Last night (Friday, 19th Dec) our track finally reopened, sort of. It has been the subject of a protracted legal battle. You see, our track used to be the access road to the dump. Essentially, there is this road that comes in from the East Airport road, goes in for maybe half a mile, then makes a right turn and goes dead straight along the boundary fence of this old bauxite processing plant. It is this dead straight section that is the track now. It is nothing fancy, but it works for an island of ~50000 people. It is an ideal location for a track. At the South end there is the Caribbean Sea and the dump, which is very convenient if the brakes fail as the water is warm if you overshoot and if you crash you don't hve to drag the pieces far. To the West, is the airport. Directly to the East, is the old bauxite plant. To the North is the only divided hightway in the USVI and the nearest neighbor is the prison. So, no neighbors to bother or complain, and it is already there, so we want to keep it.

Anyway, the f**kwits who now own the bauxite plant had a survey done and in the process it was discovered that the end of the access road, the burnout box, the nice new bathrooms that replaced the porta potties a couple of years ago, the pit area and the new tower are all on land owned by Renaissance (the current owners of the bauxite plant). The rest of the track is all on Port Authority land. Everything that was built, such as the tower and bathrooms, were all placed on the south side of the access road in order to stay on Port Authority land, or so it was thought. When this was discovered, an insurance rider was added to cover Renaissance from liability in case of an accident. This was fine for some time. Well, about 9 months ago or so, in typical corporate fashion, Renaissance decided that being a good neighbor was nowhere near as much fun as being a bad neighbor. That or their legal department was not generating enough billable hours. The road has been there for decades, long before Renaissance bought the bauxite plant. The structures have been built since the purchase by Renaissance, so they have a legitimate complaint. Now, you have to realize that almost of this abandoned plant is not in use, they do not need these 2 acres that all this is located on, and it is all outside of the perimeter fence of the plant (probably a large contributor to the initial misunderstanding). Rather than being satisifed with the insurance policy etc, a cease and desist order was placed against the CDRA (Caribbean Drag Racing Association). That is when we got shut down. So, the last 6 months have been spent attempting to work out something with Renaissance. First, they wanted an insane amount for the 2 acres (it is their land, they can ask what they want). Then, they wanted to swap the 2 acres for some commercial waterfront. The gummint balked at that as it was way out of balance in terms of value. Then they said how about 5 acres and you can build the return road you want. That was tempting, and sounded as if it would work out for everyone as the government was more agreeable to swapping the waterfront property for the larger pamount of land. Then the story became that Homeland Security was against this idea as the fence would have to be moved????? This of course makes no sense as there is currently a fence there and the new fence would have been built parallel to the existing one, which is a deteriorationg cyclone fence with rusted barbed wire on the top that has fallen off in places, in at least one spot I personally saw a Mitsubishi Starion go through, etc (this is the fence that IS acceptable to Homeland Security, or so it is claimed). So, we are at a stalemate. Who knows what will eventually happen, it might come down to eminent domain but that is not an option to be taken lightly.

Anyway, to keep interest in racing, the CDRA decided to put on races this weekend. Unfortunately, we could only go Friday as we flew up to visit Michelle's parents for this week (unfortunate that we could go only Friday, not unfortunate that we are visiting the inlaws). Well, everything has of course become deteriorated over the 6 months unmaintained in the tropics. Plus, everything, start line, 60 foot sensors, 1/8 mile speed and ET sensors and of course, eventually, 1/4 mile speed and ET sensors, have to be moved 77 feet down track. you have to realize, the CDRA is a non profit and everyone involved does what they have to do in their spare time. Consequently, the track was not ready to go at 1800 on Friday, which was the time announced on Isle 95. Since everyone here understands Crucian Time, no one was surprised. Michelle and I get there arond 1945 or so. Progress has been made on setting up the wiring for the lights but it is not done yet. Still, it is looking as if things will actually happen at some time. The original tower had been dragged out of the bush where it had been serving as a termite buffet and placed in roughly its old position. As the old starting line is now where the burnout box will be, the old dividers, which had been placed off to the side, were pressed into service. The old dividers are essentially portable Jersey bariers with an orange plastic skin. One of them has a 6-1/2" pipe cast into the concrete filling. I had measured this and attempted to make an insert to support the Portatree from my neighbor's remannts pile of alumnium bits. I figured this was an excellent project to practice welding of aluminium. Well, when I was done I decided to keep my business of designing boats and not branch out into welding. I did learn valuable lessons, such as remember to turn on the Argon, after welding the metal is hot, if you drop the piece on the floor and it falls apart the weld is not up to nuclear plant piping standards etc. I did promise Kieth (my neighbor and highly skiled welder) that I would be sure to let everybody know that he absolutely did not have anything to do with this piece.

As it turned out, my welding skills were for nought as I had mis-measured the pipe diameter. So, as after six months a small detail like how to mount the tree is not going to stop us. First, a critical tool is located, the BFH. Then a board that fits tightly inside the pipe is located. Said board is then hammered with said BFH into the pipe. Well, this board is only about 3/4" thick, so we need some filling out at the lower end of the board. A section of old power pole about 12" long is located. In an inspiring display of making it work, this one guy grabs the BFH, which conveniently is of the claw hammer style, and uses the claw end to actually split this section of the pole into a chunk that will fit on one side of the board. Then, he does the same for a chunk to go on the other side of the board. These pieces are then hammered into the pipe forward and aft of the board. This whole operation takes a remarkably small amount of time. Now, the square tubing piece of the Portatree is aobut 4-1/2" square. The bits of power pole and board are not EXACTLY this shape. This is where the other shaping tool comes in. A small chain saw appears. Unfortunately, after several attempts at starting, it is determined that there is no petrol in it. Fortunately, another chain saw, with petrol in it, is procured. A few cuts with the chainsaw, a tune up with a machete, and the portatree is dropped over its new base. A screw is driven into the wood and Voila, we have starting lights.

Since it really looks as if it will happen, Michelle and I go back and change to the slicks. The collector extensions are already on and the exhaust system at home on the gorund where it belongs on race nights. Of course, there is no burnout box at this time so people just are doing dry burnouts ala the opening of Two Lane Blacktop. Rather fun, actually. I line up with Jerry and his Mustang. He trees me (he is always good) but I take him pretty quickly. I am definitely rusty as I hit the rev limiter before shifting to third. As we are currently only going to the 1/8th I never get into fourth. We turn around and drive back, negotiating our way back up the one lane staging lane at the start area trying to minimize the number of fenders, toes and small children run over. As there is currently no pit area I find a place to park. Michelle walks up with the time slip for Jerry and I and asks me what I think I ran. I say 8.4, I knew it wasn't a good run. Turns out it was 8.66 or so. Definitely rusty. Fun though. I decide to go make another run and after dropping the pressure in the slicks a bit head back down to the start area. First though, I have to answer a bevy of questions from a group of boys around 10-12 years old, so of course I have to do that.

Well, in my traditional role of rain maker, just as this pair of bikes is about to make a run, and myself and this guy in a new Mustang are going to go down after them and Michelle is getting ready to go get her Land Rover to make a run, I feel the first drops. Then it gets heavier. Then more. Then it stops. At that point, as the plan was to have a bigger night on Saturday, it was called a night. I have heard that Saturday got rained out after awhile also.

However, while there were some definite hiccups, in true Crucian fashion, we pulled it off and it seems that racing is back on St. Croix!!!!

For pictures you can check out this one website, http://streetseen.vi

The website owner also has a bunch of videos of the track on YouTube under the username of Streetseen.vi.


https://www.facebook.com/THENEWCDRA

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