June 2006

www.ncrscca.com

The Bulletin RE’s Report

®

June 2006

The Official Newsletter of the North Carolina Region SCCA

Flag Chief’s Report

WORKERS! Come on Down!!!

by Mark Senior

by Chuck Stanley

I’ll start off this month’s column by thanking all those that helped make our May club race, the Al Fairer SARRC MARRS Challenge a great success. Everyone I talked to had a great time. The workers from the MARRS region seemed to be enjoying our southern hospitality and the drivers seemed to be well behaved both on track and off, even the Spec Miata crowd. All praised the workers especially registration which once again never had a line more than a few folks long. Not sure what Ginny’s secret is but she should patent it and sell it! Participation was up from last year but still short of the large crowds we experienced during the first few SARRC MARRS races. This race was originally extended to a 3 day event to accommodate the huge turnouts. Since participation has leveled off somewhat and we were able to finish early both days, the region will need to need to decide if we continue this as a 3-day event or shorten it back to a normal 2-day event. Please provide your thoughts on this to your Chapter Coor-

I have some catching up to do, as you have not heard from me in the Bulletin since we started our 2006 NCR season. I’ll try and make this brief...☺

To the SEDiv. Double National Race July 1-2-3, 2006, Roebling Road Raceway, GA

Our March Memories were extremely memorable, not only because it dusted our whites off, refined our skills and was rather “cool”, but we had two record breaking groups that made for some extremely good racing to witness. Turn 1 was the typical fiasco, but pretty clean. Turn 10 was exciting, as were most other areas. Our grid folks are probably still weaning themselves off of the prescribed relaxer medication and there were many who came out of the crowd to assist in gridding record fields. What a way to begin 2006!

The SEDiv. will take care of your rooms and you know, the SEDiv. is always very generous with gifts. There are always large groups of cars and hopefully lots of workers.

(Continued on page 4)

(Continued on page 3)

Index The Bulletin®

Then, on a personal basis, I was off with a few other NCR folks to help Ken and Stacey Grammar inaugurate (is that a word?) their new USERA series at Kershaw. Pete Romanowski, Dwight Pardee, Doug Morris, Bruce Dover, Brian Hooper and Ed Wentz all came down to help the Grammars get the series off the ground. We all had a great time and certainly wish Ken and Stacey all the best in making the series the success I know it will become. Then, on to St. Pete to see the “sweetheart” again...our adopted daughter, Danica. Anyone who works a day for the NCR this season, and is a member of SCCA, will walk away with a piece of that trip, as most of you already know. Dwight Pardee accompanied me that weekend and we had almost as good a time this year as last, but no ribs were offered from the Jim Beam people, so we went a tad hungry Sunday afternoon compared to last year. Oh well…! We saw the Grand-Am folks make their first spring visit to VIR since they have been coming to us.

NCR Staff Listing .......................... Page 2 Advertising rates ............................ Page 3 Where NCR Meets ......................... Page 4 Page 1

You can count on lunch all 3 days, there are usually ice cream snacks and very nice social events at the end of racing Saturday and Sunday. All workers interested can contact Sara Snyder for the room reservation, smoking/ non smoking, roommate requests and that sort of stuff. Contact Nancy Digh-Carbini about F&C. My email and phone # are at the bottom of the page. Be prepared for any weather, we have had it all! I hope to see lots of friends and hopefully some new friends. COME SHARE THE FUN!!! Support your SE Division. Nancy Digh-Carbini SE DA of F&C (770) 414-4473 [email protected]

Triangle Chapter Report ................. Page 5 Bench Talk ..................................... Page 6 West Chapter Report ...................... Page 7 June 2006

NC Region SCCA Board of Directors and Contacts www.ncrscca.com 800-342-7390

www.scca.com 800-770-2055

NCR OFFICERS

NCR OFFICERS (cont’d)

CHAPTER COORDINATORS

SPECIALTY CHIEFS

SPECIALTY CHIEFS (cont’d)

Region Executive

Members At Large (4)

