NCR SCCA February 2025 Board Meeting Minutes

February 12, 2025

Attendees: Anna Crissman, James Shanks, Sam Fouse, Kit Williams, Chris Severt, John Bodnar, Lee Hill, Matt Decker, Rob Wilmoth

Guests: Ben Tyler, Megan Tyler, Al Heatwole, Stephen Miller, Mark Senior

1. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by Anna Crissman, NCR RE.
2. Motion to approve the minutes from the January Board meeting (Shanks/Wilmoth). Approved.

Financial Report

Treasurer Sam Fouse had sent a financial report to Kit Williams before the meeting.

As the details of our finances are confidential, NCR members who wish more information should contact either the Office Manager or any member of the Board of Directors. They are also invited to attend a Chapter Meeting, where such matters are discussed in detail.

Chapter Reports

James Shanks said the Triangle Chapter met with 21 people at their normal location. They talked about the NCR banquet and handed out a few awards to people who could not attend. They also watched some in-car video of the Super Tour race at Sebring. Chris Severt said the Cape Fear Chapter had met with 6 regular attendees at their normal location. They discussed the banquet as well and the upcoming racing season. There has still not been anyone appointed to the West Chapter coordinator position, and as such there was not a West Chapter meeting this month.

Old Business

1. Meeting with VIR: Anna said she and Mark Senior had met with VIR earlier this week. She said the biggest news from the meeting is that the North Tower is now on permanent backup power, so should there be a power loss event at the track the North Tower should remain up and functioning. Mark Senior said they are upgrading the old Quantum building and turning it into their new operations building, but it should still be available for us to use for registration. Anna said that Diana is no longer their worker coordinator but she will still be working race control for VIR for our events. Their new worker coordinator is Steve Toller. Mark said they are also adding new catch fencing around Turn 10 where they have been building new villas. He also said that VIR is having some difficulty with their ABC license and this may affect the sparkling wine given to the podium winners for the Super Tour. Anna said they are still working with the track about flagging and staffing our event, including possibly having some stations operate as communications only stations. There may also be some slight changes to parking around the start tower. There was some discussion about staging ambulances and other track vehicles for the event. Mark said VIR reminded us about their rules for worker camping, basically reminding us that it must be in either the North or South paddock areas only. Mark said VIR is planning on holding their morning flag meetings at their operations center rather than in the South Paddock building.
2. April Hoosier Super Tour: Sam said VIR has rented out the track to another group on the Thursday before our test day. Sam said he had reached out to them to try and start coordinating our load in process, but had not heard back yet. He said that he and Bruce are working on an email ad to send out to drivers soon. Registrations are starting to come in but we expect more to happen after the Road Atlanta Super Tour. Mark said he had not yet heard back from the new caterers at VIR, but he expects that to change soon. He said the menus and pricing for all of the on site food are likely to change from their previous caterer. Anna said we need to continue working on recruiting workers, but we do have our specialty chiefs sorted out. Al said he definitely needs more help at Tech, and Megan said she had some new volunteers she would get up with Al about.
3. Targa event at NCCAR: Stephen Miller has been working with the Time Trials National Tour folks about their Targa Southland event they are planning for June of this year. One of the stops they are planning on the Targa is at NCCAR. Stephen suggested to them that NCR should rent NCCAR and staff it for their event, as we have a good relationship with the track and want to keep it that way. Heyward Wagner has asked Anna for approval for this so they can move forward with their planning and we can get working on the contracts and rental with Sam True. We would need to staff the event, or at least work with the TTNT team to get everything covered. Sam Fouse asked how this would work as far as who we would send money to to rent the track, and Anna said she would loop Sam into her conversations with Heyward to work out the details. The agreement would have the National office pay the region for this event, but NCR would be handling the contract with the track. Anna asked what we would need to provide for staffing the track. Stephen said the National office would be covering grid, registration, timing and scoring, and drivers coaches. We would need to provide race control and any needed flaggers. This event will take place on Friday, June 13th. We will need to provide equipment to cover the flagging for NCCAR, which should be easy to organize. Stephen said we would bill the National office for any fees that we have, including worker VIP for our flaggers. Motion to proceed with this Targa event as described (Wilmoth/Fouse). Motion passed unanimously.

New Business

1. VIR Scales Room: Anna said VIR approached us about buying out the scales room at VIR. Sam said this room was built in 2002 with plans that he drew with instructions from Buddy Matthews. Sam said he was the person who got the building permit from Halifax county. He said the contract we have with the track says the scales room belongs to the North Carolina Region in perpetuity. Sam said we are not obligated to sell this to the track and may keep it if we wish. Anna and Sam said they believe the track wants to have the space, not the scales themselves. Most other groups that come to the track bring their own portable scales. Anna and Sam both felt that we should leave things as they are, as we are not going to have a better solution for scales at VIR. Mark said he felt that VIR was simply looking for extra space to use or rent out, not the scales themselves. Al said he felt we needed to keep the scales and the room as we do store things in that room besides just the scales. We do currently rent the scales room out when another group needs to use it, but this is not something that happens very often.
2. Sponsorship Committee: Rob Wilmoth has asked us to formalize a set of packages and plans in order for us to be able to advertise and attract sponsors for our events. We have had a time trial event sponsored, but the process would not be repeatable without having a set of guidelines for what levels of sponsorship we can offer, how much money gets what benefits, etc. His experience of doing sponsored events with other groups has had a set list of different levels of sponsorship, showing what value different amounts of sponsorship would get a business or company. Rob said he has a contact who had worked for a professional sponsorship company in the past who could help us create and formalize different sponsorship packages for time trials, road racing, and autocross. Rob said he is planning to start working on this in the coming weeks and would like to start a committee of Board members to make all of this formal. Anna created a sponsorship committee with Rob as the chair.

Rob asked if we had any financial data on the banquet, and Sam said while the banquet and awards are not going to turn a profit, the banquet the last two years has been considerably less expensive than in the past and the feedback has been largely positive. Everyone agreed that the banquet was a positive experience and that we should plan to do the same thing next year.

Motion to adjourn (Wilmoth/Fouse) at 8:13pm. Motion passed.

Please note that all NCR members are welcome to attend NCR Board of Directors meetings.

If any member should have a question about the Region or its activities, please contact the Office Manager or any member of the Board.

Submitted by Secretary Kit Williams