Here the only photo I know of that shows most of the original group of people I worked with on JI. If you recognize yourself in the photo drop me a line. From lower left, Kyle Roge, John Robinson, Rhett Spencer, Don Rogers, Bill Cepeda, Bill Shaw, Lance Weeks, Judy Hall (deceased), Jeff Wickenheiser, George Heinert, Jim McBride, Neal Janus, Dave Draper, Ed May, Dick Marchetti and Ron Tate. Yours truely isn't in the photo unfortunately. As you can see the beverage of choice was NOT bottled water....!
All of the concrete was mixed by hand using a 1/3 yard mixing machine. I know a lot of us had blisters on our hands when that job was finally completed. I don't remember the exact angle of the back straight but it was in the vicinity of 40 degrees or so. I do know if a car somehow got stopped on that back straight it invariably slid to the bottom! The main thing to avoid however was getting your car launched over the back wall onto the concrete slab about 4' below.
At any given time on a "race" weekend there would be a half dozen or more cars show for a race event. The spectators were able to sit in a small grand stand was liberated from another part of the island. Through one of the service organizations on the island an electronic timing system was purchased and used which made keeping track of times a lot easier and a lot more accurate.
Click on an image to enlarge.
