Editors Note By: David BrownI must apologize. Its been much too long since I’ve put an issue of The Observers Stand out and I have only myself to blame. Transitioning to a new computer caused me much more of a snag than I ever thought was possible. Couple that with the relatively mild and dry spring meant time I’d usually be working on an issue was spent working in my yard. For example I finished mulching my yard in early October last year and this year I was done before June had passed. That just doesn’t happen with me and while I’m happy that task is behind me it did push working on this issue to another dimension. I must apologize as well to those that sent stuff for me to publish. Its late… Very late. I’m sorry.
OK enough of that. I’ve included the third installment of Dave Jones‘ Chronic Condition and if its been so long you need to revisit the first 2 please see the previous edition which can be found through links on Facebook. I’m happy to include lots of photos and I have many more thanks to Michael Berchak and Nich Carpenter. We’ve also got Rallycross photos courtesy of Scott Zimmerman and Joe Grabits. These dusty photos were taken this past weekend!
Important to note that current results are now updated on our website here and thanks to Randy Tackett for the speedy uploads. I’ve included the 2 most recent update from Dayle Frame and all of these can be easily found on the Great Lakes Division website as well as the GLD Facebook page. Be sure to bookmark all of these pages.
Dave Killian has updated the most recent track records for Mid-Ohio and I’ve included them. He’s also gone on a deep dive of the numbers from the Majors race. Jude Summers gave us a brief review of the Great Lakes Race of Champions Majors and again thanks to all the workers who braved the conditions and of course the weather did improve Saturday afternoon although I can attest the track was slippery even at pace car speeds. Sunday was so much better. Congratulations to all the winners.
Solo has run several events with very high turnouts from our lot at Fortress Obetz. If you haven’t found yourself down there yet its definitely the place to be and the Solo leadership has been all over it this year. Coming up are several more opportunities so check the schedule!
Rallycross has run at Joes Speedway in Adena Ohio and will now partner with SWV Region for the rest of the schedule. From what I understand its a fantastic facility and the partnership with the folks from SWV has been beneficial to both regions.
As its already mid July the Board of Directors has been busy planning the next Awards Banquet and I’m happy to tell you we’ve selected the Villa Milano in Columbus for the banquet on February 3rd. Dan Hodge did a mountain of work on planning this event and we’re all set to benefit from it early next year. More details will be forthcoming soon.
Thanks for taking the time to read and I’ll hopefully be a little better at keeping on top of future editions.
A Chronic Condition (Part III)
By: Dave Jones
Do you remember your first sports car race? I do, and it was a Life changing experience. It was at Lake Garnett, a track surrounding a city park in Garnett, Kansas, southwest of Kansas City. The year was 1963, July of the the summer between high school and college. The SCCA had been holding Regional races there since the late ’50s but that year it was part of the USRRC series. Sleepy little Garnett, a town of about 3,00 residents, became the focus of an estimated 60,000 race fans who showed up to see “big name 7 big time” racing. (That was also the year of a really ugly riot when the town shut down beer sales after dark)
Kansas, by the way, was a hotbed of sports car racing in the Midwest. In addition to Lake Garnett,
there were races at Lake Afton near Wichita, and at the Hutchinson “aerodrome”. Not far away, just across the Oklahoma border there were also races at Ponca City and at Hallett, a track still active.
This was many years before Heartland Motorsports Park.
My older friends, Joe and Danny – sons of the previously mentioned
“Sledge” – had gone to races there the year before and came home with tales of exotic cars, new sounds and intense competition. I was determined to check it out for myself. A family friend had been passing on copies of Road
& Track and Sports Car Graphic, so I was somewhat familiar with the cars and some of the drivers.
I negotiated for the use of one of the family cars – my 1928 Ford not being a suitable choice – and set off on what was my first solo “road trip.”
Like many adolescent males, I’d been to drag races. I’d been impressed by burnouts and speed shifting, but at my first road race I watched as drivers tracked their cars with precision lap after lap. Drag racing was certainly head to head competition, but at this event, there was passing, out braking and drifting through the corners.
