[DeTomaso] NPC: car news stuff kinda sad

[Himes, Terry (397C)]

I took the Danny McKeevers High Speed Racing School up in Willow Springs many years 
Ago with a bunch of other Pantera nuts!  BEST 3 days ever!! Well worth the cost. The 
instructors did NOT go easy on us.  One flagged me into the pits, jumped into the drivers
seat and said “Your being too tentative in the corners!!!!!”  Then proceeded to show me 
how it’s done.  Good lesson! 

Willow Springs is also where they vet all the plastic Hollywood ego’s who “think” they can drive
and compete in the Long Beach Grand Prix celebrity race. Some of them are actually pretty
good.  Others… all ego. Makes for good stories tho. 

I hope they save the Skip Barber Racing School.

Terry







"A Purple Heart proves you were smart enough to hatch a plan,
 stupid enough to try it and lucky enough to survive!"
 
Terry W. Himes 
JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Dawn Spacecraft Team
Rosetta Sequence Team Lead
Phone: (818) 393-6261
Cell:     (818) 653-8213
thimes at jpl.nasa.gov
🇺🇸
 

On 8/10/17, 9:19 AM, "DeTomaso on behalf of Larry-Ohio Time Corp" <detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com on behalf of Larry at ohiotimecorp.com> wrote:

    Skip Barber Racing School has received U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval in New
    York to sell all its assets and intellectual property to Liquid Asset
    Partners. The school is one of the largest racing institutions in the world.
    It has a 40+ year history providing racing instruction, defensive and
    high-performance driving classes, amateur and professional racing
    championships, and corporate entertainment experiences. The list of alumni
    include top racers, business professionals, and world famous actors.
    
    While most of the physical assets will be sold in a three month liquidation
    sale starting August 29, the iconic brand is available for outright purchase
    offers or potentially for licensing to regional race schools or tracks that
    want to grow race programs. Liquid Asset Partners utilizes a unique approach
    to Intellectual Property and values the enormous brand recognition of the
    Skip Barber Racing School. Other schools and race tracks with instructional
    programs could add quality and demand to their race programs from the Skip
    Barber Racing School association.
    
    A three-month liquidation sale will be held in Braselton, GA starting August
    29. The sale will include hundreds of race cars and high-performance
    engines, transmissions, and components for Barber formula race cars, Mazda
    Miata, Porsche 911, Mustang GT, semi-trailers, trucks, fleet equipment, race
    equipment, memorabilia, and historical vehicles.
    
    "Skip Barber Racing School has built a great track record for over 40 years
    as the leading race and performance driving school. We feel honored to have
    this opportunity and are starting to talk to different parties about options
    for its future," said Bill Melvin, owner of Liquid Asset Partners. "The
    demand for Skip Barber Racing School training is very high, and it's amazing
    how most men know the Skip Barber Racing School as the best of the best. It
    just needs the right structure for it to grow for another 40+ years.
    Licensing to numerous tracks could be an option. Adding the Skip Barber
    Racing School to any track curriculum would be a huge draw for any local
    race community, or a national player may emerge to acquire the brand for a
    national program already in place."
    
     
    
     
    
    Team 211 Entertainment CEO Jim Cohan has announced that the owners of the
    Irwindale Event Center property have set the date for the center's last day
    of operation. "We were notified this week by the owner's representative that
    January 31, 2018 will be our final day on the Irwindale property," Cohan
    said.
    
    "First and foremost, everyone should know that we'll continue to operate
    Irwindale Event Center right up to our final weeks, as we've been doing for
    the past five years; providing great family motorsports and related
    entertainment in the most professional way possible," he went on. "Our full
    2017 schedule of NASCAR, Drag Strip, LA Racing Experience events, and
    special events will run as published. And, in fact, we're planning on adding
    a couple of extra events to the calendar to honor all of the competitors who
    raced and wrenched here at Irwindale since it opened in 1999."
    
    "In all honesty, we were here and in it for the long haul, in fact we were
    in the process of putting out our complete schedule for the 2018 season. All
    that made this news very difficult for me to hear, and very hard on our
    whole team.
    
    Cohan went on to thank all of the many sponsors, and supporters who worked
    with the facility over the years, "Without them, we would have never been
    able to do what we've done.  I won't name them all here but they all deserve
    a huge amount credit for this place still being around.  They've believed in
    us and we've believed in them . those partnerships have meant a great deal
    to everyone involved."
    
    Cohan also thanked the many motorsports sanctioning bodies that chose
    Irwindale as the site of numerous major events over the years, saying,
    "Their confidence in our abilities was a high compliment for us, we always
    tried to make each show better than the last one. That's just the way all of
    our people are wired. And .we'd be somewhat amiss if we didn't mention our
    friends in the City of Irwindale, and working with them to have an event
    center that everyone involved with could be proud of."
    
     
    
    "In the end I'm most proud of our whole extended team right across the
    board; they're a very dedicated group of people who picked up what was left
    when the original operators left in 2012. Working together these people
    rebuilt this facility's reputation as one of the finest short tracks in the
    country, a great stock car driving experience, and an exciting street legal
    drag strip. I'm the one who is most often quoted; but they're the team that
    did all the work."
    
    Cohan concluded, "I simply want everyone out there to understand that this
    team is going to work just as hard to keep this a great fan-friendly
    facility running strong all the way until midnight January 30, 2018. We all
    wish that we could have given our racers many more than the five years we
    were able to and sincerely hope that we entertained all of our guests along
    the way."
    
     
    
     
    
    Larry (just the facts) - Cleveland