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,
Tony Brown, R.E.
*Photo courtesy of Jeff Loewe Photography
