Copyright © 1998

Porsche Club of America The Inside Line December, 1998 Barbara Collozzo-Noonan BCNoonan914@PorscheNet.com

We've entered the holiday season; that hectic time between Thanksgiving and New Year's day when we try to see everyone we know and eat everything we see as we celebrate the season fully. Traditions and rituals play a big part in these celebrations. Besides the large gatherings of friends and family, and the special foods we may only have once a year, there is gift giving and decorations. Hardly anyone goes caroling these days but there are plenty of live performances with a holiday theme we can attend. The theaters usually offer some new movies for the holidays. On television there are the perennial reruns of "It's A Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story". (I'm referring to the modern version with Darren McGaven, set in the 1950's, not the classic by Charles Dickens.) Of course Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Day there are always football games to watch.
 
Probably because they're in the "off-season", these holidays don't have any driving or Porsche related aspects, except for Porsche related gifts if we're lucky. There are some holidays that are linked to driving activities, or at least spectating. Memorial Day weekend is the traditional running of the Indy 500. Millions watch the live broadcast every year. The Fourth of July there's a stock car race somewhere that millions tune into. For the last few years many other PCA members and I have observed it at Watkins Glen driving at the Zone 1 event.
 
Recently a new holiday celebration has been introduced that may become a tradition. The Halloween Howl at Star Speedway in Epping, NH. The fun starts at 3 in the afternoon. We missed the early part of the program, which included the spectator competition and the Powder Puff race. We did get there in time to see the pumpkin drop. I'm not sure what the object of this spectacle is. Pumpkins are dropped from a 150-foot crane onto a junk car. Most of the pumpkins were large and any direct hit caused BIG dents and damage. The crowd seemed to be shouting the loudest for hits that caved in the roof or shattered the windshield.
 
The main attraction is the 100-lap enduro race at the end of the program. One hundred forty 8-cylinder cars filled the 1/4 mile track and raced until someone reached 100 laps. At the end of the race there were less than 25 cars still moving on the track. There were lots of dead cars strewn along the sides of the track and even some still on the track because the race doesn't stop for a caution unless the track becomes impassable. It's quite a spectacle. The cars are decorated with Halloween motifs and there was even a hearse that did a couple of stunts before the race including dumping a couple dozen pumpkins on the track. They got smashed to smithereens on the first lap as the wall of cars rotated the track 4 deep all the way around. The best part was the spectacular spins. Two big, old Cadillacs did the best ones. The drivers kept the pedal to the metal as the cars rotated 360 degrees in bumper to bumper, fender to fender traffic. If you watch NASCAR and are fascinated by the spins and crashes this the show for you. It's a hoot! Try it once and it might become your Halloween tradition. You can even wear a costume if you want to get in the spirit. Sure beats handing out candy!