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From the Archives #19, October 2023

I thought we might jump ahead a few years to 1980, when our Region was seven years old. The Sandscript has been enlarged to a full 8 ½” x 11” size, from the 7” x 8 ½” they started with.

The kickoff article in January, 1980 was a report of the December Board meeting. It seems that the Las Vegas Region, for unexplained reasons, had proposed at the Zone Presidents’ meeting that the Zone 8 rep be a competitively-elected position instead of an appointed one. I’ll leave it to you speculate why they did this, but a hint might be that Carl Young was the LVR President at the time.

Well, LVR got turned down flat. Then our Region sent a letter to Chuck Stoddard, whom I believe was PCA National President at the time. That apparently went nowhere as well.

In other news from early 1980, the Board stated that “the direction of the Club (that’s us, or, more correctly, was us) is going to change. It will be strongly oriented toward driving and tech.” They announced a plan to “recall” members who had faded away, to get them back to participation. (Try as I might, I can’t find any details on that “plan.” It would be useful today.) Carl Young said “Wax-ins and pot-luck suppers are blasé…. Performance driving, learning about our cars and chug-a-lug contests are in.”

So, apparently in accordance with the announced “driving” emphasis, the January 1980 Sandscript had a lengthy “Pre-Race Prep” list. It included a lot of good tips. The list included such gems as “change to colder-range spark plugs; make sure the garbage is removed from your trunk; change your transaxle fluid; make sure your brake and clutch pedal pads are installed and are not smooth; take your watch and rings off; know how to keep your engine running during a spin-out; and always wear the same shoes.

You HPDE participants out there keep these in mind.

1980 was shaping up to be a hell of a year.