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April-The official news source of SCCA’s Northwest Region — www.nwr-scca.org May 2008
NEWS
PRO SOLOSNOW BOWL
PRO SOLOSNOW BOWL
It’s April.Will winter weather mess up the season-opener regional Pro Solo? Page 2
Olympusrallyists fly in EasternWashingtonPage 8
2 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
STORY BY BRIANNE GREENPHOTOS BY SEAN GREEN
Contributing Editors
PACKWOOD — Yes, it seemed thatMother Nature never bothered to flipher calendar over to April this year, andthe hardcore Soloists felt every bit ofthe oversight.
As the days counted down to theTight-N-Tidy Regional Pro Solo (No. 1)and the Fordahl Motorsports Champi-onship Series (No. 2) in scenic Pack-wood, the autocrossing e-mail list wasabuzz with doomsday weather predic-tions. Had we ever canceled an eventdue to snow? We never have, and we
weren’t about to start now.Most who were running in the Tight-
N-Tidy Pro would arrive in town on Fri-day night, and sure enough, on awaken-ing we were greeted with a blanket of 2to 3 inches of snow throughout thePackwood area, everywhere except onpavement. The streets were clear, side-walks were clear, and most importantlyto autocrossers, the parking lots wereclear! Event Chair Jerry Lamb said wewere “go” for an event, hooray! Quickly,the competitors began walking the funmirror-image courses, laid out the nightbefore by Bud Bohrer.
There was a shortened registrationperiod for the Pro, due to needing to
find out who showed up before assign-ing run groups. Combine that with try-ing to balance multi-driver cars, know-ing who had Ladies’ class drivers as wellas co-drivers in the open class, well, Ididn’t envy worker chiefs Keith andKristi Brown at all. They did a mar-velous job splitting the small turnoutinto two very well-balanced groups.
I also want to commend whoevermade the decision to put our grid in-doors. Yes, I’ll say it again, that lovelycovered parking at Packwood was largeenough to accommodate an INDOORgrid.
The weather did in fact play a largerole in the day’s festivities. Flurries gave
The best winter I ever spent wasan April weekend in Packwood
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 3
way to outright sunshine and back tomore snow falling over and over duringthe day. In fact, during some of the snowflurries, the dime- and nickel-sizedflakes caused many false trips of thelights, giving odd data for our 60-foottimes and a few false red lights. Howev-er, once aware of the problem, oureagle-eyed timing staff were able to ac-count for most of the trips. Who’d havethought we needed to have a bettersnow-proof system?
Most of the day the traction on thepavement was slippery, but neverslushy. We got a lot of sunshine duringthe day, but by the end of regular com-petition, the biggest blizzard of the daywas coming through. The temperatureplummeted noticeably, the wind pickedup, and the snow arrived in force. It was2 p.m., 33 degrees, snowing horizontal-ly, and I want to buy hot cocoa for any-one who had to work course during thatsession. You know who you are, look meup at the next event!
Because of this, many of the folks whowould otherwise be eligible for the end-of-day challenges were not interested incontinuing to run, the hot showers in
the hotel rooms were sounding prettygood about then. So, the decision wasmade to go ahead and run just a singleBonus Challenge, where you compete
in brackets against your own best timeof day, rather than the class champion’s.
Fourteen hardy souls took theplunge. Jerry took care of business and
Tami Daniels rides shotgun while offering pointers to Alyson Moffat, drivingRon Bauer’s MX-5 through snow flurries.
Starter Abe Douglas makes sure Geoff Clark (left lane, red Mitsubishi Evo, No. 21, NS4) and Dick Willy (right lane,white and blue Subaru WRX, No. 30, NS4) are ready to go.
4 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
The official newssource of SCCA’s
Northwest RegionNorthwest Sports Car News is published
by Kurt Batdorf for the Northwest Region,SCCA Inc.All contents are ©2006, NorthwestRegion SCCA.All material herein may not bereproduced in whole or in part by any means,electronic or mechanical, without the expresswritten permission of Northwest Region,SCCA Inc. Permission to reprint is herebygiven to all official SCCA publications provid-ed that proper credit is given to the authorand to Northwest Sports Car News. A copyof the publication should be sent to North-west Sports Car News at the publisher’s ad-dress.The authors of articles and letters con-tained herein retain copyright to their originalwork as do photographers to their originalphotographs.
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JanuaryThe official news source of SCCA’s Northwest Region — www.nwr-scca.org 2007
NEWS
handed out trophies to the regular classwinners, and suddenly, the snowstopped falling. By the time the Chal-lenge began, there were several of usthinking “Gosh, if I’d known the weath-er was about to blow over, I might havedecided to run after all!”
It did make for some interesting timesin the Challenge running against yourown best time, because for some people,weather had been a factor in all of theirruns, and for others, only for a few ofthem and they’d had a run or two withsomewhat drying conditions, “some-what” meaning the difference betweenstanding water and merely damp.
An extra shout-out goes to EnriqueGarcia, Gretchen Everett, and DickWilly, the three of them were willing towork out on course without even enter-ing in the challenge. Under the supervi-sion of Brett Wilson in timing, the Chal-lenge took shape quickly, with defeatedcontenders heading out on course tohelp out. In the final battle, Drew Hanftdefeated Rick Vomenici for the day’stitle.
Congratulations to all our class win-ners. What a fun event. If you’ve neverdone a Pro, our regional events are afabulous lower-key introduction, and aswell-run as the Nationals. The next
Tight-N-Tidy Regional Pro is June 28,and wild horses couldn’t keep me away!
I also want to talk about the fun hadthe following day at the Fordahl Motor-sports Championship Event No. 2.Brian Norton designed a tremendouslyfun, fast course, with the grid in thesoutheast corner in the former out-of-bounds area when the mill was still op-erating. This enabled the course to takeadvantage of nearly all the beautifulPackwood pavement, have some fairlyquick sections, and yet remain techni-cal. The weather was much more coop-erative on Sunday, the snow flurries hitjust north and south of Packwood, butnever actually hit the site.
For those that were indeed stuck inthe North Sound area and were not ableto make it down for this event, youmissed one of the great ones, so long asyou stayed warm.
Many thanks to event chair DickWilly and all of his chiefs. As of writingthis article, I don’t have the full resultsavailable to me, so I can’t gush on andon about who won which classes, butthat information is always available soonafter the event at our region Web site,www.nwr-scca.org/solo.
See you in Bremerton on MemorialDay!
The covered grid offered relief from snow continuing flurries at Tight-N-Tidyevent No. 1.
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 5
Our first event in Bremerton wentwell and had a good turnout. OnSaturday we actually had 14 cars
in the Group 4 race (PCA-Miata) andmade for really good racing! With groupsthat size we could keep entry fees downand attract more workers and drivers.
Groups were a bit smaller on Sunday,especially with a threat of showers,which did show up in the afternoon. De-spite that, there was still some reallygood racing action going on. My thanksto those who showed up to compete andto work. I also need to thank the stew-ards for providing their barbecues andthe cooking for the Saturday night ham-burger feed. We pulled the tables andchairs out of the building and sat outsideturn six in the sun — yes, I said sun —and drivers and workers alike had a goodtime.
