Ready for Schaefer Schelebration 2011

May 1992.
Winston 500.
Alabama International Motor Speedway.
Now known as Talladega Superspeedway.
PBR, Old Mil, Natty Light, The Beast, the Champagne of Beers, and...Schaefer.
ZERO Anheuser-Busch products (other than the Natty).

It was the King's final season. Jeff Gordon hadn't started Cup yet. Davey and Alan were still alive. The Kyle on TV was competitive. So was Mark Martin.

It was the first gathering of what has become the Schaefer Racing Hall of Fame. What started as a practical joke on a 3rd friend of ours who was a fan of Bud-sponsored Bill Elliott has evolved into a two-decade tradition.

We chose not attend the spring Talladega race in 2011. However, the six current members of the Schaefer Hall of Fame and multiple members of the Schaefer Ring of Honor are ready and raring to go for our annual gathering on the grounds at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

This year represents the 20th ANNUAL Schaefer Schindig. Next year, we will schelebrate the 20th ANNIVERSARY. Just as Schaefer is indeed the preferred, cheap, racing beer, its even better knowing we get two years of telling the world about it.

Twenty years ago, Schaefer was still widely available. As recently as two years ago, I could buy it in a few stores around middle Tennessee. Now, the beer is as scarce as a French soldier on the front line.

But it is out there. SHOFer Rookie plans to bring a half-dozen cases or so from Wilmington, NC. And Bruton (SROH member, class of 2010) located a honey pot of it in south Georgia. Reminiscent of Smokey and The Bandit, he has already muled 12 cases of Schaefer back home to central Georgia and is ready to put it on ice. So let's get this party started.

Great news for this year's gathering is Uncle D (SHOFer, class 2009) will again be able to join us after taking off last year. Though he couldn't make the 2010 race, he proudly represented the SHOF at other memorable events such as one of the final space shuttle launches, the beach, Good Guy car shows, and other races such as Michigan and Richmond. He also hit the goldmine with the consumer relations department of the parent of Schaefer, Pabst Brewing. (More about that below.) With Uncle D's return in 2011, at least we won't need a stand-in as we did a year ago.

We think our weekend agenda will look something like this.

Friday night - the World of Outlaws sprint car Outlaw Shootout at The Dirt Track. I don't know any of the drivers, I don't understand the rules, and I'm coughing red clay dust by the end of the night. But I love the speed, the fireworks, and the three-wide pace laps.

Saturday

After setting up our tailgating area, folks will roll in steadily throughout the day. As many multi-year regulars arrive, we'll likely begin distributing for the first time at the track the Schaefer Ring of Honor t-shirts. As alluded to above and blogged previously, Uncle D networked some connections and wrangled several dozen Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor shirts for our crew. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. A mighty Schaefer Scha-LOOT to Uncle D for his yeoman's effort.

Late in the afternoon, it'll be time to go racing again. This time, we will go to the TopGear 300 Nationwide race.

Sunday morning

Oh, let the games begin. Everyone will roll in early. Breakfast will be served. (Eggs, sausage, toast. And a Schaefer. Natch!)

Brackets will be drawn for the annual cornhole tournament. Cuba (SHOFer, class of 2010) will return with Karen (2011 SROH-elect) to defend their 2010 title.

Late morning, a handful of folks will turn their attention to that other race of the day - the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500.

Sunday afternoon

As grills are lit, Schaefer is consumed and long-distance friendships are renewed, the Schaefer Racing Cornhole Tournament will begin. This magnificent trophy will return to be awarded to the winning pair.

Without trying to sound like Jesse Jackson, we'll have a new addition to the tradition. Rookie custom-built new cornhole boards for the tourney. They'll be emblazoned at the track with - what else - high-rez Schaefer decals.

Sunday evening

As the afternoon gets late, it will be time for the main event: the Coca-Cola 600. For a novice race fan, this race generally shouldn't be your intro to NASCAR. The track is fantastic with great sight lines around the place. And the track hospitality is second to none on the circuit. But the 4 to 5 hours it takes to run the race is tough for first-timers to handle. For seasoned pros like the SHOFers, however, its a great spring night to watch NASCAR.

Assuming I can keep a charge on my cell phone, I plan to tweet off-and-on during race weekend. Follow me @toomuchcountry. If you are at the track, tweet me and look us up for a introductory Schaefer.

TMC

Herk's Miller Mallard - Pinewood Derby style

A couple of months ago, I blogged about the popular journeyman driver Jim Hurtubise. Since posting the entry, I found the following photos on Photobucket. What a great tribute car. This dad and/or son possess some tremendous design and Dremel talents to craft such a cool looking Miller High Life replica as a a Pinewood Derby car.

