Slipstream - September 2012

By Linda Bambina, PR Chair and MRPCA 50th Anniversary Committee
Last month’s
column
listed
Mavericks who had
received a National
Award or a Top
Place Trophy in
a National Competitive
Event through last year’s
Parade. Needless to say, we “did it
again!” at the Salt Lake City Parade
as noted elsewhere in this issue.
As it turns out, our Maverick
Family “did it again” in another
special way - Mavericks were there
for other Mavericks who needed
help. Rather than go into all the
gory details, I will just encourage
you readers to ask Joel Nannis and/
or Clay and Betty Perrine about
their individual SAGAS in “Gettingto-the-2012-Parade”
and about the
support and problem solving that
was contributed by fellow Parade
Caravanning members Travis and
Robyn Howard and Carey Spreen.
I knew other storied “sagas” existed,
and Parade is a perfect venue
to gather those stories, so off I
went. Ed Mayo
is a gold mine
of memories
when it comes
to bizarre tales
of ingenuity
over mechanical
failure in
God-forsaken
locations.
Apparently
Ed learned,
via an article
that PCAer
Mike Robbins
wrote for 356
Registry magazine
some
40+ years ago,
about which
replacement
parts (some 350 lbs worth!) are
best to carry with you on a road
trip. By the way, Mike Robbins has
now attended 54 (yes, fifty-four)
Parades, so even back then he knew
a thing or two about road trips.
Ed recounted a few amazing
stories: replacing a 356 carburetor
on the back roads of Arkansas, pulling
a front bumper off a 914 to get
to a hood release so Carl and Fran
Ussery could put fuel in their car
on a Weekend Tour, as well as helping
at countless Autocrosses with
“surprise” engine malfunctions.
Speaking of “surprises,” I will
personally never forget receiving
a phone call at about midnight
from Ed explaining that the truck
we loaned him to haul a bunch of
racing tires for various members
had overheated and died near Jolly,
Texas. Where? Oh, one of those
God-forsaken locations in West
Texas. Long story short, I can tell
you with a straight face that when
we called Bob Knight at close to 1
am (who was the closest person we
could think of who owed an SUV
large enough to accommodate
all those tires in Ed’s pickup),
all he said was “Sure, you can
borrow it, but I just washed it so
bring it back clean.” What a guy.
Fran Ussery recounted a great
story of how Joel (sans shirt of
course) crawled under her 914
on the hot pavement at Mineral
Wells, covered with gasoline leaking
from a broken fuel line. According
to Joel, replacing the fuel line
in that small hot space wasn’t the
problem - the real problem was the
burning he felt from getting all that
fuel into a big cut on his finger!
There are lots of other bizarre
tales: a “Mangled Maverick” award,
a Bob Manskey ski rope tow in New
Mexico, when Mavericks used to
herd to the Santa Fe region’s
annual Fiesta Del Porsche. There
are flat tire stories and “vanishing
oil” stories, but mostly there are lots
of laughs and somehow fond
memories that drive home our
deep appreciation for the cars we
love to drive and for the friends
who drive them.
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