BoD Minutes – May 15, 2019

Minutes of NCR-SCCA Monthly Board of Directors Meeting

May 15, 2019

Present:  Heather Clark, Anna Crissman, Rex Deffenbaugh, Bruce Dover, Nikki Edwards, Sam Fouse, Al Heatwole, Heather Powers, Chris Schimmel, Mark Senior, and James Shanks, attended in person; and via conference call, Eric Danielsen, Frank Killian, Morgan Mehler, Stephen Miller, Ben Tyler, and Kit Williams.

  1. The NCR BoD meeting was called to order by RE Sam Fouse at 7:30 PM, on Wednesday, May 15th 2019, at Piper’s Deli, 3219 Old Chapel Hill Road, Durham, NC.
  2. Eric Danielsen, Frank Killian, Stephen Miller and Ben Tyler attended as guests via telephone. Chris Schimmel attended in person.
  3. Approval of April minutes deferred as they are not published yet.

Order of items below reflects the order of discussion, as nearly as possible; not necessarily as they appeared on the published agenda.

 Financial Report.

 Treasurer Heather Powers reported that the Region had a total of $213K in the checking account at this time, while waiting for our last check to VIR, for $54K, to clear. She will then transfer a significant portion to our money market (savings) account, which holds only $5705 in it at this time. Our total cash in the bank, less checks outstanding then, is approximately $166K. Solo has nearly $9000 in their account.

Old Business:

  1. SARRC/MARRS Debrief. Sam started the discussion by expressing his extreme displeasure with the last-minute schedule changes for Sunday initiated by the Stewards. They consulted no one in the Region in authority before deciding to cancel qualifying on Sunday altogether, and even then, they did not follow the procedure they outlined in their text to all competitors via MSR. The text said there would be one lap hardship practice each for open and closed wheel groups, but then this was changed on the grid to “single lap out and in” which means that no one actually gets to complete a lap. Eric added that he knew for a fact that the people working Pit and Grid were as confused as the drivers about what was going on. It was also observed that the text message system in MSR does not appear to be working for everyone. One has to add one’s text-capable cell phone number to one’s profile in MSR, but still some people complained that they did not receive the text, even after setting this up. Mark said he had been researching the stewards’ power to make schedule changes in the GCR and found it to be rather inconsistent. They can postpone without input, he said, but changes should be made “in consultation” with the host Region. He suggested we send them a letter for next year indicating that schedule changes have to be approved by the RE or Race Chair. Anna wants us to put it in the Supps which they have to approve in advance. Since there was a lot of new business to discuss, no further issues from the SARRC/MARRS were considered.

New Business:

  1. Time Trial at CMP. This event appears to be “in the can”. 85 cars are signed up to date, with a cap of 120. It was noted that corner workers and tech inspectors are needed. The tech guys have to inspect full-race cars in the unlimited group for safety, especially their cages, as this goes beyond what the usual “self-tech” process for street cars at a time trial requires.
  2. Time Trial at NCCAR. The schedule would be 4 run groups, with no formula cars or prototype cars included, as the barriers at NCCAR are not friendly enough for them. The critical path, chairman Stephen Miller said, was getting registration open in MSR and the target for that was this coming Friday, May 17th. Bruce Dover was to do that, and also to request a sanction, with the packets going directly to Stephen for distribution, rather than to Bruce. The insurance certificate will go to Bruce, who will send copies to NCCAR as well as to Stephen. Bruce also agreed to do a flyer, provided that someone else would be responsible for providing its content. With regard to registration, the plan is for waivers to be signed at the gate, which will require that those handling that be at least 18 years of age. Stephen said that the track manager’s children usually handled that activity and he was aware of the age requirement.  Stephen further said that he thought that at least one of the kids was 18. Sam said he would reach out to the RE of Old Dominion Region to help publicize the event, and that he was looking for contacts at Blue Ridge Region and WDCR as well. He also planned to ask Blair Deffenbaugh to help publicize the event on social media. It was noted that we needed to provide a grid marshal, and Anna said that she thought Peyton Johnson would be doing that. It was also noted that Heyward Wagner was working on putting together a Track Night in America at NCCAR for the Friday immediately before our event, June 14th, which might help with our car count.
  3. Test Day Weekend Planning. Anna presented two different schedules for the Board to consider, and after much discussion, it was decided that there would be 5 groups with 4 runs of 20 minutes each, which would put us a little over our scheduled contract time, requiring some overtime be built into the budget initially. However, in order to minimize the overtime, if possible, we will try to compress the time required between the group by utilizing a black flag on the backside corner stations whenever the checker is displayed at start. The groups will be SRF, Big Bore, Small Bore, Formula (including prototype cars), and Spec Miata. We will provide full tech support, including annual tech inspections for those cars that need it, and Sam plans to contact Bob Crawford of WDC Region, to see whether they can provide sound control, as we do not have either the equipment or personnel for that. Preference will be given to Runoffs-eligible cars when registration opens, and if possible, to NCR members. Entries will be capped at 300 cars. There will also be a one-day-only price, which will be somewhat more than half of the two-day price. It was noted that VIR will still have their own test day on the Friday before this event, which is August 3rd and 4th.
  4. Radar Gun Charger. Mark reported that the charging system for the radar gun that Johnny Dunbar uses on pit road is broken. It might be repairable if we can open it up and replace or re-solder the charging light, which has become detached. Motion to repair or replace the charging system for the radar gun at a reasonable cost (Shanks / Crissman). Passed.
  5. Trophy Policy to Permit Always Awarding the Top Three Places. Our current policy of following the GCR for awarding trophies sometimes leads to unexpected results for some drivers. First place is always awarded. But second place is not awarded unless there is a third-place car, and third place requires a fourth and fifth cars. Other places require even more cars be entered. This means that sometimes, especially for second or third place, a driver will stand on the podium to get his picture taken at the victory stand and not have a trophy to hold. Such a situation occurred this past weekend, and other drivers chipped in and bought the third-place driver his trophy. Mark also wondered if we could not implement an opt-out policy for trophies like WDC Region does. That was rejected as impractical, since F&S, who make our trophies on-site would have no way of knowing who had opted out. But since they do make trophies on-site, we do not have the problem the National Office or other Regions have with trophies left over for positions no one earned.  And our frames are recycled if someone declines to keep their trophy. Thus, it was argued that the cost for doing this is minimal. Motion to always produce and award trophies for the top three drivers in each class (Senior / Crissman). Passed.
  6. Tech Needs a Tablet. Rex Deffenbaugh asked that tech be provided with a tablet or laptop onto which they could download the latest copy of the GCR before each race. This would streamline things for them a great deal. It would not have to be connected to the internet after the download. Stephen Miller announced that he had an old machine which he would be happy to donate.

Time Trial Report. Stephen Miller was asked whether he had any other TT business to discuss. His response was a simple “Let’s go!” Sam noted that should we require a steward with experience who is known to be Region-friendly, our own Steve Keadle has a TT Course Inspector, a TT Competition Director, and a TT Safety Steward license, from working the Tail of the Dragon Hillclimb. Those are all current.

Chapter and Committee Reports: As of this writing, there were no Chapter or Committee reports for May 2019 posted on the Google drive.

Motion to adjourn at 9:02 PM (Clark / Heatwole). Passed.

Submitted by Secretary, James Shanks

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