The winds are howling and the temperatures are dropping, it must be winter in southwest Ohio!
I have just 2 important announcements to make this month so I’ll jump right into the first one. SAVE THE DATE! Our Annual Awards Banquet has been renamed the “Cincinnati Region SCCA Membership Appreciation & Awards Banquet” It has been scheduled for February 4th, 2023 and will once again be celebrated at the Receptions location in Fairfield! Look for more information and details on registration to be announced very soon!
At our November Membership/Board Meeting the new 2023 Board of Directors for Cincinnati Region were elected! I present your 2023 Board!
REGION EXECUTIVE
– Jim Clark Assistant R.E.
– Brian Walker Treasurer
– Christy Graham Secretary
– Halie Sewell BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE (Serve from Jan 1, 2023 to Dec 31, 2024)
– Tacti Takagi
– Jeff Loewe
– Brandon Sewell BOARD MEMBER AT LARGE (Serve from Jan 1, 2022 to Dec 31, 2023)
– Jack Burns
– Tom Tomlinson
– A.J. Allen (appointed to finish Jim Clark term)
Thanks again to everyone that came out to the meeting, it was great to see some new faces! A reminder that our monthly meetings take December off and will be back on schedule for the next meeting on January 17. 2023 at the Shooters Sports Grill at 4981 Winners Circle Drive, Hamilton, OH 45011. ALL Cincy SCCA members are encouraged to come out to our meeting and socialize with our fellow Cincy SCCA Members!
The “off season” arrives and I wholeheartedly chortle…..it’s really the beginning of the next season for those of us working behind the scenes…..there really is no “off season” folks so I continue to work to help our divisional programs prepare for the upcoming year.
Video Conference Meetings:
Club Racing Board (CRB) (11/1): The CRB met and continued to move forward on a variety of topics. Some are very much long term, strategic in their nature. I’m glad to see that they’ve moved on from extended discussion about minute rules questions and are leaving that to the Ad Hoc committees. The results of CRB rules changes can be seen here.
Board of Directors (BoD) (11/7): We met off schedule with the Rally Cross Board (RXB) Chair (current and incoming) to discuss the future of the program. Once they gave us the “State of the Program”, they left and were able to have a conversation about the program. Some decisions wer made and we passed those along to the President (Mike Cobb).
Electrified Vehicle Advisory Committee (EVAC) (11/9): After a couple of months of stagnation, things are starting to move quickly. Our SCREV is getting some final revisions and will be presented to the BoD on 12/3. Our rules packages for Club Racing (P2EV, ESpec) are getting some last-minute polishing and should be ready for publication to the membership very soon.
Budget & Finance Committee (11/15): We received a preliminary budget from the President. After he outlined the details for us, we had some time to discuss the overall package. We met in Executive Session (only BoD members) and had a chat about how to move forward in these trying economic times.
Budget & Finance Committee (11/25): We met in a short session (45 minutes) to iron out some financial topics on the 2023 budget. As we are meeting on 12/3, we wanted Mike to juggle some of the budget items so the entire BoD could discuss the complete 2023 package.
EVAC (11/28): I decided that we needed an additional “off schedule” meeting to iron out some revisions to the rules packages before I head off to the BoD meeting.
SCCA Events:
None since it our off season.
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A quick reminder that the GLDiv Spring Meeting will occur on 3/3 and 3/4 at the same site as last year (Manchester University). Friday (3/3) will be a social event that evening and 3/4 will be the meeting. The meetings will be across all programs, so I encourage all members to attend. With more programs under the SCCA banner these days, we need to focus on teamwork to help each region put on the best events they can.
I will be introducing our new Club Racing Executive Steward at this event. Her name is Lauri Burkons and she will be taking over the reins from Duane Harrington. She has some large shows to fill and a lot of work to do so the expectations are high. But I know she’s up to the task as we move forward. She and I have already been working together to ensure that she hits the ground running in 2023.
As usual, Val McCammon is coordinating the event. She will send a “call for sessions” email soon. She also asked that I remind folks to contact her (pyramid@bluebirdview.com, 260.437.6707) with any topic or session ideas they would like to see.
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Be sure and visit the GLDiv website for information about all of the SCCA programs within the division. We have schedules, official’s contact info, standings, etc. for all the SCCA programs.
Please take a few minutes and make sure your contact information is accurate in the SCCA database. It’s important to have the correct information there so the club knows how to contact you. Log in to your my.scca.com page and check.