Cape Fear Chapter

Registrar, Office Manager

Flagging & Communications

Mark Senior 3313 Corsham Drive Apex, NC 27539-8335 H- 919-662-7502 W- 919-890-3826 [email protected]

Buddy Matthews

Richard Franklin

Ginny Condrey

Chuck Stanley

2319 Albright Dr Greensboro, NC 27408-5415 H- 336-288-7744 C- 336-312-8858 [email protected]

6400 Strawfield Drive Wilmington, NC 28405 H-910-790-8587 [email protected]

4455 NC Highway 87 North Pittsboro, NC 27312 H- 800-342-7390 H- 919-542-5388 (local) F- 919-542-5384 [email protected]

3412 Apple Meadow Drive Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526 H- 919-552-0228 [email protected]

Dan River Chapter

Assistant RE

Pits

Heather Powers Rex Deffenbaugh 233 E Johnson Street Cary, NC 27511-4046 H- 919-542-1457 W- 919-467-2884 [email protected]

419 Hillside Drive Greensboro, NC 27401-1930 H- 336-691-0127 C- 336-707-1344 [email protected]

Searching for a volunteer... Who wants to step up? Triangle Chapter Coordinator, SEDiv SARRC Rep.

Richard Wilcox 6700 Buxton Court Greensboro, NC 27406 H- 336-674-7623 [email protected]

Grid

Fire/Rescue, Medical, Course Marshal DA Emergency Services

Rick Moser 2929 Firewood Drive Matthews, NC 28105 H- 704-845-9218 [email protected]

Sound Control - (retired)

Secretary

Blair Stitt Joedy Pennington Jerry Pell 4615 Charlottesville Road Greensboro, NC 27410-3619 H-336-855-6419 [email protected]

2225 Briar Glen Rd. Winston Salem, NC 27127 C- 336-971-3772 H- 336-650-1248 [email protected]

3906 New Bern Avenue Raleigh, NC 27610-1333 H- 919-231-1777 [email protected]

West Chapter

Janet Bruce 5650 Marshview Court #99 Shelby Twp., MI 48316 C- 336-253-6005 [email protected]

Scrutineer/Tech

Tim Johnston Many thanks to Tim for his years of service! Now that he has retired from Sound Control, we need a replacement. Anyone interested?

Timing & Scoring

Treasurer, DA Race Administration

Ed Wentz Scott Gallimore

Sara Snider 2012 Yawl Place Oriental, NC 28571-9796 H- 252-249-6520 C- 252-670-3638 [email protected]

701 Old Kestrel Drive Apex, NC 27502 H- 919-362-0429 [email protected]

5305 Willard Road Oak Ridge, NC 27310 H- 336-643-9356 [email protected]

Web Master

Jeff Lengel, Co-Chief with Buddy Matthews 1013 Ivy Lane Cary, NC 27511 [email protected]

Starter, Bulletin Editor

Past RE, Area 12 Director, DA Grid & Pits

Anna Crissman 805 Nivison Court Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526 H- 919-215-7255 [email protected]

Licensing Chair

Lee Wagner Kaye Fairer 145 Fenton Place Danville, VA 24541-3633 H- 434-793-4235 (Local) F-434-793-3684 [email protected]

The Bulletin®

5568 Teakwood Road. Hickory, NC 28602 H- 828-294-6248 W- 828-901-6965 [email protected]

Page 2

Bruce Dover 559 Saplin Branch Road Timberlake, NC 27583-9026 H- 336-364-8231 C- 919-423-6015 [email protected]

Peter Krause 8613 Barefoot Industrial Road Raleigh, NC 27613-4704 C- 919-740-1871 W- 919-781-1871 [email protected]

June 2006

Flag Chief’s Report (Continued from page 1)

