Montana 500 Newsletter
Nov-Dec 2006 Volume 6
Montana Cross Country T Assn
1004 Sioux Road
Helena, MT 59602
www.montana500.org
2007 Officers and Directors:
President: Mark Hutchinson
Vice President: Mike Robison
Secretary: Jillian Caples
Treasurer: Janet Cerovski
Directors:
Rick Carnegie 2007
Tony Cerovski 2007
Dave Robison 2007
Tom Carnegie 2008
Nan Robison 2008
Doug Langel 2008
Janet Cerovski 2009
Mark Hutchinson 2009
Mike Robison 2009
Meeting Secretary: Jillian Caples
Correspondence: Tom Carnegie
Newsletter Editor: Nan Robison
Membership dues $10.00
Touring class: $25.00
Endurance runner: $35.00
About the cover:
Gary Ebhart: Port Orchard, WA waits to flag out.
Dave Robison: Timer, Heather Robison: Flagger.
2006 Montana 500
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FROM THE EDITORS DESK
Hi. My name is Nan Robison, and I am the new editor. I am a newbie at this, so this publication is my first attempt. I apologize for the lateness of this addition. It has taken me a while to get the hang of it. I look forward to putting the newsletter together, but would really appreciate any and all help offered. I am not good at articles about engine workings and such, so would really appreciate any stories or articles you might feel beneficial. Please feel free to submit anything you feel would be interesting or make good reading. Also any human interest type stories would be great also. I can be reached at 509-924-8654, or by e- mail at n_robison@yahoo.com.
Thank-you to Tom Carnegie for submitting the first article for me.
Thanks
Your new editor-Nan Robison
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2006 Montana 500 Info.
Dues are due! Check your name on the
address label. If it doesn’t say 2007 or lifetime
you are past due!
Send dues to:
Montana Cross Country T Assn.
1004 Sioux Road
Helena, MT 59602
The 2006 Montana 500 will be held out of Havre, Montana, June 18th-21st. The pre-run inspection will be Sunday the 17th. The run will commence Monday the 18th. Doug Langel is looking into a hotel this and the information will be posted in this publication and on the Montana 500 website. There will be an optional tour day the 21st. Please read and be familiar with the rules. Make sure bolts are drilled! It might be a good idea to bring an extra carburetor. If the inspectors can get the gauge to go through, your carb will be disallowed. Rain gear can be in order in June in Montana (snow gear for that matter).
Presidents Message
Thank you to all who voted for me at the meeting. For those of us that didn’t, I completely understand. I think Mike would make an excellent President. Doug Langel, has been busy setting up things for the upcoming Endurance Run. Look for his proposed routes later in this newsletter. If you have any comments, negative or positive please let me know. My contact information is:
Mark C. Hutchinson 6003 S. Mt. Vernon,
Spokane Wa. 99223. Feel free to give me a call at 509-220-0892, or if you prefer e-mail to
mark.hutchinson@coldwellbanker.com
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The Fall Meeting of the Montana Cross Country T Association:
The meeting was called to order on October 8 in Haugen, MT at 11:00am by President Rick C. There was a motion to approve the minutes as printed in the Montana 500 Newsletter. It was seconded and passed. There was a call for nominations of the President. Mike R. and Mark H. were nominated. There was a motion to close the nominations. It was seconded and passed. The votes were tallied and Mark H. is the new president. The meeting was turned over to Mark H. Mike R. was nominated as Vice President. There was a motion to cast a unanimous ballot cast for Mike R. as Vice President. It was seconded and passed. Janet C. asked to remain treasurer. There was a motion to cast a unanimous ballot for Janet C. as treasurer. It was seconded and passed. Jillian C. was nominated as secretary. There was a motion to cast a unanimous ballot for Jillian C. as secretary. It was seconded and passed. Directors were nominated and voted on. The Club needs to replace Doug L. and Gary E. as directors. Doug L. was nominated to maintain his position as a director. It was seconded and passed. Doug L. is now a director. Dave R. was nominated. There was a motion to cast a unanimous ballot for Dave R. as director. It was seconded and passed.
The list of Directors includes:
Rick C. 2007, Tom C. 2008, Tony C. 2007.
Nan R. 2008, Dave R. 2007, Doug L. 2008.