Someone asked our chief steward JimGraffy whether we were trying to be-come a Solo-only region. (This is proba-bly because I keep harping on the factthat we need drivers and workers to turnout to support our races.) The answer tothat question is that it is up to the drivers.The Board of Directors doesn’t want tolose race as a venue, but it does want toknow that the drivers support the pro-gram. The only way they can judge thesupport is the turnout of the event. Yoursupport is needed to keep race in theNorthwest Region.
We do have problems competingagainst conference events at Portland
and Pacific, but that is an uncontrollablepart of scheduling. So let’s get out andcontinue to support our region race pro-gram. We are working on other venueslike Evergreen and River’s Edge, butwe’ll continue to use Bremerton as it isthe most affordable track we have.
Your participation may be part of theinfluence required to help BremertonMotorsports Park decide if they want topursue building a new and better facilityfor when, not if, the current one goesaway. We, as a part of the motorsportscommunity, need to stand up togetherand let our voices be heard.
That leads to other news. My father,Tom Masterson (The Elder), passedaway the day before the April event. Forthose who don’t know, he was known asThe Elder because his true name wasJohn Thomas Masterson, though likeme, he always went by Tom. He was agreat supporter of Bremerton and oftensaid if he could afford to run a car againhe would love to drive that course. Basedon his history when racing, the cornerworkers would have gotten to wave a yel-low at least once at their corner for aspin. He always said you don’t knowwhere the limits are until you try them.
Elder was also a great supporter of mo-
torsports in general including road rac-ing, drags, motorcycles, oval track andalmost any other form you can think of.He understood what many of us fail tosee, that if the motorsports communitydoes not support each other we willcease to exist. That it takes all of us to in-fluence the politicians, track owners, andthe people who want to see motorsportsin general go away.
Elder always said, we all have our dif-ferences in what we want and which partof motorsports we most like. So whenyou see a drag racer or an oval-track driv-er or an autocrosser or whoever it maybe, stop and talk, learn about their formof the sport, tell them about your form,and invite them out to an event. Do yourbest to encourage the good ones, andwhen you find some bad ones, remem-ber that your branch of the sport has badpeople as well and don’t become one ofthem.
A memorial lap at this year’s DoubleNationals (Memorial Day weekend) inmemory of Elder will be held on Satur-day just before lunch after Group 5 qual-ifying. It will comprise a Porsche and aFormula 5000, which were the two carsmy father raced in, and the internationalflag wave. He was instrumental in gettingthe event started and the co-sanctioningwith Montana Region. The current plansare to name next year’s event for him.
Assistant RE Race Tom Masterson:[email protected].
The first tip-of-the-helmet thismonth goes out to Sherri Master-son for her tireless effort in put-
ting on Area 13’s first Street Survivalschool. By all accounts, this event was ahit with even former national championand Pro-Series runner-up Andrew Cad-dell in attendance as an instructor.
Street Survival is one of two new pro-grams that should give this club the shot-in-the-arm it needs. Not only will it helprecruit new members but it will improvethis club’s public image and enhance ourstanding in the community. The programis currently structured to be almost loss-free to the regions. Street Survival is tai-lored and made to order for small re-
gions. Please contact Howard Duncan inTopeka for further details.
The other program that is revitalizingthe club is RallyCross. Over the years,the Rally department has generatedabout a $100,000 loss in the club’s bot-tom line. The BOD feels that as Rally-Cross rolls out across the country it maywell erase the traditional red ink. Rally-Cross is the easiest event you can put onin this club, with he least amount of ef-
fort and financial risk. Like the aforemen-tioned Street Survival, it is the best toolwe have to recruit for Solo and it helpsextend the Solo season by months. It isalso the least expensive way a competitorcan join us in the club. Contact PegoMack in Topeka for the details. It is mygoal to have more than half of the re-gions in Area 13 sanctioning RallyCrossby the end of 2008.
Another Tip-of-the-helmet goes out toformer NWR BOD member John Martin-sen, who has been appointed series stew-ard for the VW TDI Cup.
Road Rally will have a photo contestthis fall; be sure to watch the Web site fordetails.
Race ReportTOM MASTERSON
ASSISTANT RE, RACE
The Elder passes as season begins
Directly DuckH. “DUCK” ALLEN
AREA 13 DIRECTOR
Masterson praised for Street Survival efforts
6 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
Yes, we do own this highwayBY FRANK HAMILTON
Regional Executive
Did you know that we belong to a cou-ple of miles of interstate? We have for atleast four years or so. Volunteers, most-ly from the rally side of things, havebeen picking up trash on the side of thefreeway between milepost 99 and 101 onthe northbound side of I-5.
Four or five times each year, two to 16of our club members have taken a Sun-day out of their lives to clean up thegarbage that folks toss out on the side ofthe freeway. We collect 30 to 60 bags oftrash each time that weigh 30 to 40pounds each. If it’s big enough to getout the window, can be dumped out ofthe back of a pickup, or blows off a semi-truck, it’s out there. The only thing thatstops us is snow. It takes three or fourhours to do the job each time.
The Washington State Department ofTransportation furnishes bags, trafficvests and hard hats. They pick up thebags when it’s all said and done. SCCAfurnishes insurance and their goodname. DOT erected an Adopt-a-High-way sign on the freeway that identifiesus. Pacific Rally Group (PRG) bought“grapplers” (tonglike devices that com-bine an arm extension and tongs and re-ally save the back). John Nispel loaned agarden cart to the endeavor to carryboxes of trash bags.
The incentive to get volunteers out onthe project includes a $25 discount onregistration fees for rallyists on the next
PRG or Club Rally events and free pizzaat the end of each venture. Family mem-bers help a lot, too.
The problem with trash on our roadsis that it is only going to get worse. Astaxes go up, some think that they arepaying government back for that. Mostothers just don’t care. If volunteersweren’t available, what would our statehighways, city streets and county roadslook like? This is a real community serv-ice. We save government a bunch ofmoney by doing what we do.
In 2006 in Washington state, volun-
teers in this program gathered6,540,444 pounds of trash. They spentmore than 300,000 hours doing it. It costWSDOT $2,094,203 to dump it all. Asthe cost of everything goes up, so willthe junk on the side of the road.
The next litter pick-up day is Sunday,May 25 at 10 a.m. Club members, racersand family members meet at FrankHamilton’s shop at 4123 93rd Ave. SW,Olympia (actually Littlerock), WA 98512(360-352-3204). Take exit 99 off of I-5and go west 1.5 miles. Are you up to it?Coffee will be on!
Volunteer and NWR member Jeff Craddock feeds trash into a state-suppliedgarbage bag using a “grappler.”
Region drums up interest at Vette showBY SHERRI MASTERSON
Contributing Editor
The Corvette and High PerformanceMeet was held Feb. 9 and 10 at thePuyallup Fairgrounds.
SCCA and SOVREN continued toteam up and fill an area inside the Pavil-ion equivalent to three spaces. SCCAused the space to promote motorsportswith various venues and specialties rep-resented.
The PRO SOLO “light tree” was ondisplay and was set at the front of the
booth and cycled through the lights ona predetermined time sequence. Thisbrought a lot of questions about whySCCA has a light tree.
Videos from Solo, Rally, Race andSOVREN events were shown through-out both days. All venue schedules andmembership information were offered.
