I’ll make this quick (hopefully). We have the Great Lakes Divisional SCCA Spring Training coming up on March 10 which is a great opportunity for Junior Driver Program and Solo Safety Steward training. If you can’t make it to Findlay for Spring Training, there will be webinars offered.
Our 2018 schedule is firming up, we now have a Starting Line event on Apr 21 before our first points event on Apr 22. Let’s hope this one isn’t iced out like our last one in Wilmington a couple years ago.
Excited about the season starting in roughly 5 weeks!!!
See posts about each of these elsewhere in the edition or online.
For being in the middle of winter, Cincinnati Region SCCA has been super busy! We kicked off our year with our first General Membership meeting for 2018 on 1/16, thank you for all that attended! A reminder that our General Membership Meetings are on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 8pm at the Mill Race Banquet Center.
Immediately after that meeting, Scott Bitzer (RallyCross Chair & Board Member at Large), Tact Takagi (Webmaster & Board Member at Large) and I attended the 2018 SCCA National Convention. The convention this year was jam-packed with information filled sessions and meetings. The initial highlight was being introduced to our new SCCA President & CEO, Michael Cobb. Mr. Cobb gave an impassioned, hopeful, and thoughtful presentation during the Annual Meeting and the Leadership Kickoff Meeting on the current state of the SCCA. He presented his 2018 leadership focus for our club that “We are all here to serve our Members and those that serve the Member.” He gave goals to continue reaching for in our local regions to fulfill our core mission in that “We exist to fuel a safe, and exciting motorsports experience for auto enthusiasts.” Other sessions of note included more detail of the newest race worker specialty “Data Acquisition/Race Data Technician”. This specialty is responsible for collecting and analyzing data to provide the CRB and the Advisory Committees with valuable information to make decisions on car classifications and Balance of Power (BoP) adjustments. If you are interested in more information about this new worker specialty please contact me! During the R.E. meetings and panels we met with our recently re-elected Area Director Marcus Meredith. A big topic of discussion between the R.E.’s was the organization of Great Lakes Division and the upcoming Spring Training.in Findlay, OH on March 10th. During the Road Race meeting there was review of the Runoffs success in 2017 at Indianapolis and talk of the upcoming Runoffs at Sonoma Raceway. Rumor at the time for 2019 Runoffs was Virginia International Raceway (VIR was confirmed the week after we returned). There was also much discussion the following day regarding brainstorming of events that could possibly be done in connection with our existing Solo, Rally and Race events to increase participation, we’ll be talking about some of these at upcoming committee and membership meetings for feedback.
And finally on the last Saturday of January on the 27th we held our Annual Awards Banquet at the Mill Race Banquet Center. We easily had the best turnout for this event in many years and I want to thank everyone again who came out for this event! Many trophies and awards were handed out and there will be a full recap with photos on the website coming soon! And since I have this forum, I wanted to say a few words on being the latest recipient of The Joel Williams Award. Over the years I have had an incredible opportunity to work with & for a group of people that are passionate about competing & organizing motorsports events in our Cincinnati Region and at the Divisional and National level. The team effort to meet and rise above the challenges to move our club forward are sometimes astounding for a “little” not-for-profit organization. I am humbled and honored for the recognition this year. The future looks very promising for our Cincinnati Region and I can’t wait to see what comes next! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for spring!
Thanks again and see you soon down the road,
Cincinnati Region SCCA wish everyone a Happy New Year!
We have a lot of great racing events planned for 2018. Stay warm and get your race car ready for next season. Looking forward for to see you all soon!!
Along with Christmas shopping, I’ve been busy wrapping up the 2017 Solo season. Trophies are designed and ordered, so please come to the awards banquet to get your trophy or cheer for your friends who do get one. Look for registration details elsewhere on the site.
I’m happy to say we are returning to Traders World starting in April 2018. I’m still in contact with a couple other potential sites, but even if those pan out we will still have events at Traders World. We released our tentative 2018 solo schedule on both our Facebook page and on the website along with other neighboring regions/clubs, national level events, and other major events. Dates and/or locations could change as things are finalized but this should be very close.
Add March 10 to your calendars and come to the Great Lakes Division SCCA Spring Training. There will be Solo Safety Steward training available along with other great topics.
Look forward to seeing everyone at the banquet and next season!!!
The much coveted, Charles Eugène Jules Marie Nungesser ace driver award goes to (drum roll please)….. OVR’s Lothrop Withington IV (Draco)… a bottle of something French and wet will land near you in the coming future… a hearty congratulations from Bitzer’s Farm.
The Cincinnati RallyCross Cup award winners are:
In Modified all-wheel Drive:
Joshua Zortman
In Stock Rear wheel drive:
Tyler Baumet
In Modified Rear wheel drive:
Scott Bitzer
We want to give special mention to the Team Watermelon entry for the most absolutly abusive behavior directed towards a used car with 45 runs completed during one event with no apparent damage.