HOLY CRAP!

Wow, it sure seems like a long time since the last issue, doesn’t it?  But it’s only been two full local events since the last newsletter, so with this issue you will be caught up on all the news that you can stand.  So here; spam your mind:

NEXT EVENT

Sunday, July 11 at ExpoPark.  Come early, work hard, drive fast, and finish before the unpredictable rains come!  This ought to be a very good day, so we’ll see you there?  For sure!

APRIL 25 EVENT RESULTS

Another terrific kick-off.  The opening event of the 2004 season saw about 40 drivers (and several new members!) show up on a beautiful day at ExpoPark for a fresh season of sideways fun.  Perfect weather and a flowing course got the cobwebs out for sure.  Results: (classifications may not be totally correct)

A Production 

1^st  Joe Barlow  Cobra Mustang  54.491

2^nd  Darrell Schamp  Mustang  55.548

3^rd  Chris Swift  Pontiac Firebird

A Sedan 

1st  Jason Rukavina  Monte Carlo  58.186

B Production 

1^st  Tom Masterson  Porsche 911  54.761

2^nd  Ed Austin  Mazda RX7  57.414

3^rd  Helen Morin  Mustang  1:01.027

4^th  Travis Cummings  Dodge Dakota (aka the body roll special)  1:07.978

B Sedan 

1^st  Reza Mapili  Toyota Solara  52.879

2^nd  Zach Gilmor  Ford Contour  52.901

C Production 

1^st  James Rowan  Honda CRX  48.857

2^nd  John Weinzettel  Honda CRX  48.909

3^rd  James Campbell  Honda CRX  52.899

4^th  Kyle Figarelle  Porsche 944  54.855

5^th  Gregory Madsen  Porsche 951  55.374

C Sedan 

1^st  Galen Smith  VW Scirroco

2^nd  Doug Herold  Ford Focus  54.003

3^rd  Drew Lovec  Nissan 240SX  57.015

4^th  Couri Childs  Honda Civic  57.313

5^th  Barry Armbrister  Honda Accord  57.557

6^th  Isaac Baumgartner  Toyota Celica  1:00.851

GT-1 

1^st  Adam Johnson  Ford Cobra Mustang  48.489

2^nd  Bob Stevenson  Mustang  49.181

3^rd  Jerry Rukavina  Camaro  50.242

4^th  Dennis Figarelle  Camaro  51.838

5^th  Kent Yoder  Camaro  51.925

6thSteve Nutter  Maverick  52.823

7^th  Kelly Rolfe  Pontiac Trans-Am  53.716

8^th  Jeff Yoder  Camaro  54.854

9^th  Matt Macdonald  Mercury Cougar  59.987

GT-2 

1^st  Rick Cummings  Mercury Capri  49.726

GT-3 

1^st  Gary Wolf  Saab 9000  46.008 

2^nd  Jim Messick  VW Scirroco  50.500

3^rd  Bob Morin  Toyota Celica  51.623

4^th  Greg Rice  Toyota  Celica  52.118

Modified 

1^st  Dwight Gilliland  Avenger  40.471 FAST TIME OF DAY!!!

2^nd  Kristi Gilliland  Avenger  45.133

3^rd  Jim Arnett  No times – car broke on 1^st run

Prepared 1 

1^st  Larry Akers  Camaro  52.422

Prepared 2 

Marty Johnson  Toyota Mark 2  50.588

Big thanks to our out-of-town visitors and to Champion Auto for promoting the event.  We love ya!  Vroom, vroom.

AND THEN IT RAINED

The second event of the season was a highly anticipated run at the Helena Regional Airport facility on May 16.  Yeah, sure.  Nearly the moment the (really, really cool) course was set, it began to drizzle.  And it just never stopped, although it did get worse and worse occasionally.  So, being the wonderful bunch we are, we offered to let folks who chose to have wet fun make two “courtesy runs” as a reward for the tow and for just hanging in there.  So NO POINTS, but here are the results of the day, simply in order of increasing time of the faster of two runs.  Drip, drip.  Sure did see some interesting lines out there!  Very creative, and even agricultural.  The open-wheeled guys deserve a big hand for driving without any vision.  Now, that’s courage, and they got wet underwear, too.  And the customary huge thanks to the course watchers who set up wet cones in a cold shower.  Such dedication!  If 3 dozen of the 4 dozen entries wanted to run in the rain, imagine the number of entrants we might have had if the weather had not been so threatening.  Autocrossers are a hardy breed, no?  Maybe we need t-shirts that say “WILL AVOID ORANGE CONES FOR FOOD”.  Whadya think?

