Keeping the Tradition Alive with the Goodguys Del Mar Camp AutoX

[Trackside-Brandy]

Camp AutoX Sponsored by Pro-Touring.com
Goodguys Del Mar, CA
Friday April 1, 2016
Written by: Brandy Phillips
Photos by: Brandy Phillips


An annual tradition that started several years ago was almost cancelled for the 2016 Del Mar event. Camp AutoX started
as a small group of people that would hang out after the Del Mar event, have some drinks, eat some food, and share their
experiences from earlier in the day. Those like Suzy Bauter and Rodney Prouty were the pioneers of the get-together and
hoped for it to continue on throughout the years. Over the last two years, Camp AutoX has grown and included several
new people. In the past, the Newman’s would typically host the event with the help of Pro-Touring.com. Unfortunately
things were a little different this year.




Kyle Newman and his family were unable to attend the Del Mar event this year, which left us scrambling to find another
home base for the Camp AutoX party. After trying to take a head count, there was a huge possibility that Camp AutoX
might not happen for 2016. It was unfortunate since Suzy and Rodney were both out at Del Mar for the Big Red Special
Edition Camaro. Camp AutoX would have been the perfect venue to catch up with old friends and share stories from the
weekend.






After speaking with Suzy, it was decided that Camp AutoX would go on without the presence of the Newmans (who were
greatly missed) and without the mass numbers of attendees that were present at past events. The date was set for
Friday April 1^st and the menu of choice was pizza. Rob and myself along with Jane and Greg Thurmond opened up out
trailer and RV as a new home base and the invitation was released for anyone to come and join us. Without any further
RSVP’s, all we could do was wait and see just how many people would attend come Friday evening.






Surprisingly flocks of people started arriving between 5:30 and 6pm Friday after the event. Those like Dick and Karyn
Eytchison brought dessert along with Matt Alcala’s parents. It would be safe to say that both parties’ desserts were the
highlight of the evening.






Others like JJ, Greg Blundell, Terry Lysak, Suzy and Rodney, and several more arrived just in time for pizza as the sun
started to set. Daily events were shared once again and old friends were able to catch up after months and for others years
of not seeing each other.






Camp AutoX was schedule for Friday in consideration that many drivers might be leaving Saturday evening to attend the
NMCA West event on Sunday in Fontana, California. There were no scheduled get-together for Saturday, but somehow
everyone found themselves once again retreating to the new Camp AutoX home base Saturday immediately following the
event.






Several of the drivers celebrated their success including Jane Thurmond, Wes Drelleshak and Scott Fraser after winning
first in their class. The crowd had almost doubled from Friday’s Camp AutoX including new faces like Mike Maier and his
team, Mike Hamrick from Wilwood, Brian and Steve Hobaugh, and many more.








Even Kyle Newman joined the group via Facetime on Jane Thurmond’s phone (it was obvious that we could not have Camp
AutoX without Kyle Newman, so we found some way to include him into this year’s after party).






A huge thank you goes out to Larry Callahan for helping sponsor the Camp AutoX dinner Friday night. The leftover pizza
was carried over to the Camp AutoX extended party on Saturday, which turned out to be a huge success.






We looked forward to years to come with Camp AutoX and welcome any Goodguys Del Mar attendees to come join us
next year as we continue the tradition.

[CampbellshotrodsAZ]

Cool deal. I'll be back at Del Mar next year, and I WILL have my first car to hit the autocross done and ready to tear it up!

[Rod]

I hope it continues ....were just all friends with a car problem