PitStop

PitStop

June 2002 Volume 49 Number 6

Report

June, 2002

As some of you have commented, “It sure would have been nice to know the event fee has gone up!” I apologize. Last month, your board discussed expenses that are on-going and continuing to grow – especially sanction fees and insurance – and we felt it time to increase our event fee to $15 per event per driver. We of course had discussed it earlier and thought that we could encourage pre-registration by offering a discount ($11.00 fee) for such action. We did not do that, but in the same breath, we are not destitute. If I get enough feedback from you, I would be glad to have the BOD revisit the issue.

The Christmas Party / Annual Awards Banquet has been set for Friday, December 6^th at Rolling Hills C.C. This notice should be soon enough for you to get it on your calendar. Details will follow but we typically will offer your choice of Beef or Chicken for the entrée, and an evening of fun and games besides the year-end trophy presentations. Your presence is requested.

On the subject of future meetings; you know that Scorpio’s is closed during the month of August, so we go to the Log Inn in Warrenton for our August Meeting. That will be Tuesday, August 13^th. There will be reminders about this meeting as well, but get it on your calendar now. For the benefit of Paul Condi: Yes it is on TUESDAY. We will be asking for a head count on this meeting as well as the Christmas Party.

Bob Sonntag held a Rally School at Atlas Van Lines World Headquarters Saturday the 18^th. (And a very nice headquarters it is) While the overall quantity of students was – perhaps, modest – the quality was superb! The curriculum included lectures, in lab exercises and a final on-the-road real test. He included the gamut of rallying terms and conventions, yes Mike, even the “T” MRR. Check the schedule on the web site and make a special effort to make the first Rally.

The Results of the First Bookend Autocross will be published in this PitStop, so trophies will be awarded at the June Membership meeting. BE THERE! See you at the Lone Star.

Ken

2002 Board Members

Regional Executive (RE) Ken Andrew 812-473-3375

Assistant Regional Executive (ARE) Bob Sonntag 812-477-5936

Secretary (SEC) Terry Davis 812-853-2875

Treasurer (TRES) Gary Heck 812-858-9919

Pit Stop Editor (PSE) Paul Dornburg 270-685-4470

Activity Chairman (AC) Gene Young 270-764-5950

Assistant Activity Chairman (AAC) Tim Green 270-926-2859

Advisor (ADV) Ron Groenert

Event Schedule

Autocross #2 Sunday, June 9^th Heritage Hills High School Santa Claus IN

Rally #1 Sunday June 23^rd Mike Freeman, Tech and Registration 12:00 to 1:00 First Car at 1:30 PM

Autocross #3 Saturday June 29^thOwensboro Airport Owensboro KY

Autocross Sunday June 30 Mid America Air Park Lawrenceville IL Southern Illinois Region

Rally #2 Sunday July 14 Bob Sonntag, Tech and Registration 12:00 to 1:00 First Car at 1:30 PM

Autocross #4 Sunday July 28^thCastle High School Newburgh IN
Autocrosses: Course Setup 9:00 AM Tech and Registration 12:00 to 1:00 First Car at 1:30 PM

Notes and such

The first “Bookend Event” was held May 5^th at Lawrenceville Airport. It shall heretofore be remembered as the “Bird Disrupted” event, or at least that’s how I will remember it. Everyone arrived at the event in terrific weather. Workers set up the course, swept stones and marked cones guided by Terry Davis and Bob Sonntag. Thanks guys for taking out those 2 cones that made our driving lives so miserable in the test and tune. Competitors unloaded and went through our new “Go see Tim” Tech station. At Tech, Tim Green checked each car and took care of getting everyone assigned a number. Gary Heck handled the registration and money, “selling” everyone a registration card, while I took care of getting each competitor’s information in the computer. We had our drivers meeting at the appointed hour and the first car was on the course shortly after 1:30 PM.

A couple of cars took time and everything seemed to be running smoothly. Then Corey Krietenstein pulled to the line in his VW Rabbit. Corey and Ryan Waelde have been working on this car for a few months with hopes of improving its performance. When he stopped the lights at 40 seconds I looked at the screen in amazement. Then I looked at Gary and said, “Is that possible?” Gary just shrugged and said, “Maybe he’s really got it hopped up!” I knew a good lap for a streetcar would be in the high 40-second range. I told Gary to not announce the time until a few more runs were made.

Then things really started going haywire. The next car on course was just beginning his run and the clock was stopped at five seconds. The next car got most of the way around the course before the lights stopped. I called a halt to things until the course could be cleared. A minute went by and the next car was started. Its run was good until the end when the lights shut off early. The next car was halfway around when the lights tripped off again. Now I was starting to get upset. Almost all the runs made had to be rerun. I called a halt to things again. I got up and out of the trailer and started towards the finish line lights. As I got closer to the lights a small bird started making all kinds of noises and acting like it was hurt to get my attention and then it ran right through the finish line lights! When I walked away it ran back, right through the lights again! Seems like this little bird had laid four eggs in a nest of stones about 20 feet from the course. Whenever a car would approach it would run through the lights. After the car went by it would run back through the lights. Now I knew why the lights were acting funny. We solved the problem by putting both the lights and reflector on a helmet box. That way the bird could run its legs off and we could continue with our event. Some drivers like Bob Sonntag got four or five reruns. I think we wasted a half an hour with the bird interference. By the way, we gave Corey a rerun.