An interesting bit about the 2.8 mile course was that there were safety crews in a boat to respond if a car got off track and ended up in the lake – and it had happened. The course was lined with snow fence and hay bales no guard rails … and the barriers on a bridge across part of the lake were stone walls, much like at present day PVGP.
OK. Here it comes. That was the year the Shelby team was campaigning the Cobras in the series. Shelby himself was there with drivers Ken Miles, Dave McDonald and Bob Holbert. There was also a guy from Columbus, Ohio who “just sold hamburgers” – Bob (TR) Johnson in his independentlyentered Cobra. Challenging the Shelby team was a fleet of A/B Production Corvettes driven by Don Yenko and Grady Davis and Dick Thompson in the new “Gran Sport” Corvette. Also present were Hap Sharp in a Chaparral I, Harry Heuer in a Scarab, Jack Hinkle in a Cooper Monaco. Competing in other class that weekend were well known drivers Don Sesslar and Chuck Dietrich from Ohio – drivers I was to become aquainted with when I later moved to Ohio and engaged at MidOhio Race Course.
Bob Johnson won the “big” production car race, besting the Shelby team and the Corvettes. In the “feature ” event, Ken Miles won overall in his Cobra after fitting an additional oil cooler to the car and having it deemed to be “modified”. The Corvette Gran Sport was a DNF.
I was thrilled and seriously “bitten” by the bug. In addition to the first Ferrari and Maserati cars I’d ever seen in real life, I was especially amazed by the smaller modified and sedan classes – especially the little Abarth cars running with the rear deck open for cooling and aerodynamic purposes.
Within two years I was to own one … then another … and so it goes.
Haven’t been the same since!
Great Lakes Race of Champions 2023
It Was a Bit Wet…
Photos by: Michael Berchak
It Eventually Did Dry Up!
Great Lakes Race of Champions
By: Jude Summers
The Great Lakes Race of Champions event May 13th and 14th at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was awesome. 148 drivers officially competed, and we had over 88 volunteers who contributed their talents to make this event run smoothly. Our talented teams worked hard to get through the logistics to keep races running smoothly, which is always hard, especially being the first event of the season, and did a great job!
The competition for both days was exciting and I’m hoping our photographers who attended will be sharing some of their photographs and videos of the weekend in our publication and on social media.
The weather was Ohio weather, It was mild temps; we had steady rain on Saturday morning for qualifying, followed by drying out in the afternoon, and solid sunshine on Sunday. Some of our competitors were happy (imagine that) that they had rain, and obviously more NOT happy with rain, but all in all everyone who was there enjoyed the spring temperatures. This was obvious on the Saturday of the driver/worker dinner party at the Cooper Pavilion as it was well attended. It was the largest turnout that we have had for our dinner party since before the Covid years. The dinner menu was spaghetti & meatballs, salad, garlic breads, brownies with beverages of your choice and plenty of free sunshine! A weekend full of great competition; delicious food; bench racing on Saturday night; catching up with old friends; and more importunately making new ones; it doesn’t get any better than that. Everyone who took advantage of OVR’s hospitality had a great time this weekend.
Thanks to all who participated, our competition participants, our volunteer race officials, all of the Mid-Ohio staff, and to the Mid-Ohio Season Ticket holders for coming out and giving our event a good review on social media, oh least I forget… to the Ohio weather Gods for not bringing a spring snow to this event.
WE WELCOME YOU, if you are not participating and are curious you should check out one of our Mid- Ohio race date events, contact myself and I could point you to the right direction, or one of our chiefs, we always need more volunteers. Also, any of us can also put you in touch with our competition team for guidance if racing competition is your main interest.
We are inviting you to Come on out and enjoy the fun with cars!!
