Triangle Chapter Report – February 2016

It was a cold and wet Wednesday, February 3rd, when a few stalwarts of the Triangle Chapter met at El Rodeo in Raleigh.  And that was a good thing because we got to meet Tyler Townsend, a prospective member, who found us on the web and came out to see what the SCCA and North Carolina Region were all about. Hey Tyler, glad to meet you!  Tyler’s quite interested in autocrossing and is making plans to attend the 2-day school and inaugural 2016 season event at Cherry Point, March 5-6; though he was disappointed to learn that the SCCA thinks that his bone-stock Scion xB is too tippy to be a Street category Solo car.  But Tyler said his daughter’s Jetta just might be a better ride anyway.  Hope to see you there, man!

After round-robin introductions to Tyler, we talked about the annual dinner and awards ceremony held last month in Wilmington.  We gave a special shout-out to Member of the Year John Lindquist and Worker of the Year Jeanne Cochran Samuels, and to our Lifetime Achievement winner, Stephen Shepherd. We also had to mention our two national champions in Solo, Nikki Edwards and Christina Peterson, as well as other outstanding drivers. Chapter members Steve Rose, who took Driver of the Year honors in SECS and Paul Spencer, Rookie Driver of the Year in Regional competition, were among them. Way to go, y’all!

The business portion of the meeting started out rather glum.  By now everyone knows that we suffered a big loss on our Enduro and smaller losses on our March and May events last year, so we have no choice but to raise entry fees this year. Despite that, everyone is eagerly anticipating a return to racing, and the schedule is already getting full.  Check it out:

  1. Feb. 5 – 7:           SEDiv annual meeting at St. Simons
  2. Feb. 27 – 28:        Tarheel Sports Car Club PDX/HPDE at VIR
  3. March 5-6:          NCR AutoX school and competition at Cherry Point
  4. March 12 – 13:    NCR March Into Spring Regional Race at VIR 
  5. April 15 – 17:      NCR SCCA Majors Race at VIR

In addition, our travelling contingent of officers, RE Sam Fouse, ARE Mike Spencer, past RE Rex Deffenbaugh, and Triangle Chapter Coordinator Mark Senior (who could not be present) had just returned from the SCCA National Convention and were brimming with ideas about how to improve things for the 2016 season. Now they were preparing for the SEDIV annual meeting down at St. Simons.  Hopefully they will return with an agreement concerning a completely revamped Carolina Cup Pro Series that will run in our races at VIR once again. Stay tuned for developments.

In other news, and perhaps no big surprise, but the Deffenbaughs have 2 race cars for sale. One is a great package deal, and the other is historically significant but still competitive racecar.  The package deal is a fully prepped and sorted ITC car, with trailer, some spares and 4 sets of wheels.  Yes, it’s that venerable Pulsar, but cleaned up and running better than ever.  Blair Deffenbaugh pointed out that it holds the ITC track record at VIR. And the first $1500 takes the whole kit and caboodle.  The other race car is a former IMSA Volkswagen Cup car, a VW Golf from the 1980s that has also seen a recent makeover and a new clutch.  It would make an excellent ITB car for someone, Justin Deffenbaugh says. Either one is a great way to get started in SCCA racing.

So what are you waiting for? Come on out to an event! At least you can make the March meeting when Mark Senior will finally take over his position as Triangle Chapter Coordinator.  Ask him about his ski trip and his experiences at the SCCA National convention. He promised us a report by then.  I’ll see you there…or at the races!

James Shanks
(former Triangle Chapter Coordinator)

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