2002 Space City Panteras' Texas World Speedway track event #4
Once again, we had a great turnout for the 4th event that Space City Panteras of Houston organized with the Driver's Edge on March 16-17, 2002 at Texas World Speedway. This is by far the largest gathering of Pantera Owners in the South West and the number of cars attending went up again!
A total of 17 Panteras attended this time with lots of folks visiting.
The weather was cloudy and pleasant with some rain early Sunday morning. A front straightaway picture is required and here's this years pictures. Gary Hall was there with his blue car, but a small electrical problem kept him from joining the picture. See the other pictures!
Left to right, owners are: Jim Narum, Fred Hall, Mark Krivanek, Jim Thompson, Louis Schauldt, David Bell, John Taphorn, Kirby Schrader, Dennis Jones, Dan Mixon, Dennis Coffman, Tom Upton, Bill Borrello, William King, Bob Radefeld, Rick Inserra
Others who attended and are not mentioned above include:
While Fred Hall was working on his car, Lisa and her daughter did a fantastic job selling Tshirts and caps to the folks visiting! Nick Sakulenski came with his family and his Miata all the way from McAllen. His Pantera engine wasn't finished yet unfortunately...
Mark Krivanek's Dad and a friend came down from Oklahoma as Mark's pit crew and support.
Jack Tunnell and Robin, Mark and Candace Pinson from Dallas
Dennis Quella visited without his car. EFI modifications on his racecar weren't complete yet.
Jack Houpe came from Arkansas with his Renault R5 Turbo, but left early with ignition problems.
Michael Frazier from San Antonio (who recently completed his first Big Bend race!)
Bob Pitaro from Houston
Randy and Jamie Pike came on Saturday. His Euro GTS Pantera coil wire died on him about 2 miles from his house so they came in the truck.
Dan Mixon's son John from Houston. A regular at the meetings, too!
Richard Greenblum from Austin
Wayne and Cheryl Stevens all the way from Maryland!
Todd Reid and family from Oklahoma
Marilyn Bell and the girls helped out a lot! Thanks.
And others I'm sure I've forgotten... ;-)
Sunday started out rainy, but cleared up nicely by mid morning!
Saturday night, we all got together at T-bone Jones steak house. A great turnout! You can see pictures here. Awards were given out for 'People's choice', 'Spinmeister', Best Paint, and 'Best Engine'.
For other pictures, you'll find them here
And of course, there's David Bell's tale for this year.
There were four 'run groups' again based loosely on experience with the Green and Blue groups running with instructors.
Green group was for drivers who had no track experience, Blue group was for those who had some experience, Yellow was for those who had more experience and Red was for the experienced.
Space City Panteras will do it again next year in the February/March timeframe. Everyone is invited, so hope to see you there in 2003!
Our winery tour didn't happen due to too many folks doing the track thing, but we want to keep it in our plans. I know what we need to do to make the car show better and we'll make sure that is better next year also.