Jude Summers
OVR Race Chair
Great Lakes Race of Champions
By the NumbersBy: Dave Killian
148 Driver/class combination entries
137 number of trophies awarded
50 Ohio based drivers
35 Michigan based drivers
28 Ohio Valley region members
28 SRF3 entrants
24 Detroit region members
23 Neohio region members
15 Illinois based drivers
15 B-Spec entrants
14 Indiana based drivers
14 SM entrants
12 Drivers entered in multiple classes
12 Formula V entrants
11 Chicago region members
11 Indy region members
11 Milwaukee region members
10 number of lead changes in Sunday group 3 race (FF,FV,F6)among 3 drivers
8 GT2 entrants
8 HP entrants
8 Formula F entrants
8 drivers named Robert
6 drivers named Dave
3 number of different lap leaders in Saturday group 4 race and Sunday group 3 race
01:25.275 largest margin of victory min:seconds in Sunday group 1 race STL (Max Gee)
1 new FE2 track record by James Libecco Solon OH 0:00.281 better than existing record
0.156 closest margin of victory in Sunday group 3 race FF (Zachary Rivard)
Nich Carpenter was kind enough to offer the use of some Solo photos. Thank you Nich! I’ve snagged some interesting ones off his google drive from various events. So many to choose from. Hint: send me photos and there’s a great chance they may end up in a future issue.
Rallycross Photos
By: Scott Zimmerman
Rallycross Photos
By Joe Grabits
Notes from the Director’s Chair
Area 4 Director Update for May 2023
First, I wanted to announce that I am running for a second term as your Director. I would have liked to have made this declaration earlier, but some health issues got in the way. The good news is decisions have been made about my treatment and it will not interfere with my ability to fulfill the position. The last thing I wanted was to have my health hinder my ability to do the job for you. To that end, I will take steps this summer to run again in the fall. I appreciate all the feedback I get from the members and will continue to carry your message to the BoD.
Second, my summer schedule is starting to shake out and I look forward to attending a wide variety of events. I’ll volunteer to work some of them, observe some and even compete in a few as well. You can see where I’ll be by following this link.
Third, the rubber is about to hit the racetrack for me. After all of the “off season” meetings, travel, Zoom calls, emails, etc., the season begins in earnest this month. By the time you get this, I will have already been an instructor at the Waterford Hills Drivers School (4/29, 4/30). I remember my driver’s school back in the spring of 2001. A lot of people helped me get my license and this is a way for me to help “pay it forward” for the next crop of Club Racers.
Lastly, please take a few minutes to fill out a demographic survey for the club. The data collected is completely anonymous and will not be sold. The data gathered is used to attract new partners and sponsors. I’ll let the survey describe the details. Please click on this link and help the club.
So, here’s what I did this past month…..
Video Conference Meetings:
Club Racing Board (CRB) (4/4): With the Club Racing season in full swing, there isn’t much “tweaking” of the rules going on. BSpec remains an issue. In order to quench some of the politics within the class, the CRB has taken away the balance of performance (BoP) from the BSpec Advisory Committee (BSAC). A major overhaul of BSpec was recently issued and we hope this will get support within the community. The results of all of the CRB rules changes can be seen here.
Electrified Vehicle Advisory Committee (EVAC) (4/12): We invited a guest (Tim Wahl) from motorsportreg.com (MSR) to our meeting. We are in the middle of preparing a document for the registrars on how to format the registration pathway to identify entrants with EVs. This would allow the region to know who is showing up with an EV so everyone could be prepared. We found out we would not be allowed to use the ISO graphic to identify EVs. As a result, the SCCA needs to come up with its own graphic to use. That project has already begun. We discussed the implications of Summit Point Raceway deciding to not allow EVs on its racecourse for competition. We also discussed some minor changes in the SCREV document as we receive feedback from the membership.
Board of Directors (BoD) (4/24): The financial picture looks good. REALLY bad weather at some early season events reduced income from entries but we expect that to rebound as the weather gets better. This affected both Club Racing and Solo events across the country. We reviewed a proposal on the viability of a face to face, national convention in 2024. In the end, it was decided that there wasn’t enough gained for the cost. With dramatically rising costs for travel and accommodation, the cost would have been prohibitive. So, if a face-to-face meeting was off the table, it was decided to apply the resources to the divisional meetings. Look for more support from Topeka for our divisional meeting next spring.
