President’s Column, October 2008

by Bob Morin

Since my last column, we held our second Driver’s School of the year at the newly paved Lime Rock Park. Although there are now multiple configurations to the track available, we decided it was best to run “Traditional Lime Rock,” as even that had changed, since all of the little marks we used to use as braking or turn-in points, etc.., etc., were no longer there. Since we haven’t had a real mid-Summer school in quite some time, it was also the warmest day we’ve had in many years.

None of these factors took away from the fact that the school was a great success, selling out in a matter of hours and we received very positive feedback from students and instructors alike. Thanks go out to our Driver’s School trio; Steve Wasley who keeps track of registrations, and just generally keeps the entire day well organized for the rest of us; Wally Thomas, who handles the instructors, and once again got us a good group with which to work; and Frank Giacalone, who oversees the entire event and handles all the communication with Lime Rock and the caterer. Of course, while these three provide the bulk of the organization, we couldn’t have an event at all if it wasn’t for our volunteer workers. The day begins bright and early with volunteers at the main gate, making sure everyone signs the club waiver and continues with Tom Ryan and his crew who do track-side tech and then as the day progresses we have help with student and instructor registration, control, false grid, pit middle and pit out as well as others. Thanks to everyone for making it possible for the rest of us to have fun!

The following weekend, we held ’02 Fest East, this time back at Lime Rock, but in conjunction with the Vintage Fall Festival. Paul Kuchay took over the organization of the event this year and we had a corral in the infield for the Sunday Concours. Sponsorship was provided by New Country BMW; Matt McGinn and his business, Sports Car Restorations; and Harpoon Beer. Willy and jerri Wiley were presented with a special award for their dedication to this event over the many years that they acted as organizers. Thanks to Paul for his organization this year and to our sponsors for helping to make the event a success.

As I type this, many of us are making our preparations for Oktoberfest at Watkins Glen, New York. Registrations are already over 800; I’m sure that with day passes, there will be more than 1000 attendees, so the event should be terrific. I hope you’re not going to miss it.

Future events to mark on your calendar include the Holiday Party in December and the Annual Dinner in January. Both events are great fun and a nice chance to socialize with fellow members.

Meanwhile, for those of you following along, the F1 circus moved from Hungary to Valencia, Spain for the European Grand Prix. This was a brand new street circuit using the area that was developed for the America’s Cup Yacht races, and it was a strikingly beautiful location, twisting all around and over the harbor, even including passing over a bridge. It was a busy circuit though, with 25 turns in only a little over 3.3 miles per lap. The BMW Sauber boys qualified a little better than the last few races with Kubica gridding 3rd and Heidfeld back in 8th, but at least he made into Q3 this time. The race pretty much finished as it started, with the top three qualifiers, Massa, Hamilton and Kubica finishing in the order that they started. There was an investigation of Massa being released into the path of Adrian Sutil in the pit lane, but the stewards announced that the investigation would take place after the race, so they could wait to see if Massa would win. Once he won, and since he drives for Ferrari, it was decided that the penalty would be a fine, instead of the usual drive-through, which was used at the next GP2 race, just to illustrate that that is what the penalty should have been.

Next up was Belgium and here the Ferrari International Assistance (FIA) group really came up with a novel penalty. Lewis Hamilton had the pole, but quickly lost the top spot and seemed unable to do anything about catching what seemed to be an inspired Kimi Räikkönen until it started to rain with just a few laps remaining. With four laps to go, Hamilton had closed the gap and attempted a pass on the outside, going into the final chicane. When Räikkönen forced him wide, Hamilton cut the chicane, rather than facing the damage of a collision. By cutting the chicane, Hamilton came out in front, but the rules state that you cannot gain an advantage by cutting a chicane, so he immediately let Räikkönen past, tucking in behind him and actually attempting another pass, on the opposite side on Räikkönen going into the first turn. The McLaren team checked with race control to be sure that they were satisfied that Hamilton had indeed done what he should have done in letting Räikkönen back by, and they were told twice that they were okay. So, going into one, Hamilton regained the lead. In the next few seconds, both drivers went off the track, had encounters with lapped traffic and generally put on the show of the season, until Räikkönen finally spun off into the barrier. So Hamilton had won the race. Not so fast, the Ferrari International Assistance group to the rescue. After the race, the stewards decided that Hamilton had gained an advantage by shortcutting the chicane, and since they could not penalize him with a drive-through (the race was over), one of three penalties allowed for this infraction, they decided to penalize him 25 seconds, thereby demoting him to third place. The third penalty available, by the way, was a 10 grid spot penalty at the next race, but I suppose they figured he still might get a good finish out of that and what if Ferrari didn’t, so they went with the sure thing and moved Massa to the top. Meanwhile, the move of the race outside of all this nonsense came when Nick Heidfeld asked the team to change his tires to intermediate wets with one lap to go, and he went from 8th to 3rd passing cars like they were stopped on the last lap. He was later promoted to 2nd as the result of Hamilton’s penalty.

So now, Hamilton leads Massa by two points with Kubica another 16 back, after only managing a 6th at Belgium. BMW Sauber continues in 3rd in the manufacturer’s points.

In News From National, membership was up slightly over last month at 76,058 (+.53%), however, that was down 0.05% vs. last year. Don’t forget to check out the member benefits section on the BMW CCA website to see a list of all the special deals and discounts associated with membership, including 20% off the BMW Performance Driver’s Schools.

I think I’ve gone way over my space for this month, so until next month, enjoy your BMW.

Bob Morin