By Curtis Kitchen

Kansas City, Mo. (Feb. 3, 2006) – Jam packed with top-flight speakers and seminars packaged around a bevy of awards handed out at the Rally/Solo Luncheon Sponsored by the Tire Rack®, the first full day of the 2006 SCCA Convention at Westin Crown Center both entertained and educated convention goers.

After the Leadership breakfast Sponsored by Heartland Park Topeka, motorsports business icon Herb Fishel delivered the keynote address, speaking on SCCA’s current leadership role in motorsports and the importance of creating or enhancing industry relationships.

Following Fishel’s speech, the day’s first awards were handed out during the Leadership Awards Ceremony. Among the awards given were Region Achievement Awards, Best Region and Division Publication, Best Region and Division Web Site and the Tom Burke Award, which honors the Region that increased its membership the most by percentage in the past year. Badlands Region took that honor after increasing its membership a whopping 103 percent from a year ago.

Houston Region was presented with a special award from the Member Services Department for its exceptional accomplishment in donation and relief efforts for the Delta Region, which was impacted greatly by Hurricane Katrina. New York Region and Florida Region also donated money and supplies to Delta Region, which lost nearly everything in the storm.

Next, a full room of SCCA members met with the Grassroots Motorsports Growth Panel, which featured Scott Hollingsworth of the American Motorcycle Association (AMA), and Graham Light of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). SCCA Vice President of Program Development and Operations Howard Duncan also took part as a panelist in the two-hour session moderated by Eric Prill, SCCA Director of Marketing Communications.

The group spoke to the crowd on a variety of topics including the growth of both the NHRA and AMA, demographics of each group’s enthusiast base and what the organizations’ stances were on issues such as illegal street racing.

After the panel closed, the Convention’s focus shifted to the Rally/Solo Luncheon Sponsored by the Tire Rack, where, following a round of “SCCA Jeopardy” hosted by SCCA Archivist Pete Hylton, awards were bestowed to Rally and Solo Program constituents.

Prior to the awards announcements, Duncan announced the unveiling of the Johnson Clark Johnson trophy, which, starting in 2006, will be given annually to the top competitor in SCCA ProSolo. The award was named after Bill Johnson and Charlie Clark, the two men who were responsible for creating the ProSolo competition format in the mid 1980s. The third person on the trophy, Roger Johnson, was the first dominating presence in SCCA ProSolo and has more ProSolo Challenge wins than anyone else in history.

Friday afternoon was filled with a collection of seminars on Club topics such as Regional Executive planning, Solo Site Acquisition Committee updates and Marketing’s role in each program.

Saturday will feature more town hall meetings, the latest edition of the revered Safety Symposium featuring Dr. John Melvin, President of Tandelta, Inc., and FIA Research Consultant Hubert Gramling and the Club Racing Awards Luncheon Sponsored by Mazda.

Those events will lead up to Saturday evening’s Hall of Fame Induction Banquet. The banquet, sponsored by Honda, will see the induction of the second class ever enshrined into SCCA’s Hall of Fame.

Check back with www.scca.com for daily Convention updates from Westin Crown Center

Friday’s Award Winners

TOM BURKE AWARD
Badlands Region, Alan Walker - Regional Executive

REGION ACHIEVEMENT

Small Region
1st Place – Southern Indiana Region, Bob Sonntag-Regional Executive
2nd Place – Salina Region, Steve Pistora - Regional Executive
3rd Place - Columbus Sports Car Club, Scott Dales - Regional Executive

Medium Region
1st Place - Great River Region, Jeff Meyer - Regional Executive
2nd Place – Blue Mountain Region, Matt Green - Regional Executive

Medium-Large Region
1st Place - Continental Divide Region, Gloria Dickerson - Regional Executive
2nd Place – Alabama Region, Barry Hair - Regional Executive
3rd Place - Northwestern Ohio Region, Robert Chrismas - Regional Executive

Large Region
1st Place – St. Louis Region, Jan Rick - Regional Executive
2nd Place – Milwaukee Region, Julie Komp - Regional Executive
3rd Place - Finger Lakes Region, Lew Giesy- Regional Executive

Jumbo Region
1st Place – New England Region, Kathy Barnes - Regional Executive
2nd Place – Florida Region, John Anderson - Regional Executive
3rd Place - Washington DC Region, Gayle Lorenz - Regional Executive

WEB SITE

Small Region
1st Place – Pan American Region, Danny Castillo - Webmaster
2nd Place – Indiana Northwest Region, Terry Klema - Webmaster
3rd Place - Misssippi Region, Brian Berryhill – Webmaster

Medium Region
1st Place – Great River Region , Scott Shumard – Webmaster
2nd Place – Central Kentucky Region, Lee "Wrecks" Bohon – Webmaster
3rd Place - South Bend Region, William Loring – Webmaster

Medium-Large Region
1st Place – Des Moines Valley Region, Eric Johnson - Webmaster
2nd Place – Kansas Region, Jason Hull - Webmaster
3rd Place - Blackhawk Valley Region, Jack Kolpack - Webmaster

Large Region
1st Place – Finger Lakes Region, MaryAnne Shults - Webmaster
2nd Place – Philadelphia Region, Ted Rudolph - Webmaster
3rd Place - St. Louis Region, Jan Rick – Webmaster

Jumbo Region
1st Place – Chicago Region, Mark Hirt - Webmaster
2nd Place – California Sports Car Club, James Olson - Webmaster
3rd Place - Detroit Region, Scott Jasmund - Webmaster

DIVISIONAL WEB SITE

1st Place - Southern Pacific Division, MaryAnne Shults - Webmaster
2nd Place - MidWest Division, Jeff Kopp - Webmaster
3rd Place - Central Division, Dayle Frame - Webmaster

NEWSLETTER

Small Region
1st Place – Central Pennsylvania – Newsprint, Ron Dotts – Editor
2nd Place – Salina – The Write Line, Sandy Entriken–Editor
3rd Place - Southern Indiana – Pit Stop, Gene Young – Editor

Medium Region
1st Place – Fort Wayne – Four Wheel Drift, Val McCammon – Editor
2nd Place – Wichita – Witches Wail, Paul Gutierrez – Editor
3rd Place - Snake River – Snake Pit, Gail Heist – Editor

Medium-Large Region
1st Place – Buccaneer – Buccaneer Times, Paula Frazier – Editor
2nd Place – Kansas – Offside Undo, Joe Williams – Editor
3rd Place – Nebraska – Exhaust Notes, Patricia Buell – Editor

Large Region
1st Place - Finger Lakes – Top End, Carl F Dresie – Editor
2nd Place – Northern New Jersey – Pole Position, Maureen Coultas – Editor
3rd Place - Neohio – The Blower, Laura O'Neill – Editor

Jumbo Region
1st Place – Central Florida – The Checker, Harriet Watkins – Editor
2nd Place – New England – Pit Talk, Bob Beaulieu – Editor
3rd Place - San Francisco – The Wheel, John Blakemore – Editor

DIVISIONAL NEWSLETTER

1st Place - SoPac News- Southern Pacific Division, Mark Young San Diego; Craig Young, Cal Club; Lois Peterson, Arizona; Cindy Chin, Las Vegas; Gary Kitagawa, Hawaii

[ Back to index ]