Janet C. 2009, Mark H. 2009, Mike R. 2009.
Old Business:
Ed M. requested that we extend his allowance for his emergency brake handle to be on the outside of his body for next year’s race. It was seconded and passed.
We had tabled the valve seat port size discussion until this year, so we started the discussion again. Rick C. moved
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that we go with the size of the blueprints for the gauge. There was no second. Tom C. thinks that we should give .010 from the blueprint. Rick C. thinks we should have a go gauge as the blueprint and a no go gauge as .010 from the blueprint. The gauge will be flat on the sides to accommodate oval holes. There was more general discussion on the matter. Ed M. asked why we need this gauge because we have a carb gauge, a port gauge, and a value gauge. Tom C. would hate to disqualify someone because of a few thousands; he wants to error on the sides of the angels. There was a motion to table the discussion on the valve seat gauge. It was seconded and passed. Tom C. made a motion to nominate Rick C. to be in charge of the gauge for the next year. A gauge will be made to see how is goes this year, but it will not be a rule yet. The gauge will have flat sides.
New Business:
Mike R. wants to have an addition to a rule change. On the carb specs, it says nothing about the choke or throttle shaft. There was discussion. There was a motion to clarify a rule: to state that choke and throttle shaft size must be uniform stock dimensions with an allowance for shaft wear. There will be a visual check done at the race. Some wear is acceptable, but no obvious changes are allowed. The motion was seconded and passed.
Tom C. made a motion that a line be added to the checklist that is signed at inspection that states the inspection at the beginning of the race is a courtesy inspection. It was seconded and passed.
Frank Fenton wants the club to become a chapter of the Model T Ford Club International. It won’t cost the club anything. Directors do not need to be members. The insurance is the same for the clubs, so we won’t double up. It will get more exposure for the club. We are going to table.
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the discussion for a while, so everyone can read through the materials presented.
Ed M. says that he is uncomfortable with the fact that if you finish, you may end after someone who didn’t finish. A DNF person may have higher ranking than someone who finished the whole race. There was a motion to show, when the list is in public view, the order of finishers first, then all those who were trailered be placed below. The number of finish would stay the same, just the list order would differ. There was a second and the motion failed.
There was a motion to change the order of the flag out at the race. The motion is to have the cars go out on the first day lot ascending, lot descending on the second day, and by a drawing on the third day. There was no second. The motion was withdrawn. There was a motion to flag out in 15 or 30 second intervals. There was no second. The motion was withdrawn.
Ed M. made a point of discussion. In the route, he would like cones where you turn. It is hard to do and you have to check with the state before you can do it. It was discussed that we would give out times the next day as opposed to the night when we come in.
We returned to the discussion of the MTFCI Chapter. It was noted that the club only needs five members to be members of the MTFCI to be a chapter. Tom C. made a motion that if that is all that it takes to be a chapter, we will join the MTFCI. It was seconded and passed. Five members agreed to become member of the MTFCI: Tom C., Nan R., Mike R., Jillian C., and Mark H.
Route:
Places mentioned were: Havre, Thompson Falls, Fort Benton, and Miles City. We flipped a coin between Havre and
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Thompson Falls and Havre is where the race will be held in 2007. There was a motion to have the Montana 500 in 2007 out of Havre from June 17 through the 21 . It was seconded and passed’
Old Business: (cont)
Tom C. asked what happened to the committee to get Don Engleman to transfer his videos to dvd. The club will pay for them. Rick C. said he has done nothing, but will. There was a treasurer’s report passed around. Doug L. will find a host hotel and a tear down place for us in Havre. Nan R. said she will take the newsletter for one year and do four issues. She needs a membership list from Janet C. and wants Tom C. to help her get started. The minutes will be put in the newsletter. An email list was sent around. If anyone wants to be on the email list, but was not at the meeting, please send an email of your preferred address to modeltbabe@yahoo.com
October 14 , 2007 will be the date of the next meeting. It will be at 11:00am at a place that the President picks. There was a motion to adjourn the meeting at 12:46pm. It was seconded and passed.
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Doug has secured the following Hotel for the 2007 Montana 500
Super 8
1901 Hiway 2 West
Havre Mt 59501
406-265-1411
Single $54.77*
Double $67.29*
* I’m not sure if this encludes tax.
