Last weekend Gene Cooper and Reinout Vogt, Curt Bork and Rick Hamaker, and John Schroeder and I drove the Grand Lake Tour Endurance Rally in Michigan (mostly Michigan, anyway). I’m sure everyone has heard the saying that the trip is half the fun, and its probably a little more than half in an MG. Well, an endurance rally is a way to get all that fun out of the “trip” without really having an end destination. It is also a great way to really see an area of the country; on a par with or better than taking two-lane instead of four-lane highways. You get to really see what the north end of the Lower Peninsula is like by keeping off the big roads, and sometimes off the paved roads. Let me tell you, its gorgeous country up there. I’m sure the Upper Peninsula is even better but there’s only so much you can see with a pair of headlights and a handheld spotlight. By the way, the cars didn’t skip a beat. Reinout and Gene ran into a traction/ground clearance problem, but hey, these things are more of an adventure than any of our gimmick rallies.

The Bomber Brothers (Bill Hedricks and Kim Tonry) are putting on the Abingdon Endurance Trials out of Columbus, Indiana on October 9-10. It’s an opportunity to hit some great MG roads while the weather is still nice, and with some fall color. I like to think of it as a really long and somewhat competitive fall color tour. I hope to see a good turnout from the Chicago Club. If you’ve thought about it and have questions about the rally in particular or endurance rallying in general, feel free to give a call or e-mail to Kim, Bill, or myself. And if you are interested and need a co-driver, let me know and we may be able to get some people paired up. I don’t know about your significant others, but mine is visibly revolted at the idea of spending 24 straight hrs in an MG with me.

If you’re not up to an endurance rally, there are plenty of club events still to come this year: we have two autocrosses at Joliet still (an excellent autocross venue – if you want to try autoXing, this is the place to do it), the Halloween rally, and the Fall Tour. And if you only want to drive to the BCU Fest and park your car, there’s that too. Speaking of the BCU Fest, we need volunteers to help marshal cars in and out of the show – contact Dave Bralich or Ed Misch to help out or risk being pressed into service when you get there.