February 17th Meeting 7:30pm at Bobby Salazar's 434 Clovis Ave ...

Movie Night at Dan Rouit’s Flat Track Museum
Another year has passed and it was time again to attend movie night at Dan and Cathy
Rouit’s Flat Track Museum. As I arrived, Bob Wiemiller and Bob Miller were hard at
work manning the grill preparing tonight’s meal. As I walked inside a group of dedicated
volunteers had everything setup for an enjoyable evening. But this year was going to
be special.
For a few years now there’s been talk about expanding the museum because of the
lack of space for current bikes on display and for future acquisitions. Even with the
addition of elevated platforms a few years ago which helped out tremendously, more space was still needed. Well, in 2009
it finally happened. Construction began on the new addition and was completed by the end of the year. Tonight Danny
and Cathy will unveil the long awaited new addition to the museum.
After eating a great meal is was time for the unveiling. Danny and Cathy were
positioned at the far end of the museum where the new addition began and a set of
double doors with a ribbon stretched across them. Dan started off by saying this
addition was something he’s wanted to do for long time. He then told a story about
a very special person he met a long time ago during his racing days and how much
this person meant to him. His name was Earl Bachant. Dan who was now visible
very emotional said Earl had recently passed away and that he was dedicating the
new addition to his long time friend. As Dan paused for moment to collect himself
someone in the crowd yelled out “We Love you Dan” With not a dry eye in the
crowd Danny continued and asked Joan Bachant Earl’s wife to cut the ribbon. The
doors opened and everyone entered with tears and smiles.
It was now time for the raffle and then the feature movie. Mike Keith was in charge of calling out the winners. First up was
the big money, I believe $150.00. Out of the hat the ticket was drawn and the number called. Glenn Pierce stood up and
had the ticket but it wasn’t his. It was Scott Radtke ticket which Glenn was holding because Scott had to leave early. Scott
is Glenn’s boss at the California Motoring Company. I later found out that Scott donated his winnings back to the museum.
Thanks Scott. The raffle continued with a lot of great prizes being handed out. A big thank you goes out to CWS
motorcycle parts, Western Powers Sports, Steve Sweet and Jimmy Johnson for donating some
great prizes.
The first movie up for tonight was an episode from Mayberry RFD titled Barney’s Sidecar.
Barney, determined to nip the speeding on highway 6 in the bud, purchases a motorcycle and
sidecar at a military surplus auction. With the town up in arms over Barney's new toy, Andy
tricks Barney into donating the motorcycle to a museum. Second movie up was a collection of
clips of dirt track racing in the UK. Due to England’s notoriously wet weather and the lack of
dry dirt race courses most of the racing was run with speedway type bikes where they would
try to convince a friendly landowner to let them use their grass fields to hold their events.
Overall it was a great evening. I’d like to thank everyone who attended tonight. Danny and
Cathy would also like to thank all the volunteers and everyone else for giving their support to
which without all of you this wouldn’t be possible. T.J. Gilchrist