2011 NCR SCCA Awards Banquet Recap

January 16, 2012

RALEIGH, NC – (NCR-SCCA) – The 2011 NCR Awards Dinner was held Saturday night, January 7, 2012 at Caffe Luna in downtown Raleigh. The food was a sumptuous buffet, a smorgasbord of delights from chilled shrimp and smoked salmon, fruit and cheese appetizers to grilled chicken, grilled steak, and penne pasta with a choice of a cream sauce and spinach or a rich marinara with grated parmesan.  Nobody went away hungry! Many thanks to Bibi Tucker Harrison for her hard work in pulling this event together.

The first order of business, even before the food was served, was the annual meeting. RE Rex Deffenbaugh opened the meeting and made some remarks about the state of the Region, which was sound.  Rex pointed out that despite the declining economy and our declining revenues, our events were very successful.  He highlighted the fact that, thanks to the efforts of our members, we were once again back racing at Charlotte, and that we had pulled that off with an historic collaboration with our sister region, Central Carolinas. He thanked all those who had been a part of our events, and he especially thanked the Board of Directors, whom he said made him look good. Rex emphasized that in some other Regions there is no Board, only the RE, and that it was that difference he said, which made NCR stronger than any of those.  He closed by saying that it was his mission to find a worthy successor before he stepped down.

Rex was followed by Treasurer Steve Keadle who gave the annual financial report.  Steve also emphasized that our Region was sound. He pointed out that, to date, we had lost about $1,200, but that we had done so while managing a gross budget of almost half a million dollars.  It’s a staggering sum of money considered in the abstract, but that’s what it costs to put on our racing and solo events. Steve emphasized that what was most admirable was that we managed our expenses better than most businesses, keeping our expenditures to within 2 per cent of our budget, so that we could do as well as we did in a declining economy.  The economic future of the club looks bright, he said, as long as we continue to do what we have been doing.

After dinner, we had the awards presentation, emceed by Ed Wentz. He called on RE Rex Deffenbaugh to present the Region’s two most prestigious awards, Member of the Year and Worker of the Year.

Member of the Year

Jeff Eng

Jeff has concluded his post as Solo Timing and Scoring chief after many years of dedicated service.  T&S chief keeps up with the solo computer loading the pre-registration list onto it before event, setting up the system on race-day, breaking it down, and then converting all of the results to be internet-ready and posting them online after the event.  He’s also been the one to troubleshoot any issues that arise.  That alone is award worthy.

However, Jeff does so much more than that for the club.  He’s also a heck of a photographer and graphic designer.  He does get paid for some of his efforts, but his prices have never changed as far as I know, and he doesn’t charge enough to cover all of his time.  He’s been a team captain/sponsor for the Solo Team Competition since it’s inception in 2007.  You’re all aware of all of his efforts with the new website. Did you know he designed all the club racing event posters and t-shirts.  He attended most of the Saturday solo course setups and even designed a few of them himself.  Jeff had a very difficult personal life in 2011 but his dedication to the club never wavered.  He also won the Street Touring class championship and finished 4th overall on the PAX Index.  As a driver and a volunteer, Jeff is a great asset to our club!

Worker of the Year

Heather Clark

Heather Clark is one of those volunteers who seems to be everywhere at once.  She travels all over the Southeast as an F&C worker.  You’ll see her effervescent, smiling face at Regional, National, and Pro events, and more than that, she’s always recruiting, inviting other flaggers to come to VIR and join us.  We would not have the great participation we do at the 13-hour event without her efforts.  She even recruits spectators into the ranks of flaggers, too. You won’t find a better representative of our Region than the Assistant Flag Chief, who only received her National license this year!

She was a rookie Assistant Flag Chief at the 13 hour and helped to take some of the burden off Eric (Flag Chiefs never have any scheduled down time).  She helped make the orange fleece mufflers we gave away to keep the workers warm.  She also helped organize the radio equipment after Phil Hennerich left.  Always upbeat and smiling, who can forget her presence in the Goblins Go costume contest every year?  (She’s even won that last year as Abby from NCIS!).  Thanks for always being there, always being upbeat and willing to help, and for making every event you attend more fun!

Driving Awards

Ed gave out door prizes in between awards presentations. For the most part these were gift cards to popular restaurants.

Solo Driving Awards

Presented by Chris Severt

Driver of the Year – Solo / National

James Feinberg

H-Stock National Champion!

Driver of the Year – Solo / Regional

Kevin Williams

Cape Fear Autocross Championship Series PAX Champion

With 6 event PAX wins and 1 Fastest Time of the Day.