The floor of the display area had ataped Race-Autocross-RallyCrosscourse laid out. Two 1/32-scale remotecontrolled cars were used for the courseand it got attention. Setting up scenarioson course also used the course to per-
form flagging demonstrations, whichwere announced over the PA in thebuilding to attract attention.
Thank you to everyone who helped:Val Korry, Rick Vomenici, Sherri Mas-terson, Tom Masterson, David Kentala,Michael Reichert Jr., Chuck Huffington,Lynne Smith, Miquel Craddock andJohn Forespring
Next year we will be looking for aracecar again for display. Please contactVal Korry or Sherri Masterson if you’reinterested in helping or displaying yourcar for the weekend.
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 7
Region’s success derivesfrom community serviceWe are a community-service
entity! Sports Car Club ofAmerica, Northwest Region
and Pacific Rally Group are all commu-nity-service organizations. That’s part ofmaintaining our “not-for-profit” statuswith the Internal Revenue Service. Wedo that well. We must continue alongthese lines for the good of our respec-tive communities and to keep in goodstanding with IRS.
Programs that we have promoted andsupported over the years that come tomind include the “trick rallies” put on byCorvette de Olympia (a club), severalcancer fundraising drives, First Gear(formerly “Speed Freaks”), Toys forTots, Adopt-a-Highway (south ofOlympia) and unrelated youth sportsprograms. The newest communityevent, launched this year, is Street Sur-vival. Survival, developed by the BMWFoundation, is partly funded by TireRack and promoted by SCCA. NWR in-augurated it at Bremerton Motor SportsPark (BMP) this winter.
Trick rallies: Yes, they are anothergreat bunch of people (mostly notSCCA) but we help them set up theircourse and events. The funds raised bythis group provide community collegeautomotive scholarships. Past RE JohnForespring has spent many years as anSCCA member laying out courses forthem and spearheading committees tohelp them reach their objectives. Theirevents (we call them trick rallies) are acombination of a scavenger hunts, aTSD and a poker run ... I guess that isthe way to describe their practice. Lotsof folks show up and it helped a bunch
of students get a better education.Toys for Tots: The program was ini-
tiated by the U.S. Marine Corps. Re-serve. Last year NWR-SCCA was amajor contributor to their program. Ma-rine reservists collected toys for needyfamilies at Christmas. This was lastyear’s new venture in community in-volvement.
Street Survival: Drivers’ educationis being downsized in more and moreschools as budget crunches gobblefunding. So where do young drivers getpractical (real) training in private vehi-cle operation? Remember, the 16- to 18-year-olds are one of the two highestcrash groups in the nation. We as a com-munity have to step up to the plate —and we have started to do so. Survival isnot about racing at all. See Sherri Mas-terson’s article.
Youth athletics: We have providedtime and money to several sports pro-grams on a limited basis in the past.They were targeted in that family mem-bers were SCCA and seemed to be en-couraging their kids to follow their pas-sion in SCCA. These efforts got ourname out there and encouraged mem-bership in some of our youth programsat NWR. Our support did help recruit afew members and helpers and qualifiedas charity. At that moment, their respec-tive activities were aided.
I don’t think cancer is going away
anytime soon. More time and money isneeded to continue researching a curefor this disease. Anything we can do isa plus.
Adopt-a-Highway: See the accom-panying article on Page 6 on this sub-ject.
Apart from charity, it’s important torecall that when we do an event in agiven area, we racers and crews, ourspectators, our sponsors and volunteersput a lot of money into the local econo-my. Motels, restaurants, stores, etc., allbenefit from our competitions. In somecases that amounts to millions of dollarsper year.
What else can we do in your local areawithin our means to promote communi-ty service? What’s next year’s new pro-gram? How can we keep existing pro-grams alive and well? You the membersare the answer.
Regional Executive Frank Hamilton:[email protected].
Region ReportFRANK HAMILTON,
REGIONAL EXECUTIVE
WORLD-CLASS MOTORSPORT PREPARATION VINTAGE RACE CAR RESTORATION
17625 NE 65th St.,#130 Redmond, WA 98052
P:425.883.1100F:425.883.2500
New meeting localesfor Race, Solo, Board
Race, Solo and the Board of Directorshave all had to find new restaurants tohold their monthly meetings in 2008.
Solo and Race committees are nowmeeting at Goldies, 3927 Airport Way S.,Seattle; 206-622-1119.
The Board of Directors is now meet-ing at The Poodle Dog Restaurant, 152254th Ave E. Fife; 253-922-6161.
8 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JIM CULPContributing Editor
The fastest rally in the NorthwestRally Championship gave us two newwinners when Mark Fox and Jake Blatt-ner blasted through the Gene NielsenSou’Easter Rally at an average speed of68 mph.
You read it right, that’s the averagespeed for nine stages and 66 stage
miles. Top speeds were clocked in ex-cess of 120 mph on the smooth, wide,gravel farm roads near the agriculturalcenter of Pomeroy in southeasternWashington. The long straightawaysand wide sweeping turns resulted inbreathtaking speeds.
Fox and Blattner, driving a 1996 Sub-aru Impreza, spent most of the rallystuck in second place, but they racedthrough the last three stages of the dayin record time to steal the win by less
than six seconds over John Lane andJason Grahn.
Lane and Grahn in the rear-wheel-drive 1976 Volvo 262 turbo dominatedthe early stages. Claiming fast times onthe two of the first three stages, theGroup 5 Volvo edged into a 10-secondlead. Fox and Blattner nibbled back withthree stage wins, making up the deficitand slipping into the lead just two stagesfrom the end.
Malcolm Davies and Bruce Parker fin-
Mark Fox and Jake Blattner averaged 68 mph over roads like this enroute to a Sou’Easter Rally victory.
Fox, Blattner claimSou’Easter Rally winBlock and Gelsomino capture Olympus Rally
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 9
ished third overall in their second rallystart. Driving a 1990 Eagle Talon TSi,Davies and Parker even posted thefastest time on the eighth stage, a rareaccomplishment for a rookie season.
Former Northwest Rally ChampionDave Hintz teamed with Ben Bradley totake fourth overall, seven secondsahead of the visiting East Coast team ofDmitri Kishkarev and Kim DeMotte.
Sixth overall was the first Group 2 car,Peter Barnes and Jody Olson in a 2003Nissan Sentra SER. The first ProductionGT car, the Subaru Impreza RS drivenby Brian Svedin and Tracy Manspeaker,finished seventh.
Chris Baldini and Kailee Wheelerwere eighth in a 1988 Mazda 323 GTX.Another Mazda, the 1982 RX-7 of DougHeredos and Dan Brown, finished ninthoverall and second in Group 5.
The production class winners, Jan andJody Zedril from Winnipeg, Manitoba,were 10th overall in a 2003 MitsubishiLancer.
Only three of the 22 starters failed to
finish the 82 miles of smooth stageroads, but two of the DNFs were the re-sult of rollover accidents. Tom and DonBurress raced their 1977 VW Rabbit tothe fastest time on stage one, but thenrolled on stage two. Brian Gottlieb andJosh Rustigan did a little less damagerolling their 1988 Toyota Corolla FX-16on stage eight.
Lane and Grahn winRuchert’s Reward
John Lane and Jason Grahn scored avictory for two-wheel drive and side-ways-style rally driving in the Ruchert’sReward Regional Rally. The fan-favorite1976 Volvo 262 is powered by a turbo V-6 and it flies on the smooth, fast EasternWashington farm roads.