Here's the car on the starting line.

I wonder if the replica Mallard has a miniature-sized case of the Champagne of Beers stashed anywhere. TMC

The Brickyard in LEGO bricks

Tradition of Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Love it.
Watching a race at IMS - Hate it.
A.J. Foyt, Gordon Johncock, the pagoda, 11 rows of 3 starters - Love it.
NASCAR at IMS - Hate it.
Building with LEGOs - Love 'em.
Stepping on a LEGO in middle of night on the way to the can - Hate it.

As a kid, I loved playing with LEGO building blocks. We didn't have all the fancy sets they have today. My brother and I had a boo-coodle of loose bricks and our imagination.

My teenage son and a couple of his friends still enjoy playing with them too - both with building things from scratch as well as assembling the pre-engineered sets from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Bionicles, and others. He also gets a monthly LEGO magazine - he freely admits he gets it just for the pictures. /wink

Each year a Brickworld festival is held in Illinois. How my son has become a teenager without either of us knowing about Brickworld is beyond me. The conference looks like a huge gathering of LEGO geekdom. A collection of LEGO "trekkies" if you will.

LEGO fanatics gather to craft some remarkable brick art such as...

...an ornate street corner building

...Jimi Hendrix

...and American (LE)GOthic


See Brickworld's Flickr group to churn through many other impressive pieces of work.

A recent e-mail newsletter from Tech Republic included a handful of pictures that really caught my eye. One (maybe more) builder built a re-creation of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. My jaw hit the floor when I saw the level of detail.

LEGO version of top side track view...

Reference photo of race day...

Lego version of IMS Hall of Fame...

Reference photo of real thing...

LEGO version of IRL cars at full speed...

LEGO version of singing of Back Home in Indiana and the National Anthem...

Reference photo of Florence Henderson and the real deal...

I looked for a LEGO model of Ashley Judd in a rain-soaked sun dress but couldn't find one. Some things are just beyond crafting a replica.

I also zoomed in on the pictures carefully looking for a cylinder-shaped, replica Schaefer can. But no luck. Maybe someone will include one when they re-create Charlotte Motor Speedway at Brickworld 2011.

Meanwhile, the next Brickworld is tentatively scheduled to begin June 15, 2011. I'm already thinking ROAD TRIP. After all, despite my interest in the history and tradition of the Indianapolis 500, I'd much prefer to hang out at Brickworld than attend another boring NASCAR Brickyard 400.

TMC

May 21, 1972: The World According to Herk

I'm a sponge when it comes to Petty Enterprises-related trivia. I soak it up from whatever source I can find it. Who-What-When-Where-Why-How. Interested in all of it.

Several months ago, I learned Jim Hurtubise drove a couple of races in 1963 for the Pettys. He ran the Daytona qualifying race (an official Cup race back then), the Daytona 500, and the Atlanta 500. He finished 17th, 28, and 22nd, respectively.

Hurtubise was a popular journeyman Indy driver from upstate New York. He raced multiple times in the Indy 500 from the late 50s through the early 70s. He earned the nickname Hercules - often shortened to just Herk. Although I'd heard of Hurtubise over the years, I knew little about him. When I think of the nickname Herk, I'm instead reminded of the classic scene of the Klumps' dinner table in Eddie Murphy's remake of The Nutty Professor.

I now know Herk was hired to run another Petty Plymouth in a couple of 1963 races. I know where he finished. In an educated guess, I'd suggest his car was even painted Petty blue. That much I know. What I don't know is why or how Herc hooked up with Lee and Richard.

In 1964, Herk was involved in fiery crash at the Milwaukee Mile. During his recovery, he was advised he'd likely not race again...ever. Instead, he insisted he would and asked to have his badly damaged hands formed to hold a steering wheel.

Return he did - both to USAC open wheel and a few remaining NASCAR Grand National (now Cup) races. He even won the 1966 Atlanta 500 by stomping the field by a full lap.

Somewhere along the way, he adopted #56 as his trademark number and carried it on most of his open wheel and NASCAR rides. Here he is sporting #56 and his Miller High Life beer sponsor in a USAC stock car race at Milwaukee in the early 1970s.

Herk's dalliance with stock car racing continued to interest me. So I dug deeper into some of my Google search results. In doing so, I stumbled across this 1978 vault article from Sports Illustrated. The article is a good mid-70s recap of Herk's career around that time. I tossed aside my primary interest in his stock car racing and just enjoyed the read about his overall racing efforts.