As I mentioned previously, there is a new path to getting your annual waiver. You can now get it through the Member Account Portal (MAP). Follow this link to get the instructions. There is also a story about the program here. I’ve done it and it only takes a couple of minutes. Be prepared to upload a headshot picture of yourself.
Just a quick reminder, if any region out there wants to have an “Ask the Director” session during your monthly meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me so we can schedule a visit. I retired last summer so have plenty of free time and would thoroughly enjoy the chance to visit with your members.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you may have about any facet of the GLDiv. I want you to make the most of your membership and I will help out in any way possible to make that happen.
Our Member Appreciation and Awards Banquet (formerly the Year-end Award Banquet) is scheduled on Feb. 4th 2023 at Receptions Fairfield. The championship trophies will be awarded here but all are welcome whether you’re getting a trophy or not. (More details and registration will be available on CincySCCA.MotorsportReg.com soon), so please join us!
Photo courtesy of Joel Spitsnaugle
Though our championship points events are all done, we still have two more fun events, Sat and Sun this coming weekend. Registration will close tomorrow night (Thurs. Nov.3, @ 10:00PM), so please make sure to register!
Like normal, you are reading this report because Tact reminded me yesterday it was due by the end of the month, almost seems like a trend, doesn’t it… One would think, since I must submit a monthly status/accomplishments report for my employer, it would remind me to do one for here…nope, nope, nope. Shoulda, coulda, woulda… For example, it appears I failed to provide an Oct Solo Report, thought I did, but… Therefore, this one will be long(er), but that is good because you need something to help you fall sleep, right? Now, on to the report:
Oct 23, 2022: SCCA Regional Solo 2 – Cincinnati Region at Traders World, Lebanon, Ohio
Fall Fun Events 1 & 2 – Nov 5 & 6
Now that it is Halloween today (I told you this was last minute…), it means it is sad to say, but we are basically at the end of our autocross season here in the “northern” states.Our last event is typically the first weekend of Nov and this year is certainly no different as our last events are the Fall Fun Events 1 & 2 on Nov 5 & 6.
These are meant as more relaxed events where you get to ride with other entrants to see how they are doing it, or drive another entrant’s cars, or try different things on yours in celebration of the end of the year.Heck, maybe you can use this to help you decide what you want to do for the upcoming year if you are still undecided.
o Sat, Nov 5 Fall Fun Event 1 will be run in a Test & Tune format (work one shift – typically an hour – free to run however much of the rest of the time you want.)
o Sun, Nov 6 Fall Event 2 format was planned to be a more standard event format with assigned heats, but that is highly dependent upon the number of entries. May very well also end up being T&T format. Again, still encouraging the maximum flexibility we can even if run as a normal event format.
Registrations are still pretty low, register now!!! (54 on Sat, 66 on Sun.) Weather forecasts are still pretty reasonable, Sat 76/60 Sunny, Sun 66/60 Scattered showers. Of course, who knows what the forecast will be as we get closer, two days ago both days were forecast to be nearly 70/50 and no precipitation.
2022 Year End Cincy SCCA Solo Championship Points & PAX Championship Points
There were many tight battles this past year and a number of classes came down to the last event for a number of trophy positions if not even the class championship. Not going to go into any real discussion here other than to say the results will be posted shortly (was pending any results challenges from PE8).
Please review your information to make sure we didn’t miss combining due to name or any other errors.
Year end trophies will be presented at the Cincy SCCA 2022 Banquet/Awards on Sat, Feb 4th (details to be announced in the future.)
If you earned a trophy, information will follow from Halie (Sewell) or me on trophy type selection.