SCCA Events:
Club Racing driver’s school at Waterford Hills (4/29, 4/30): Details in next month’s update.
Dayle Frame
Dayle Frame
Area 4 Director
Great Lakes Division
517.889.1117 (h) dframe@scca.com
Notes from the Director’s Chair
Area 4 Director Update for June 2023
As I mentioned in last month’s update, May was when I started to hit the road to go to divisional events. I went to two last month. A drivers school at Waterford Hills and a Major hosted by OVR at MidOhio. I have a couple more events scheduled in June.
So, here’s what I did this past month…..
Video Conference Meetings:
Club Racing Board (CRB) (5/2): There was some discussion about the new BSpec revisions. We reviewed the GCR edits including a myriad of letters on GCR 1.2.3.D. We also chatted about potential alterations to the qualifying schedule for the Runoffs. A member had written the CRB (among others) about the use of leaded fuel in SCCA. While he made some valid points, we cannot eliminate leaded fuel from use in the SCCA. We will craft a reply to his letter soon. The results of all of the CRB rules changes can be seen here.
Electrified Vehicle Advisory Committee (EVAC) (5/10): A couple of members wrote letters to the CRB asking to allow Prototype Electric (PE) and Electric Touring (ET) to be included in the GCR. This is the next step in having EV classes in Club Racing. We discussed a myriad of topics (kill switches and whether to mandate them or not, how to handle hybrids, definition of an EV, etc.).
CRB (5/15): We met via Zoom call to discuss potential changes to the Runoffs qualifying format. In an effort to make the Runoffs more appealing, the CRB and national staff have been working on various potential revisions to the traditional schedule. We needed to meet to coordinate the town hall meeting that would be on 5/16.
EVAC (5/19): The EVAC had come up with some recommendations that would require input from Topeka about licensing, training, etc. We needed to chat with some folks there to make sure we were all on the same page.
Board of Directors (BoD) (5/22): The dust has settled on our external audit and financial parameters look pretty good. We also discussed several other topics (liaison reports, GCR revisions, etc.). The good news is that we did not have to set aside time for “members behaving badly”.
GLDiv BoD (5/30): I met with the GLDiv BoD to discuss next year’s divisional convention. As there is no national convention in 2024, we fully expect to have more support from the national office. We have a date (March 2nd) and are working on a location as Manchester University will be under construction next March. With no national convention to go to, regional leadership should be allocating funds for their members to go to our divisional convention. We will be content heavy so there will plenty to learn during the event.
SCCA Events:
Club Racing driver’s school at Waterford Hills (4/28 – 4/30): Cold, windy and rainy…..weather conditions that would test the mettle of all involved. The good news is that rainy conditions mean that the students would pay more attention and it would dial down the “red mist” while on track.
As usual, WHHRI hosts a well run school with 35+ students and almost as many instructors. Alex DellaTorre and his team are to be commended for doing such a fine job in all aspects of the event.
I was there as an instructor so I could help “pay it forward” to the next generation of racers. Many people worked hard to help me get a license way back when and now it was, once again, my turn to help out. I had the pleasure of helping a second generation driver who was the son of a friend I used to race against back in the day. Truly, the circle of life in SCCA Club Racing. I had a great time and look forward to helping out in the future.
OVR Major at MidOhio (5/12-5/14): I have always enjoyed going to MidOhio events. Whether it was as a worker, driver, media or as Director. This year was no exception as the weather cooperated which allowed good competition across the various run groups.
========== 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.
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.
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.
Dayle Frame
Dayle Frame
Area 4 Director
Great Lakes Division
517.889.1117 (h) dframe@scca.com
DOWN
Also present were Hap Sharp in a Chaparral I, Harry Heuer in a Scarab, Jack Hinkle in a Cooper Monaco. Competing in other class that weekend were well known drivers Don Sesslar and Chuck Dietrich from Ohio – drivers I was to become aquainted with when I later moved to Ohio and engaged at MidOhio Race Course.
