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From the Archives #14, April 2023

We’ve chosen this month to look through 1984, at least the first half of that year, a time when the Las Vegas Region was ten years old. The most striking thing to us was the sheer number of major events/activities that the rather small (about 100 members) LVR managed to put on the in first half of 1984.

In mid-February 1984, the LVR folks put together what was called the “West Coast Weekend.” This was a 3-activity event, not counting the eating, drinking, and gambling that was very favorably reported on. The venue was at Laughlin (hence the gambling); the activities were a slalom, a rally, and a tech quiz. The number of workers was huge, and all were thanked individually in the subsequent issue of Sandscript.

In mid-March there was the “Holtville Weekender.” The three activities at this one were an autocross, a rally, and a slalom. Again, lots of eating, drinking, etc., and tons of workers. It seems that no one did very well on the tech quiz (a preview of the years to come?).

In mid-April the Region staged a time trial at the Las Vegas Speedrome. And again, lots more of… well, you know.

The terminology of autocross, slalom, and time trial seems to have been used somewhat interchangeably. But in all cases there was fast driving involved. The problem of getting a Region-owned and reliable timing system to time whatever fast driving was being done seems to have gone on-and-on-and-on…..

In all three of these events, the participation by other PCA Regions was large, keeping in mind that the entire membership of Zone 8 was but a small fraction of what it is today. For example, at the time trial at the Speedrome in April 1984 there were 24 cars running. These were from six different regions, including eight entries from the LVR host region.

And further at the time trial, the Region had the entire event taped, and used the tapes for education of the drivers after each day, and then mailed out edited copies of the tapes as promotional freebies to attract participants, advertisers, and sponsors.