Triangle Chapter Report – July 2015

Whether it was the Rolling Stones concert (Gimme Mick!) at the State Fairgrounds, or getting ready for the Double SARRC at Roebling, or the start of the Independence Day holiday weekend that kept people away from our meeting, I don’t know, but only eight stalwarts, including myself, showed up at El Rodeo for the July meeting of the Triangle Chapter. But we had a good time catching up and sharing plans. RE Rex Deffenbaugh and his wife Tricia are planning a trip to Mid-Ohio for the big AMA vintage motorcycle festival there the weekend of the 10th – 12th. The whole family is apparently going in the motorhome, even grandpa. Sounds like a great time!

ARE Mike Spencer is also travelling. He’s starting a new job with an IT firm in New Jersey and will be heading that way for a week of orientation before returning to work from home. But now he’s trying to arrange his travel plans to attend the SEDIV mid-year meeting in Atlanta on the 11th. We thank you for that, Mike, and Rex does too. This will be the first mid-year meeting he’s missed since becoming RE.

And speaking of starting new jobs, Bruce Dover is settling in to his new position as our Region’s office manager. He said he was pretty beat because he had just moved to a new home in Roxboro and had been to out-going office manager Ginny Condrey’s place to get files and office equipment (fax, copier, etc) as well. Keep smiling, Bruce. It will only get busier!

Despite the fact that half the attendees were Board members (just 2 more and we’d have had a quorum!), we held a formal Chapter meeting to update the others present on Region business and to bring everyone up to speed on my Region History project.

The good news was that we finished the first half the year in sound shape financially, substantially ahead of where we were at this time in 2014. This is good news since we barely broke even at the end of last year. As far as individual races went, we lost money in March, made good money on the Majors in April, and made a small profit on the SARRC/MARRS, but it was very close. With 2 races to go, it will still be tight and everything hinges on the outcome of the end-of-season Enduro. Will the new format of an 8-hour daylight-only event inside the 13-hour daylight-into-night enduro draw more entries and allow us to remain solvent? Only time will tell. The Solo program continues to do well, too. We’d love to tell you how well, but they have been tardy in getting their deposits and accounting numbers to the Treasurer.

The other news financially is that the Board unanimously adopted a resolution that, going forward, we would return to the now-classic photo trophies that had proved so popular in the past regardless of their increased cost. Our dear friends, Region members, and trophy suppliers at F&S have been apprised of this decision and they are working hard to keep costs down. And we are trying to revive the “team photo” concept for the 13/8 enduro as well. The real issue there is logistical. How do we get all the members of each team to find the time to pose with their cars before the race starts?

The Region History project has expanded once again, since we discovered a treasure trove of old copies of The Bulletin at Rex’s shop, Happy Jap’s Auto Repair, in Cary. It seems Rex has saved every copy he ever received since he joined the Club in the 1980’s. So now we are scanning those into digital format to preserve them, and we will make them available for download as PDF files on the NCR website, along with the ones that are already there from 2006–2010, when publication ceased. Hey folks, if you have any old copies of The Bulletin from before 1988, please let us know. We’d love to extend this archive as far back as we can!

Here are some of the highlights of NCR history I came across while scanning Bulletins from 1988 to 1991, and one from 1982:

1982

  • Solo in the streets of Carolina Beach.
  • Dave Safford is RE; Jim Fitzgerald is Chief Instructor
  • Ann Harvey is Chief Starter
  • Sam Fouse is Solo II steward, program coordinator, and ended 1981 as 1st in H Stock in his Opel 1900
  • Dan Robson and Sam Fouse are listed on the Bulletin staff
  • National dues $35; Bulletin subscription $2
  • Bulletin Editor: Alan Coleman

1989

  • Norm Garrett (chief engineer for Mazda on the original Miata, who lives in Greensboro), previews the original Miata to our members at a membership meeting in Durham. Everybody wants one!
  • 2 solos held at Seymour Johnson AFB
  • Solo at Roxboro Dragway drag strip
  • Buddy Matthews is RE
  • Kaye Fairer, under her maiden name, Baum, joins as a new member
  • Wayne Quick, is Region Properties Master and starts PDQ racing
  • Sam Fouse 2nd in GT4, Wayne Quick 10th and Phil Hennrich 16th in GT3
  • National dues still $35; Bulletin $10

1990

  • Big hopes for Shelby CanAm. Big disappointment after unveiling.
  • Royale unveils new Formula Vee chassis (now vintage eligible!)
  • Don Knowles, already an SCCA champion, becomes Undersecretary of the Interior
  • Racing at the Rock begins – Peter Krause spins and hits Rex Deffenbaugh
  • No hard feelings – Rex displays bent fender as a trophy in his shop.
  • 2 professors at U of Kentucky announce corner worker motivation study; no one knows why they do what they do to this day!

1991

  • Black-Red SCCA Club Racing sticker replaces traditional red-white-blue S.C.C.A sticker
  • Controversy over restructuring National racing by SCCA President Nick Craw and his appointee Steve Petty to improve marketability. Lots of opposition by traditional Club members
  • Peter Krause becomes NCR driver licensing chair
  • Whit Fairer reports horribly unsafe situation — crew members jumping over the wall at Roebling to get involved in an incident on a hot track — to SCCA National
  • Ginny (Holland) marries Kevin Condrey Dec. 28.

Other facets of the Region History project, which is celebrating our 60th year with the SCCA, are proceeding as well. We’ve added a couple of new profiles to the profile page and our goal is to add more, especially for all the Lifetime Achievement award winners, and all those folks with more than 40 years as members. There are plenty more people for me, James Shanks, as the Membership Chair, to interview, and if you fall in that group, please think about how you got started and what drew you to the Club in the first place. And it’s time to get out those old photos and share ‘em, too!

And that wrapped up our meeting for the night. Steve Keadle, Paul Hoecke, Paul Spencer and I are just looking forward to the weekend, and we hope you have a pleasant holiday as well. Why not make plans now to join us for the August meeting of the Triangle Chapter, August 5th. We see who’s been where, raced what and done what, and find out more about our history. I’ll see you there…or at the races!

James Shanks
Triangle Chapter Coordinator

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