Lane and Grahn posted the fastesttime on two of the first three sages toclaim a deserved win. Unfortunatelysince the regional rally ran concurrentlywith a national points event, the final re-sults were dictated by an officious na-
tional rule.The national organization requires
that average stage speeds not exceed 80mph. Rather than modify the course tosafely slow cars on the stages, teamswere allowed to race at speeds that ex-ceeded the 80 mph average and thentheir stage times were altered to make itlook like they’d run slower. Obviouslychanging the stage times after the factdoes nothing to promote safer speeds,but it does put a large asterisk on thefinal results.
The results list the eastern visitors,Kishkarev and DeMotte in second,Hintz and Bradley third and Fox andBlattner fourth, all in some variation ofthe popular Subaru Impreza package.Davies and Parker got credit for thefastest time on two stages, and penal-ized for exceeding the 80 mph averageon two other stages.
In fact, the first five cars were all giventhe same calculated time on the finalstage of the day, making it impossiblefor anyone to mount the kind of
John Lane sends gravel flying in the crowd-pleasing Volvo 262 turbo to win the Ruchert’s Reward Regional Rally.
10 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
challenge Fox and Blattner made in theSou’Easter the day before.
Sixth overall, and first in the under 80class, were Mark Jennings-Bates andJennifer Daly driving a 1993 Impreza.The Canadians slid into a gully on thesecond stage of the Sou’Easter, butovernight repairs put them back oncourse for an impressive U.S. debut.
Svedin and Manspeaker againclaimed the PGT class win in their Im-preza, seventh overall. Lou Beck andJerry Mizar were eighth and first inGroup 2 with a fast Ford Focus.
Ninth were the Zedrils, repeatingtheir Production Class win in the Mit-subishi. Tenth overall were Matt Taborand Jeff Zurschmeide in the secondPGT car, yet another Impreza.
Block and Gelsominocapture Olympus Rally
Ken Block and Alex Gelsominotopped the field in the Olympus Rally to
Ken Block and Alex Gelsomino in a 2006 Subaru WRX posted their second national rally victory on Olympus andextended their championship lead as a result.
Chris Duplessis takes a wild ride in his Volkswagen R32. He and co-driverMartin Headland finished 12th overall in Olympus.
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 11
claim their second national victory in arow and extend their championshiplead. “I’m stoked,” said Block at the fin-ish, “we’re looking to win the champi-onship this year.”
Block and Gelsomino took advantageof the third starting spot to post thefastest time on the first three stages.Their teammates at Subaru Rally TeamUSA, Travis Pastrana and DerekRinger, drew the first starting spot andspent the first day sweeping looserocks off the road for the cars that fol-lowed. They finished second overall.
The two Subaru USA sponsored Im-preza STIs were strong favorites com-ing into the high-speed event where topspeeds in excess of 130 mph wererecorded on the long straights. “I’venever been in anything this fast in allmy life,” noted the amused formerWRC champion Ringer.
Since all the cars exceeding the 80mph average speed were given thesame calculated stage time, the resultswere settled early in the rally. The com-petition was essentially frozen by ruleand more than 20 cars received thesame assigned time for one stage.
Third overall were Rockstar Energy’sTanner Foust and co-driver Chrissie
Beavis in their Subaru WRX STI. An-drew Comrie-Picard and Marc Gold-farb drove to fourth place in their Mit-subishi Lancer Evo 9.
“Our result is great for the champi-onship,” said Comrie-Picard. “Thisevent was about bravery and horse-power. Full points to the guys on thepodium, but there wasn’t any need forus to take risks here.”
In fifth place were Matt Johnson andJeremy Wimpey in their brand-newHankook Subaru WRX STI. PatRichard and Alan Ockwell collectedsome much-needed seat time and asolid sixth place overall in another STI.
Teenager Kyle Sarasin and co driverMikael Johansson were seventh in anImpreza. Since there was no questionabout the results, several drivers put ona show for the fans. Pastrana, Johnsonand Sarasin all spun doughnuts for thecrowd on the final stage. Other driversdemonstrated their drifting techniquesfor the delight of spectators and work-ers.
Andrew Pinker and Robbie Durantwere eighth overall in another RockstarSTI.
“This was super high-speed, drag-racing type of rallying. It was a horse-
power battle,” said Pinker. “I prefer atighter, more technical challenge.”
Ninth was another technical expert,Carl Jardevall with Amity Trowbridgein an Evo 8, the second Mitsubishi fin-isher.
Stephan Verdier and Scott Crouchearned the Production GT class winwith a 10th place finish in an ImprezaWRX. One place back was the secondPGT finisher, another WRX driven byPatrick Moro and Mike Rossey.
Christopher Duplessis and MartinHeadland suffered through some new-car blues to finish 12th in a most inter-esting entry, a 2004 Volkswagen R32prepared by Team NatuRally.
Zibigniew Szewczyk and TomaszKarzynski claimed the Group 5 win intheir Mitsubishi Lancer. Lou Beck andJerry Mizar took the Group 2 crownand Jan and Jody Zedril grabbed theProduction Class win.
It’s too bad this rally will always beremembered for the extreme speedsand the silly scoring, because it de-serves to be remembered for the won-derful people of Pomeroy and the ex-traordinary hospitality provided by ournew friends in southeasternWashington.
Kristen Tabor and her mom (Janice Tabor) cruising the wheat fields in a 2002 Acura RSX.
12 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JIM CULPContributing editor
ABERDEEN — John Lane and RayDamitio claimed first overall in the 20thanniversary of the Doo Wop Rally Seriesbased in the historic Washington sea-port of Aberdeen.
It was a come-from-behind victory forLynden resident Lane and Damitio, theproprietor of the historic Brooklyn Tav-ern. Driving a two-wheel drive 1976Volvo 262, the popular duo shook of therust from a six-year layoff and claimed afive second victory over Pete Van Bog-art and Mike Barber in a new CascadeMotorsports 2007 Subaru WRX. TheOpen Class Subaru Legacy of Olympia’sMark Mager and Miller Dumaoal fromEverett finished third, another 10 sec-
onds back. VanBogart and Barber topped the
field on day one but the Production GTclass Subaru suffered from restrictedpower on day two’s fast stages. Pre-event favorites Dave Hintz and JohnFord suffered a cracked header on dayone but came back to win the secondDoo Wop round with a 2002 SubaruWRX.
The flying Burress brothers, Tomfrom Lynnwood and Don from Seattle,challenged the leaders with the DemonRally 1977 Volkswagen Rabbit until amalfunctioning fuel pump knockedthem out of the running for the Group 2title. Sophomore driver Carl Deckerteamed with Adam Craig to claim theGroup 2 win in a 1993 two-wheel-driveSubaru Impreza.
The Doo Wop Rally Series is sanc-
tioned by NASA Rally Sport, providingaffordable events for competitors andvolunteer rally organizers.
Doo Wop 1Doo Wop 1 was shortened by the loss
of the Crane Creek stages. Crane CreekRoad climbs dramatically on the west-ern edge of the Olympic Mountains.The stage road was battered by winterstorms that buried the start under sev-eral inches of snow while toppled treeslittered the finish area. Without CraneCreek, Doo Wop 1 was limited to threerounds of the 10-mile Taholah loop roadthrough the Quinault Indian Reserva-tion on the Pacific shoreline.