Three days of pure fun! Two days of superb weather and one that turned a tad ugly. But, all in all, the GrandAm weather stewards get a “B” compared to past years. Oh, did I forget Saturday and 12 laps of green in a 2½ hour race! Guess I am already looking ahead and forgetting the past. And, we as workers will never forget being blessed with Ute Zettlinger, coming for the weekend all the way from Texas. Wow, and she made it there and back in a Kia! Remember, these same drivers and teams will be back in October for a 12 hour endurance race, along with the above mentioned USERA series, so get ready! Oh yes...Our own Tom Long has joined Team i-Moto, based out of Coral Springs, Florida in the Grand-Am Cup Series. Look for him to be racing in his first proracing opportunity (that really pays!) http://www.grandamerican.com/ News/Article.asp?ID=6249 Tom, best of luck in this great opportunity for you, know all of us are rooting you on and showing Blue Flags for ya. Now, on to the Premier Regional

event of any season for the NCR, the Al Fairer SARRC/MARRS Challenge. If there is a regional runoff atmosphere, this event sure is just that. We had workers and teams from all over the place, as far away as San Francisco, Canada, Pennsylvania, and the Mid-West. It is a wonderful time to rejoin friendships, catch-up on happenings at other places, and see great races. We are extremely fortunate to have VIR as our home track and events as meaningful and fun as the SARRC/ MARRS. If you think things don't get exciting during these events, ask the turn 10 and 11 personnel one day about the SRF race on Saturday. Fortunately, in this incident both drivers and all workers responding are fine. Can't say the same for a couple of SRF's, except the shunt proves how well those cars are constructed. I also would be remiss if I did not mention my continued appreciation for our well-oiled working relationship with the VIR EV staff, and their ability as well to work together with visiting teams such as those coming in from the WDC. Everyone does a wonderful job gelling together. I would like to

thank the Grammars for their initial assignment in Control. The quality of their work, the give and take, back and forth from the stations to Control and vise-versa to anyone not knowing they were “Rookies” would never ever know. Their rookie stripes never made it on their sleeves if you judge the quality out of the tower. My three Co-Chiefs, Mark, David and Pete are also cherished by me personally. Three guys who have no agendas, aside from care, safety and doing things right. What more could I ask for? Thank You each. And, last, but definitely not least, I can’t forget Ms. Fairer, who once again performed multiple assignments with the highest quality that earmarks the NCR for what we are. Race Chair who fed us, cared for all, worked Registration, Control, delivered flowers...all while she kept close to family matters, is beyond me how she does it. I am very proud to be a member of the NCR, no doubt each of you reading this can also feel that same pride ‘cause you all deserve it.

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION To get an application for Membership, go to: www.ncrscca.com or call Membership Chair Kaye Fairer at 434-793-4235

Advertising rates for The Bulletin Number of Insertions / Cost ®

The Bulletin

Ad size

Published by The North Carolina Region, SportsCar Club of America Editor: Bruce Dover Approving Executive: Mark Senior Printer: Chapel Hill Printing & Graphics Except where indicated, The Bulletin and all material contained herein is Copyright ©2006 North Carolina Region SCCA. All Rights Reserved. Any duplication or reprint except for personal reading and use is strictly prohibited without the written consent of the NC Region SCCA. All material submitted for publication is subject to approval by the Board of Directors and the Editor. Any articles or photos sent in that are published become the property of the North Carolina Region SCCA. Any opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not representative of the NC Region SCCA except where indicated. The SCCA Wheel and Logo are Registered Trademarks of the Sports Car Club of America.

The Bulletin®

Type

1 issue

3 issues

10 issues (Yr.)

$15.00

$40.00

$120.00

Non-Member

$10.50

$28.00

$84.00

Member

$30.00

$80.00

$225.00

Non-Member

$21.00

$56.00

$157.50

Member

$50.00

$138.00

$415.00

Non-Member

$35.00

$97.00

$291.00

Member

$80.00

$225.00

$675.00

Non-Member

$56.00

$157.50

$473.00

Member

Business Card

1/4 page

1/2 page

Full page

Page 3

June 2006

RE’s Report (Continued from page 1)

