Dubs In the Valley 2007: The first go round. Educations are expensive........

So although the timeline isn't exact and perfect, my first post about DIV and the premise of it was pretty on (this decided by us, after I posted it, yes, us is still most of the people still involved that was part of the same "us" the first time we did this) See it here before you read further:Where we came from.

Matt and Bao are somewhat inactive but still come when they can and after that first meeting, several people joined in to help carry out the master plan. It can't happen without a good team, introductions will be made soon so don't fret.

I had moved back to Oshkosh in 2004 for a business venture. DIV had been a pipe dream for some time for us but it was always in our heads. It didn't have a name, it was a nameless faceless daydream to us. Always in the back of our minds but never coming forward. Laying in wait for us to decide it was time to roll with it. At some point in 2006 it surfaced in my head. A vision of epic proportions. The be all end all! A party to rival the best and be logged in the history books (I need to qualify my delusions of grandeur by letting you know my business vended in close quarters to to the EAA airshow. When you see that you believe anything is possible.) I feel closely tied to the EAA and it still fuels my thoughts on the show. Here's why, and remember this as this will come into play later. They are a grassroots organization, started by enthusiasts who have worked hard and built a gathering that people travel to from around the world. Think about that. Not a big corporation, but a guy, and some friends having a get together. I was amazed by this. Why not us?

So after a little chatter back and forth we decided it was time to pull the trigger. So step one: where? Well it just so happened that just up the road from me there was a pretty badass racing facility. Wisconsin International Raceway in Kaukauna seemed to be the ideal place. Featuring a 1/4 mile dragstrip that is known for some ways around it seemed like an ideal place to carry out our agenda hence the "premium dragracing and carshow" on the banner of our logo.

The venue was chosen right about the same time as the name. The name came from VWs of course (Dubs) and "In the Valley" as in the Fox Valley. So we had a name that had a ring to it. How do you put a face on it? We sat around one night brainstorming this. I'm pretty sure it was Matt who came up with the idea for a classic looking design that had the feel of an old school beer label. Ironically, in the basement of the house I lived in, there was a poster glued to the basement wall made up of (get this, because it is ironic) Old beer labels. It was meant to be. Matt was employed in the graphic arts industry at that time so he contracted a designer he knew to build us a logo that employed the feel we were after. What became of that is a graphic that has become synonymous (ha! no spell check at the first attempt with that word!) with a good time. The shield has been with us since the inception of DIV and will be with us for good.

Note the "premium homegrown carshow" This change will be explained in future posts as we travel through time with DIV

Sorry for the resolution of that, being old sometimes creates challenges with things like internetting for me. You know this logo, If you don't you will after this.

So now we get to the part of securing the track, assembling costs, etc. Which leads into the planning meeting in our first post. I'll spare you all the details as they are somewhat mundane, and there are far more fun things to talk about from 2007. I will say that the track and everything else came with a hefty price tag which we were not expecting. DIV almost didn't happen because of that. But we had a can do attitude and really, if you put the right group of people together, anything can happen and it usually will so we barreled forward with no idea what the future held but didn't care because we were not afraid. We were excited.

Lets get to the show. I don't have alot of photos unfortunately. But there are some neat videos out there, I remember when I found this one. Released shortly after the event in 2007, I was flattered and thrilled to watch it. Relive it, this one captured the feel well I think. You be the judge!
http://youtu.be/l4MqZuTSr18

Everytime I click on that I watch the whole thing. The friends I've made and the memories, boy the memories. We have fun.

I see alot of folks in that video that I still see year after year after year, that is badass. So how did it go down you ask? Smooth. We were pretty damn happy with it all. we were running cars down the track, there were a bunch of cars in the show area, people were eating and drinking, it was well, what we wanted. Matt had shown up with something we had all forgot about, trophies.  It's a somewhat good thing one of us was somewhat grounded. The trophies he produced were probaby some of the coolest awards I could have hoped to see at a carshow.

We have never found a reason to stray from what Matt brought that day. Can you think of a reason? People proudly post photos like this with the trophys they win, That is reason enough to keep them just the way they are. We of course have added some. Sponsors are now invited to make trophies and pick the winners, a pretty cool thing alot of shows now are trending towards.

Hot summer day. dragracing, cars, people, camping. Goodtimes. We couldn't help but feel good throughout the day. Then came the awards. Most were happy, some however felt they were entitled more than the cars that were picked. Well, after a gravely burnout shouting unintelligible things about some Jetta from another club winning we had our first angry patron. Then it came time to settle up for the track. After the shirts were paid, office supplies, etc all came out and the list of sponsors that so anxiously signed up never paid, we were short. Uh oh. So we paid.

Then came the backlash on the internet from "Mr my car didn't win" and his peanut gallery. Of course a battle ensued creating a rivalry that made for many awkward times at future events, which when I was present and could participate in had a fun time as I really do enjoy a good argument although in times like that I end up infuriating somebody more haha as I don't take some things seriously, especially people who are mad they didn't win (on a side note, in response to the whole trophy thing, we said "step up your game" which that guy really did. well played sir, well played)

So with all this going on a few of us said "no way, too much money going out to do this again" I said I understood but I was going to continue. That was just too much fun and I was hooked. Well, everybody eventually came back on board when it was realized it was happening either way.

Now, I wouldn't couldn't do it without my team. It wouldn't feel right without them. These are my people.

These are my dudes. This shot is missing Mr Long Ball Rally as he usually retires well before us kids get out for the night after the show. I hope I never get old haha!

 I need to say, when defending ourselves against any attacks that were made, we never ever claimed personal sacrafice, or any other BS excuse as to problems we may have had. We simply did what we could to correct it, as we do now. Because this is fun, we love it, we love seeing everybody. Every last bit of it is worth every pennyminuteseconddollarandthought. No questions ever if it should happen. Thanks for reading. Maybe we will make some introductions next eh? We have some characters, that's for sure!
Til then!