Zan Brady  Audi  1:46.286

Doug Herold  Ford Focus  1:46.360

Rico Salvino  Subaru  1:48.939

Dave Bowland  Datsun 240Z  1:49.255

Bill Dicus  Datsun   1:50.327

Zach Gilmor  Ford Contour  1:51.317

Darrell Schamp  Mustang  1:51.599

John Meeks  BMW Mini  1:52.280

Jeff Roe  Mazda  1:52.434

Jason Roan  Corvette  1:52.548

Namen Paul  Pontiac Firebird  1:52.647

Dean Mikes  Mazda RX7  1:53.854

Rick Turner  Honda  1:54.270

Jim Messick  VW Scirroco  1:55.092

Kane Nelson  Mercury Cougar  1:55.164

Tracy Mikes  Mazda RX7  1:55.667

Jeff Miklautsch  Mustang  1:56.205

Colter Cummings  Mercury Capri  1:57.894

Wing Spooner  BMW Mini  1:59.244

Drew Lovel  Nissan  1:59.716

Walt Davis  Mustang  2:00.394

Ed Austin  Mazda RX7  2:00.626

Amy Roan  Corvette  2:00.628

Paul Smith  Datsun 240Z  2:01.811

Allan Foss  Mustang  2:02.031

Tracy Amt  Corvette  2:02.782

Brian Goodman  Dodge Daytona  2:05.441

Couri Childs  Honda Civic  2:08.261

Rick Edwards  Ford  2:09.275

Rick Cummings  Mercury Capri  2:14.061

Donna Potter  Mustang  2:14.181

Anita Bell  Ford  2:20.853

Bruce Schlaebitz  Red Devil  2:31.366

Travis Cummings  Dodge Dakota  2:32.474

Dave Ebert  Phantom F4J  2:38.610

JUNE 20 EXPOPARK AUTOCROSS

Bob Stevenson set up a course that would make any course designer proud – busy yet flowing, and deceptively simple.  Of course he got beat by a little bit on his own design; what else is new, but it kept you thinking.  Another gloriously beautiful day until the rains came mid-afternoon just after all of the comp runs were finished.  No time for “free” buck runs to partially compensate for the rainout at Helena last month.  Rats!  But a wonderfully smooth day, thanks to helpers and volunteers who continue to amaze us all with their willingness to step up and make events so very enjoyable.  Smooth beyond smooth.  Awfully nice to have Tom Masterson bring out his daughter-in-law and our webmaster, Sherri Masterson, even if he did show her Porsche donuts more than he wanted to.  New tires next, Tom?  Thanks, Sherri, for all you do to keep this club strong, we appreciate you plenty.  And our out-of-town competitors are pretty cool, too, because towing in, driving and working all day, ant then towing home all tired and gritty is not easy.  We do appreciate your dedication.  Watch out for road critters – they can do more damage than cones can.  The results:

A Production 

1^st  Darrel Schamp  Mustang  1:02.180

2^nd  Ben Olnstad  Mustang  1:03.847

3^rd  Rick Edwards  Mustang  1:07.639

A Sedan 

1^st  Donna Potter  Mustang  1:06.192

B Production 

1^st  Dean Mikes  Mazda RX7  58.187

2^nd  Tracy Mikes  Mazda RX7  59.671

3^rd  Joe Bernicker  Mazda RX8  1:01.166  (such a bright yellow!)

4^th  Jim Wilson  Nissan 280ZX  1:03.282

5^th  Tom Mastersom  Porsche 911  1:03.865

6^th  Sherri Masterson  Porsche 911  1:14.583

B Sedan 

1^st  Zach Gilmor  Ford Contour  1:00.914

2^nd  Helen Morin  Mustang  1:08.263

C Production 

1^st  James Rowan  Honda CRX  56.562

2^nd  John Weinzettel  Honda CRX  57.393

3^rd  Coby Christensen  Dodge SRT-4  59.674

4^th  Alex Chung  Subaru  1:00.187

5^th  Doug Herold  Ford Focus  1:01.907

6^th  John Mann  Honda Civic  1:03.281

7^th  Drew Lovel  Nissan  1:05.811

8^th  Jan Lovec  MG  1:09.882

C Sedan 

1^st  Barry Armbrister  Honda Accord  1:05.724

2^nd  Couri Childds  Honda Civic  1:06.344

3^rd  Shelby Iverson  Eagle  1:10.474

GT-I 

1^st  Jerry Rukavina  Camaro  55.753

2^nd  Adam Johnson  Ford Cobra  56.334

3^rd  Bob Stevenson  Mustang  57.984

4^th  Dennis Figarelle  Camaro  1:00.003

5^th  Steve Nutter  Maverick  1:00.393

6^th  Kelly Rolfe  Pontiac Trans-Am  1:01.692

7^th  Kent Yoder  Camaro  1:02.582

8^th  Larry Akers  Camaro  1:03.514

9^th  Matt Macdonald  Mercury Cougar  1:08.889

10^th  Deb Yoder  Camaro  1:10.640

GT-2 

1^st  Clint Hauge  Mazda RX3  58.662

2^nd  Rick Cummings  Mercury Capri  59.395

3^rd  Travis Cummings  Mercury Capri  1:04.565

GT-3 

1^st  Gary Wolf  Saab 9000  54.186  FAST TIME OF DAY!!!

