Pooh and I arrived home safely at 11:40 p.m. after a straight through drive up I-5 from Vancouver Washington.

To whet your appetite...Pooh took 1st Place Small Bore Minis (max. 998 cc)in the Giant Slalom at PIR on Sunday after the road rally. There were no other Canadians to enter the lists and all the Americans failed to sign up. [Can you feel the trembling?] LESSON - You need to start in order to finish.

To be fair, Pooh would have finished 3rd as a Triumph, behind a fast TR-3 and Spitfire, but ahead of the fastest TR-6. Pooh would have been faster than most stock Jaguars, but not on their podium. Pooh would have been the fastest Land Rover (think new, think V8s, think longer course where horsepower counts).

The bottom-line is that unless more Small Bore Minis show up in 2003, the slalom race category will be lost. And there will be no other competitive category other than the existing Triumph and MG groups.

For the truly exciting Mini results, VMC's Rob Fram was 1st Big Bore Minis at 53 seconds flat, second fastest of all on the day. In fact the lightweight, big engine Mini Mokes can play with the Lotus 7s and Caterham copies in timed results. When the 1380 Mokes are out, go fast Mini sedans, "S" and others, are outclassed! for example, Pooh was 2.8 seconds slower than Al Beebe's restored Cooper "S" 1275 cc (Al has lots of Vintage Racing experience in his Britax Cooper). The Mokes were another 7-8 seconds faster.

This was Pooh's last trip and slalom racing etc. in the current configuration. Next spring a new rebuild of 1380 will go in over a rebuilt gearbox. Younger Canadian owners of 998 cc Minis can take a run at keeping the podium finish.

I will soon detail the two days up the California and Oregon coasts, the ABFM at Portland International Raceway and the run home.

As photos are developed and time permits, they will be scanned for the completion of 'Pooh's California Run'.

I hope that you are all safe too!

Rick Higgs (and Pooh of course)

Pooh, E-mail:  mhabc@telus.net