After that things went along nicely. Cars made their runs and correct times were recorded. Tom Bootz, our 2001 BM National Champion, showed us all how to drive quickly covering the course in 37.371 seconds, over five seconds faster than the next car, to capture fast time of the day honors. There was one other glitch that happened when I approached the line for my first run, my car was not listed in the staging list. WHO MADE UP THAT LIST? Oops, I did, and I entered my old number instead of my new number. Sorry Julie and Gene.

James Kirk suffered some mechanical problems and only got in two runs in his rose (primer) colored Cobra. Myles Grant had a bracket that was welded to his header break off which left a noisy hole in his exhaust and him leaving early. In spite of that he garnered second in the large Street Prepared class. Gerry Bubenzer was fastest in SP in his noisy RX-7. (Ya gotta love the sound) Kone King for the event was Gene Young who picked up 10 cones in his tail-happy Cobra. Julie Seeber was next at 6 cones. Corey Krietenstein beat Ryan Waelde by .012 in their class for the closest finish of the event. Tom Bootz won his class by over five and a half seconds for the largest winning margin.

There were 43 drivers at the event and 10 of them were guests, down from our usual 20+ guests at this event. Our scholarship program is paying off, as all of last year’s guests are now club members. Plus, we had five SCCA members from Illinois join us for the fun. Our scholarship program provides a year’s membership to the SCCA and our club if a driver attends 5 or more events. I think it added nine members to our club in the last year.

And now a reprint from last month’s PitStop.

For the first time in many years the event entry fee has been increased. It has been $11.00 since the mid 90’s. Now it will be $15.00 for all events beginning at the Lawrenceville event. As an incentive to participate in our Rally program, a $4.00 coupon is included in this newsletter. Bring it with you to a Rally and your cost will only be $11.00! Bob Sonntag is working on a tentative schedule for the 2002 season.

Come Play In The Street
                Hey people, we've been stuck playing parking lots and airports for too long! Its time to go play in the street too!! How about a rally? Yes, that's right we are having rallies again. Think autocrosses are too hot or just not your cup of tea, then come try a rally. Spend a Sunday afternoon "motoring" from one point to another striving to go neither too fast nor too slow nor on the wrong road. Enjoy your car's smooth or firm ride, cornering ability or straight-line stability, or show off you ride's minimum cruise control setting or work wearing out the air in your tires. Learn which of your fellow club members count to two on fingers and paper. Come see those that like to be deviating. (Sorry, rally humor.) Bring a friend that you want to tell where to go (they drive, you navigate)!...And have them listen!! This is cool stuff I tell ya.
                Mike Freeman is the rally master for our first rally of the year. It will be Sunday, June 23. Come to the membership meeting to get the scoop on this rally. This will be the first of six rallies planned, so far, for this year.
If you're an autocrosser and don't want to rally, how about offering to work a checkpoint? The rally program could use the help and our club your support.
                If you haven't rallied in a while, come try it again. Times have changed. Attitudes have changed. All we need for a successful revival of the rally program is for people to come enjoy a Sunday drive with us. Think back to how many of us got started playing cars with the SCCA through a rally. Come on, its alright to play in the street again. R(e)ally!

Bob Sonntag Assistant Regional Executive

SPORTS CAR CLUB OF AMERICA

SCCA: A club with many interests

Many faceted in it’s endeavors, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) might best be described as a service organization. It servers over 50,000 members throughout the United States by sanctioning and administering a variety of automotive related activities through more than 100 independently chartered regions. No other single motor sports organization in the world conducts more events than the SCCA. These events range from amateur and professional road racing, to rallies, SOLO events, hill climbs and auto shows. The SCCA is an ever growing organization for the automotive enthusiast. Because the SCCA is member oriented, the club stresses participation on a broad basis. Regardless of your experience or background, if you are an automotive enthusiast there is a place for you in the SCCA. The avenues available range from amateur or professional road race driver, to weekend rally or SOLO driver, to race worker or official. In order to successfully sanction and conduct a comprehensive autocross/rally/road racing program many experts in timing and scoring, communications, safety inspection, medical, flagging, course/race control and other skills are needed. Schools are held to train the drivers and workers and various degrees of licenses are awarded based on knowledge, ability and experience.

PitStop is the official publication of the Southern Indiana Region of the Sports Car Club of America, Inc. And is published monthly at PO Box 1112, Evansville, IN 47706. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors or editor and are not necessarily those of the Southern Indiana Region, it’s officials, members or advertisers. Permission to reprint material from PitStop is granted to all SCCA regional publications and it’s national publication, SportsCar, with regards for full credit to the author and PitStop. (Any errors in this publication were mostly erroneous. All spelling checked with a Funk & Wagnall dictionary. Ed.)