18th Run & Gun

You might think, after driving through St. Louis and seeing the signs directing you to Memphis, Chicago, and Kansas City, and then criss-crossing the mighty Mississippi, that you were near the crossroads of blues country, and you'd be right.

But for the folks who came to Ol' St. Lou' from a handful of surrounding states to attend the 18th running of Run & Gun, they weren't interested in the blues--they came to Gateway International Raceway to race! Originally devised as a way to test kits and replicas in a racing environment, the event has transformed into the best opportunity for the average kit owner to come and push their cars to their limits in three different driving categories: road race, autocross, and old-fashioned quarter-mile drag racing. Over the years, the event has gained a rep-utation as a place where some manufacturers brought out unofficial "teams" (sometimes hired drivers, too) to compete in some of the classes. This year, though four manufacturers did attend (Shell Valley, Roaring '40s, World Class Motorsports, and newcomer Hurricane), none brought hired help to do the driving. They were all piloted by customers, with the exception of Shell Valley president and CEO Rich Anderson, who didn't need anybody to do his driving. (He regularly races on dirt tracks in and around his home state of Nebraska.) Anderson felt right at home in the winner's circle, too, by the end of the weekend, as he won the Road Race Big-Block Prepared class. So without the hired guns, the field was made up of "regular" car owners who just wanted to have the chance to see what they and their cars could do.

Day 1, Autocross
Wisely, race days always start with a drivers' meeting. Most of the Run & Gun participants have done it before (some have been coming for more than a decade!), but there are always new drivers attending, so it's good to go over the rules and explain what flag means what. ("Why is that corner worker pointing that black flag at me?") Rules such as those stating that you could pass only on the left were extremely important, as some folks wound their kits up around the 170-mph(!) mark.

And if you think gas prices on the highway are getting bad, hearing that 100-octane unleaded at the track's pumps was going for $6.00 a gallon almost made some cry. And though "soft" walls were added to portions of the road-course track this year, it'll probably be next year before we see a new road-course track layout by running the course backwards. (Event organizer Rich Pickels stated, "Some folks already run the course backwards!")

After the meeting, everyone headed over to the Autocross course, which was set up by a local chapter of the SCCA. The track layout is different each year, but still incorporated all the safety measures (e.g., so many feet between the course and the barricades).

Just as the first bit of practicing began, about 9:00 a.m., the first hint of sprinkles of rain began to fall. Only 25 minutes later, the sun popped out, racing resumed, and it wasn't until 10:15 that heavy rain fell for about a half hour. But with help from some local racers who were also using the facility that day, they ran the course and knocked the water out of the puddles by hitting them at high speed.

Fun to watch as well as productive, racers soon figured out how their cars would handle on slippery surfaces. Though cars with street tires fared better than slicked-down vehicles, slick-tire car owners were confident the tables would be turned when it came time to drag race later in the week. Nearly everyone got their timed runs in on the autocross course before the heavy rains came. And so close to lunchtime, it was decided to get racers fed early in anticipation of the clouds clearing later in the day.

With the autocross finished, racers moved back to the road-course track for more practice before their timed runs. Racing began at 2:00, but within 15 minutes the rains came back, and by 3:30, track officials decided to call it a day and send the corner workers and safety ambulance home. Soon, the rain was coming down so hard on the steel roof above the pits that you could hardly hear someone talking to you when they were standing right next to you! As it goes in the Midwest, if you wait just long enough, the weather will pass on by--and it did this day, too.