It all started last July on our annual trip to Mission for the Jr. Open. Everyone out there was talking about the planned trip to Hawaii in January
2002. We joked about putting together a Calgary team. A few weeks later, in Calgary, joking became serious talk of actually doing it. Ideas were
discussed and we eventually came up with a sponsorship package. The team was formed consisting of Melissa and Cody Scheu, Amy and Emily Barnes, Ashley
Bart, Jason Hughes, Tori McLellan, Chelsea and Dustin Watts, Steven Daniluk and Tanis Brown. After much hard work, we were able to raise sufficient funds
to offset a large portion of the cost. Special thanks goes out to Barb Cosby and Rick Bart for doing most of the organising and to Dan at High River Motor
Sports for use of his yard and the work he did modifying container to ship cars.
THE LONG FLIGHT!!! -- We left Calgary 7:00 AM on the 15th of January with a one hour stop over in Vancouver. Boarded plane at 8:30AM taxied to runway and sat there for half an hour. Then pilot announced we have to return to terminal and get a different plane as ours did not have a black box and you can't fly
over water without a black box, who does tech on these things!!!!! So six hours later we are finally winging our way across the Pacific. Anyone wanting
a detailed tour of Vancouver Airport come see me. We arrive in Hawaii and all is forgotten. Warm weather, palm trees and Hula girls. Wednesday night is
Luau time, fun, food, Mia Tia's. and Hula girls.
THE TRACK -- Friday morning we head out to the track to unload and prepare cars. Everything arrived intact, no problems. Friday night we start test and tune
at 6:00pm. We find out at drivers meeting we will be competing in a team format. Each car makes a run every round, Canadian cars (14 from Mission and
11 from Calgary) will run against Hawaiian cars. One point going to team for each round won. Different but sounds like fun, at least nobody travels 3000
miles to go out first round. We get two test runs in on Friday and one points round, in between rain showers. Saturday we get two more test and tune runs
and go into points rounds. After 5 rounds Canada and Hawaii end up tied. Each team then picked 4 cars to run off and break the tie. Calgary is represented
by Ashley Bart and Amy Barnes. Canada wins first round four to nothing and wins the overall title. Michael Peck goes on to win run off. Other highlights
by Calgary drivers include Ashley Bart 4 wins 1 lose plus a.500 prefect light, Amy Barnes 4 wins 1 lose and Jason Hughes 4 wins 1 lose plus a .504
light. The hard luck award goes out to Chelsea Watts, Broken axle, then clutch
problems.
Thanks to Tom from Hawaii, she was able to make it back for Saturdays racing. Other highlights include Rick Bart landing a 12 foot 500lb Marlin (you
should have seen the size of the one that got away), Jason and me discovering what it's like to meet two 6 foot Reef Sharks at 70ft (kind of gets your
heart going), and Dustin Watts Kick Ass Hula.
Jack Hughes
