I am writing this month's column from the computer of our "west coast" office of FLR, at SHULTS DOT COM, with the sunshine and warm weather. However, I will be back in Rochester just in time for the November membership meeting.
My motorsports activities this past month have been via the modern miracle of satellite TV and the Internet. I watched all ten hours of the Valvoline Runoffs® from Mid Ohio on Speedvision. The coverage certainly should have convinced any viewer that the best wheel-to-wheel racing is indeed found in SCCA! In my opinion, Speedvision did an excellent job in the coverage. I just wish they could have shown ALL the races! Interviews with young national NEDiv stars of racing, Andy Lally and Jeremy Treadway, proved that while some of us in SCCA are "graying", there are great young members out there who are our future. John Dillon, from California Sports Car Club, sent several press notes each day on the Internet to the mailing list "wheel to wheel" and kept readers informed as to what was happening on and off the track at Mid Ohio. I even learned that Dean Croucher celebrated his birthday in the tech center .
Finger Lakes members are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Glen Region Medical Services Administrator, Sharon Eley. Sharon, a life member of SCCA passed away on October 20 in Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Racers will remember Sharon as "Pit Boss" at pit medical at Watkins Glen. Sharon first worked Race Medical at the Glen in the late 70s during the old GP days, and has continued volunteering at the Glen including the current season. An article in appeared in the June issue of "Circle Track" magazine featuring Emergency Services at the Glen, and Sharon's help with a pit fire incident on the day of Trans Am in 1995. She also worked medical at STPR for several years. I shall fondly remember my good friend for her quick wit, her enthusiasm for racing, but most of all for the professionalism she brought to the sport.
We apologize for the lateness of the October Top End. Our printer found himself shorthanded and backlogged last month. However, everyone found our temporary site for the Annual Elections and membership meeting. Congratulations to the winners of the contested elections; Carl Dresie, the incumbent in the post of Secretary, and Gene Dinkel for the Board of Directors. Of course those running unopposed were also reelected. The new slate of officers and BOD will begin their duties as of January 1.
The annual NEDiv Mini-Convention takes place in Harrisburg PA November 15-17. The flyer with information on this event arrived too late to publish in the October issue. However, those who have attended in the past received notice, and flyers were passed out at the October meeting. Susquehanna Region, the host, promises many informative seminars, as well as NESCCA awards at the annual banquet. If you will not be attending but have any issues of concern that can be addressed at this convention, please call me or contact me via e-mail at mjsr360@aol.com.
Our Fall rally series will be ending, and the Winter series is beginning, so don't be a couch potato during the dark months. Workers as well as competitors are needed, and on-the-job training is provided. Rallymaster are also needed... let's not see this outstanding series wither and die due to lack of active participation. It has quite a history.
Remember to continue checking out our website at www.flr-scca.com to see results of the rallies and some great photos of the Runoffs by Tim Barge.
In the spirit of the sport,
Marilyn (Lynn) Randall
The meeting was adjourned at 9:13 p.m. on a motion by Tina Reeves, seconded by Ken Williams.
Respectfully submitted,
CFDresie, Secretary
This season has been an excellent one for an increase in involvement by our newest members as well as our more experienced members. I appreciate all the help from the Chiefs of Specialties:
I want to also recognize Kim & Rich Smith for repeatedly taking on projects and seeing them through to completion. Hopefully they are not too burned out for next season. Also several of the newer competitors like Dale Seeley and Jason Smith who provided help when we needed it for whatever needed to be done, and likewise for Brent and Ericka Howard. I suspect that there are many others who should be included in this list of thanks and I would like to thank them all by name, but my time to write has come to an end, so please accept my blanket thank you to all of you who helped make this a successful season and a not so bad two years as chairman of the Solo board.
We will see you next year with the Fiat, hopefully in one color. Thanks again!!
Bill and I left Rochester early Thursday afternoon and headed for Alma, Michigan. It was an uneventful trip and I had no problem at the border after our trip across Canada, as I had my new green card. It had just become dark and we were traveling West of Saginaw, when a truck in the other lane started blowing his horn. When we stopped at the next traffic signal, I wound down the window and asked him what the problem was. He told us that we didn't have any tail or brake lights. At that moment the lights turned green and we figured that if we drove quicker we could keep ahead of everyone and the lack of lights would not be a problem. As we reached the next town, I pointed out to Bill that there was a cop pulling out of a side street, we were either tired or not thinking straight as we passed him. About a half a mile later we did have red lights at the back of us, the flashing kind. After about 20 minutes of checking, he said we could continue, provided we ran with the emergency flashes on.
Evidently a couple of weeks earlier when Bill and Debbi were towing their camper, they had an argument with a truck, who ran along the side of the camper knocking off the lights. This maneuver must have shorted the wires causing the fuse to blow in the car, resulting in the lack of tail lights.
We arrived at registration and found that the buffet was not going to solve our hunger, so we went off to a Restaurant in the next town, that we had found on a previous trip here, that specialized in great pork chops. The rally started on Friday morning with the Mayor starting us from a blocked off main street, although I am not sure he knew much about what we did after we left town.
The Rally ran out to the North West in an area that we hadn't been before. The roads were great and quite smooth. Gene Henderson, who was the organizer, had done a nice job of selecting great roads and avoiding some of the rough type roads that he had in other years. He had also taken a leaf out of our book, by making sure the controls were not visible until you were crossing the timing line. We had lunch in Cadillac and finished the day at Boyne City, a small resort town on the lake near the top of lower half of Michigan.