dinator or send them directly to me or any of the Board of Directors. The year has started off well with all of our club racing and Solo2 events finishing in the black as a result of good turnouts and some tightening of our belts on expenditures. That said, registration for the June Driver School and Regional Race at Rockingham was very disappointing with a total of only 11 entries for the school and 10 for the Sunday race only 10 days before the event. Since the Region is not in the position to absorb a major loss and more than 60 entries would be needed to break even on this event, the Region had to make the difficult decision to cancel the event in order to minimize our losses. My sincerest apologies to those students that had signed up to attend this school. They are the real losers in this situation. Those that did not get a chance to race at this facility this year are also on the losing end as this is really a great facility and fun track. Given the poor response to the school/regional race, the Region would like to hear from its members regarding future events especially hosting driver schools and the desire for club races at the Rockingham facility. The Board opted to hold the school at Rockingham since the track rental fees are much lower than at VIR but if no one wants to run there then we will consider hosting a school on the North or South course at VIR if this is preferred. Please let the Board know your preferences since the Region is putting on these events for you! Speaking of Rockingham, the Region’s next track event will be a PDX (Performance Driving Experience) there Saturday and Sunday July 2930. This is a non-race event for street cars and will allow anyone interested The Bulletin®

to get some on track experience without the dangers that accompany club races. There has been a lot of interest in this event from non-road racers that have never had a chance to drive on track so we are hoping to fill this event up. We will also be looking for experienced racers to serve as instructors for this event so please put this event on your calendar and look for the registration site to open soon. In other items of interest, there is a petition circulating among the SCCA membership to call a special

meeting of the National BOD to discuss the club’s finances. Seems some of the members are concerned about how much money the club continues to pour into the separate Pro-racing program. While I don’t intend to use this column to encourage this petition, I don’t see anything but good coming from the membership having a better handle on where the money goes. Also, it was brought to my attention that our own very successful Tom Long has a ride with i-Moto racing, a (Continued on page 5)

Cape Fear Chapter - Wilmington First Tuesday of the Month 7:00 pm McAlister’s Deli Meeting Room 740 South College Rd (Across from Kmart) Richard Franklin*, Chapter Coordinator

Triangle Chapter - Raleigh First Wednesday of the Month 7:00 El Rodeo Mexican Restaurant Hwy 70 at Pleasant Valley Blair “Pepe” Stitt*, Chapter Coordinator

Cape Fear Chapter - New Bern First Thursday of the Month 7:00 pm Franco’s Pizza & Italian Restaurant 1200 US Hwy 70 East Vern Geddings*, Chapter Coordinator

West Chapter - Greensboro First Tuesday of the Month Dinner at 6:45, Meeting at 7:30 NASCAR Café - Greensboro Next to Four Seasons Town Centre Mall Ed Wentz*, Chapter Coordinator

Dan River Chapter - Danville, VA First Thursday of the Month Dinner at 7:00 pm, Meeting at 7:30 Gaslight Grill at the Comfort Inn 100 Tower Drive (Position open)*, Chapter Coordinator

NCR Board Meeting - Hillsborough Third Wednesday of the Month Dinner at 6:00, Meeting at 7:30 Occoneechee Farm Steak House 378 S. Churton St. All Welcome!

* see Chapter Coordinators’ contact info on page 2

Page 4

June 2006

RE’s Report

have small tanks, to prevent them from running out of fuel on course and creating a dangerous situation. So go check that out if you plan on running in one of those classes.

Remembering…

(Continued from page 4)

new Grand Am team. I think that’s fantastic since Tom is a great guy as well as great driver. I wish him the best of luck. Please check the Region’s event calendar and try to make it to one of the upcoming events. That’s it for June and as always, let’s remember to have fun out there!