Buried in the middle of the article, is the telling of what has to be one of the greatest, all-time racing pranks pulled in any racing series.

May 21, 1972 was another last day of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. It had been several years since Hurtubise had entered the race with any kind of chance to win it, lead it or even qualify well for it. For most of that time, he had been engaged in a quixotic attempt to qualify an improved version of the outmoded front-engine "roadster" that had dominated the Speedway until the rear-engine revolution of the mid-1960s.

With time growing short, there was a fever of activity around Hurtubise's Miller High Life Special as it slowly moved toward the head of the qualifying line. The crowd buzzed. Would the old Mallard, as Hurtubise called his car in tribute to its ducktail rear end, get a chance to make even a ceremonial tour of the Brickyard? No. Precisely at 6 p.m. the gun sounded, locking in the field for another year. At which time Hurtubise removed the cowling from his Mallard to reveal neither an Offenhauser nor a Ford, but rather five cases of his sponsor's product, already chilled and ready for folks to drink. Which is what most of the Speedway officials soon did. Erk, erk, erk.

How great would it have been to be in Gasoline Alley that day? The story, from a Volunteer State Bench Racing perspective, would have been all the more gut-busting funny had the brew been Schaefer. Yet to have someone put that brain fart into motion with the Champagne of Beers is still simply classic.

Herk passed away 1989 from a heart attack. His age at the date of death? Appropriately enough it matched his car number - 56.

Delma Cowart from Savannah, Georgia made a handful of infrequent starts in Cup races during the 1980s - most often at Daytona and Talladega. He almost always drove car #0 which pretty well matched his percentage chance of being competitive - much less win.

Yet Delma showed up at the track once or twice a year ready to have plenty of fun. His most oft-used quip was "I ain't never won a race, but I've never lost a party."

Sounds like Herk may have lived that same motto on May 21, 1972.

TMC

2010 Coke 600 - Getting the itch

One month from tonight - May 30, 2010 - the green flag will unfurl on the 2010 Coca-Cola 600 at the re-renamed:

I realize most folks caved and for many years called the track by its now-gone hardware store name. But for me, its always been just "Charlotte".

If the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be at the 600 for the fifth time in six years. It'll be my seventh 600 and my ninth Charlotte race overall with visits to the fall race in 1992 and 1993.

My first 600 was in 1994 when Jeff Gordon won his first career Cup race. Look at about the 2:17 mark. Right in the center of the picture. Did you see me? I was the one booing.

For my first two or three 600s, my friend and I didn't get to do much tailgating. Oh, we had the celebratory Schaefer - no question. But we didn't take the time to do the full set-up.

That all changed about five years for me. We hooked up with a great crowd of folks from all over the place. Though I barely know any of them and only see them once per year, we always easily fall right back into having a great time.

So what do our plans look like? Maybe a bit like this:

Saturday

Listening to NASCAR stories and some purty-good original songs by syndicated NASCAR writer, Monte Dutton...

Nationwide race after lunch...

After the Nationwide race when the sun goes down? Well, Charlotte isn't Vegas. But in this case, what happens at the track will stay at the track.

Sunday

Super-competitive, no-holds-barred, knock-down-drag-out, steel-cage-match cornhole tournament...

Indy 500 on tailgating TV (just happened to think...when Danica falls out early ya reckon she'll make a beeline for Charlotte to see how the Cup guys git 'r done?)

Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup race...

The racing, story swapping, song singing, back slapping, and food eating are all critical elements of a top-shelf race weekend. And the reunion of the Schaefer Hall of Fame members is always a highlight of my visit. To complement all of the festivities, however, its a must-do to break out all the Schaefer swag including but not limited to...

Inflatable cans!

Schaefer koozies!

The race debut of the custom-painted, die-cast, Schaefer Buick of Al Loquasto built by the GaPettyFan!

The well-traveled, much-autographed, Schaefer ring of honor sign!

And the brew itself? Absolutely. Whadda have? Fully loaded? Or light on the calories?

And you better believe it'll be flowing freely. One of our HOFers has hit the jackpot in landing a Schaefer gold mine connection.

After cobbling this thing together, I'm jacked up and ready to roll! Can we head to the track right now?

TMC

Weekend race plans

Charlotte Motor Speedway is turning 50 years old this year! Originally built by Curtis Turner, the track was purchased a few years after it opened by current owner, Bruton Smith.

I'm really jacked up about being there for the golden anniversary of the World 600 and all the other related race-weekend activities. Here's our planned itinerary for the weekend using graphics.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

TMC