I need to apologize since I didn’t report this last month, very sorry. We had eighteen (18) in our Cincy Region paddock group at Nationals this year. As always, I encourage everyone to travel to other events too, not only to other nearby regional events, but also to other divisional to national level events, and especially to the Solo National Championships. I started autocrossing in ’85, even went to divisional level events that year, but didn’t start going to National Tours or Pros until the early 90s and then to my first National Championships Event in ’94 in Salina, KS where I place 7th in CS with (if I remember right) over 60 other Miatas! Thankfully, I can say 2022 marked my 25th national championships event. There are many who have done more, even in our region, but it is still always a highlight of my year even though I didn’t trophy. Next year marks a big milestone for Nationals, definitely suggest you put it on your calendar! Now back to 2022, as always it was on the vast concrete of Lincoln Airpark, Lincoln NE. Lincoln welcomes us all and it huge, I think I figured out just the course areas (Nationals uses two courses) were 4X or 5X as all of our TW lot (paddock, grid, course). This ignores the practice course and paddock space for 1,200 entrants which dwarf all of TW. The two courses were in the low 50s (West Course) and low 70 sec (East Course) ranges. We all went, all had fun, got to hang out with friends from across the country, and have a great vacation! Where else do you get to go compete in a class of 40-60 or more drivers (this year DS had 60 entrants)?!? On a more personal note, thank you to Scott Bourne and Brent Cary for offering codrives for Ben and me after our Corvette broke two weeks before Nationals! Saw that scenario play out for others there too, like Jacob Glover did for Bob Armstrong and Michael DiGorgio! Congrats to one and all, but especially those who were able to bring home a trophy!!! Here is how we fared:
SCCA TireRack Solo National Championships – Sep 5-9
Class
Name
Car
Position
SS
Rob Clark
’20 C8 Corvette
8T
SSL
Lang King
’20 C8 Corvette
2T
AS
Kent Weaver
’08 Chev Z06 Corvette
20
AS
Brent Cary (Indy)
’08 Chev Z06 Corvette
26
CS
Will Teller (Blue Ridge)
’19 Mazda Miata
3T
CS
Will King (Blue Ridge)
’19 Mazda Miata
10 (1 out)
ES
Scott Bourne
’02 Mazda Miata
23
ES
Ben Weaver
’02 Mazda Miata
33
SST
Ziyi Wang
’17 BMW M2
2T
STS
Austin Hampton
’92 Mazda Miata
27
STH
Nate Chester
’05 Saab 9-2X Aero
14
STU
Myke Dziengel
’06 Subaru STi
16
STX
John Custer
’13 Scion FRS
25
STX
Ian Bahnsen
’13 Scion FRS
32
XP
Dave Montgomery
’72 Porsche 914S
2T
CAM S
Bob Armstrong
’07 Chev Corvette
7T
CAM C
Krzysztof Zielinski
’18 Ford Mustang
13
CAM S
Michael DiGorgio
’07 Chev Corvette
12
KM
Tim Sholar (DET)
’15 Tony Kart
7 (1 out)
SCCA ProSolo Finale – Sep 2-4
Class
Name
Car
Position
CS
Will Teller (Blue Ridge)
’19 Mazda Miata
2T
CS
Will King (Blue Ridge)
’19 Mazda Miata
8
STX
John Custer
’13 Scion FRS
8
S3
Rob Clark
’20 C8 Corvette
16
S4
Myke Dziengel
’06 Subaru STi
5
S5
Scott Bourne
’22 Subaru BRZ
23
L2
Tina Coil
’02 Mazda Miata
14
L2
Lang King
’20 C8 Corvette
4T
Great Lakes Solo Series (GLSS) Points Event 9 – Sep 17
88 entrants got 6 runs and were done and off site by 3:00 to go relax with friends and explore the area for those from out of town. This was the first day of two for our charity event benefitting Ohio Alleycat Resource & Spay/Neuter Clinic. For overall PAX and RAW Times, Rob Clark in his C8 Corvette held off Danny Popp in his C7 Corvette for Top Raw time by 0.579 secs and Krzysztof Zielinski in his ’18 Mustang by 0.720 secs for Top PAX time. Closest battle was in our Novice Street class where Tim Hammer in his ’17 VW Golf topped Ryan Dodds in his ’17 Focus ST by 0.047 secs (index) and 0.059 raw. Next closest was in Street Open where Scott Bourne in his ’02 Miata edged out Jason Norton in his ’22 BMW M4 by 0.164 secs. Third closest was Danny Popp in his C7 Corvette holding off Bill Hughes in his C5 Z06 Corvette by 0.241 secs.
GLSS PE 10 & Cincy Points Event 6
175 entrants got 5 runs on a fun course for the second day of the charity event again benefitting Ohio Alleycat Resource & Spay/Neuter Clinic. Happy to report we were able to raise $4000 for their service to the community! Rob Clark in his C8 Corvette held off Christian Moist in his Birkin 7 for Top RAW by 0.459 secs and Chris Rudy in his Honda Civic Si for top PAX by 0.864 secs. Tight competitions were the name of the day with five classes being decided by less than 0.1 secs! STS had the closest class competition where Brian Mason (in Ray Jason’s ’89 Honda Civic) edged out Austin Hampton in his ’92 Miata by 0.014 secs. Not to be outdone, E Street had the next closest competition where Tom Deutsch in his ’92 Miata held off Linda Smiley in her ’99 Miata by a mere 0.039 secs. SSM was another dog fight with Joel Spitsnaugle in his ’05 Lotus Elise taking the win on his last run by 0.050 secs over Ashley Ervin in his ’91 Miata. CAMS was another close battle where Marshall Reinert in his ’00 Corvette edged Danny Popp in his ’19 Corvette by 0.077 secs. STH had the other tight battle with Josh Smith in his ’14 Focus ST holding off Mike Kruetzkamp in his 1’17 Focus by 0.091 secs.