2^nd  Jim Messick  VW Scirroco  59.446

3^rd  Bob Morin  Toyota Celica  1:01.178

4^th  Russ Wilson  Toyota Celica  1:02.345

5^th  Greg Rice  Toyota Celica  1:02.686

6^th  Jin Huotte  Chevy Luv  1:08.169

Prepared 1 

Dave Cooley  Porsche 928  59.945

Prepared 2 

Marty Johnson  Toyota Mark 2  59.598

Prepared 3 

David Thurston  Plymouth Conquest  1:03.399

DEMO DERBY

The Demo Derby is still on for the 7^th of August – Saturday night.  The club gets a great return for our participation (rebated facility rental) and members who assist get a free event day, tickets into the Fair, and cool t-shirts.  But the big thing is that it’s a rollicking good time.  Tech inspection starts in the morning and runs throughout the day (remember the big Extreme Motorcycle show in the afternoon!), and the big event (along with its little brother, the Herbie Derby) is the evening entertainment.  WE NEED HELP, AND WE NEED TO KNOW WHO THAT MIGHT BE RIGHT NOW, NOT THE EVENING OF THE EVENT.  So please call Ed Austin at 452-1135 so we know exactly who can be there and to make sure that we have enough folks to tech, time, judge, and generally oversee this important event.  Thanks for your assistance, of course.

MONEY TALK

The club is in good financial shape right now, thanks in large part to the Heppner’s, Anita and Paul, who are just the best and most responsible couple ever.  But just as a heads-up, the club will need to take a look at increasing event fees in the future, like next year.  So mull over a $5.00 per event increase to see what it does to your autocrossing plans.  Inflation is everywhere, and even with a fee increase, this is damn cheap car fun.  This topic will be discussed at upcoming club meetings, so bring your opinion.

NOT ALL NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

Lois Masterson, wife of Tom Masterson and a very gracious lady/dancer/businesswoman/dog enthusiast/mom/driver to boot, recently lost a tough battle against lung cancer.  Lois turned more than a wheel or two in this sport, and was a strong motorsports supporter through and through.  She will be missed often and deeply by those who knew her.  Our club and individual condolences go out to Tom and the children, and we will all say a little extra something in our prayers.  Her memorial will be held Saturday, July 10, at 11:00 AM at Giant Springs.  Godspeed.

THOUGHTS AT LARGE

The Yellowstone Region in Billings indicates in its last newsletter that less than two dozen competitors are entered in each of their last several events (in a very, very ambitious season schedule), and that the age-old problem of too many late arrivals and early leavers are burning folks out.  This club remains convinced that the combination of a reasonable number of really quality events keeps us healthy, and that the work schedules and worker attitudes are truly spreading out the work load.  Please don’t ever be hesitant to offer to learn a new club job; there’s always room for more help.

There sure are a lot of nice competent new cars out there that run exceptionally hard right off of the showroom floor; we see them at our events along with older cars that have been massaged into quickness over the years with hard work, determination, and a certain attitude.  And they all run competitively together.  Ditto with the front vs rear wheel thing – never mind 4wd!  It’s just very rewarding and interesting to see all of the different ways folks see the automobile, and how they manifest their own personal tastes and styles.

Drifting is apparently a big deal elsewhere.  Any interest here?  Steve?  Tom?

Someone suggested a club swap meet – your chance to take home someone else’s car junk.  Any interest?

The Rukavina's just suffered a nasty lightening-caused house fire.  Jerry, Ev, and the cat are all just fine, but the family’s killer 600hp aluminum race motor was totally consumed by the blaze.  Donations for a replacement will be gratefully and gleefully accepted.  Seriously, many thanks to those of you who called to offer help following the fire.  We are lucky to be here and enjoy your friendship

NEXT MEETING

Thursday, July 29, 2004, at 7:30 PM at the 10^th Avenue Hardee’s Restaurant.  Be there.  For more information, call Ed Austin at 452-1135 or Jerry Rukavina at 761-4357.  The schedule for all Montana SCCA regions is attached to this Panic Slip for the benefit of those who may want to autocross elsewhere.  Go!  Run like the wind.