President’s Column, November 2006

Since last month’s column, we held our final Driver’s School of the season at Lime Rock Park on September 22nd.  Special thanks to Steve Wasley, our registrar, for keeping things organized, Wally Thomas, our chief instructor, for coordinating things with our instructor corps and to Frank Giacalone, the Driver’s School chairman, for overseeing the entire event.  Of course, there are many other volunteers who are needed to put on a Driver’s School, so to all of those who helped with track-side tech, registration at the track, false grid, pit middle, pit out, control and of course, to all of our instructors, many of whom had to work pretty hard at this last school, we say THANK YOU.

We finished the year with great weather and the feedback from the students was quite positive.  The school was full, so that bodes well for the future, in spite of rising costs and commensurate increases in registration fees. 

Two days later, we wound down from the fast-paced action of the Driver’s School to the casual, social atmosphere of the Humpa Picnic.  We didn’t get the best weather for this event, but the rain mostly held off and there’s no truth to the rumors that some members donned hardhats to avoid injury from the acorns and pinecones that were pelting us as the wind kicked up from time to time.  Thanks to John & Barbara Bisset for making the arrangements for Williams Park again this year and for taking all the reservations and handling the doorprizes as well.  Thank you to Bill Mellott and Sam Aldrich for all the help with the grilling (I hope you’ve been able to wash away the smoky smell from your clothes) and to all the members of the board who helped by purchasing and bringing all the ingredients that make up the Humpa menu.  Lastly, thank you to Tony’s Imported Auto Service for supplying the beer for the event for about the thousandth year.

As far as upcoming events go, check out the always popular Holiday Party/Yankee Swap on December 2nd.  This is usually quite entertaining, especially some of the more “creative” Yankee Swap gifts that circulate through the group multiple times.  On January 27, 2007, we will be holding our Annual Dinner Meeting/Election.   We are currently working on a guest speaker who will focus on the BMW CCA Foundation Street Survival Program.  Did you catch the issue of AUTOWEEK that focused on teenage drivers?  If not, you can check it out at http://autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage near the bottom of the page.  It really underscores the importance of the need for the work being done by the Street Survival program.  We hope to find a location so that we can hold one of these events in 2007.

And of course, the business half of the Annual Dinner is the election.  So that brings me to my annual plea for newcomers to board.  Surely there are some of you who have just been aching to become more involved.  It is your club after all.  Contact any current board member if you would like more information on what would be involved.

There was only one F1 race since my last column, but it was a dandy.  China presented the teams with a real mix of rain, dry and everything in between.  Our boys qualified a respectable 8th and 9th with Heidfeld just besting new-boy Kubica.  Both cars were going well on a track that was wet, but drying.  Unfortunately, Kubica gambled on changing over to dry tires first.  He was the guinea pig and it was disastrous.  He spun something like three times on his out lap and had to tip-toe back into the pits and put rains back on.  The loss of time put him well back and he was only able to recover to 13th in the end, although the car was much better than that and he deserved a better fate.  But, speaking of deserving a better fate, Heidfeld was clearly headed for a well-deserved 4th when he was balked by back-markers on the final lap.  First up was Doornbos in the RBR-Ferrari and then later, on the same lap, Sato in the Super Aguri-Honda.  By the time he came upon Sato, he was forced to slow so dramatically that he was actually hit from behind and was fortunate to recover to finish 7th.  Heidfeld later said that this was the most disappointing race of his entire racing career.  He had a 4 second advantage over 5th entering the last lap.  Doornbos was later penalized 25 seconds for his part and Sato, who had exhibited this behavior in the past, was disqualified for his action, but that is little consolation to Heidfeld. 

In News From National, membership showed a small decline from last month, but at 75,902 it is still up about 1.28% over last year.  National is working on the agenda for the Chapter Congress to be held in Valley Forge, PA next April.  Some interesting topics and speakers have already been penciled in with more to come. 

That will about do it for another month.  Sheila and I would like to wish all of you a very Happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.