Points Event 7 – Oct 3
153 entrants got 6 runs on a Danny Popp course which had a great mix of technical and speed. Not so sure the course designer was real happy with it and the associated cone carnage, but lots of us really did. Seems the theme of the day, even with the cone carnage, was again tight competition. This time we had four classes where it came down to 0.1 sec or less. Rob Clark and Myke Dziengel had a big battle for fastest times with Rob Clark in his C8 Corvette edging out Myke in his ’06 STi, finishing 1 – 2 for Fastest Raw Time by 0.118 secs and Class/PAX by 0.052 secs. In class competition, the closest was in EM where Jeremy Porter held off his codriver Christian Patrick by 0.018 secs in the purpose built ’59 Zoomboni. Next closest was Street Open where Alex Kruetzkamp in his Ford Focus held off Nick Isaac in Max Mischenko’s borrowed Camaro by 0.075 secs, with Max a mere 0.329 behind them in 3rd. Lastly, we had Ziyi Wang in his M2 hold off John Custer in his FR-S by 0.108 secs for the win in ST Open.
We held our second Cincy Region Challenge Event on a reverse direction adaptation of the planned Sunday course by Nathan Popp. Glad to say this was a lot of fun too. We had 65 entrants and six runs in the morning to determine class winners and fill out the field of 32 for the Challenge. This year we changed the format up a bit in an attempt to make it fairer for all. To set the field of 32, it was based on class winners (18) and then the remaining top 7 on PAX from each heat. Once in the Challenge, the first round had two runs for each competitor to even out temperature conditions/advantages and we ran blind pairings to determine the 16 who advanced. The following rounds were based on amount of improvement over each competitor’s best times to that point. The competition was tight and a lot of fun to watch, lots of suspense, great driving by all – some advanced by time, others by cone penalties on their opponent. Third place was determined via a run-off. Congrats to all who made it in and to the final four: Richard Verret 4th (2021 Winner) GS Civic; Lang King 3rd, ASL C8 Corvette; Ryan Miles 2nd, DS GR86; and Danny Popp (Our 2022 Winner!!!), CAM-S C7 Corvette.
158 entrants got 5 runs on a Nathan Popp course which again offered a great mix of technical and speed although some confusion at speed and elements which required more braking than expected led to many DNFs. Nonetheless, this course too was a lot of fun and a great way to end the season points race. Once again, Rob Clark took top PAX and top RAW times in his Corvette, again edging Myke Dziengel in his Sti on PAX by 0.351 secs and Christian Moist in his Birkin 7 on RAW times by 0.219 secs. It should be noted, Rob dominated this year, winning Top PAX and Top RAW times at every Points Event he entered (missed PE 3), congrats Rob! The tightest margin of victory when to Abdul Huuda in his BMW 328 edging out Ziyi Wang in his BMW M2 by 0.022 secs. Next closest was STR where Justin King took the win in his ’01 Miata by 0.128 secs over Ian Bahnsen in his MR2 Spyder. Next closest was Street Open where I got to run my new Miata and was able to barely hold off Nick Isaac by 0.175 secs in the Camaro and Lang King by 0.249 secs in her C8 Corvette.
September was a very busy month for me. I went to Lincoln, NE for the Solo Nationals, came home for a week and a half and then headed to Virginia for the Runoffs. I know I signed up for it, but I was out 18 days from 9/4 to 10/3. Sheesh….I’m tired just typing that sentence. That said, I had a great time at both events.
Due to my various travels, I missed sending an October update. As a results, this month’s update is quite a bit longer than usual. I apologize for the length, but I also want to make sure the members get a full accounting of my time. Due to Solo Nationals, Runoffs, holidays and other factors, my monthly BoD meetings that are normally on the fourth Monday of each month have been rescheduled to an “as needed” basis. We will have a few meetings scheduled but realize that topics may pop up for which we may need to meet. Throw in that I was asked to sit in on some other Zoom calls for my EV knowledge and I was on Zoom calls quite frequently over the past couple of months.
Video Conference Meetings:
Club Racing Board (CRB) (9/7): I wasn’t able to sit in on this one since I was at the Solo nationals. The results of CRB rules changes can be seen here.