I would advise that you make your reservations as soon as possible as last year
the special rate was only good for a specific time. There are 20 rooms resereved, and they will go an a first come, first served basis.
Here is the proposed route for the 2007 Montana 500. This route is not set in stone:
Proposed Routes:
Day 1 Miles: Havre-Chinook 19, Chinook-Fort Belknap 24, Fort Belknap-Malta 41, Malta-Saco 27, Saco-Malta 27, Malta-Fort Belknap 41, Fort Belknap-Chinook 24, Chinook-Havre 19, Total day 1-222.
Day 2 Miles: Havre-Big Sandy 31, Big Sandy-Fort Benton 42, Fort Benton-Chester 54, Chester-Havre 60, Total Day 2-187, Cleveland-Chinook 25, Chinook-Havre 19, Total Day 2-187,
Day 3 Miles: Havre-Chinook 19, Chinook-Cleveland 25, Cleveland-Chinook 25, Chinook-Havre 19, Total day 3-88. Total Miles=497
Tour Day:
To Rudyard for the Grand Opening of the New Antique Auto Museum.
Tour of the Dinosaur Museum
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Teardowns:
by Tom Carnegie
Perhaps one of the most contentious issues of the Montana 500 is
teardowns. I talked to Ray Habel who came in second in 1961,
which was when the first run was held. He says that they tore his
car down and also the first place car of Evan Lingle. At that time
there was significant prize money given, so teardowns were con-
sidered essential. Throughout the years teardowns were continued
even as the prize money diminished. Rick Carnegie was present in
1971 when they tore down Norm Eberhardt’s car. Rick tells the
story of the teardown taking place on a sandlot baseball diamond.
Apparently they tore Norm’s rearend apart right in the sand on
home plate. My first experience with a teardown was in 1977. The
top three cars drove to someone’s place with a big garage. The
three top cars were then torn down by the owners of said cars. The
inspectors, of which there were five, checked the motors, including
removed pistons, manifolds and valves. They also checked the fly-
wheel with mirrors and the rearend ratio by cranking the car by
hand in gear. After a meeting the three cars were declared legal
and the owners reassembled them with gaskets supplied by the
club. At that time the five inspectors had the final say on whether a
car was disqualified or not. There were times though when the in-
spectors would turn the vote over to the drivers. In is not clear by
reading the rules of the times how the inspectors were chosen. As
a driver I don’t remember ever voting for inspectors, so they must
have been picked by someone. In 1986 the teardown became op-
tional. Ray Habel won that year and was not torn down. To Ray it
was ironic that he was torn down several times when he came in
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second but not when he won. Rich Armstrong won several times
in the cast-iron division. He says that some years he was torn
down and other years not. Apparently they weren’t as concerned
with the cast iron cars. This is how it went from 1986 until 1999.
That is, teardowns were only performed when the drivers voted to
do so. In 1988 the rules were clarified to say that the directors
picked the inspectors. During this time teardowns were rarely per-
formed. The only teardown I know that was performed during
that time was 1987 which resulted in the disqualification of Nick
Nicholas. During this time I kept my ear to the ground and heard
rumblings from the participants that virtually everyone was cheat-
ing. To me this seemed silly that you could vote to not tear down
someone’s car, then turn around and call them a cheater. I decided
that if I were to participate I would lobby real heavy to make tear-
downs mandatory. Most people saw things my way and tear-
downs were reinstituted in 2000. The drivers were to have the fi-
nal say now instead of the five inspectors. Even then no cars were
torn down that year. The directors did not have a place planned
for a teardown. This meant the teardown would have had to have
been done in the parking lot. This was too much for the drivers,
so no teardowns were performed. The exact same situation pre-
sented itself in 2001. Again no cars were torn down. Again rum-
blings of cheating drivers were heard. In 2002 we had a place
lined up for the teardown and one took place. One has taken place
every year since then. I think the teardowns have done much to
quiet the accusations of cheating and have been welcomed by
most of the drivers. You might think that teardowns would dis-
courage drivers from entering the race. This does not seem to be
the case. From my point of view I think that teardowns are great. I
love to see what is inside the top cars. This is coming from the
guy that is perhaps the most torn down driver in the history of the
Montana 500. My cars have been torn down six times!
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