Upthe
west coast
road racing
circuit
By Allan Engel
Col d , hard cash. barbecuing steak,
kegge d beer, a party after the race, and
so me of ยท th e prettiest co un try side
an ywhere : th ese are just a few of the
things awaiting Cali forn ia road rac ers
willing to venture a two-da y drive
north .
This does not happen just on ce or
t w ic c a year but at every race, and
ther e are thirteen ro ad race: m eets a t
Kent, (Wash.) and Westwood ( B.C.)
a l o ne , plus an additional fou r a t
Portland International in Oregon.
Girlfriend Beth Rotse l and I pi ck ed ,
up Ro cky K ent Ro ckwell one
Wed nesday even ing in Costa Mesa a t
his "home" in a bl ue m ax i-van behind
Monotrack Engineering. We loaded his
T-Ze d 25 0. spares, tires, tools . an d
every thi ng else ne eded for two weeks
of ra cin g. camp ing . and sigh tsecing,
and pointed my van north o n th e
freeway . Our plan was to race two
consecutive weekends. first a t Kent
near Seattle , and th en at Westwood
j ust outside Van couver. and to spend
th e intervening week taking in as much
of the geograp hy of th e North west as
possible .
We to o k 101 o u t of San Francisc o
alo ng the coas t to Crescen t Ci ty .
AIth ough it is a nice d rive, particularly
thro ugh Re dwood Nati o nal Par k. 101
is n ot a r oad for ma kin g time.
Intersta te 5 will get yo u from L.A. to
Portland in about 22 hours of n on st op
dri vin g. It too k us six hours longer for
th e excu rsio n up 101 to Granite Pass,
Oregon.
We spent Th ursd ay ni ght at a
Ore gon sta te campgro un d. 'The cos t is
$3 a day. wh ich in cludes e lec tric al
hOD k-up if yo ur v-an o r m o bile home is
so equippe d. Orego n s ta le camps ites ,
recrea tio n p arks and rest are as are
. so me o f the m ost co mp lete an d are th e
bes t cared-fo r facili ties in th e U.S . o r
Canada.
We ch ased th e sun an d crossed th e
Columbi a River into Wash ingt on a t
Longview . abou t 5 0 mil e s down river
fro m Portlan d , In co n trast to Oregon.
Washington has n o cam psites and very
fe w picnic areas o r rest areas wes t o f
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