Region Development (9/13, 9/15, 9/20): These were a series of Zoom calls to talk with jumbo (9/13), small (9/15) and medium/large (9/20) regions about the EVAC. As EVs are coming to events across all regions, I thought it would be worthwhile to speak to these groups and give them a heads up as well as pass along my contact info for any questions that might arise.
Electrified Vehicle Advisory Committee (EVAC) (9/14): The revised SCREV is being reviewed by the folks who run the experiential programs (Time Trials, Track Night in America, Solo, Rally Cross). While this review is happening, we are working on a variety of things in the background. The Broch Evans Motorsports EV race car (previously a Formula Mazda) was entered in AMod at the Solo Nationals. It was exciting to get this car in front of SCCA folks so they can see it for themselves. We are also working on training materials for members and regions so they know how to interact with an EV that has entered an SCCA event. More on that to come later.
Budget & Finance Committee (9/19): We reviewed the budget for 2023. A variety of factors (fuel prices, inflationary pressures, travel cost, etc.) are forcing the Club to juggle things financially when it comes to the budget for next year.
GLDiv BoD meeting (10/10): Treasurer’s report reviewed (we’re good) and prep for the 2023 Spring Training meeting.
BoD (10/5): This was an adjunct meeting to continue to discuss budget issue for 2023.
EVAC (10/12): Although our meeting was shortened due to the SCCA Presidential address given by Mike Cobb, we still managed to get attendance at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, get a TEAC update and disucc the difficulty in finding a SEB member for the EVAC committee. We also discussed battery protection for custom or home built cars and the SCREV update from Heyward Wagner.
BoD (10/17): We met for our regularly scheduled meeting. We got a financial update. We’re a bit under budget as entries for events are down across the country. The Governance Committee has reviewed the Operations Manual and suggested a wide variety of revisions to keep the document fresh. We have also been trying to keep other costs down as inflation has taken a bite at the SCCA as well. Another committee has advanced some BoD restructuring based on our meeting this past July with a consultant. Its proprietary for now so we’ll see what, if anything, comes from the proposal.
GLDiv Executive Steward (10/19): I hosted a Zoom call with the current and new Executive Steward so we could go over the transition from one to the other. This was just a matter of dotting “I’s”.
SCCA Events:
Solo Nationals (9/5-9/9): I had never been to the Solo Nationals in any capacity but knew I needed to go when I took office. The rationale is easy as Solo is the largest of our programs. Since I retired from Club Racing my Sprite back in 2017, I have entered a couple of Solos each year. I admit I’m not any good at it but it’s a way to keep the competitive juices flowing and mingle with members who have a lot of passion for their program.
I headed out to Lincoln, NE on Sunday so I could get the feel of the place on Monday before the competition started on Tuesday. My agenda was pretty simple…..talk to the brass who run Solo (Heyward Wagner, Rick Myers, Brian Mason, SEB members), catch up with folks from Area 4 and, as EVs are my “thing”, see how the various EVs did during the week. I was there strictly as a Director…..not an entrant, not a worker. I wanted to see how the event unfolded from a variety of directions. I knew folks who were working the event and who were competitors in the event.
There were EVs in three classes (EVX, AMod and HS) and I made sure to watch their sessions and talk to the competitors. What was amazing was how well they did. One of the EVX cars (Tesla 3) ran in the same heat as the CAM T class. When the dust settled, he was faster than all but the top three in CAM T. An ex Formula Mazda from Club Racing was converted into an EV by installing a Nissan Leaf motor in it. It competed in AMod and did well for its first ever Solo competition (both car and driver) as it finished 12th of 15. It was interesting to watch folks see it run. Much discussion was going on while it was on course. The HS car was a bone stock BMW i3 and he did well too (15th of 28).
In the end I could not have been more impressed by the event. To squeeze 1100+ cars through the two courses in four days was amazing. There may have been some chaos behind the scenes, but it sure didn’t look like it…..its appeared to be run like a well-oiled machine. The credit goes to all involved (drivers and officials). As for my future in Solo, I am already working on plans to attend next year.
Runoffs (9/25-10/2): Unlike the Solo Nationals which I had never attended, I have been to 20+ Runoffs. Some as worker, many as a driver, some as crew and even a couple as media. The wrinkle in this year’s event was the remnants of hurricane Ian. After devastating Florida and South Carolina, the remains drifted north to our area and caused all sorts of problems. Rain and high winds caused local flooding and power outages. After a couple weeks of flawless weather, we had three days of wet, windy, nasty weather for the race days. As the rain was intermittent, tire choice was paramount. As a F&C guy I also know that rain is the wildcard that makes road racing interesting…..sometimes for the wrong reasons, but always interesting.