Van Bogart and Barber brought thebrand-new Subaru WRX to the firstround of the Doo Wop series and camethrough the break-in period with an
John Lane and Ray Damitio took a 1976 Volvo 262 to first overall in the 20th anniversary edition of the Doo WopRally Series.
Fast Volvo tops Doo Wops
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 13
overall win. The Cascade Motorsportsteam sealed the deal with a blazing runon stage two of the abbreviated three-stage event, when they gained morethan 20 seconds on the field. A slideinto a dirt berm on the last corner ofthe last stage provided a little excite-ment for the winners, who also claimedthe Production GT class honors.
Jay Woodard and Jason Grahnjumped into the early lead in the world’sonly 4WD Mazda Protégé. The Protégéwas a Doo Wop winner in 1995 andWoodard has restored the car to better-than-new condition. Woodard andGrahn posted the fastest time on stageone but then Van Bogart and Barberturned it on in stage two. The Protégéteam finished second overall, first inOpen Class, 42 seconds behind thewinners.
Tom and Don Burress flew into thirdplace in their Group 2 VW Rabbit. Therapid bunny finished just eight secondsbehind the second place Mazda. A 10-second penalty assessed against theBurress brothers for clipping one of thechicanes was the difference. The chi-canes are used to slow speeds on thefastest sections of the Taholah stage.
Just five seconds behind the Rabbitwere Mager and Dumaoal, fourth over-all in a 1999 Subaru Legacy RSTi. TheGroup 5 class winners, Lane and Dami-tio were another five seconds back andfifth overall
Mark Tabor and Ben Bradley weresixth overall, second in PGT, leading apack of Subaru Impreza variants. Fol-lowing the Tabor-Bradley WRX wasBrian Svedin and Tracy Manspeaker ina PGT class 2.5RS in seventh. Mark Foxand Jake Blattner were eighth in anOpen Class Impreza. Decker and Craig,ninth in their 2WD Impreza.
Bob Trinder and Andy White were10th in a right-hand-drive WRX, but itwas a long weekend for the Vancouver,B.C., team after their service truckbroke at the border.
The pre-event favorites, Hintz andFord fractured a header on stage oneand missed the second pass while a fixwas welded together. They came backto post the fastest time on stage three.
The only Production Class entry suf-fered a worse fate when Ian McPhersonand Mark Nelson in a Toyota MR2broke the suspension and rolled out ofthe event on stage three. The other sixDNF’s in the event were able to makerepairs and continue on to the “funstuff,” the roads of Doo Wop 2.
Doo Wop 2
An overnighter by the service crewreplaced a broken rear strut bracketand put Hintz and Ford in position totake the win in Doo Wop 2. The HintzSubaru fell behind on the Blue Sloughpavement stages but put 30 seconds onthe field on stage three to jump into thelead. They never trailed after that. Hintzand Ford posted fastest time on four ofthe six gravel stages including thefastest time (6:57) on the famous runfrom the Brooklyn Tavern to take thewin with 1:34 to spare.
Lane and Damitio parlayed the fastesttimes on the Smith Creek stages into asecond overall and first in Group 5. Tothe delight of the fans, the rear-wheeldrive Volvo left trails of burnt rubber onthe sunbaked portions of the Brooklynstage. Lane says the turbocharged V6could be even faster with a little moreengine management work.
Mager and Dumaoal finished thirdoverall, 20 seconds out of second withthe Legacy. Van Bogart and Barberwere another 45 seconds back, fourthoverall and first in PGT. Tabor andBradley were second in PGT, only 12seconds behind the class leader. VanBogart came from behind on the next tothe last stage to grab the PGT win.
Trinder and White posted solid timesmoving up to sixth overall. The Group 2winners, Decker and Craig, were sev-enth, just two seconds ahead of Svedin
and Manspeaker. The PGT Subaru of Svedin and
Manspeaker edged rally rookie MalcomDavies and Bruce Parker by one secondon the last stage to take the ninth spotby that one second. Davies and Parkershowed impressive speed in an EagleTalon TSI.
Adam Crane and Britta Nielsen sur-vived a wild spin off course just a milefrom the finish on the last stage. Thenthey slid their rear-wheel-drive ToyotaCorolla into 10th overall and second inGroup 2.
The Burress brothers rocketed intothe lead on the first pass down the BlueSlough Road, and then backed it up withthe fastest time on the second run, too.So after two stages, a 1977 VolkswagenRabbit was in first overall. Unfortunate-ly a malfunctioning fuel pump stalledtheir effort after stage three. Fortunate-ly for the fans, the Rabbit was repairedand returned to set a new Group 2record (7:02) on the run from Brooklynto Oakville.
For 20 years the Doo Wop Series hasbeen the traditional season opener forthe northwest rally community. Orga-nizers Ray and Janice Damito throw atwo-day party that is more than a greatrally. The Doo Wop Series also serves asa fundraiser for food banks in the eco-nomically distressed timber towns ofsouthwest Washington. Everyone has agreat time and helps the rural communi-ties in rally country at the same .
Tom Burress and Don Burress challenged the overall leaders with their 1977Volkswagen Rabbit.
14 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
BY SHERRI MASTERSONContributing Editor
Street Survival chairwoman
Snow along the road on the way to theBremerton Motorsports Park and an as-sortment of weather only Western Wash-ington could deal out made for a perfecttraining environment for the first TireRack Street Survival school in the North-west on March 29.
Seven students from six different citiesaround Puget Sound arrived looking a lit-tle apprehensive as to what their parentshad gotten them into. After their first ex-ercise on the tarmac they returned to theclassroom extremely excited, as did theircoaches.
The agenda for the day started in theclassroom (the storage building) with apresentation by Bill Wade of Kentucky.This was then alternated throughout theday with driving exercises.
The staff was made up of chief drivinginstructor Dave Conover; coaches An-drew Caddell, Roger Caddell, Ken Olson,Daryl Owens, Dave Kentala, David Jack-son, Angela Moffet and Tim Irwin; Solo
Safety Steward Steve Downing; courseworkers Chuck Huffington, Mieko Doi,Fonn G, Scott Haynes, Kevin Needhamand Jay Shukla; and as noted above aclassroom instructor.
The course workers helped set thetrack up for each exercise. Conover,Wade and I reconfigured the course, orig-inally designed by Dean Benz from theReno Region, to facilitate the entire avail-able surface.
Due to the amount of pavement avail-able at our facility, a new skill was imple-mented: the tailgating exercise. This ex-ercise of was an eye-opener to students,parents and coaches alike.
Although the large storage building atBremerton provided enough table andchairs for the event it is unheated. Agarage propane heater took the chill offthe building, but could not be run duringclass sessions because of the noise.
A welcome break was a lunch of ham-burgers, hot dogs and chili along withthe continuous supplies of hot coffee andhot chocolate that helped warm up theparticipants and staff. The meal wasplanned and arranged by Esther Sicks
and barbecued by Ruth Caddell. Barbe-cue equipment was provided by DarylOwens from Puget Sound Road Racinggroup.
