Dick Thompson Award - 02/03/2018
I am so honored to have received the Dr. Dick Thompson Trophy this year and I would like to thank the CCA Board of Directors for bestowing this honor on me. Words cannot express what it means to me. Below are a couple of my comments after receiving the award.
I am so excited to be receiving this prestigious award, even though most of the competitive activity is my buddies betting on whether or not I can get in and out of the roll caged race cars.
Most of my track buddies have been rolling on the ground laughing as they watched me awkwardly climbing head first out of a car on to the ground or folded in two with the drivers foot on my backside trying to push me out of a Lotus. For those that don't know, a Lotus is a sports car that could fit in the cargo area of a C6 Corvette, or so it seems.
My older brother use to take me to Marlboro Raceway to watch the races and even though I was a Ford guy then, I admired and cheered for Dr. Dick Thompson.
To receive such a great award that links back to my early years is just more than any one person deserves.
9th Annual Winter Karting Event - 02/25/2018
Thanks to all that came out and supported this event. I am always amazed at how great our member ship is and the diverse array of events we participate in.
We had 30 signed up for the event, 2 junior racers and 28 adult racers. I think we lost one to sickness but still a good group. Once again, we had many of the same in the final 10 drivers race, but we also had some new ones. Steve W., a new member, surprised all with a second place win on the final race. Congratulations to Steve W. and also to Steve C. who won first place. Steve C.'s son, Tyler, captured third place. See this event's webpage for the numbers.
The juniors race went well also. I would like to see the juniors group grow larger as they are a lot of fun to watch. My grandson, Ian and his cousin Justin raced for the trophies with Ian winning first place. Many of you have kids and grandkids that would enjoy this fun event. This was only Justin's second time in a go cart. Ian has been carting four times in the past three years, with first place wins both times he competed.
What a good looking group of Karting racers we have on the podium this year. Steve C. won 1st place, Steve W. captured 2nd place, and Tyler C. came in 3rd. Steve C.'s family are quite the racers whether it be karting or on the big tracks drifting or racing.
Here are a couple of handsome young men that competed in our juniors karting race. Ian S., my grandson, won 1st place with his cousin, Justin S., capturing 2nd place. This was Justin's second time in a go-cart ever and he did a great job. I think he will be back next year. Ian has been karting four times and has won our juniors race both times. The other time he won was a couple of years ago and there were four racers competing that time. Please bring out your kids and grandkids and let them enjoy driving the go-carts and racing in next year's events. The rules are that they have to be 8 to 12 years old and at least 48 inches tall.
Shop Night - Rotors and Brake Pads - 02/27/2018
Sport Chevrolet, our club sponsor, allows Corvette Club of America members to work on our cars the 4th Tuesday of the month. At the February shop night we had a group of members watch as I did a demonstration on removing and replacing the rear rotors and brake pads.
Thanks to Steve W. for the pictures and Hunter F. and Cal M. for all of the technical support. And thanks to Sport Chevrolet for all of the support they give us.
Chin Trackdays HPDE at VIR - 03/03-04/2018
This is very often our first track event of the year. Sometimes the weather cooperates and sometimes it provides challenges. This year it was the high winds which tended to want to spread our paperwork out. Tech in with all of the papers required to be processed quickly was the challenge this year. However, this was much better than a few years ago when we arrived to 5 inches of snow.
Bob C.'s race car on the dyno checking the new engine out (left photo). Looks like it is running good. So load it up and lets head to VIR. We arrived a couple of hours early so here we are (right photo) waiting with a couple dozen of our buddies at the VIR skid pad for the gates to open. Bob is checking out the Chin rig and others in the waiting area looking for his next upgrade.
After a couple of hours of teching in cars, I got a break to check out our garage buddies. Very promising seeing the R. Ferri Motorsports Ferrari that competes in the Pirelli World Challenge Championship truck next to Bob's trailer in the pits. Actually, they were Bob's garage mate. Bob seems to draw the talent as a couple of years ago his garage mate was the Roush Mustang with Jack Roush Jr. driving.
Here is Bob's garage mate (upper right photo). The R. Ferri Motorsports Ferrari 458 GT3 that was driven this weekend by Toni Vilander. Toni has had a lot of success driving for Risi Ferrari and AF Corse in recent years.
Brian, shown by the rig he has been driving for most of his career (bottom right photo). He thought he was ready to retire but after watching the team on tv he decided he needed to be there with them. Brian was heavily involved with all the team was doing. Brian was great at promoting his race team and I was appreciative for the time he spent with me.
Above we have Toni Vilander debriefing after a session on track. Most of the team were very friendly with Bob, but Toni was much more focused on what he was doing.
Other than teching in cars, my duties were to help with check rides for drivers that want to go solo or move up to a more experienced group and also to train new instructors for Chin Trackdays and the Level 2 Motorsports Safety Foundation. I had 2 candidates to work with over the weekend. I spent Saturday driving Erik M.'s Mazda Miata while he was instructing me. It was my job to show behavior that instructors find with students and then it was up to Erik to pick up the problem early and then correct the behavior being demonstrated.
I have to say that I really enjoyed driving the Miata. It was a blast. Congratulations to Erik M. for completing the Chin Instructor Clinic and becoming an instructor.
Want to try your car out on track?
Please remember to keep it to the speed limit and stay alert on the street as, in my opinion, it is much more dangerous at the speed limit on the street than on the track at speed. If you would like to hear more about the tracking experience, please feel free to ask myself, or any one of our tracking group about how easy it is to give it a shot.
Check out the tracking schedule on the HPDE page.
Pat Roney
HPDE Instructor
racingvette-club.org