Once again I must commend the Club Racing brass and Steward Corps for ensuring that the event went smoothly. Yes the weather played havoc with the race days but the officials kept things moving.
WMR Solo at Grattan Raceway (10/23): Once I found out my hip replacement surgery had been postponed, I signed up for the last WMR Solo of the season. I took along a WMR member who had not been to a Solo before so he could see how the event was run. He had a great time and wants to compete next season. I had a nice time too even though I finished last in my class. Oh well…..on to 2023.
For 2023, GLDiv will have a new Executive Steward in charge of the Club Racing program. Her name is Lauri Burkons. One of the tasks on her plate it so revitalize the steward program and the first step is to add folks to the program. I asked her to write a small blurb about Stewarding and I have included it here. Please contact her if you have any questions (lburkons@neo.rr.com, (330) 338-7064).
Join the Steward Program
“Why?” you might ask. Because you have the SCCA experience needed to be the kind of steward we need – whether you are a driver, crew, or specialty volunteer.
Stewards are not just officials. We are also timekeepers and helpers. Yes, we officiate by keeping the rules. We keep time by starting and ending each session. We are helpers because we guide drivers through different procedures, and we help participants through the aftermath of any incident.
Stewards are not all about handing out penalties. We really do try to help drivers stay on track and have safe, fun sessions. Every sport has rules and officials to ensure those rules are followed. Motorsports is no different, and we want the best to be part of our group. Maybe that person is you.
While we are serious when running sessions, we are a group of racing enthusiasts who love to have fun. We love what we do at the track and we laugh a lot at the end of the day!
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Be sure and visit the GLDiv website for information about all of the SCCA programs within the division. We have schedules, official’s contact info, standings, etc. for all the SCCA programs.
The various national schedules for 2022 are starting to coalesce and they can be found here:
Please take a few minutes and make sure your contact information is accurate in the SCCA database. It’s important to have the correct information there so the club knows how to contact you. Log in to your my.scca.com page and check.
As I mentioned previously, there is a new path to getting your annual waiver. You can now get it through the Member Account Portal (MAP). Follow this link to get the instructions. There is also a story about the program here. I’ve done it and it only takes a couple of minutes. Be prepared to upload a headshot picture of yourself.
Just a quick reminder, if any region out there wants to have an “Ask the Director” session during your monthly meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me so we can schedule a visit. I retired last summer so have plenty of free time and would thoroughly enjoy the chance to visit with your members.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you may have about any facet of the GLDiv. I want you to make the most of your membership and I will help out in any way possible to make that happen.
If I was a normal person, I would be either going out to buy dinner somewhere or starting to cook dinner as I have no leftovers, but no…here I am writing an article. Who needs food or nourishment anyway, less food = less weight = faster times, right? So unless you have been hiding under a rock, either you or a friend is headed off to glorious Lincoln, NE for the 2022 SCCA ProSolo Finale and/or the 2022 TireRack SCCA Solo National Championships. I’m one of those, so needless to say, things are hectic. Of course that also ignores the many of us who went to the other premiere events this time of year like the UMI King of the Mountain event last weekend or the Holley LSFest East in Bowling Green, KY.
TireRack SCCA ProSolo Finale & TireRack SCCA Solo National Championships – So, I will start with these upcoming events. The ProSolo Finale competition is this Sat – Sun and the Solo Nationals competition days are Tues – Fri, Sep 6 – 9. We have people running 2nd through 5th heats Tues/Wed and 1st through 3rd heats Thur/Fri. Out of the 1100 – 1200 entrants, we have eighteen (18!) Cincy Region members making the trek, so put in your ear buds and listen to us on the sololive.scca.com live timing and audio while you are supposedly hard at work…just don’t cheer too loudly. Obviously results and stories to come later, but we have some serious contenders to bring home trophies and even National Championships. Let’s Go!!! For those of you who have never been, it’s a great time, truly a vacation spent with friends which also happens to have big courses on concrete. This will be my 25th year…
August Recap
August was busy for a lot of us too, with the Oscoda ProSolo Aug 5-7; the CAM Challenge East in Peru, IN Aug 12-14, and WOR PE 2/Cincy PE 5 on Aug 20-21 at Traders World of course.
