You guessed it, we’…
…rained out again for Saturday, June 4. This is more disappointing than seeing Madonna up close. Of course, we’ll try again next Saturday.
The only thing I can guess is that one of you really pissed off Mom Nature. My fear is that she asked if she looked fat in those clouds and one of you enthusiastically said yes. This is the biggest grudge she’s had against us since 2009! I think she’s being a bit passive-aggressive and conveniently waters on Saturday mornings. We’ve yet to have a single event in our normal parking section and it looks like this Saturday will be no different. We’ve never started this late in our regular lot. Ever!
As you probably already know, we’ve had a lively discussion about Audi 4s on Facebook and we want to add a bit more color to the running commentary. We do love the feedback and the debate. Your opinion matters, but we delete the trolls now and then so the debate remains in good spirit.
Our mission is to have fun. It’s at the top of everything except safety… except at home, behind closed doors… with some weird music…lights out. You know.
If this isn’t fun, then what’s the point? Right?
I don’t think we’ve ever had a season where I didn’t have to write this post in one form or another. It’s the same message, but we have to say it again as there are always new people reading this.
We have to defend our event from two sides; people who want to ruin it, and those who complain because we defend our event. If we don’t do something it’s a lot less fun for everyone. We love that you all hold the brand in such high esteem and we do our best to protect it and keep it safe from those who would carelessly destroy it. Believe me, those who disrespect our event never built anything.
It’s a bit like tossing the wanker out of the bar that’s ruining it for the other patrons. Even Disneyland has to toss out some weird kid now and then.
We’ve all seen Mustangs leaving California car gatherings along with paint, fenders, scattered parts, a grill and a headlight, with yelling, police, and someone getting chased. Like every day in California. We’ve never wanted that anywhere near us. We ban drivers for safety reasons, and to preserve the event. It’s all kind of simple.
None of those who advocate giving these narcissists a pass have anything at risk. However, we do. We think a lot about how to reduce risks, while keeping it fun, all without killing the spirit of what took over a decade to build.
Second to that, is preserving the show. We all think, well one smokey burnout is no big deal, but it is to us. It has an accumulative effect with the public score keepers, especially those who are not car enthusiasts. The non-car people seem to remember every negative thing that happens, regardless of how few incidents, and then come racing out from under a rock with their list like an armadillo in spring…minus the list. They have nothing better to do, and don’t see the tens of thousands who love cars and love what we do.
We don’t write about every little gripe or call we receive, but it has a similar effect on us. This is why we are firmly on Redmond PDs side along with the Washington State Patrol, who, by the way, follows our events. We all want to keep the morons as far away from us as possible.
Typically, the less expensive the car, the younger the driver, and higher likelihood that maturity hasn’t kicked in just yet. Testosterone is something completely new to these individuals so we feel sorry for them. They get turned on by fruit. Remember that? No? They can’t even fathom reason and accountability so we’re not going to bother. We just ban all those who behave badly as the simple solution.
It never fails, after we post something about bad behavior, we get the posts on Facebook, you know, the defenders and virtue signalers and it always starts with, “…well, a (fill in brand here) did the same thing…” and our response is, we banned them too. We do! You should hear our radio chatter and behind the scenes messages to each other!
Next, it’s the, “well, they aren’t all bad drivers…” and that’s also true. We were hoping to rely on their car enthusiast friends to get it across that their behavior is moronic, but that hasn’t worked either. So, over the years, we’ve learned to just kick them out as a group if necessary and be done and get back to having fun. We send them a map to Fresno.
Meanwhile, with gas prices the way they are, when we’re rained out, you can use that savings for your retirement. I don’t know what it’s doing for electric car sales because we just don’t have a way to support all of them on the road either, unless we’re going with a power-generating nuclear reactor option. We all think electric cars are interesting, but they become a huge problem if a lot more people are driving them too. We also have the whole chip shortage to toss into the mix and we can’t ramp up anything to solve the shift from one energy source to another.
As I was driving cross country for our opening day, I did notice there were a lot fewer cars on the road overall. Normal tourist stops were lightly visited. If you break down anywhere, you’re going to hear banjo music before you get help. Some think that’s great that there are fewer cars out there, but there is a far-reaching economic impact, especially for those small business owners along the route who depend on freeway traffic. The cost of high fuel is immense and we hope everyone understands that this is far more complex than getting gas users off the road.