Okay - here is the first official post/thread about the 2012 version(s) of Salt Talks, the Land Speed Racer Gathering that Jon Amo started way back when, and that Nancy and I sorta helped by taking over from Jon on the physical hassles back in '04 or '05 or so, and that we've kept running and growing since we bought the site from JA in '08. There's your introductory paragraph.
In case you don't know - and there are new folks on the Forum that haven't been out the SpeedWeek - Salt Talks is the in-person get-together for everyone during SpeedWeek*. We've got it down pat to happen on Sunday evening of SpeedWeek at the Bend in the Road. We usually have about 400 people - races, crews, officials, spectators, and townspeople in attendance. Everyone is welcome - no tickets required, no reservations for a good table
nothing like that. We provide some food -- hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken breasts, and such. We'll make sure there are chips and pop to drink. Lots of folks bring stuff like potato salad or bratwurst or beans and so on and so forth. If you want to do that -- great, and thanks! Don't try to make enough for everyone - but a big pot of beans or a couple of dozen venison dogs or whatever is welcome. You're probably wise to supply a spoon or ladle or such in case we don't have the right utensils. Probably you'll be wise to make the spoon a disposable one - it'll be that much less to try to keep track of after the party.
We'll have event-specific Salt Talks 2012 t-shirts for sale, by the way. No, I don't have the final art to show you - but Ray will have it done in a couple of days and I'll show you what you'll be wearing. We'll also have a cash drawing and a bunch of raffle giveaways - stuff that's donated by other racers and by crews and by the groups and organisations and maybe something from people in Wendover. Stuff like historical books, team t-shirts, bits and pieces of race paraphenalia (how do you spell that word?
) and anything you'd like to offer up to the world. Pork Pie has often supplied a couple or three really nice big prints of racing vehicles -- eminently suitable for framing, and since he's there -- he'll autograph the picture for the winners.
The picnic is free -- and yes, it's the big fund raiser to keep landracing.com up and running for the year. We'll have a few cans out on the tables for donations, and the raffles and such (you buy tickets from Freud and whomever else is selling 'em) and then around 8PM I get to stand up on the ramp of our trailer and start shouting out ticket numbers as they're drawn - the drawn number being the winner of that particular prize.
Salt Talks is a great place to get together with everyone - when there's no thrashing going on for a few hours, it being after hours Sunday, that is. We hope to see you there. If you'd like to donate something I'd be happy to have yo send me an email or a PM letting me know what you've got in mind, but if you forget or don't find the time and just remember about it when you're already out there -- come find us at our pit and drop the stuff at the trailer. Put your name on the stuff or on the bag that holds it. We like to acknowledge the folks that support the site by donating to Salt Talks.
*I'll explain the asterisk briefly: Last year Salt Talks got rained out at SpeedWeek so we held a gathering at World of Speed instead. It worked out so well that we're considering putting on the spread at both SpeedWeek and WoS this year. What do you think -- should we do it?