Triangle Chapter Notes by James Shanks

The May meeting of the Triangle Chapter was a really good time, as meetings go, probably because the business portion was short and the friendship portion was long. We had a good time being entertained before dinner by footage from Pepe’s (Chapter Coordinator Blair Stitt, for those of you who’ve just joined us) archives. He brought a tape so old it must have had moss growing on it. There was in-car footage of Jason Green’s Datsun 510 at Savannah from seven or eight years ago. It included shots of Doug Piner’s old red bus from before he was married. What happened to Jason seems to be a mystery. It appears he moved to Kansas and disappeared. No surprise there. Seems the same thing happened to SCCA Pro Rally. The tape also included night racing footage from the Wake County speedway which dated from before Pepe had built his first RX-7 and joined us, as well as some shots of Scott Gallimore’s ITC Pulsar being driven by its former owners, Bob Lewis and Tim Johnson. And it finished out with pictures from Pepe's first season, driving IT-7 at Charlotte, if you can call it driving. As Assistant RE Rex Deffenbaugh observed, before Pepe got that car sorted out, his technique was best described as “drive to the next corner, spin, drive to the next The Bulletin®

Al Fairer, preparing to start a race at VIR in 2003.

corner, spin, and so on.” I’m telling you this was one entertaining tape to watch, especially over dinner and a few beers. In Region news, we heard that the Cape Fear Chapter autocross program is going great guns, and that as a result, entries have to be limited to 60 cars, so if you want to run, pre-register on-line and preregister EARLY. We also learned that the date for the 2006 annual meeting and awards dinner has been set for January 13, 2007, and will once again be held in Raleigh. A round of applause was delivered to members of the Banquet Committee for the fine job they did last year, and to wish them well with this one. In BoD news, Jody Pennington of the West Chapter has been appointed to the Board of Directors to serve out the remaining term of Member-at-Large Dwight Pardee, who recently resigned. We were also informed that the "supps" (Supplementary Regulations) for the 13-hour enduro, The Charge of the Headlight Brigade, have been approved and will be posted shortly on the Region web site. Under consideration is a proposal that there be a maximum number of laps permitted between fuel stop for SRF and SM, which Page 5

This report will most likely not be published before the upcoming super event, the Al Fairer SARRC/MARRS Challenge, scheduled for May 12th through the 14th, so we’ll have to wait until next time to see how well we do raising money for our charity of the event, Angels Among Us. They are the folks who raise money for the Brain Tumor Center at Duke. Blair provided us all with flyers highlighting that tie-in with our event, and as an incentive, the flyers also included one free gate pass to entice people to come on out and see what we are all about. Let’s hope they really draw a crowd. The meeting closed with good news of the promising future sort. First, it was announced that Tom Long has landed a seat on the i-Moto Grand Am cup team, and will be contesting that series as a pro driver for the remainder of the season. Way to go, Tom! And, Scott Gallimore reported that he had driven an IT-7 at Savannah recently, rather than his customary ITC Pulsar. Scott said he had a great weekend. He actually passed some people in his own class who were still moving! Attaboy, Scott! Onward and upward! And speaking of onward, why not join us for the June meeting of the Triangle Chapter, Wednesday, June 7th, at the usual place, the El Rodeo restaurant in the Townridge Shopping Center on Glenwood Avenue (US Highway 70) in Raleigh? I’ll even send you an e-mail reminder. If you aren’t getting them already, you can sign up for them. Just go out to http://www.euliss-uftring.org/cgi-bin/ dada/mail.cgi/list/triangle and subscribe. I’ll see you at the meeting… or at the races! June 2006

“Mall Mayhem” May 21stTwin Rivers Mall-New Bern

Muscle Mustang and Fast Ford magazine. Assistant Chapter coordinator, Vern Geddings, had the honor of taking the Cobra on a demonstration pass. A good time was had by all and many thanks go out to all who were responsible for what was truly an automotive event. June 4th - Sounds of Freedom Invitational Auto-X. Due to the US Military security requirements, Cape Fear event organizers have determined that we need primarily SCCA MEMBER participation to ensure future events at this site. Contact the Registrar at [email protected]

The weather was hot and so was the competition at the Twin Rivers Mall “Mall Mayhem” autocross event. Approximately 50 drivers battled it out on the nicest day that this May has had to offer yet.

The event was co-sponsored by Family Tire and Auto Service-New Bern who had an information tent set up. They gave away free t-shirts, free oil changes to all class winners and a free lifetime wheel alignment to the Fastest Time of the Day. This was awarded to Jeff Eng in his SM2 Mazda Miata at an unbelievably quick 50.154 seconds.

