KILL THE COBWEBS!

Our 2003 opener was a HUGE success.  Three dozen drivers and literally hundreds of spectators enjoyed the start of a new autocross season and the christening of a new event site.  Our collective thanks to Corvette (2002 ZO6!) driver and swell guy Phil Kiser and his business partners as they let us use the south lot of the old Buttrey Warehouse.  The tight but terrific course was all inside a most welcome chain link fence that made watching and security both a breeze!  Even the intermittent use of the facility by the National Laundry folks after their disastrous fire was easily handled.  The day saw a very tightly bunched of times turned in by long-timers and newbies, front and rear-tire smokers, and both familiar and just-hatched cars.  This portends a great season of broad and deep competition in all classes.  Fast might not be easy this year.

Of note:  Figarelle has saved another Camaro from the crusher, Akers found the other four cylinders he’s been looking for all these years, Heppner can drive sideways, Austin wants a GPS system, Kisers think pylons are apparently fiber, Namen Paul will do burnouts for glory, Schamp now has his cylinders in a row instead of bent, and Masterson has yet to change his Porsche’s coolant from winter to summer air.  Just thought you’d like to know.  

Ryan’s Station was our post-event gathering spot, and they were superb as well, offering us the best in space and cold drinks and hot food.  Just a superb day for all, even if you got lost, broke the car, hit nearly every pylon, or put on your best display of, “Oh, my God, can I save this slide?”.  Cool day.  We’ll be back.

 THIS TIME IT COUNTS

The first points event will be this Sunday, May 4, 2003, at ExpoPark in Great Falls.  Be there early for registration and course set-up assistance if at all possible because we anticipate a good turnout.  Stevenson promises a challenging course (aren’t they all?) that will tax your brain. Important for this event:

          The “X” factor is a problem for timing and scoring, so here’s the deal:  If your vehicle is not marked correctly, you will have two options.  You may take the run and have it incorrectly attributed to your co-driver with no possibility of getting it corrected or re-run later, or you may return to the longest pre-stage line as you correctly add or subtract the “X” on the car.  There simply is not enough time or attention for event officials to keep track of your vehicle’s identity, so be a grown-up and get it right yourself.  These options are not negotiable, so make yourself a tape “X” or get your own shoe polish and paper towels or get a magnetic “X”.  This ain’t rocket science and you are all adults, so please take care of your own correct vehicle identification.

·          On the subject of loaner helmets:  Get your lazy butt out of the car well before a run, secure one of the club’s loaner helmets, and be ready to run at the head of the pre-stage line.  The starter will NOT wait for you (much less your passenger) to get a helmet at the start line.  BE READY or you will simply be sent to the rear of the longest pre-stage line.  Seriously, this is not baby-sitting 101 so please take the responsibility of arriving at the start line READY TO RUN.  Anything else is just monkey-motion and, because we want everyone to get a full set of runs in with our ever-increasing number of competitors, we don’t need to tolerate any slow-downs.  Hell, go buy your own helmet, anyway ($100 or so for a Snell 90), so you don’t have to tolerate someone else’s sweat.  Thank you.

·          In the future, course watching assignments will be made available at the driver’s meeting (which is mandatory, by the way), so the entire day’s assignments will be out there for you to be aware of.  We will simply not run until the assigned persons are at the start line, ready for their shift at watching for fallen orange cones.  We really, really need to speed up the transitions to keep these events moving, so delays are too time-costly to tolerate.  Remember that this is a volunteer organization in which EVERYONE WILL VOLUNTEER, whether you want to or not.  Come ready to work and play in combination.

·          The club has a new dedicated computer in the timing trailer just for our events, so computer/clock problems ought to be a thing of the past. 

·          Please do not get in the way of event officials as they try to keep things moving smoothly.  The pre-stage, start, timing, scoring, and run results-posting people do not need your help, so stay clear.  Hang out someplace other than the trailer if you must loiter.  And the breakfast goodies at the trailer are for WORKERS, not watchers.

