Triangle Chapter Report – June 2011

RALEIGH, NC (NCR SCCA) — The June meeting of the Triangle Chapter was held at our usual spot, El Rodeo restaurant on Pleasant Valley in Raleigh on the First Day of the month, Wednesday, June 1, 2011.  We had an excellent turnout, even though we once again had no in-car video to share. (C’mon you guys! Are those cameras broken or what?).

The meeting got off to a good start by all of us congratulating Steve Rose on his recent wins in IT-7 at Carolina Motorsports Park over Memorial Day weekend.  Apparently he did it in Heather Powers’ car, into which they had installed the drive train from his IT-7.   This turned out to be a killer combination and she swept both SARRC races while he dominated in Carolina Cup with 2 wins there.  Steve told me he used Blair Stitt’s (Pepe’s) own tactics against him to take one of the wins.  There was much applause and someone in the back even called out, “Anyone who kicks Pepe’s a** is OK in my book!”  Way to go, Steve!

Other winners were present too. Member at large Wayne Quick took home a pair of SAARC wins in GT-3 and leads the class with 48 points. Neal Harrison, another Member at Large in attendance, won both SARRC races too, and leads ITA with 140 points.  Nice going, guys! 

Chuck Hines, who travelled all the way from Fayetteville and brought the lovely Sandy Williams with him to the meeting, didn’t do as well at CMP.  He even DNF’d for one race. But he’s leading the ITS class in SARRC with 140 points, so he’s still on top and a force to be reckoned with.  His closest competition is our own Jeff Young, who could not be with us at the meeting, but finished well in both SARRC races and closely trails Chuck with 128 points (in a Triumph TR8 no less!)  It’s virtually neck-and-neck.  May the best man win! 

There was other bench racing going on as well, so much so I couldn’t keep up with all of it.  And for good measure we welcomed a new visitor, NC State student Joe Gamal.  Joe has a street Miata and is itching to try autocross and PDX.  Great!  Come play with us, Joe!

The business meeting was short.  The club has money in the bank because the National and the Double SARRC/Double MARRS made money, though the latter did not do as well as was hoped.  But catering costs at VIR are through the roof!  You would not believe what a box lunch or snacks at the social cost!  We are going to have to seriously cut back on the amount of food we serve for the remaining races or we will wind up deep in the hole for 2011.  There will still be socials and lunches for the workers, but not as elaborate as in the past, since our race revenues are down from 2010, and way down from 2009.

The planning for the August 20-21 race at Charlotte Motor Speedway is coming along well, we were told.  NCR is holding this one jointly with Central Carolinas Region and everyone is pretty exciting about finally going back to Charlotte.  But note that we will need all the workers we can get because Saturday will be a very long day, ending with racing under the lights, because we cannot race at all on Sunday morning.  So we hope to staff F&C, Pit and Grid, and all the other volunteer specialties with as many folks as possible so they can work in shifts.  It should be a blast, so y’all come. Yeehaw!

And why not come join us after the Independence Day fireworks have faded, on Wednesday, July 6th (assuming you haven’t blown your hand off and can still drive) for the July meeting?  I’ve been promised some in-car video and it will be great to hear the inside story of who’s chasing who in those championships.  I’ll see you there . . . or at the races! 

James Shanks

Triangle Chapter Coordinator

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