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From the Archives #20, November 2023

In the spring of 1980, our young Region held an autocross (today we’d probably call it a time trial). In June, they congratulated themselves for the success of the event. Among other good things, about 40% of the Region membership turned out to help and work the event. Imagine if 40% of today’s members worked an HPDE event at Spring Mountain. That would mean we would have about 350 track workers. We could have a flag person stationed about every 50 feet around the track. We can dream on…..

Additionally, they had five large sponsors for the event, allowing the LVR to have the lowest entry fee of any Zone 8 Time Trial and still make a little money. Unfortunately, they forgot to include one of the five sponsor’s name on the written materials given to the participants. They acknowledged the big OOPs and apologized in the newsletter.

The Region also staged autocrosses in both June and July of 1980. Both were held at the Clark County Community College parking lot. The results were fascinating. In June, the quickest time was run by a “Shark” (whatever that is) at 1:31.07, while the slowest was a Porsche 930 (that’s a 911 Turbo) at 2:06.16. The quickest Porsche was a stock 356B at 1:42.26.

In the July event, the quickest was again the Shark at 2:07.83, while the slowest was a Porsche 356 at 2:59.41 (same driver as the 930 the previous month). There were also two Ford Pintos entered, and although I don’t remember Pintos as being much of a competition car, I suppose they had a good time.

The big social event for the Region in 1980 was the annual pig roast on Mt. Charleston in August. This was described as a “can’t miss” party (except, I guess, for the pig). The LVR started the annual pig roast party in 1976 (using, I believe, a different pig each year). They were looking forward to escaping the heat of the valley into the cool of the Mahogany Grove picnic area on Kyle Canyon Road (which, by the way, is still available for pig roasts.) Plus, they reported, they were also looking forward to lots of beer. The charge, in 1980, was $6.00 per person, and $18.00 for a family of three or more. (I don’t think they actually charged the pig.)

1980 was certainly an interesting year for the LVR.