by Bob Morin

On February 12^th, we held our Valentine’s Party in North Granby , CT.   Twenty-six members attended and there was a pleasant mix of newcomers and veterans.   Thanks to Sheila Morin for hosting the event and coming up with the games that everyone seemed to enjoy.

Upcoming events include a Bike Trip in the Simsbury, CT area on May 15^th.   See the article in this issue for more details.   Just five days later, we will be holding our second Driver’s School of the year at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT.   At least I’m assuming it will be our second Driver’s School.   If it doesn’t stop snowing soon, it may be our first Driver’s School.

Since I’m in charge of the advertising for the DZ, at least for now, let me know if you are aware of a potential advertiser or simply direct them to me.   Also, please remember to not only support our advertisers, but please let them know that you saw their ad in the DZ.   Oftentimes, an advertiser may have a member as a client without even knowing it and it is important we let them know.   Otherwise, they will assume their ad is not working and we will not keep them as advertisers.   This is something that every member can do to help the Chapter.

Speaking of helping the Chapter, we have two fewer members-at-large on our board this year, so we can use any help you can provide with events, either helping to organize one or just helping out the day of the event.   Remember, it is your Chapter; we’re just here to try to make it better for you.

The Formula 1 season is finally under way and the opening race was one of the most exciting F1 weekends in recent years.   Thanks to the weather during qualifying and, also due to the new qualifying procedure that adds your two qualifying times together, the grid was completely scrambled. Imagine Michael Schumacher starting 19^th, Ralf Schumacher 15^th, Fernando Alonso 13^th, Rubens Barrichello 11^th, Kimi Räikkönen 10^th and the front row on the grid being Giancarlo Fisichella in a Renault and Jarno Trulli in a Toyota .   The Williams BMW boys started 3^rd (Webber) and 7^th (Heidfeld) but didn’t finish terribly strong with Webber scoring 4 points for 5^th and Heidfeld crashing with Michael Schumacher on Lap 43.   It will be an interesting season.

In News From National membership continues its slow, but steady decline to 75,193, down 118 members from the previous month and down 130 members (-.18%) from the same month last year.   If you have any thoughts on ways to reverse this trend, contact the National Office.   Terry Sayther (South Central Region) and Louis Payant ( Canada ) were recently elected to the Club Racing Advisory Committee.   Plans are coming together for the Newsletter Editor/Webmaster Conference in Atlanta, GA on May 13-15, 2005.

This year is your best chance to travel to an Oktoberfest close to home in some time.   With Keystone, CO in 2002, Austin, TX in 2003, Pasadena, CA in 2004 and Grand Rapids, MI in 2006, you will want to mark down this year’s event in Greensboro, NC.   Apparently, the bids for 2006 from BMW CCC for Mt. Tremblant and the National Capital bid for the event in the Washington, D.C. area were both declined in favor of Grand Rapids.   The event in Grand Rapids will be hosted by the National Board.   The 2005 Raffle car will be the new 507HP M5.   Adding to the woes of our huge track rental increases for Driver’s Schools at Lime Rock, you can tack on a 15% increase in insurance for the event.   Even though our loss and incident rates are good as a National group, the increase this time is apparently due to the increase in exposure because in total, we are running many more events than in the past.

Hopefully, by the time you read this, you’ll have removed your snow tires and the weather will have some semblance of Spring.   Watch out for those potholes though.   They seem worse than usual around here.   ‘Til next month….