And the Winner Is...
Well, it wasn't me. Although I had the only Formula Vee at the meet, and a bunch of people really seemed intrigued by the little single-seat racing car, it only placed third in its Specials class. The class was won by the Brubaker Box prototype, a sort of predecessor of the minivan that was built from VW components in the early 1970s. The first-place award for each class was made from a pair of chromed aircooled VW exhaust tips sticking straight up from a polished wooden base. Given the emphasis that most of the entrants seemed to place on the older cars, this award seemed appropriate and decidedly retrospective.
It is an odd mixture of folks who remain remarkably attached to those funny little aircooled cars with their engines in the trunk, and the counterculture revolution they helped inspire. A VW meet isn't like attending a Morgan or MG or Porsche or Mercedes-Benz convention. Those cars in some way represented the establishment, and they still do today. Contrast that to a VW gathering, where the karma of the 1960s still lies heavily on the scene. Maybe next time I should wear my tie-dye.