Northwest Vintage Speedsters hold 37th Endurance Classic

OMAK – Early 20th Century automotive history paid a visit to Omak last weekend when nearly two dozen pre-1934 vintage vehicles turned out for The 4 Banger Rodeo, the 37th Northwest Vintage Speedsters Club Northwest Classic 200-Mile Endurance Run.
Cars and drivers checked in last Saturday, August 31, for the day-long competition and left the Best Western Omak at 8 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 1, on a 200-mile run that the teams were given map directions for at the starting line. The course had been driven and timed in advance by race organizers and the object of the run was to correctly navigate and complete the course as close to the predetermined finish time as possible.
Driver Ted Alkier of Spokane, a veteran of the endurance classics explained some of the rules.
“There are check points along the way, you don’t know how many,” said Alkier. “You get 20 minutes for a coffee break, one-hour lunch break, and 20 minutes of afternoon down time.”
“We’re not supposed to speed,” said Alkier. “Our job is to guess what the finish time is.”
“You’re docked two points for every second you come in early,” said Alkier, “and one point for every minute you’re late, so you’re better off to be late than early.”
“I have an awesome navigator,” said Alkier of his wingman Michael Santiago, a New Jersey resident who also owns some vintage speedster vehicles.
The pair won last year’s endurance classic at Portland, Alkier’s first since he began competing in 1999.
Simon Smith of Portland with navigator Amy Jermain drove his 1931 Model A installed in a Faultless body all the way from Portland to participate in the Omak 200.
“This is my third year competing,” said Smith. “The first year was in somebody else’s car as a navigator and then two years in this car.”
Smith said his vehicle started out as “pretty worthless junk” that he rebuilt into “ugly but runnable and finally pretty but runnable.”
The Northwest Vintage Speedsters Club was established in 1975 and dedicated to the restoration and preservation of 1934 and earlier four-cylinder speedsters and race cars of any make and model. Founder “Rajo” Ed Gloss and 17 other enthusiasts from the Washington/Oregon area started the club that has since grown to include more than 175 members.
Before founding their own Northwest club, speedster owners had to travel to Santa Clara, Calif, to compete against like vehicles.
The first annual Northwest Classic 100-mile endurance run was held in 1983. The following year events included an endurance run, hill climb, drag race and poker run. The annual 200-mile Endurance Run is now held on Labor Day weekend at various locations around the Northwest. Last Sunday’s event was the first, and possibly only, time it will be held in Omak, said race organizer Charles Reichlin from Sedro Woolley.
“I’ve been doing this my whole life,” said Reichlin who is also a speedster owner/driver. “This is the fifth one of these I have put on.”
Reichlin said NWVS includes three clubs, Seattle, of which he is a member, Spokane and Portland. The clubs alternately organize the annual endurance run Next year’s will be in the Spokane area. A banquet and awards ceremony were later held at the Omak Elks Lodge.