Oscoda ProSolo – I feel fortunate I was able to return to the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport for this event. It really is a nice vacation complete with sandy beaches and Lake Huron to play in which was quite comfortable to go play in this year! Oscoda is a great little vacation town! On to the race recap where only three Cincy members made the trip. This year I didn’t have the magic to pull off the win in Bump, but I did overcome a huge cone induced disadvantage Sat to edge out Big Weaver, whew! For the Challenges, I made the Super Challenge but red lit on my first timed launch. : ( John Custer made a valid run but came up short for advancing. Ben made the Bonus Challenge and finished 2nd!!!
John Custer 4T Bump (1st Round Super Challenge)
Kent Weaver 11 Bump (RL 1st Round Super Challenge)
Ben Weaver 12 Bump (2nd Bonus Challenge)
SCCA CAM Challenge East, Grissom Aeroplex, Peru IN – I wasn’t able to attend even though I always have this on my calendar, but Cincy Region was represented well as we had 12 Cincy members attend out of the 170 entrants. Here are the trophy winners
Danny Popp 3T CAMS (2nd Round CAMS Challenge)
Bob Armstrong 7T CAMS (1st Round CAMS Challenge)
Krzysztof Zielinski 11T CAMC (3rd Round CAMC Challenge)
Nathan Popp 11 CAMT missed T by 0.075 secs (1st Round CAMT Challenge)
WOR PE 2 @ Traders World, Sat Aug 20 – We teamed up with WOR to offer two days of competition for everyone the weekend of Aug 20-21. The weather forecast called for rain Sat afternoon and off and on all day Sunday. Sat the rain held off for the 88 competitors to get 7 runs, present trophies, and get the course changed over for Sunday with everyone off site by 4:30. Very nicely run event with a fun course and great friends.
CINCY PE 5 @ Traders World, Sun Aug 21 – The forecast called for off and on rain showers and possibly storms at times through the day and boy were they right! We had nearly 200 people registered including the waitlist at one point and cleared in 185 entrants to only end up with 140 on Sunday. If you are one of the ones who chose to miss it, you did indeed miss a good time. Yes, it rained off and on all day, even stormed with lightning to shut us down for 45 mins or so, but everyone had the opportunity for one dry run, some competitors even more, if I am not mistaken. It did storm hard enough the drain pumps couldn’t keep up and we ended up with a small fresh water lake in the middle of the course which was easily 18” deep and 100 ft dia. Thankfully, by the time we got workers out and cars ready to start running again, the pumps had caught up and the course was unaltered. The closest battle was in CAM T where it absolutely came down to last run heroics for the top four drivers. Corey Pooler turned a 43.461 and AJ Knollman turned a 43.209, but Brian Coney and Nathan Popp were out on course trying to take it back. Brian Coney crushed it with a 42.388 to take the lead until Nathan Popp turned a 42.387, the win by 0.001 seconds! Great listening to Scott Bourne with the play by play, wish we could broadcast our audio too, but having all the other things like sectors is a better trade off. Second closest battle was in ES with Linda Smiley edging out Tina Coil both in Miatas by 0.036 secs. Tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar, but Rob Clark set FTD Raw with a 40.325 over Joel Zeller with a 41.039 and they were both 1 – 2 on PAX with Rob edging Joel by 0.593 and Lang King rounding out the top 3.
Aug 21, 2022: SCCA Regional Solo 2 – Cincinnati Region at Traders World, Lebanon, OhioAug 21, 2022: SCCA Regional Solo 2 – Cincinnati Region at Traders World, Lebanon, Ohio
September Events
The Great Lakes Div Solo Series returns to Traders World as Cincy hosts events GLSS Points Events 9 & 10 on Sep 17 & 18. Cincy Points Event 6 is also that Sunday, Sep 18. Register now before we hit the entry cap. Even once we hit the cap, please enter on the waitlist if you are interested as we typically get most of the waitlisted people in.
September will be a busy month for me as I head to Lincoln, NE for the Solo Nationals. I’ll be at that event from 9/5 to 9/10. I’ve never been to the Solo Nationals and am really looking forward to it. Later in the month, I’m headed to Virginia for the Runoffs. The Runoffs will be held at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) this year (and next) and I’ll be there from 9/23 to 10/3. I’ve been to VIR several times. It’s a fabulous facility that will really test the mettle of the competitors. As I have a brother who lives near there (Durham, NC), I get to pull double duty and visit with him. Another bonus…..staying at his place will save me (and the Club) a lot of money.