Certificates were presented to all stu-dents along with a packet of Sport Carmagazines, a tire pressure gauge anddecal from Street Survival and a welcomepacket from Northwest Region to accom-pany their new SCCA First Gear mem-bership.
Thanks to John Forespring State FarmInsurance for his $100 sponsorship forlunch. As of this article, we are still wait-ing for Bremerton Motorsports Park tohold a board of directors meeting to dis-cuss the donation or greatly reducing therental fee of the track.
Throughout the day the excitementwas contagious and everyone presenttook home some new information on howto be a safer driver, like how to set yourmirrors to eliminate that “blind spot.”The general consensus was “When is thenext one?” and the parents asked, “Whenare you going to set one up of us?”
It turned out to be a real winner of anevent and a great way to spend a day.
STREET SURVIVALTeens learn driving skills to last a lifetime
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 15
Region banquet notes achievementsBY SHERRI MASTERSON
Contributing Editor
TACOMA — The NWR AnnualAwards banquet was held Feb. 19 at theBest Western Tacoma Dome Hotelwhere we celebrated out 2007 season.Frank Hamilton, RE, emceed theevening. A presentation on the TireRack Street Survival program, member-ship recognition, state of the region andawards filled the evening.
NWR received third place for Com-munications at National Convention.This award is a combination of ournewsletter and Web site and all regionsare judged together.
The following annual awards werepresented, Congratulations to everyone.
Mary Pang Unsung Hero Award:As in all volunteer organizations, thereare many positions and many tasks thatare accomplished by many visible peo-ple in the Northwest region. The Un-sung Hero Award gives us a chance torecognize someone who accomplishesmany tasks without that high visibility.The winner of this award generally is an-other one of those obsessive-compulsivetypes who quietly volunteers, workstheir butt off, and is mostly seen on thesidelines. This trophy is to be awardedto an individual who works “behind thescenes” to further venue and Region ac-tivities. Congratulations go to Mike D.Evans
Frank and Joan Manley Enthusi-ast Award: This trophy is given to a
Northwest Region Member who ex-hibits qualities of enthusiasm and will-ingness to be involved in Region activi-ties. Sometimes it is difficult to find justone person with such unbridled enthusi-asm in a region like ours that has threevery active venues running at a full gal-lop. Congratulations go to Jerry Lamb.
Stan Burnett InspirationalAward: This trophy was established bythe family of Stan Burnett, who waskilled at Seattle International Racewaywhile testing his racecar in 1971. It is tobe awarded to an individual whoselifestyle exhibits the determination, en-ergy, loyalty, sensitivity and love, whichStan showed in his life. Congratulationsgo to Jay Shukla.
Joe Henderson Memorial
Award: This trophy was given by thefamily of Joe Henderson, charter mem-ber of the Region and active in SCCA forover 30 years until his death in 1982. Itis to be given to a member of the Regionfor long and meritorious service toSCCA National, Divisional, and RegionalOrganizations in a leadership role. Thisaward is selected by past recipients andis not presented every year. This yearthe Henderson Award was presented toBob Grass. Congratulations.
Next February we will be celebratingthe completion of 55 years as NorthwestRegion (1953-2008). If you have anyideas or would like to plan this eventplease contact any of the BOD mem-bers. We are always open to suggestionson locations as well.
Bob Grass (third from left) holds the Joe Henderson Memorial Award, with past winners (from left) John Martinsen,Bud Bohrer, Frank Manley, Karen Babb and John Forespring.
Jay Shukla Mike Evans
16 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
Welcome to Northwest Region,Sports Car Club of America. Joiningus since the end of January 2008are:
First-Gear membersTyler Archuleta, WoodinvilleRichard Arienzale, North Van-
couver, B.C.Barry Carr, SeattlePeter Chung, KirklandDerrick Codomo, BellevueGenaro Cuevas Jr., University
PlaceJacob Dawson, Port OrchardAnna Dukes, Port OrchardMike Grant, KenmoreBrenna Guthrie, PuyallupZane Kenney, CovingtonDuncan Kochhar-Lindgren, Seat-
tleReuben Krofft, KirklandSean Larin, BothellChristine Parks, TacomaJason Raines, PoulsboConnor Robertson, Gig HarborTom Sander, BellevueTimothy Truong, KentColin Webb, EverettJack Yeung, Coquitlam, B.C.Philip Zhu, Calgary, Alberta
Regular membersBennet Adee, IssaquahRichard Adler, Mercer IslandRobert Allen, Bonney LakeCarson Au, Coquitlam, B.C.Rex Ayers, KennewickBeth Berg, RedmondPeter Briscoe, Mission, B.C.Roger Cantaloube, SteilacoomDavid G. Clark, KirklandDave Clark, KentJohn Davis, PuyallupAbe Douglas, RochesterD. Rick Edwards, Des MoinesJames Elgert, Delta, B.C.Sam Ellis, EnumclawGrant Gaspard, OlympiaJake Geiger, TacomaDuke Gross, KirklandRoy Gunsolus, SeattleJim Guthrie, PuyallupDoug Hahn, YakimaGerald Hartt, Priest River, IdahoClint Kieffer, PuyallupKasie King, SpokaneJajean Leaf, Des Moines
R.D. Leighton, BellevueEdwen Ma, Burnaby, B.C.Collin Mager, LynnwoodSean Mathews, KennewickAllen Mattila, LynnwoodJohn McIntire, BremertonHeath Olinger, EverettMarie Orvenal, CarnationMike Osborn, RedmondJim Petersen, IssaquahYarko Petriw, Coquitlam, B.C.Daniel Podhola, SeattleCraig Powers, WoodinvilleRichard Ranhofer, SeattleJonah Reeves, SeattleParker Reich, Gig HarborRawlee Ridgeway, BellevueAndy Rusho, BothellJohn Scherer, Sandpoint, IdahoPhillip Seaborn, Prince Rupert,
B.C.LaAkea Siverts, RentonJeff Smith, PoulsboCharly Spyksma, EverettJacob Sturgeon, Port AngelesPeter Super, AuburnEric Vickery, BothellDerek Walz, SeattleJohn Wendl, SammamishBill West, RainierSeth Wickstrom, AuburnSteven Young, Lopez Island
Spouse membersScott Bliler, Benton CityLyall Edey, Des MoinesPer-Ola Orvendah, CarnationDolores Ranhofer, SeattleCindy Sprenger, Auburn
Family membersAlex Chambers, KentJean Chambers, KentShawn Hill, LynnwoodRobert Linse, LynnwoodSherry Long, Langley, B.C.Noel Long, Langley, B.C.Thomas Long, Langley, B.C.Jennifer Long, Langley, B.C.Marina Oberndorf, Surrey, B.C.Cassandra Oberndorf, Surrey,
B.C.Jared Oberndorf, Surrey, B.C.Trenton Oberndorf, Surrey, B.C.Lynn Rogers, BurbankMichelle Smith, LynnwoodMara Walkup, BurbankJ.L. Walkup, Burbank
New NWR members
BY GARY HORSTKORTASan Francisco Region Archivist
This year is the 50th anniversary of theFormula Junior class of racecars. First de-veloped by Italian Count Giovanni Lurani in1958, this class was devised as a single-seatracecar to help restore prestige to Italy.The concept was to provide an inexpensiveway for younger drivers to begin their rac-ing careers and eventually climb up to For-mula One.
