Solo Letter

by Andy Bell

The 2008 Solo season is almost upon us and I’m scrambling to get ready for all of the activities that will start off the year. The sanctions are in, the site owners are looking forward to having us, and the chiefs are ready to get to work. Now I just have to figure how to transport 3 go-karts to each event along with all of our support paperwork and trophies!

I do want to mention a few things about this season. We have had a few price increases for the solo program. This is in response to some increased insurance cost and the new requirement that all drivers and hot area workers must be SCCA members even if it is just a weekend membership. We tried to keep this impact as low as possible to our regular members, but I think it will have an impact on getting new people out to run with us.

We have had several people step forward to help out with the program for the year. I want to thank Aaron Ritch, Ben Senft, Craig Butt and Tim White for stepping up to see how they can help. I also want to thank our retiring chiefs for the exceptional job they have done over the last few years.

The Moby inventory took place on a cold, rainy and snowy day in March. I want to thank Mark Gleckler and Aaron and Simi Ritch for lending a hand and especially Dave Packard who let us use his work facility again to unload, clean up , count and reload Moby. Overall things are in pretty good shape in Moby. We have a couple roof leaks, so we will get some caulking to seal them up. We are also looking for an old RV ladder to save wear and tear on Moby’s cab roof when we mount the timing light displays.

We have two events we will be doing that we want to promote and we don’t have much time this year. First, we will be hosting a GASS solo event at the end of May. This is a two day race where many people from outside our region will come to run with us. If you have ever entertained competing at the divisional or national race, this is a great primer to see the level of performance and competition you will see. It will also give you an opportunity to make some new friends from outside our region.

Our Street Survival is also open for registration on the Street Survival site. Note that we will not have any registration through DLB for this event. It all is coordinated through the national office. Please let your friends and family know about this program. It is designed for 16-21 year old students, is very reasonably priced ($60),lasts just one day, but hopefully will provide the critical information to keep our young drivers safe in their first few years of driving. I do need to get a formal list of volunteers to help instruct. I know several road racers, BMW club members and soloists who have already volunteered. We will do two schools in two days so I will need plenty of help!

Finally, please note that we have TWO Saturday events this year. This was done to work out scheduling with the site owners.

I look forward to seeing everyone this season!

2008, April