Triangle Chapter Report – May 2012

RALEIGH, NC – (NCRSCCA) – The May meeting of the Triangle Chapter featured in-car video from a new source. Neal Harrison provided footage of his third and fourth place finishes at Roebling Road the preceding weekend.  Late Chuck Hines showed us in-car from his Miata for the same weekend.  Thanks, guys!  Poor Chuck didn’t do as well.  He took second on Saturday but had head gasket issues which prevented a finish on Sunday.  Better luck next time, big guy!  And speaking of race results, James Echells took a third in his E Prod Miata.  Good show, James!

 

Most of the pre-dinner conversation was about recent races, and everyone agreed that the Double National in April was well-attended.  The weather on Friday and Saturday was great we were told, but Sunday was wet and windy and way-too-chilly to suit most participants.  We heard that tire bundles had to be replaced at the end of every session and that EV started the practice of just bringing out new bundles to take the place of those knocked askew rather than reset the old ones in order to save time.  Apparently the grass took a beating as well.  The general consensus was that despite reputations to the contrary, the National drivers as a group were no better than their Regional counterparts when it came to competing in the rain.  “There were plenty of idiots out there,” said one competitor (who shall remain nameless)!

We heard in the business meeting that going into the Double National we were about $6200 behind where we were at the same time last year, and that this was largely attributable to the increase in track fees of $6100 that we incurred from VIR for the March race.  We are hoping that the accounting for the Double National will show that we made enough money there to make up the difference.  The big news from the March vent was the success of the new Tarheel Cup Pro Series.  Despite the teething problems encountered, which resulted in some race groups being combined due to lack of participation, the series made money for the Region and for its participants.  TCPS administrator, Steve Rose, was on hand to summarize them and we passed around a flyer he produced which gave a full accounting of the event.  All told, 44 drivers participated in 4 groups, with 27 registered for the series and 23 receiving payouts, totaling just over $1600. The drivers were uniformly happy with both the amounts of their payouts and the speed with which they received them.  Steve told us that one winner was so surprised at the size of his check that he called and asked whether a mistake had been made and he had been awarded too much money!  The Chapter roundly congratulated Steve and co-founder Jerry Pell (in absentia) for their great work on this new series. Way to go, guys!

There was also discussion about the fee disparity between SARRC ($5/per car) and MARRS ($40/per car) in the upcoming Double SARRC / Double MARRS May 12 -13. It was noted that such a difference will have to result in a separate fee structure for MARRS and SARRC drivers for next year unless some kind of compromise with WDC Region can be reached in the interim. If push comes to shove, it might mean the end of a MARRS sanction for that event in the future.  Only time will tell.

That was about it for the meeting. As we were closing, RE Rex Deffenbaugh recommended that we all go out to YouTube and watch Darryl Waltrip take a lap of Bathurst in Australia as a passenger with driver Jason Bright in his V8 Supercar.  “Bubbles” is a great driver, but a terrible passenger, and he’s whining like a baby the entire time.  Apparently oval racers think approaching 200 mph on a road course is just insane.  Here’s the link I found:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dklKiwz945A     Enjoy!

And speaking of enjoyment, why not enjoy yourself with us next month at the Triangle Chapter meeting, Wednesday, June 6th?  We’ll be invading our usual watering hole, El Rodeo, on the 68th anniversary of D-Day, and establishing beachhead in the upstairs lounge.  I’ll see you there…or at the races!

James Shanks
Triangle Chapter Coordinator

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