't make
it to the Reunion. We bs'ed awhile and then headed in...I needed to get
the Texaco polo shirt for Earl Ma, the *other* known-fan from Hawaii.
Mert's Section 5 seats are right on top of the S/F tower and one more annual upgrade will get him a little higher...the cars an the backstretch are juuust barely below the tops of the motor homes in the infield. The Pit Suites don't block the view and the big TV screen in front of the water tower kept us tuned in real well (when the CA flag wasn't waving). Scanner bites are a bit scarce, didn't take notes like Tinadog or Cheryl...Mark was very business-like, per usual, DJ not very animated with the flu, DE and Jerry talked set-up and Jeffy/Ray were quite busy deciding on a story for the last pitstop...finally settled on being +/- 1 lap on fuel, so decided to pit...actually they were *very* surprised to find themselves the only car on pit road. Both had convinced themselves that everybody would be coming in...and they mis-read the mileage that other teams were getting. I had switched to the #88 freq to learn for sure it was his car that puked a motor, so wasn't listening for anything from Kyle or Bill...Mert filled me in later. I did switch to the #23 after seeing the #41 get turned, but Jimmy had nothing to say about the wreck, was just worried about being able to get around the two miles with the right front as torn up as it was. One time DE reported a piece of pipe laying just above the groove in T3, but the Tower had the safety crew check and they said it was just a piece of foam rubber off someone's roll bar...wonder how it got out there? Rousch had Mark look over the right side damage on Benson's car after the smack he got(gave?) during a yellow...Mark said it was rubbing pretty bad, so Benson lost a bunch of track positions to get right side tires before the green. Too bad, but at least he was able to get about 4 or 5 spots back before the finish. Mark was the the one to beat all day...Jeremy has his stuff together and I agree with others that Rusty has inherited the 'Mark-Martin-Wheel-o-Misfortune' (tm)...wonder if that was a Penske motor?
Took about an hour getting out of the lot, then clear sailing to Mert's house. Waited there for a call from Eldo...no joy. Mert ran out for burgers and stuff and we both crashed about 10pm. I spent Monday morning checking out Foretravels at the dealer in Escondido...took a bunch of pics for Lyn. Sure hope the house sells soon, so we can get moving on the road! Nice drive back home with scattered showers providing a view of cloud formations we don't often see out here, home by 7 pm and readyfor home cooking!
Oh, yeah...there was an IROC race Saturday...yawn.
Tom in Sacramento
#88 & #28 in '98
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