So we arrived at Climb to the Clouds only to be informed that reigning king of the hill Frank Sprongl would not be competing! Are you kidding me? The entire event was built up around the showdown between Sprongl and his quattro versus David Higgins and his latest and greatest Subaru STi. To his credit, Sprongl showed up crewing with a Mitsubishi Evo VI for Jon Kemp - a very fast car. I talked to Frank and he was not a happy camper. He said they disqualified his quattro because of its bolt-in roll cage. Those are no longer allowed and technically they were correct. He was unwilling to hack up his historically significant car and install a current cage. The organizers could have found a way to grant a waiver - come on, even some of the 1930's vintage cars with no cage, no Hans, and no full harness were running 80MPH or more. I wonder if event sponsors Subaru and Vermont Sports Car (who field Higgin's Subaru) had any interest in keeping the spotlight on the Subaru? We were even told to remove all of our vintage Audi quattro banners and signage from our ur-quattro display because "some sponsors were upset"!
A few days back I posted 'The Dreamer' video -
http://rgruppe.blogspot.com/2011/06/dreamer.html So on the way back from the event we stopped by the dealership in Toronto where Frank's car is displayed and checked it out. We got a heroes-welcome when we arrived with the rally cars in tow. Several salesman ran out to see what was going on, including the guy who locks the door in the video. He was not aware that the vid had even been completed.