Since I’ll be on the road most of the month, I may not be able to write an update for October. Hopefully, it’ll be a much easier month. I am scheduled to get my left hip replaced on 10/13 (not a Friday) so I’ll be able to walk, golf, bike, flag, etc. with MUCH less pain. Wish me luck…..
Video Conference Meetings:
Club Racing Board (CRB) (8/2): As we just had a face to face meeting in KC on 7/28, this Zoom call was more procedural in nature. We reviewed the letter log and continued the conversation on the G2C initiative (Green to Checker). I updated the CRB on the work the EVAC has been doing. The results of CRB rules changes can be seen here.
Electrified Vehicle Advisory Committee (EVAC) (8/10): The revised SCREV is being reviewed by the Experiential programs (Time Trials, Track Night in America, Solo, Rally Cross). While this review is happening, we are working on a variety of things in the background. The Broch Evans Motorsports EV race car (previously a Formula Mazda) will be entered in AMod at the Solo Nationals. The car will also be at the Runoffs but only as a static display. It will be exciting to get this car in front of SCCA folks so they can see it for themselves. We are also working on training materials for members so they know how to interact with an EV that has entered an SCCA event. More on that to come later.
EVAC (8/23): This was a secondary meeting among some of the EVAC to discuss data acquisition systems for the EVs in Club Racing. We met with the folks from Aim as we are considering mandating such systems in all of the EVs in Club Racing. This would make it easier to monitor voltage, power, current, etc. in these cars. Its early in the process and we wanted to make sure we had a handle on it.
SCCA Events:
CRB (7/28): As one of the liaisons to the CRB, I attended their meeting in KC. Many topics were discussed with an emphasis on long term, strategic thinking about the Club Racing program as a whole. Data acquisition to monitor performance was highlighted as this will become even more important as we move forward. Green to Checker (G2C) was discussed at length. How do we as a group (drivers, steward, workers, etc.) pull together to make sure we have more green flag laps? A variety of options were mentioned as a part of the solution. Some routine house keeping was done as well. They updated language on officials, discussed burden of proof in compliance issues, talked about the future of T1 and how do we fold FIA GT4 cars into Club Racing. I updated them on how the EVAC was coming along on our rules packages. This progressed into a broader discussion about EVs in Club Racing.
BoD (7/30): Like all face to face, BoD meetings, we were updated by all the managers so we could get an assessment of each program. All the programs had bright spots and challenges. This is nothing new. The good news is that the bright spots outweighed the challenges and I am optimistic about the Club’s future. The national staff is working hard to make events better, help make the regions put on better events and make a member’s experience better. We also got a review of the financial standing of the club (pretty good considering the high cost of travel these days). We were told by the marketing folks that we are “refreshing” our logos and graphic standards. As this hasn’t been done in quite a while, it’s probably overdue. We were also told that we are trending upward in terms of full time members…..that’s always good news.
WMR Major (8/20, 8/21): I signed up for this event so I could help out my home region (WMR) while enjoying some fun at Grattan Raceway. Once again, rain followed me to a race course. Saturday’s schedule was marred by a session being red flagged just as the heavens unleashed a torrent on the track. With lightning in the area, the Chief Steward had no choice but to stop the clock and allow the workers to seek shelter as the storm passed through. 20 minutes later, the skies were clear and we could go racing again. The day continued with the usual awesome, all attendee dinner. Maybe I’m jaundiced but I will stack up the dinner menu at WMR events against ANY other track food option. Sunday’s races were held under nicer weather conditions. As it was the last Major east of the Mississippi, this was the last chance for drivers to qualify for the Runoffs via the Majors path.
Be sure and visit the GLDiv website for information about all of the SCCA programs within the division. We have schedules, official’s contact info, standings, etc. for all the SCCA programs.
The various national schedules for 2022 are starting to coalesce and they can be found here:
Please take a few minutes and make sure your contact information is accurate in the SCCA database. It’s important to have the correct information there so the club knows how to contact you. Log in to your my.scca.com page and check.
As I mentioned previously, there is a new path to getting your annual waiver. You can now get it through the Member Account Portal (MAP). Follow this link to get the instructions. There is also a story about the program here. I’ve done it and it only takes a couple of minutes. Be prepared to upload a headshot picture of yourself.
Just a quick reminder, if any region out there wants to have an “Ask the Director” session during your monthly meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me so we can schedule a visit. I retired last summer so have plenty of free time and would thoroughly enjoy the chance to visit with your members.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you may have about any facet of the GLDiv. I want you to make the most of your membership and I will help out in any way possible to make that happen.