 IN OTHER NEWS

“Cruising the Drag” is coming soon downtown, Saturday, May 10, to be exact.  Hundreds and hundreds of cool cars, trucks, and bikes.  If you might be interested in forming a club display, contact Bob Morin at 771-1346 to express your interest.  And if you have never seen a burnout contest, make this year’s smoke-a-rama a must-see.  You gotta love burnouts!

Jim Messick will head up our contingent of Demolition Derby workers who will swap their time for some more event dates at ExpoPark.  Leave August 2 clear on your calendar and call Jim at 268-1742 to be part of a fun and exciting day at the Fair with some of the roughest sheetmetal you have ever seen.  We will need about two dozen volunteers for various tasks (tech, safety, scoring, field judges, etc) so do not be shy.  Great fun!  Call Jim.

Last issue reported that the Double Nationals were in Portland.  Wrong!  Let’s try Seattle on May 23-26.  Duh.  Talk to Tom Masterson if interested in the event

The next event will be in Helena at the Helena Regional Airport facility on May 25, so plan accordingly.  Think early, if you know what we mean.  This event will be in conjunction with the Mustang Club and Ford’s 100^th anniversary, so expect a very large turnout.  But be there anyway.  Autocross heaven.

 For more information on these and other swell automotive/autocross topics, call Ed Austin at 452-1135 of Jerry Rukavina at 761-4357.  Next General meeting will be at the 10^th Avenue Hardees at 7:30 PM on May 29.  See you there.

 JUST SO YOU UNDERSTAND THE SEQUENCE FOR A SINGLE EVENT:

· January  Schedule is finalized and locked in with event sites

· February  Club begins insurance confirmation with SCCA nationals

· Prior to the event by a couple of weeks  Promotion in media, arrange for porta-potty and for barricades if necessary

· Day before event  Course-setter is probably finishing the course design

· 6:00 AM, day of event  Club officials begin getting club trailer to event site

· 7:00 AM  Course setting begins, many dozens of pylons are unloaded, loaded, and set.

· 7:00  Course perimeter is secured, possible with barricades from city

· 7:30  Registration begins, with non-participant volunteers requiring signature on waivers, membership forms, etc.  Take your money.

· 7:45  Clocks begin being set-up; entrant information loaded into the timing computer

· 8:00 pits begin filling up; technical inspections and vehicle classification begins

· 8:30  SCCA Safety Steward approves course; course is chalk-marked

· 8:45  Course walking allowed; everyone must either sweep, mark cones, or clear course perimeter

· 9:00  All of the above continue

· 10:00  Mandatory drivers meeting; run groups announced, worker groups announced

· 10:15  Last very quick course walk for late entrants; timing clock check

· 10:30  Course-watcher positioning and check, radio check, course is cleared

· 10:45  First competition run commences, registration will close soon, run results are posted on results boards on the timing trailer, pre-grid congestion

· 11:00 through 4:00 or so  Competition runs continue, course workers are regularly changed, starter, timer, and pre-grid all swap workers so everyone gets to make their competition runs

· 4:00  Comp runs are finished and timing and scoring begins the process of tabulating the results

· 4:00 to 4:30  “Buck runs” (which cost at least $2!) are limited and run

· 4:30  Everyone pitches in to tear-down the course.  All barricades are re-loaded and returned, pylons are re-stacked and reloaded into the trailer, all club equipment is located and put back in trailer.  Course site is policed

· 5:00  Club officials take trailer back home, tabulate final results, and return to the post-event site (probably a bar or restaurant) for the tail end of a gathering that participants have been enjoying for quite some time.  Much BS and fun are exchanged

Late that evening, event results are e-mailed to Tribune.  Club officials get to put fuel in the generator, remove, recharge, or replace batteries in radios, and check the recharge levels in fire extinguishers.  Trailer must be appropriately stashed until next time.  If it is an out-of-town event, this takes place in darkness.

See, it’s not something that just “happens”.  Your club performs an incredible amount of plain old-fashioned hard work so we can all have some fun.  Cool.  Very cool.  If you help, thanks for your help with all of this.  You’re cool, too.