2004 National SE-R Convention
In 2004, after having a few years of the convention bouncing around from city to city, the boys from California wanted to bring the convention back to its roots. Now that the convention had grown, they wanted the rest of the country to experience a California convention. For the first time, the track event was set for Friday. So on May 21st, 2004, a track day at Willow Springs Raceway kicked off the convention weekend that took place in Los Angeles, CA. Saturday was a dyno day, and the Sunday car show and picnic continued as tradition. A recap of the event by Torry Skurski:
Well, after leaving CA at about 6pm on Sunday, I finally made it back to Georgia on Tuesday night. First of all, I want to thank Carlos Gutierrez, Thomas Fox, Kyle Davis, Greg Vogel, Mike Kojima, and the rest of the Southeast SERCA region for putting on the convention this year.
I began my journey on Tuesday night before the convention. I had worked a full 8 hour day, came home and showered, then hopped in my car to head for California. I drove straight through, stopping only twice for a few hours of sleep each time. Almost exactly 40 hours later, I was in Lancaster at the Desert Inn. The only people there before me where John and Lionel, who had driven from Louisiana and arrived at about midnight on Wednesday night (I arrived at about 7:30am on Thursday).
I hung out with John and Lionel all day on Thursday getting his car ready for the track. Later that evening, SE-R people started to slowly roll in. Shortly after that, we were drinking beer and eating pizza. We had heard on the phone that the SoCal crowd was supposed to be arriving to the hotel at about 10pm. We were making bets whether or not
they would get there before midnight. Turns out, they were somewhat on time from what they had said. Our “driver’s meeting” Thursday night consisted of beer, food, and talking about the girls walking around in the apartments with the windows open, across the parking lot 
Bright and early, Friday morning, we headed to the track. And what a NICE track it was. I got excited to see that there were decent elevation changes. The most elevation changes I’ve ever actually driven on were at the Dallas Convention in 2000, at the Motorsports Ranch track. The track day started out on a bad note, when Cookie and Frank
had wrecked their cars on the very first session of the day (which I happened to be in as well). I came in frustrated after the third session, because I was stuck behind two slower cars for the entire session, and nobody was flagging them to let me pass. That was my only complaint for the day. By the 4th session, there were only about 4 cars
on the track, and I was really able to push it 100%. By far, the most enjoyable moment of the day.
Friday night we decided to head over to Outback for dinner. Before too long, we had a table of 14 people. To our surprise, we were seated immediately. Not long after, more SE-R folks trickled into the patio where we were seated, and we soon owned the patio. Many people were more than *happy* after a few drinks, including a particular someone who
was “breaking the law, breaking the law.” Afterwards, we headed over to another place for more drinks, and so the latecomers could get some food. Luckily, both these places were well within walking distance of the hotel 
Saturday morning, we headed over to the dyno. Everyone seemed to complain that dyno numbers were really low. The dyno operators also seemed to need a class on “what detonation sounds like.” Aaron Lebeau and John Abbot were the only two that dyno’d that broke the 300 HP mark, but then again, most of our cars are tuned for a road-track, not a drag
strip. Saturday night, we all hit up the happy hour at the hotel, went out to eat, and basically repeated Friday night.
Sunday morning, we headed to NNA, where the raffle and car show was. We also were allowed to check out Nissan’s storage garage. Wow what a neat place. Unfortunately, I dropped my camera while waiting to get in, and broke the lens. So I didn’t get to take any pictures there 
However, I was still excited to see many 240Z’s, the #83 GTP IMSA car,
Steve Millen’s #75 GTS IMSA car, a 1937 Type 15, and even one of the 3 Atlanta Olympic Quests.which I had actually driven, back in 1996!! Back to the parking lot, we saw the new Altima SE-R, an R-tune 350Z, and a few other tricked out Nissans. Not to mention the ones in the parking lot. My favorite being the 510 with a CLEAN SR swap, Glen’s S13, and Aaron’s B13.
Sunday night I left, and about 50 hours later I was back in Atlanta. It’s funny how the drive back always takes longer than the drive there! But it was well worth it! I can’t wait till next year, so I can drive to my 6th annual SERCA convention, wherever it may be!
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