Not surprising, the car specificationswere designed around readily available pro-duction car components which in Italy,meant the plentiful FIAT 1,100-cc engine.In 1958, the CSI (International SportingCommission, forerunner of the FIA) adopt-ed Count Lurani’s specifications and thisclass of cars became known as Formula Ju-nior. The introduction of this new formulacaught the attention of constructors allaround the world and by 1960, there wereover 100 different companies building cars.
One of the first manufacturers to get be-hind Italy’s fledgling Formula Junior serieswas Vittorio Stanguellini, who ran Mode-na’s largest Fiat dealership and manufac-tured a broad range of Abarth-rivalingspeed equipment. Along with five-timeGrand Prix world champion Juan ManuelFangio, Stanguellini worked to have Lu-rani’s concept approved by the Italian Auto-mobile Club. Fangio also tested one ofStanguellini’s FJ prototypes at Modena’sAutodrome in late 1957. Soon after, otherItalian manufacturers like Volpini, Morettiand Taraschi were producing cars for theburgeoning series.
As the new Formula Junior class becameknown around the world, racers in the Unit-ed States either began building their owncars or importing models from overseas.Soon, Formula Juniors from Lola, Lotus,Taraschi, Gemini and Stanguellini, amongothers, were appearing on tracks all overthe U.S.
Eventually, Formula Juniors became tooexpensive and were replaced by FormulaVee and Formula Ford, two classes that arestill very popular today. Interestingly, For-mula Juniors are experiencing a resurgencein vintage racing and grids of 15 or morecars are common at events around the U.S.
The history ofthe StanguelliniFormula Junior
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 17
2008 RACESCHEDULE
May 24-26: Pacific Raceways, Dou-ble National w/Regional Groups &Track Trials. Regional Groups will beone closed wheel and one open wheel
July 18 (TENTATIVE): BremertonMotorsports Park, High PerformanceDriving Experience, Test & Tune, ClubTrials
July 19 and 20 (TENTATIVE):Bremerton Motorsports Park, DoubleRegional w/Track Trials, Vintage andSOVREN grids
Sept. 27 and 28: Bremerton Motor-sports Park, Double Regional w/TrackTrials (great event for Run-Offs shake-downs)
Club Trials may be added to events
REGIONAL EXECUTIVEFrank Hamilton, P.O. Box 14388,
Tumwater, WA 98511-4388; home: 360-352-3204; [email protected]
ASSISTANT REGIONALEXECUTIVE
Bill Deoneseus, 825 144th St.Court S., Tacoma, WA 98444;[email protected]
SECRETARYLynn Needham, 7303 Henderson
Court SE, Olympia, WA 98501; home:360-352-1657; [email protected]
TREASURERKim Craddock, P.O. Box 1130,
Rochester, WA 98579-1130; 360-273-7310; [email protected]
ASSISTANT R.E., RALLYJohn Forespring, 1405 Harrison
Ave. #203, Olympia, WA 98502; home:360-791-6236; work: 360-943-2191;[email protected]
ASSISTANT R.E., TIME TRIALS
Mark McCloskey, 1060 HillandaleDrive, Port Orchard, WA 98366; 360-620-2462; [email protected]
ASSISTANT R.E., RACINGTom Masterson, 1616 Gregory
Way, Bremerton WA 98337; 360-479-6082; [email protected]
ASSISTANT R.E., SOLODick Willy, 10624 Rainier Ave. S.,
Seattle, WA 98178; 206-772-1228; [email protected]
BOARD MEMBERS AT-LARGE
Sherri Masterson, 1616 GregoryWay, Bremerton WA 98337; 360-479-6082; [email protected]
Lou Ann Christensen, 16915 SE272nd St., Suite #100-126, Covington,WA 98042; 425-681-7623;[email protected]
Mary Lee; 253-653-4433;[email protected]
Kevin Dietz, [email protected]
Membership DirectorEsther Sicks, P.O. Box 506,
Port Orchard, WA 98366; [email protected]
Region ArchivistFrank and Joan Manley, 301
160th Ave. NE, Bellevue, WA 98008-4343; home: 425-747-3407; [email protected]
NWR WebmasterJoe Goeke, 13253 Holmes Point
Drive NE, Kirkland, WA 98034; 425-442-4617; [email protected]
NWR Race RegistrarSherri Masterson, 1616 Gregory
Way, Bremerton, WA 98337; phone 360-479-6082, fax 360-478-7973, [email protected].
NWR Competition Director Michael Lord, 18245 SE 313th St.,
Auburn, WA 98092; phone 253-630-0476, fax 253-630-0746, [email protected].
Northwest Sports CarNews Editor
Kurt Batdorf, 11220 Walker Road,Mount Vernon, WA 98273; home: 360-707-2882; [email protected]
Area 13 DirectorHoward “Duck” Allen, P.O. Box
2336, Portland, OR 97208; 503-246-4852(home and fax); [email protected]
NorPac Executive StewardGary Meeker, 149 Sir Francis
Court, Capitola, CA 95010; home: 831-475-4130; fax: 831-462-5187; [email protected]
Contact Northwest Region officials
2008 F1 scheduleMarch 16, AustraliaMarch 23, MalaysiaApril 6, BahrainApril 27, BarcelonaMay 11, TurkeyMay 25, MonacoJune 8, MontrealJune 22, Magny-CoursJuly 6, SilverstoneJuly 20, HockenheimAug. 3, HungaryAug. 24, European GP (Valencia)Sept. 7, Spa-FrancorchampsSept. 14, MonzaSept. 28, SingaporeOct. 12, FujiOct. 19, ShanghaiNov. 2, Brazil
Submitted by Frank Manley
18 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
Runoffs move to Road America in ’09SCCA STAFF
TOPEKA, Kan. — Sports Car Club ofAmerica, Inc. announced May 12 the re-sults of a vote by its Board of Directorsthat will move the National Champi-onship Runoffs to Road America inElkhart Lake, Wis., in 2009. Road Ameri-ca will become the sixth venue to host theevent, dating back to 1964.
The board directed its staff to move for-ward to negotiate a three-year agreementwith Road America for SCCA Club Rac-ing’s signature event, which has averagedover 650 participants since 2000. TheRunoffs is currently in the final year of athree-year agreement at Heartland ParkTopeka, in Topeka, Kan.
“Given the deep history the track, thetown of Elkhart Lake and SCCA enjoy, itonly seems natural for the most presti-gious club racing event in the world to behosted by Road America,” SCCA Presi-dent and CEO Jim Julow said. “The boardhad a difficult decision, as we had an un-precedented number of outstanding po-tential hosts for the event, meaning thelong-term future of club racing’s nationalchampionship is very bright.”
“The SCCA has been an integral part ofour 53 year-history,” Road America Presi-dent and General Manager GeorgeBruggenthies said. “The opportunity toshowcase our facility and our communityto a nation of SCCA racers and fans is atremendous honor. On behalf of ourboard of directors and staff, my thanks tothe SCCA for their confidence. We prom-ise to build on the outstanding Runoffstradition and exceed stakeholder expec-tations.”
