Fall kicked in literally right on the nose for us this year with the temperature drop, hopefully no more 90+ degrees for 2022. As you read this, our season is winding down with a few more region events to go , the 2022 Solo Nationals are history and we have participants actively competing at the 2022 Runoffs at VIR this weekend! I hope for safe travels for everyone on the road wrapping up there events.
With the changing of the season it also brings us to that annual time of year for our club to regroup, assess the season and prepare for the next year. The most important activity is the election of our new Board of Directors for 2023. If you have ever wanted to get more involved, this upcoming election is a very opportunistic time as we have some positions that we will be filling with new faces and names for next year. One of those positions will be our Region Executive. It’s hard to believe but it has been 10 years since I had the opportunity to start serving the club in this capacity and it’s time for me to “pass the reigns” to a new RE for Cincinnati Region. I have loved the opportunity and the people I’ve had the privilege to work alongside over the years and now I need to focus on the family while the kids are still in the house. 🙂
So at our next Board meeting on October 18th at 7PM at the Shooter’s in Liberty Township, we will have our regular meeting (on the 3rd Tuesday of the month) and accept nominations for current region members interested in running for board member positions to form our ballot that will be voted on at our November meeting (11/18/22). If you are interested in learning more about the board positions, please look up a board member either at an event or thru the contacts listed on our website cincyscca.com OR you can also look up the responsibilities listed in our bylaws that are also published on our website.
Look forward to seeing some new faces at our October meeting on 10/18/2022 at the Shooter’s Bar & Grill in Liberty Township at 7pm. Full address and information are on our website as well. Enjoy the time as the leaves start changing this month and get out and drive!
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.
We ran our postponed June rally on July 16. It was an unusual kind of route and offered a variety of roads. There were 4 teams competing and there was a tie for first place. 3 of the teams were new to our program. A lot of our regulars were on vacation. We ran around the streets of Delhi. Sometimes the same street multiple times not always in the same direction, and sometimes just crossing over a street we had driven on. The “gimmick” of the rally was that all the turns other than leaving the parking lot and pulling into the end point were right hand turns. One tiny little left was needed to direct the cars onto Route 50, but we’re not counting that.
The next scheduled rally is August 13. We still need to decide which of our routes we will challenge you with, so there are no details we can share with you right now. Check the Facebook feed and look for an email soon for more details. We’ll email to let you know when registration has opened. If you are not receiving emails and would like to, just drop us a line to add you.
Mark your calendars for the following remaining dates:
9/17
10/29
Contact us at the email or phone number below for additional information. Want to be added to the email list and receive reminders, notification of open registration and additional information? Send us an email with the request and it shall be done! Want to suggest an area with awesome roads, we’re open to that too.
Time for another Cincy SCCA Solo Report. Last month I reported how June had been a busy month and said July didn’t promise to be any more relaxed. I was right, and of course Aug and Sep will be busy too, no relaxing until Oct or really Nov.
July began with a bang, the SCCA Solo Summer Nationals in Bristol, TN, with a ProSolo Jun 29 – Jul 1 followed by a National Tour Jul 2-3. For Cincy Region, Jul 3 was also a “Popp Up Test and Tune” at Traders World, Jul 9 was our second AutoX 101 of the season followed by Points Event #4 on Jul 10. Of course if you didn’t run our events that weekend, there was the Great Lakes Div Solo Series in Toledo. The next weekend was . July 23 & 24 was the Toledo ProSolo and the GLDiv events at Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne. Lastly, if for some reason you cannot make it to our Cincy Region Track Day, Time Trials, Road Race Extravaganza @ Mid-Ohio, there is the upcoming DriveAutoX at Grissom Aeroplex on Jul 29-31. Of course all of this is ignoring all the other non-SCCA events our people go to like Goodguys Summit Racing Nationals in Columbus Jul 8-10, UMI Autocross Challenge Jul 21-23, and the Subaru Challenge on Jul 23-24.
As I said, August and September promise to be just as busy.
Aug 6 GL Div Event 8 by SBR @ Grissom Aeroplex
Aug 5-7 Oscoda, MI ProSolo
Aug 12-14 CAM Challenge East @ Grissom Aeroplex
Aug 20-21 WOR PE 2 / Cincy PE 5 @ Traders World
Aug 28
Sep 2-4 SCCA ProSolo Finale @ Lincoln, NE
Sep 5-9 SCCA Solo National Championships @ Lincoln, NE
Sep 8-11 LS Fest Bowling Green KY
Sept 17-18 GL Div events 9 & 10 / Cincy PE 6 @ Traders World
Back to July Recap Popp Up Summer Test & Tune – Jul 3 Danny Popp helped organize a Test & Tune on Jul 3 as a fundraiser to help recoup the costs of having the parking lot repair we had done in June. We had 54 entrants come out to enjoy the holiday weather and get enough runs most were done before the event officially ended. What a fantastic idea Danny, thank you to all who came out and supported the event!
Summer AutoX 101 – Jul 9 We had 31 students at the second and last regional school this year. The students all echoed the compliments we received after the first school. Definitely a great event, rewarding to those of us who instructed or helped, and of course improvements for all of the students.