During the days run, we had a problem or two and had to take a time delay as we didn't finish our lunch in time for the restart. The results of this was a car just a half minute in front of us. We came down this twisty dirt road at 41 MPH, when came upon a State Trooper who pulled out in front of us and seemed interested in following the other car. The other car slowed to about 35 as he felt the cop would have pulled him over if he stayed at 41. Unfortunately, there was a control just after we started following the Trooper, and another about 3 miles down the road. By the time we got to the end of the road and the Trooper left us, we had about 4 cars behind us and we were 3 minutes late. We were able to take a time allowance for part of the problem, but had to eat the rest. Among the entries were two ex cop cars, one even had the complete set of flashing roof lights, but this didn't help protect us from the real thing.
We stopped for a lunch break on the second day at Gaylord, a small city on route 75, and the rally visited a new Race Car Museum, which had a selection of NASCARs and other race vehicles. This place was part of a retail store that specialized in NASCAR memorabilia. After lunch the it started to rain and the roads became very slippery, making it difficult to run on time and keep our mileage correct. On one particular right hander we slid wide and bumped into a bank. Bill said later it wasn't the bank he was worried about but the tree sticking out of it, that he thought was going to take our mirror off.
We didn't think we had done very well, but when the scores went up we found that most others had had their problems also. Jim Shaffer and Jim Fekete from Michigan had a great day running in the limited class, taking first overall. We were a few points back and tied for second, which we won on the tie breaker.
Gene Henderson put on another nice event and we had fun even though we did not run the rally as clean as usual.
as of October 30, 1996
by Lynn Randall, Activities Chairperson
Please remember that you receive 15 bonus points for each additional area of interest that you participate. For example, if you are a Road Rally competitor who competed in a Solo II event and worked at a race, plus worked at the Mini Grand Prix you would earn 45 bonus points.
It is your responsibility to get all points earned to me. Don't feel that because you are not at the top of the list that your participation is not important. I want to acknowledge ALL participation as it is ALL important to the region! Every event we run successfully is the effort of each and every one of you who has been involved.
| Chris McAllister | 301 | Dorothy Wayland | 78 | |||
| Lynn Randall | 291 | George Morris | 70 | |||
| Barbara Lissow | 211 | Sheila Campbell | 59 | |||
| Debbi Segall | 208 | Steve Kittelberger | 59 | |||
| Carl Dresie | 187 | Dick Elliott | 57 | |||
| Marsha Toombs | 166 | Lew Giesy | 56 | |||
| Mike Toombs | 164 | Martin Donofrio | 55 | |||
| Mac McCann | 129 | Alan Blood | 52 | |||
| Tony Montella | 122 | Bill Laitenberger | 45 | |||
| Peter Steinberg | 120 | Bob Swinehart | 37 | |||
| Gene Dinkel | 113 | Bill Bell | 36 | |||
| MaryAnne Shults | 110 | Bob Livingstone | 36 | |||
| Judy Dennis | 108 | Mary Hartman | 36 | |||
| Judy Montella | 106 | Alan Smith | 35 | |||
| Ron Kunst | 105 | Richard Smith | 35 | |||
| Bish Hines | 102 | Meredith Croucher | 30 | |||
| Jean Morris | 102 | Chuck Krueger, Jr | 28 | |||
| Tina Reeves | 99 | Don Girven | 25 | |||
| John McArthur | 94 | Mel Dillon | 11 | |||
| Dean Croucher | 89 | Ron Fish | 10 | |||
| Dave Cuifo | 84 | Kim Smith | 9 |
by Mike Toombs, Membership Chairman
As October is the month when we hold our Annual Meeting I thought I would give you some information about the members of the Finger Lakes Region. We currently have 551 members (I finally got my list and the list from Denver to agree). I have listed a couple of groupings for your information.
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Treadway Inn Room Reservations ~ (607) 687-4500
mention "NYSRRC" for accommodations at reduced rates
If you have any suggestions, concerns or questions,
call (607) 739-2953
Chuck Dobbs, NYSRRC Administrator
RE: National Races Reserved Number
Starting Novermber 1, 1996, number reservations will be excepted for National Races for the 1997 season. If you reserved a number last year, your number will be held until November 30, 1996, in the same class. However, you MUST contact me by November 30 to keep it. Also, if you finished in the top 10 in your class, you will be also given first choice until November 30. This is also the case for 1996 Runoffs Champions, providing you reserved a number with me in 1996. Any driver may reserve after November 30. Requests will be processed in the order received except as noted above. I will accept phone or mail requests. Please include car class, car type, region of record and membership number. This information will make it easier for me to track points next year. Give three choices please and only if your first choice is not available to you will you be contacted so make sure there is a way to contact you by mail or in the evening. Phone calls will be accepted between 7:00 PM and 9:00PM only. You may reserve a National number through February 28, 1997. ABSOLUTELY no updates will be made after that date.
Marianne Lyons
88 Harbor Street
Pepperell, MA 01463-1258
Phone: 508-433-5087 (7-9PM)
Opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the views of FLR. Permission to re-print or re-publish articles is granted to all SCCA Regional publications and its National magazine, SportsCar. Full credit MUST be given to Finger Lakes Region, SCCA, TOP END and the author/contributor.
Please send the Editor, MaryAnne Shults (mcs@shults.com), e-mail if you have any questions.