Triangle Chapter Report – July 2011

RALEIGH, NC (NCR SCCA) — The July 6, 2011 meeting of the Triangle Chapter was fairly well attended, given that many folks were off on vacation over the Independence Day holiday.  Special thanks go out to Member-at-Large Neal Harrison, who showed up in a huge neck-and-chin brace, having had back surgery just that morning.  Yup, that’s right…he’d been under the knife less than 12 hours before coming out to join us! It was amazing that he was able to stay with us for even a few minutes; which it turned out was all he was able to do, pain killers or no pain killers.  Even with wife Bibi driving, it was just too taxing for Neal to stay.  But, he assured us, he’ll be back in a race car and chasing the SARRC championship in ITA as early as next month.  Good Luck, Neal!

The rest of the meeting was rather anti-climactic after that. We discussed in detail the situation we face with rising catering costs at VIR and the necessity for us to cut back on those expenses for the two races in October if we are going to finish the year in the black.  The recession may be over if you’re a banker or stock broker, but the Region has seen a steep decline in revenues for 2011.  Yes, all our events, so far, have made money, but not large profits, and we are going to have to operate the last two on razor-thin budgets.  There will still be lunches for the workers and socials with beer, of course, but the scale and variety are going to have to be curtailed.

Region Treasurer and SEDIV Steward, Steve Keadle, gave a report on his participation at the “Tail of the Dragon” Hill Climb, put on by Central Carolinas Region.  Steve told us that he had a great time, and that the event went off without a hitch.  It went so well, he said, that the locals wanted to know whether SCCA would consider hiring out to host other events in the State Park.  Steve pointed out that this bode well for our upcoming joint event with Central Carolinas Region, the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, August 20th and 21st.  The supps are being approved as I write this and we are all excited about that one.  Hope you are planning to attend, either to race or to volunteer.  It will be an historic event; NCR’s return to CMS after more that a decade.

In other news, Mark Senior showed us pictures of the car his team is planning to enter in the 24-hour ChumpCar race at VIR at the end of July.  Yup, it’s NOT an SCCA race and it’ll be 24-hours of junk car racing (assuming any of them last that long).  Mark’s team is entering a car that is called “Simon” after the iconic Mattel kid’s toy of the eighties, “Simon Says”.  It’s painted like the game, one quarter red, one blue, one green, and one yellow.  Who knows?  By the time they are done, it might even flash and beep in sequence.  One thing’s for sure, though.  It is one odd-looking race car!  Good luck, Mark! And have fun!

And speaking of fun, why don’t you make plans to join us for the next Triangle Chapter meeting on Wednesday, August 3rd?  At least you can find out how well Mark and friends did chump racing.  I’ll see you there . . . or at the races!

James Shanks

Triangle Chapter Coordinator

jrshanks@bellsouth.net

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