Rookie Driver of the Year – Solo

Jeremiah Tanner

Rookie Driver of the Year – Solo

Stacie Ferreira

Jeremy and Stacie are a husband and wife duo that jumped into Solo with both feet at the beginning of the year.  They quickly graduated from the Novice class to B-Street Prepared.  Enthusiastic rookies are common, but Jeremy and Stacie take their dedication to a new level.  Jeremy is a firefighter who works 24 on, 24 off shifts.  His shift ends at 7 in the morning.  Registration at a Solo Event begins at 8 am.  The events are all at least an hour from Jeremy’s station.  Jeremy and Stacie attended 8 of our 10 events, and did quite well at each of them.

Racing Driving Awards

Presented by James Shanks

Driver of the Year – National Racing

Ed Womer, FV

  • 2nd  in SEDIV
  • 2nd in National points
  • 3rd in Super Sweep points
  • 7th at the Run Offs / started 11th

A true constructor, Ed did it all in a Formula Vee of his own design, and he has sold 16 of his chassis to others!

Driver of the Year – Regional Racing / SARRC

Neal Harrison

1st in ITA with 6 wins and 91 competitors!

Driver of the Year – Regional Racing / SARRC

Jeff Young

  • 1st in ITS 5 wins, 2 seconds among 84 competitors
  • Close battle almost every race with reigning champ Chuck Hines
  • In a British car (Triumph TR-8)!

Driver of the Year – Regional Racing / ECR

Ken Maynard, Jr.

1st in ITS with 76 points, more than twice his nearest rival (well-known Don Vicini) in class of 23 competitors

Driver of the Year – Pro

Steve Rose

Carolina Cup  1st  place  IT7 from Hard Luck award last year!
Mentoring fellow member and driver Shu Fai Fung (known as “Shoe”) making sure he did well at Goblins Go after Shoe’s blown engine at Kershaw in July; only to lose his own engine and finish behind him at the Go!  A real pro in the true spirit of this Club, helping others to a fault!

Volunteer Awards

More door prizes were awarded between the awards we gave our volunteers. Where would we be without them?

Solo

Presented by Chris Severt

Rookie Worker of the Year       

John Bodnar

John is always one of the first people to arrive at an NCR autocross.  Many of the events are two hours from his home.  He gets his car ready for the day quickly and immediately starts on the Timing & Scoring trailer setup.  Most rookies are intimidated by the trailer, but not John.  He is one our most eager workers, experienced or new.

Worker of the Year

Elizabeth Severt

Elizabeth is a true asset to NCR’s Solo program.  She always works at least two jobs throughout the day, and will not hesitate to take on a third.  Only one work position is required to participate in the driving part of the event.  Speaking of driving, although she worked nine of the year’s ten events, she only raced in five.  A true volunteer if there ever was one.  She also holds the toughest job in the Solo program: keeping Solo Director, Chris Severt, in line.

Outstanding Service

Morgan Mehler

Morgan has been a regular participant of NCR Autocross for five years.  He is one of our Event Staff “Yellow Shirts”, Chief of Tech Inspections, a Solo Safety Steward, a champion Cape Fear Cup team sponsor and captain, and announcer extraordinaire.  He arrives early, stays late, does everything that is asked of him and many things that are not.  He’s also a pretty good driver winning Street Touring Roadster two years running.  Morgan is one of the key individuals making North Carolina Region Solo the rapidly growing program that it is today.

F & C

Presented by Eric Danielsen

Flagger of the Year

G.H. Jones – Always goes above and beyond

Rookie of the Year

David Spalding – Catches on quick and is a pleasure to work with

Outstanding Service – Worked every day of every event!

Heather Clark
Joe Gray
Sandy Gray
Richard Mosley
Mo Overstreet
Sam Overstreet

T & S

Presented by Anna Crissman

Worker of the year

Debbie Jones – Best taper I ever saw!

Rookie of the year

Bradley Seay – Eager to do a good job!

EV

Presented by Tim Gardner

These guys are the backbone of Fire and Rescue

Outstanding Service

Dave Domingez and James Matthews, Jr.

Registration

Presented by Ginny Condrey

Outstanding Service

Jamie Gardner

More Driving Awards

When we remember the drivers who do outstandingly well, it behooves us to remember those who tried and tried, but couldn’t quite deliver.  We hope these small remembrances by their friends will help take the sting out of a season they might want to forget!

Hard Luck and Perseverance

Jerry Pell

Not hard to get 0 points in SM but as nearly as we can tell, Jerry is the only guy to get 0 points in three attempts.  Sorry, Jerry!

Hard Luck and Perseverance

Brian Hooper

Tried his luck in a new class with a new car but had many mechanical issues and even managed to get both ends knocked off at the Goblins Go on the first lap.  He’s probably feeling as batty as his car!  Sorry, Brian!

Tuff Luck

Justin Deffenbaugh

Loses it on the first lap in the rain and sideswipes Dad’s newly painted race car into the tires at Turn 6 at VIR in front of all his friends! How embarrassing!  Sorry, Justin!

RELATED NEWS

All
  • All
  • Club News
  • Club Racing News
  • Solo News
  • SCCA News