We arrived to find Mike and Howard already hard at work on the steering rack of the 1974 white Pantera that Howard bought from his dad.  Jim joined in with the project and I left to go shopping at the Vacaville outlets.  I was lucky and found the one item that I needed for that evening.  I returned to find that CP member Rick Moseley had arrived.  The car now up on the rack and minus the shocks.  While Mike and Howard took the shocks to a shop to have the ride height spacers removed, Rick started the BBQ.  It was a beautiful day for a cook out. With lawn chairs under the shade tree and a gentle breeze, we all enjoyed our lunch.  About 1:30 pm Rick had to head home.  We were close behind.  We had an engagement in San Francisco to go to.  It took us over half an hour to get to Fairfield on Highway 80.  We finally rolled into San Francisco at our friends house at 3:45 pm!  If we had been in the Pantera, we would have overheated for sure!  We were going to Davies Hall for the Gala Renaming of the University of  the Pacific Dental School (my alma mater) in honor of the Dean.  It is now the University of the Pacific  Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry.  I was in the Dean's first graduating class in 1979 and am a part-time instructor at the dental school.  It was quite an honor, because there is only 1 other dental school in the USA that is named in honor of a person.  The evening was Black Tie and very impressive.  The formal presentation, at Davies Symphony Hall, was followed by entertainer Bill Cosby.  He closed the show with his famous Dentist routine.  It was a real treat to hear that routine live!  Most dentist know that routine by heart and can mouth the words right along with Bill.  There was then a Gala reception at the Rotunda of San Francisco City Hall.  Over 1600 persons gathered to honor the Dean.  We finally made it to bed at 1:30 AM.  It was a long day, but a very enjoyable one.

 

 

Work in the morning followed by a fun evening.  We cleaned up pretty good!

 

It was Labor Day weekend, but we decided not to "Labor" around the house that Saturday.  That would still be waiting for us later that weekend.  We did sleep in Saturday morning before we headed out to Sears Point.  It was a hot day so we left the top up on the Capri and the air-conditioning on high. (The Pantera is not yet back on the road.  We just got word that the ZF is ready to come home from Lloyd's shop).  We arrived at the track just before lunch.  We found the area of the Sacramento Shelby Club, their  unique set of flags makes them easy to find.  It was there that we found CP member Rick Carlisle and the Mercury Cyclone.  We chatted with Rick and heard about the modifications that he had recently done to the car.  We then heard how he was modifying those modifications to get the car back to its better premodified performance.

 

We were able to drive the track in our Capri, with the top down, during the noon time parade laps. It was fun, but would have been better if not stuck behind a Jeep and a Suburban!  Our last lap was a pretty good one.  We were the last car in the group and actually had part of the lap totally free of traffic. This makes three tracks that we have been able to drive in a non-race situation.  The others were Fernley and Thunder Hill.

 

 The weather was very warm, actually it was hot with a very dry North wind.  The wind was a welcome relief in the afternoon. You  went from one shady spot to the next.  You didn't last too long in the sun.  This made for some very hot and uncomfortable spectators and drivers.  There were a variety for different cooling methods being used.   I think that I fell victim to the heat myself.  Despite trying to stay in the shade, wearing a hat, drinking plenty of liquids, I developed a headache and iffy stomach.  Maybe I was just having sympathy pains for Rosemary Andriesse.  She was hit with a case of food poisoning from her lunch on Friday (lunch from the grill at the race track).  She spent an awful night and missed the morning session at the track.  Happily, she was recovered enough to drive part of the afternoon session.  She should be fully ready to go Sunday.   We headed home after Rick's last session of the afternoon.  We stopped for dinner on our way back to Rio Vista.at one of our favorite spots in Napa, Jonesy's at the Napa airport.  They serve a wonderful house salad, but I couldn't handle more than a couple of bites.  Jim really knew that I wasn't feeling too great when first I didn't want any wine,  just water and ice tea. Then not eating my salad.  Jim said I was starting to look as bad as I felt, so it was dinner to go and hasty exit from Jonesy's.  By the time we arrived home, with the trip spent sipping ice tea (sent by the waitress) and cold air blowing on me, I felt almost normal.  Jim finally got to enjoy his dinner, warmed up in the microwave.   Despite everything, it was a good way not to be "Laboring".

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

John W. reported that the Brunch Run is a no go for this month.  He was unsuccessful with both Cache Creek and Jackson Indian Casinos.  Emilia will look into a Brunch Run later in the Fall to the Delta.  She has a couple of different locations to check out as far as cost and parking. Expect a report at the next meeting.

 

Jeff reported that he attended the Chico Concourse this past weekend.  Jeff took first in class!  He said that there were four Panteras at the event.  He gave the day a great review and well worth the hour and a half drive to Chico.

 

The Concours at Serrano is in two weeks.  There will be four CP members with autos in the show. Several others will be attending.  Member John W. will be the able "cub reporter" for the Club newsletter.  So expect to have some wonderful photos for the newsletter next month.  CP member George  is one of the chairmen of the event.