The first-ever “Interdivisional Champi-onship,” later referred to as the“Runoffs,” was held at Riverside Raceway(Riverside, Calif.) in 1964, and alternatedcoasts with Daytona International Race-way (Daytona Beach, Fla.) through 1969.In 1970, the event began a 24-year run atRoad Atlanta (Braselton, Ga.), beforemoving to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course(Lexington, Ohio) in 1994. After 12 yearsin Ohio, the Runoffs moved to HeartlandPark Topeka in 2006. The move afterthree years signifies a change in philoso-phy after such long runs at venues fromthe 1970s through the turn of the centu-ry.
“Club racing in the United States hasevolved in the last decade, and rotatingthe Runoffs will do nothing but help the
event and the club racing program, over-all,” SCCA Chairman R.J. Gordy said.
“This is by no means a reflection on thejob that Raymond Irwin and his staff havedone at Heartland Park Topeka,” Julowadded. “In the last four years, they havemet every challenge and request andbuilt a tremendous facility that is worthyof potentially hosting not only theRunoffs, but other high-profile road rac-ing events in the future. Additionally, thelocal community and business groupshave been outstanding and we thankthem for their continued support.”
The event has grown in both size andstature over the years, with approximate-ly 700 of the nation’s best amateur racedrivers from across the country makingthe annual trek for the event that spansan entire week, preceded by additionaldays of optional testing. The sheer num-ber of competitors makes the Runoffs thelargest annual amateur road-racing eventin the world, and results in an averagelocal economic impact approaching $10million each year.
The Runoffs annually crown the nation-al champions of SCCA Club Racing’s na-tional level classes (currently 25) and hasbeen called the “Olympics of motor-sports.” Drivers from across NorthAmerica race locally to earn points, withthe top-10 qualifying drivers from thenine SCCA Divisions in each class earn-ing an invitation to compete in the event.The list of past Runoffs champions is awho’s who in road racing history that in-cludes Skip Barber, Michael Galati, PaulNewman, Bobby Rahal, Graham Rahal,Greg Ray, Boris Said and Scott Sharp.
Road America’s history dates back tothe early 1950s when public street racesin the Elkhart Lake area were a part ofthe SCCA national championship series.When street racing became illegal in1952, participants and supporters joinedefforts and raised funds to develop RoadAmerica. The track held its first event,the SCCA National, on Sept. 10 and 11,1955. Today, the 14-turn, 4.048-mile trackholds its original configuration.
The date for the 2009 event has yet tobe finalized, although it will move fromOctober to September.
The 45th SCCA National Champi-onship Runoffs will be held at HeartlandPark Topeka Oct. 6-12. SCCA’s Club Rac-ing Department announced a host ofchanges and enhancements for the 2008Runoffs, the last at Heartland Park Tope-
ka before the move to Road America.The biggest change comes in the event
schedule itself. Combined and split ses-sions are now a thing of the past, as all 25classes will run three solo 22-minute qual-ifying sessions throughout four days(Monday through Thursday). Additional-ly, while the entire event will continue tospan Monday through Sunday, no classwill have more than six days from its firstofficial session to race.
“Several key elements came out of thedriver survey when you look at it as awhole. The event is long, costly and qual-ity track time is at a premium,” SCCAClub Racing Vice President Terry Oz-ment said. “The majority of our racerswere combined or involved in a split ses-sion at some point in 2007, and the surveywas clear that this was not acceptable forthe time and financial investment in theevent. We’ve been able to solve that issueand, at the same time, stagger the begin-ning of the week so that the Sunday raceclasses don’t actually take to the trackuntil Tuesday. For the first time in years,no one will need to be there for the entireseven days.”
The individual race days were also laidout to begin a rotation in future years sothat classes are not scheduled on thesame day year after year. Some classesremain on their 2007 race day, but only tocreate a categorical (GT, SS, Formula,etc.) balance.
In addition to the change in scheduleformat, drivers will find that the walls atthe exit of Turn Two and Turn Nine atHeartland Park Topeka have been movedback to allow greater runoff room.
Finally, drivers who competed in 2007will have a hold on their number in thesame class for the first two weeks of reg-istration, similar to how most divisionshandle permanent numbers. Registrationopens at 9 a.m. (CT) July 8 and 2007 num-bers will be held until 9 a.m. (CT) July 22.
Volunteers will see some changesbased on survey feedback. HeartlandPark has worked with SCCA to open up acamping area inside the paddock, whichwill include parking. Details on how to re-serve a camping spot will be availablesoon. Additionally, there will be better ac-cess to work assignments with personalvehicles, with designated parking closerto specialties and the ability for F&C mar-shals to drive to their corner stations.
Volunteer online registration will openat 9 a.m. (CT) June 10.
April-May 2008 www.nwr-scca.org Northwest Sports Car News 19
BY TOM MOORENayKid Racing
TOOELE, Utah — Cindi Lux andMopar combined in impressive form attheir Grand Prix of Long Beach debut inApril. Now, the sophomore SPEEDWorld Challenge racer and the parts di-vision of Chrysler will try again to flexsome Detroit V10 muscle at Miller Mo-torsports Park in Tooele, Utah, on May18.
Fresh off her highest career finish ofninth at Long Beach, the 1999 AmericanLe Mans Series-sanctioned Women’sGlobal GT Champion enters the eventwith high, but realistic, expectations.Joining the high spirits of the program,the experience of the Team Mopar driv-er at the course and the Dodge Viper’sinherent characteristics, the UtahGrand Prix looks to blend all the ingre-dients for a strong weekend for the No.2 Mopar machine.
Lux, of Aloha, Ore., her NayKid Rac-ing team and Mopar all approached the
California event with conservative ex-pectations. The race marked Lux’s firstof the year, but the SPEED GT Seriesregulars had already raced at Sebring inMarch. With little testing prior to LongBeach and a full race distance and test-ing already in the bag for her rivals, theprogram hoped to capture just a top-20finish on the streets of Long Beach. Thetop-10, brought on by Lux’s racecraftand a daring setup call, ignited higherexpectations for the Oregon-based oper-ations entering the Salt Lake City event.However, Lux, ever the professional, ismindful that an entirely different set ofcircumstances exists for this event.
The track differs greatly from thatfound in Southern California. The 3.048-miles and 15 turns of the Miller Motor-sports Park dwarf the tight confines ofthe Long Beach street course. The natu-ral terrain facility has long, full-throttlestraights for the Viper’s front-mountedV10 to blast down and its turns are wideand sweeping, maximizing the overalldesign of America’s premier supercar.
When one adds Lux to the mix, the po-tential to best her previous career highis good. However, the track, surroundedby the sands of Utah, can often throwunsuspected complications into thesetup.
Unlike 2007, SPEED GT will utilize adifferent part of the track. Known as the“Outer Loop,” the ‘08 configuration isshorter and the turns quicker than lastseason. These changes mean little toLux, who works as a driving instructorat Miller Motorsports Park when notracing the No. 2 Mopar Dodge. Whatshe gives up to the drivers who raced atSebring, she regains in personal knowl-edge of the configuration that will benew to many. In 2007, here at Miller,Lux earned the Piloti Rookie of the RaceAward in only her second careerSPEED GT.
The GT race of the Utah Grand Prix can be seen on SPEED Channel at 1 p.m. (ET) May 28. Livetiming and scoring can be found atwww.World-Challenge.com.
Lux ready to flex Viper V10 muscle in Utah
20 Northwest Sports Car News www.nwr-scca.org April-May 2008
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