Points Event 4 – Jul 10 We had 170 entries, got everyone six runs and were done running at a reasonable time. The course was unique in that it had a 100 ft diameter skid pad (or toilet bowl as I heard it called affectionately) right off the start leading into a five cone slalom and a decreasing radius hairpin turn leading into a Chicago Box. Rob Clark took his SS C8 Corvette to the top PAX time by 0.645 secs over Dave Montgomery in his FS Camaro and Raw Time by 0.212 secs over Christian Moist in his Birkin 7. Closest battle was in the hotly contested 8 driver DS class where Jo Jadeke in her Civic Type R held off Jim Zeisler in his BRZ by 0.162 secs. Our Novice classes continued to be well attended with 13 in NS and 21 in NM, the largest class at the event. Overall, another great points event.
Bristol ProSolo – Jun 29 – Jul 1 Had plans for a much larger Cincy group at the Pro, but barious things arose leading to only a few of us. Definitely a shame as this is a great 5 day set of events!
John Custer 8th STX
Krzysztof Zielinski 11th CAMC
Lang King 2T L2, First Round Ladies Challenge
Cindy Duncan 5th L2
Tina Coil 8th L2
Rob Clark 1T S3, 1st PAX, 2nd Super Challenge
Myke Dziengel 3T S4
Scott Bourne 20 S5
Bristol National Tour Rob Clark 1T SS
Lang King 5 SS
Scott Bourne 9 DS
Cindy Duncan 2T DSL
Tina Coil 4 DSL
Myke Dziengel 4 STU
Krzysztof Zielinski 5 CAMC
Toledo ProSolo Jul 22-24 Ben Weaver 7 AS, 2nd Bonus Challenge
Kent Weaver 8 AS
Charles Totten 9 CS
Gina Ma 9 GS
Sam Oakes 10 GS
Jessie Nash 12 GS
Nick Erlenbach 8 STR
John Custer 10 STX
Krzysztof Zielinski 4T CAM
Lang King 2T L2, 2nd Ladies Challenge
Cindy Duncan 5T L2
Jo Jadeke 7 L2
Rob Clark 3T S3, Winner Super Challenge
Myke Dziengel 4T S4
Dave Montgomery 4T R2
This month I competed in a GLDiv Solo in Fort Wayne, IN and worked F&C at the SBR/DET Major at GingerMan Raceway. I will also be driving to Kansas City for the BoD meeting on 7/29, 7/30. While there, I will also be sitting in on the CRB meeting on 7/28.
I also contracted COVID on 7/2 while boating on Lake Michigan and watching fireworks display in Muskegon. My symptoms weren’t too terrible but it wasn’t a picnic either. The hardest part was isolating at home and not going out. It is frightening how quickly one can get bored while trapped in your own home. Please note that COVID is not over. Please take the appropriate measures and remain vigilant. As a reminder, if you need some home test kits from the CDC, click here.
Video Conference Meetings:
Club Racing Board (CRB) (7/5): We discussed roll cage rules after the severe impact that a Spec Miata incurred at Road America. On one hand the cage did its job but on the other, the driver was seriously injured. The T1 Town Hall Zoom meeting was discussed. We reviewed the Runoffs Tech Inspection lists. More work was done on the face-to-face meeting to be held in July (7/28). 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) (7/13): With the revised SCREV sent on its way to the various program boards and their BoB liaisons, we concentrated on preparing the Club Racing rules packages. We discussed some feedback we had gotten from the Production, Touring and BSpec committees.
Solo Events Board (SEB) (7/13): This meeting was to discuss the revised SCREV document with the SEB. They asked a lot of pertinent questions and I hope I answered them to their satisfaction.
SCCA Events:
Fort Wayne Region Solo (7/23): Since I will be travelling to the Solo Nationals on Labor Day (9/6), I will not be able to participate in the WMR Solo at Grattan Raceway. As a result, I needed to attend another Solo to work on my skills. I checked the schedule and decided to go to FWR’s event on 7/23. I drove down the afternoon before so I wouldn’t have to get up at an ungodly hour on the day of the event. This would be first time I’ve competed in a divisional Solo and I was looking forward to it. When I got to the site, I realized that I wasn’t prepared to keep my gear from getting wet in the impending rain. Many thanks to Kevin Keys for helping out an unprepared newbie by allowing me to store my gear in his trailer. The day started out with a HUGE thunderstorm rolling through the area. VERY heavy rain and lightning dancing all around us. After a 90 minute delay for the obvious safety reasons, we got started around 11a. I was to run in the first heat and work the second. There were three cars in my class (HS) and I ended up finishing in 2nd FWR puts on a very nice event and I hope all of you can make it to one of their events soon. Results for this event can be found here.
SBR/DET Major (7/24): I signed up for this event so I could help out our friends at SBR and DET while enjoying some fun at GingerMan Raceway. As it turned out, there was more rain in order (it seemed to follow me during he weekend) but fun was had regardless of the weather. As usual the host regions ran a great event. During the “quiet time” period lunch was served which consisted of a fantastic “build your own” hot dog assembly line with chili, cheese, onions, relish…..all the fixings. As an added perk for me, I got to see my old race car on track in the hands of its new owner. Quite a sight!
CRB (7/28): I’ll report on this meeting in next month’s report.
BoD (7/30): I’ll report on this meeting in next month’s report.
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.