Don’t forget the June 11th - Rickety Bridge Run TSD Rally! Pre-register at www.myautoevents.com

Craven Community College also held a Pig pickin' on the opposite side of the mall, which many of the participants enjoyed during our mid-point break. Tim Forrest of Havelock had his 1 of 1, 2005 Ford Mustang Cobra, certified by Ford's Special Vehicle Team and featured in The Bulletin®

Page 6

Get ready for the busy part of our motoring season! Richard Franklin-Cape Fear Chapter Coordinator 2002 Honda S2000 “11 A-Stock” Black/Red June 2006

West Chapter Notes by Ed Wentz

Our big news is our new meeting place, the NASCAR CAFE, in Greensboro. We are hoping this will be better for us than our previous meeting place. We will have our own room, with audio/visual equipment available. Our next meeting is coming up quickly, on Tuesday, June 6. We will have a guest speaker, Clint Thomas of Hank Thomas Motorsports, to talk about the HANS device, since they are an authorized dealer. Congratulations to Heather Powers for her FP win on Saturday, May 13 at VIR. I was supposed to crew for her, but some leaky sewer pipes in my house took priority; maybe I did better for her by not being there! I had heard about a bad wreck between two Spec Racer Fords at Turn 10 (South Bend) during the weekend, go to this webpage to see the in car video from one of the cars involved: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/ 0F6ACEFE-3CF7-4552-B5FA49F0739A360A.htm

I believe both drivers walked away, though both were very sore the next day. One of the SRF's may be a write-off. The driver with the in-car video had a HANS device on.

Trivia quiz, the winner gets his meal for free (I am the sole judge of this contest). David Knoche was our first winner in April, Brian Hooper won it in May.

Look forward to seeing y'all at our next West Chapter Meeting in Greensboro. I plan on having the Third Round of our Motorsports

Keep it on the track, shiny side up! - Ed Wentz West Chapter Coordinator

F&S Enterprises

Eventual winner, Sam Moore in his #26 Volvo, leads the pack through the uphill esses (above). The “Ground Pounders” (below) were one of the largest groups at the Al Fairer SARRC/ MARRS Challenge in May at VIR. F&S Enterprises

The Bulletin®

Page 7

June 2006

North Carolina Region SCCA 559 Saplin Branch Rd. Timberlake, NC 27583 www.ncrscca.com

2006 NCR Schedule Jun

July

Aug Sept Oct

Nov

4 10-11 11 15 15 29-30 12 12-13 2-3 24 6-8 28-29 14-15 21-22 3-4 5 19

The Bulletin®

Sounds of Freedom Invitational-New River Air Station, Jacksonville 60 Cars Max Driver School/Restricted Regional – at Rockingham Rickety Bridge Run - T.S.D. Rally- Kinston/New Bern N.C. 30 car max East Columbus Gator X-Cross, Lake Waccamaw - Autocross 60 Cars Max Rally in the Piedmont TSD Rally - Danville, VA area (see pg. 4, RE’s Report, for details) Performance Driving Experience (PDX) - Rockingham Cape Fear RiverFront Grand Prix - NIGHT FINISH! - Autocross 60 Cars Max Oak Tree National, CCPS, ProIT Historic Sportscar Racing Wilmington Ind. Park 2nd Annual "Indy at the Park” - Autocross 60 Cars Max Grand Am Cup 12 Hour Finale (televised) Goblin’s Go – SARRC/ECR/CCPS/TT Open For Havelock Or New River Air Station TBA - Autocross 60 Cars Max Open For Havelock Or New River Air Station TBA - Autocross 60 Cars Max Charge of the Headlight Brigade - 13 Hour Enduro Back-to-Twin Rivers New Bern Twin Rivers Mall - Autocross 60 Cars Max CFCC “RiverView GP” Auto-X Series Finale - Autocross 60 Cars Max Page 8

June 2006