82 Atlas

1982 Atlas Van Lines *2002 Restoration Crew*
	Every dream needs a guardian angel and, perhaps, a good patron too. Atlas owner John Goodman has been both. Here is the guy who made all the fun possible. As long as we kept the standards high, John kept the project solvent. Look at that grin- and be prepared to watch it double in size when he comes back to the dock after his first Atlas drive. Do you think he will ever really be turned on by vintage Corvette racing again once he stabs the pedal on the 2,000 horsepower Atlas? Soon, we shall get the answer...
	Ron Brown (left) Don Mock (right). As one of the winningest crew chiefs in history leading the Miss Budweiser team, Ron Brown engineered much of the reconstruction of the '82 Atlas Van Lines. Everybody knows who Ron Brown is! The other guy (right) is delivering a pizza and really had nothing to do with the project. We just let him wear the Tyvek suit for a minute to feel cool, like the rest of us... (See below)
	The father and son team of Alex and Jay Lehnert from Lynnwood, Washington. These guys rock! Jay (right) is our self appointed strawboss and Alex (left) is, well, Alex! Jay owns one of the most extensive hydro button collections on earth and no, you may not have one of his ‘doubles’. But he did design and produce our way cool restoration crew buttons and no, you may not have one of those either...
	Jim Harvey. Harv. The Harvster. This guy is just a heap ‘o fun. He’s been there, done that, and he’s going back for more, grinning. Guys this fun and likable aren't usually so darned tidy in their work habits. But Jim is a active race boat owner. He knows that the racing game takes serious organization and preparation and he has all the chops. His work bay is where we rebuilt the boat. Get him telling stories and you are in for a real treat!
	Bob Allen from Renton, Washington. Bob is probably the most good natured Teamster you are ever going to meet. He logged more hours than any other crew volunteer with the exception of our Crew Chief. Heck, he had so much fun that he stayed on, helping Ron and Jim build the new Trendwest hydro! Bob never screws up, right Bob?....
	Tom Levack, from Kent, was one of the original volunteers and put in hundreds of hours of toil- especially during the nasty demolition phase of the project. No one mixed more hysol glue than Tom and he is probably still chewing it off of his fingertips today. As if the Atlas project (and working a day job with Bob Allen) wasn’t humbling enough, Tom will be a R/C Unlimiteds rookie driver with his new 1984 Squire Shop this year. Just stay out of my way, Tom....
	You know this guy, you just never saw his face before. Steve Peterson is known by KIRO radio listeners as Steve Sanders..."real-time traffic" helicopter pilot / traffic reporter. We all owe him big for keeping us out of the ‘Renton S curves’ at the wrong time! Steve has been on the project from day one, contributing quality work all along the way- whenever he is on solid ground, that is....
	You might be surprised to learn that Jay Lehnert is actually a man of color- chalk white! Even with fogged glasses, he is looking out for another crewman to be stealing his tools and/or air hose. (Don’t even think about it!) This photo was taken moments before he fell into the engine well. It took the rest of us a week and a half to beat the dent out of the bottom of the boat.
	Jeff Stubbers, from Issaquah is another veteran RC/U racer who even designs and maintains the RC/U website! When Jeff isn’t an Atlas crewman, he is either working for Adobe in Seattle or getting his Miss Houston ready for another racing season. An all around good guy, Jeff kept the crew wired on Krispy-Kreams every Saturday.
	Marc Connelly stumbled into Harvey's shop one evening and ended up having his whole life painted Atlas blue! He is just about as ‘pumped’ about this experience as one human ought to ever get. Along with being tied with Steve Schmit for being the crewman who commuted the furthest (Olympia) he is also the guy who is most likely to fall off the dock in front of the entire Seafair crowd- so you’ll want to watch for that! When he isn’t waxing about all things Atlas, he runs an ad agency, builds acoustic guitars and prepares his 1969 Notre Dame for his RC/U rookie season.

	Renae Julson was with us for only part of the journey, but she made a big impression on everyone by doing anything and everything that anyone else did- and just as darned good too!
	Our Crew Chief, Don Mock. He averaged 60 hours a week all year long in the effort to restore this boat. He shattered a leg in March and came back to work on the boat within 5 days of surgery, working out of a wheelchair for several months without missing a beat. Don races- and wins- in R/C Unlimiteds, driving a 1/8 scale RC model of - you guessed it - the Atlas Van Lines. Did I mention that this guy is also a world class jazz guitarist and teacher? This boat is Don’s baby!
	Rob Wheeler- Mr. Fabricator in the flesh! This guy knows more about resins and what to do with them than all the Fiberlay and West Systems guys in Ballard put together! You gotta like a guy who painted his panel truck with giant American flag graphics several decades before 9/11... Besides, he's a Richland Bomber! Rob is a principal partner in a team that will construct a recreation of the 1955 ‘little brown’ Thriftway this year. Top that, fellow hydro fans!
	The unsinkable Lloyd Collins. There isn’t a person around who doesn’t envy this guys ‘joi de vie’. That smile ain’t a fake- he is really happy to be here! Always there and always willing to help in any way humanly possible, Lloyd is a crew favorite for sure. Just don't ask him to close the work bay door! ( an inside joke.)
	Rich Matkin, the service manager for Robert's Auto in Auburn, has been with the project from the start. He was the guy we called to fire up the welding torch to loosen up old glue during the demolition. Rich, who's father was on the Miss Spokane crew (talk about your pedigrees!) is also a life long hydro fan and another one of those RC/U racers on the Atlas crew, driving his clean and fast Appian Jeronimo.
	Steve Schmits, from Mount Vernon tied with Marc Connelly as the guy who drove the furthest to be an Atlas crewman. And he did it every Saturday- right from the beginning. R/CU's Rookie of the Year for 2002, Steve did an outstanding job of preparing and driving his 1/8 scale 1985 Squire Shop. Are you recognizing a pattern here? A lot of model boaters found their way to this project. and they are all going to be just a bit faster for the experience too!
	For some inexplicable reason, Ron Brown kept calling Kurt Palmer "Eric" for 6 months and Kurt just answered to it! Hey, that’s just what you do when you are working with The Man. Small in stature, but huge in heart, we sent Kurt in to the tight places for jobs no one else could fit into. We also used him (much to his concern) as a counter balance weight when we turned the boat over. I think this picture was taken just as someone announced that we would be flipping the boat again tonight...
	Don’t let the Clark Kent expression fool you- Lee Robertson is one heck of a character. Lee is a supburb machinist and fabricator who added another whole dimension to the volunteer crew. Lee is one of those ‘can do it all’ guys. And yes, he is a veteran RC/U driver who is alwaysin the top five. A real ‘killer’ he’ll beat you on the racecourse- but you’ll still end up liking him anyway. Dang, that’s hard to take!
	Steven Anderson, from the Paulsbo area is the strong, quiet type. But you get him talking and man- he’s got some great stories to tell! An electrician by trade, Steven re-wired Jim Harvey's whole shop! Steven was usually a ‘Thursday night’ guy who was willing and able to do anything asked of him. Like some other Atlas crew veterans, Steven stayed on to help Jim Harvey Motorsports get the new Trendwest boat in shape.
	Dueling DeWalts: “See, Rich, this is how I want you to drive these screws. Hold that drill straight up and down!” Rich Matkin tries (in vain) to keep up with the whirling dervish himself- Ron Brown! The loser has to chug that can of acetone. Nice try, Rich- but it’s Ron Brown, hands down! Someone better call 911...
Crew bios by Marc Connelly