Photo from Utica auto-x (for you, Mike Zamarocy)

[robfox]

If anybody wanted to see this, it's from a Chicago Volkswagen Organization autocross at Bennett Kartway in Utica, IL. I know Mike Z. loved this place, as many of us do. Its future is very gloomy, though...it may be torn down by the end of the summer. :-(

[Mike Zamarocy]

That WAS my other home away from home (Road AMerica was the other)! Why is it going to be torn down? Isn't there enough events there???

And I can see that you are in the front (tiny) ocal part - that turn you just came though is a bitch! Lots of G's pulling you off the track there. But WHOA! Becareful of that sheep turd right in front of you

If you notice that blue car in the center background (way in the back) - if the barbed wire is still there, that is where my buddy drove my old RX7 under it and scratched the hell out of the hood paint!

Does BAR-CB still exist? If so, is Dan Whiz still in it? We used to be buddies years ago - he drove a MAverick Grabber (junker, ha ha). Or what about the Kankakee Fiat X 1/9 Club? George Sanchez and Joe Deno were old buddies too!

Anyway, I notice this is titled UTICA4.JPG - are there any more pics you have? Could you PLEASE send them to me????

Oh, and there used to be a small dairy store in a town who's name I forgot on the way back from Utica. They had the best damned PIZZA I ever had! And it was a road going west either from Untica, or that town I forgot, that would lead to an EXCELLENT twisty road up a very tall hill! It had 25mph turns!!!!

[robfox]

>That WAS my other home away from home (Road
>AMerica was the other)! Why is it going to be
>torn down? Isn't there enough events there???

I think it's just a decision that the owners made. They STILL only charge $200 a day, and they are booked up all summer. Route66 for comparison, charges $800. I think Rick would buy Bennett Kartway if he could. So would many of us, but as I said, I think the family wants to use the property for something else. We (the CVO) have events 7/15 and 9/9, which have been guaranteed, but after that it will be gone.


>And I can see that you are in the front (tiny)
>ocal part - that turn you just came though is a
>bitch! Lots of G's pulling you off the track
>there. But WHOA! Becareful of that sheep turd
>right in front of you

That corner is tough, but the smaller hairpin right before it is the one that gets me EVERY time.

>If you notice that blue car in the center
>background (way in the back) - if the barbed
>wire is still there, that is where my buddy
>drove my old RX7 under it and scratched the hell
>out of the hood paint!

No, now there is no wire, just cornfields.

>Does BAR-CB still exist? If so, is Dan Whiz
>still in it? We used to be buddies years ago -
>he drove a MAverick Grabber (junker, ha ha). Or
>what about the Kankakee Fiat X 1/9 Club? George
>Sanchez and Joe Deno were old buddies too!

I don't recognize ANY of those names...but if you want, take a look at www.scca-chicago.com. There should be SoloII results there from last week, 120 cars!!!

>Anyway, I notice this is titled UTICA4.JPG - are
>there any more pics you have? Could you PLEASE
>send them to me????

I think I titled it UticaS4, as in (my) S4. However, there are several pictures on the CVO website...www.chicagovw.org, I linked it at the bottom. You'll just see VWs, Audis, and one Sentra SE-R. Also, someone gave me a short tape of a couple runs and an in-car. We might get that video uploaded to the same website at some point.

>Oh, and there used to be a small dairy store in
>a town who's name I forgot on the way back from
>Utica. They had the best damned PIZZA I ever
>had! And it was a road going west either from
>Untica, or that town I forgot, that would lead
>to an EXCELLENT twisty road up a very tall hill!
>It had 25mph turns!!!!

Geez, this is way over my head. I just take 80 to 55 to get home. I've never stopped, and never taken back roads. Utica is like 1 1/2 hours away from me, so it's a long autocross day.

If you're going to be in Chicago on 7/15 or 9/9, let me know. I can always get a non-vw in as my guest. It's just sad, those will be the last two times at Bennett EVER. For anybody reading this, it's NOT just another autocross. It is seriously a mini-road course...timing tower and everything :-). Luckily, I trophied at the SCCA one last week, so I have a tangible souveneir from the last year of Bennett Kartway.

Later,
Rob

• http://www.chicagovw.org

[Mike Zamarocy]

I'm glad you got a trophy there! The one trophy that meant everything to me in the world, got stolen 3 years ago when Grabel Van Lines parking their 40' moving truck in the middle of nowhere and it was stolen

The trophy was FROM a Tri-State/SCCA event at Utica. Rick Ruth might still remember that day. It was a day that a little old beat to **** pumpkin colored 69 Lotus Europa S2 (with 100K miles on it!!!) in AS took FTD OVERALL! Yes, not FTD Stock Class, but OVERALL! I even beat the race and mod class!!! It was only the 3rd race in that car, and I could not believe it. My first run got me 1st in class. My second run, I beat all the other cars, so the race class guys went out and beat my time. Then the 3rd run I beat them all again, and then they all blew their runs! I have never did that again, though later that year before the car tore apart, I got a few other FTD Stock Class trophies as well.

And you can ask Juehrn about how many times we went at at, my lotus against his race prepped BMW 1600! Ahhhhhh, those were the days!

[Mike Zamarocy]

I see the pic of Scoobys! And very prominet on the windows in neon is "ITALIAN BEEF"!!!!! Do you KNOW how much I'd DIE for one of our great Chicago roast beef sandwiches right now???? Here in SoCal, they don't know how to make one!!!!! Order a roast beef here, and they take perfectly good roast beef and slap it onto a grill - turning it into rubber in a few minutes! And also, the beef here does not taste as good as back there. When my brother came to visit, both he and his buddy in San Diego mentioned that to me, and I had to agree, thinking at first it was only me. The beef here is grain fed, and has sort of a bitter, pugnent flavor to it.

By the way, ever go to Bogart's in Tinley Park? They serve a 48oz Porterhouse for only $19.95!!!!

[Mike Zamarocy]

Rob, if memory serves me right, if you turn left out of the Utica parking lot and go down a ways, even past the town there, you will find those twisty uphill roads I was talking about! They are AWESOME to do a sort of canyon run like we do out here! Try it next time, you won;t regret it

[robfox]

I now seem to remember some people on crotch rockets wanting to find those roads after watching an autocross. We'll have to get a club trip out there after an event.

As for the Italian beef, you're absolutely right. A friend of the family wanted to open up HIS OWN hot dog stand after moving out to California, simply due to the HORRID quality of hot dogs and beef sandwiches out there.

Hey at least we have SOMETHING better here...you guys get all the good weather.

-Rob

[Mike Zamarocy]

Well, IF he opens that shop, I'll be his FIRST customer! Where is he at????

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