Racers, Friends & Brotherhood
Greetings to all.......CP drivers, family and friends.........

Some of you might  remember.... I ran my 90 Mustang GT street car in CP a couple of years not so long ago.  I got the bug to build my own 'real' CP car and started of on a quest to have my own HEAVY METAL car.  Alas, after a few years of gathering parts pieces and such, I found I didn't have the resources to finish the task nor the time to dedicate to doing it right.  Some of you might have visited my website on occasion....  http://www.cpthunder.com ........feel free to visit and see what the car used to look like before I sold it this last December.........

Chris Belieu (USAF Retired, as am I) in PA bought my car and finished building it in record time.  He did it right.  He has been campaiging the in local autox's, hill climbs and road races and has really been having fun with it. We have been keeping in touch so I can see what 'my' old toy has been up to. I was extremely happy when I saw his name signed up for Nationals.  I was going to see my car run in person!!!  I was signed up to run ESP on T/W with Natha Waldbaum as my co-driver and we were going to stay and watch CP!!!

However, what I didn't know was Chris had also been in contact with a couple of dear friends of mine.  I crew for John and Natha Waldbaum in Club Racing. John runs a ITE Porsche and Natha a T1 Corvette.  Well, Natha knew what that CP car meant to me and contacted Chris back in June took a chance.  It paid off.......in spades.    Natha and Chris conspired together in an elaborate plan.....and my journey began.

I got an email from Chris saying he had to back out of Nationals due to work issues.  He was quite detailed in what happened and was very apologetic knowing how excited I was to see him run the car.   What could I say, I was pretty upset but what could I do.  I even told Natha we could return to Omaha after the banquet Wed night I was so bummed.   Weeks passed........everytime the Nationals came up in conversation, I would vent!!!   Well, as it turns out, Natha had assisted Chris in his Nationals quest and  unbeknownst to me, showed up here in Omaha Friday afternoon, trailer in tow.  About 530pm I got a call from Natha, obviously upset (almost in tears) asking me to come over to her house as soon as I could.  I beat feet over there expecting nothing but bad news........what I walked into will stay with me for the rest of my life. I opened the side door to the garage (my normal entrance) and found a dozen of my best friends....all standing in the garage entrance, all with appropriate adult beverages and all just smiling. Natha immediately began snapping flash photos as I just stood there dumbfounded. I had no clue what was going on. Thats when I noticed the strange car in the garage.  It wasn't Nathas Vette or Cobra, it wasn't Johns 944.........it was MY old project car, complete, painted and ready to RACE!!! I was floored!!!!  I actually thought I was about to pass out as my throat closed up and my eyes began to fill when I looked at the car and saw two names on the rear quarter windows.......Chris Belieu.......Steve Glaab.

All my friends had known for months........I was going to drive MY old car at THIS years Nationals.  Even some of the staff at SCCA (Nancy Downing) was involved in the ruse.  As the party took off, my friends all came to me to tell me of their stories of how when I was complaining about not getting to see the car at Nationals, they had to fight back smiles and laughter and pretend to 'understand my dissappointment'.  Natha had even chronicled the conspiracy in an album, complete with dozens of emails between her and Chris, pictures of the build progress and devious plans and stories on how this plan should be carried out to the fullest.  Ron VerMulms name and phone number is even hand written on one of the printed emails.  Turns out, Chris had asked me about 'autox' slicks and I had referred him to, of course, who else?  It turns out, the party invitations Natha had sent out to my friends had indicated one of her goals was to see if she could make me cry............(I very seldom show much emotion)..........

It Worked.  Repeatedly.

I have to thank all my friends, Mark and Julie Jorgensen, Mark Walker, Jay Albers, Nancy Downing and Ted Johnson (amongst others) for helping make me the happiest man on the planet.  For Chris Belieu, you have made a special friend of this fellow Air Force Veteran.  Thank you for the opportunity of a lifetime.

For my dear friends John and Natha.  I can only say I have rarely met two more loving and caring friends in my life.  You take such care of me while I give you so little in the way of help with your racing efforts.  I will never be able to express my appreciation for the gift you have given me.  I love you both.........

For my CP friends, I figured only a group of individuals like you would understand the how far racers, friends and brothers will go for another.

See you on Tuesday night for the CP Party............

Steve Glaab
1985 Mustang GT CP # 119



Editor's note: This was taken from the email list
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 00:35:14 -0500
Subject: [Cp] Racers, Friends and Brotherhood
This article comes from C Prepared - SOLO II Site
https://cp.carlc.com

The URL for this story is:
https://cp.carlc.com/modules/content/index.php?id=15