The Big Island of Hawaii Region SCCA finished off the year with its first stand-alone entry in the Kona Christmas Parade. The entry included 4 cars, several marchers, and banner carriers. Car entries included Jake Lottridge’s red BMW, Rob Eoff’s red 1980 MR2, and 2 of Bob Summers’ cars – the red Lotus Elise and the silver Nissan 350Z. Jake’s car featured a “Beach Santa” in a folding chair on top. Rob’s car had a Christmas light outline. BobSummers drove the bright red Lotus Elise with Christmas decorations and an inflatable NASCAR car on top. And Trina Summers drove the silver Nissan 350Z with Jonathan Spiegel as the co-pilot. Barbara and Steve Archer carried the SCCA banner. Paul and Joanne Zabel marched and gave away 600 pieces of candy to the Keiki and Kupuna (“You’re never too old for Christmas”). Michell Eoff, the other marcher, gave out Big Island of Hawaii business cards to “young drivers” and suggested they visit the Region website.
Kirk Hubbard stopped by the staging area to say “hi” and wish the Big Island of Hawaii Region SCCA entrants well
Parade organizers had a sense of humor and staged the Big Island of Hawaii Region SCCA entry right in front of the Police entry. So the Big Island of Hawaii Entrants drove their cars with emergency lights flashing and an occasional revving of engines followed by the flashing blue lights of the police cars and an occasional chirp of the police car sirens.
Announcers along the way highlighted the goals of the club which include safe, fun competition events, driver education, and community service.
As the year comes to a close, Mahalo to those who helped make 2009 a banner year for the club. This year we accomplished a lot including:
A full Solo program;
A Car Control Clinic;
A co-sanctioned road race (Trans-Pacific Exchange in Bremerton, Washington) that included a PDX, Tune & Test, Club Trials, a double regional road race, and a vintage race;
A new storage container for our equipment at the Hilo Dragstrip site;
Collaboration with the KART group to improve the KART track at Hilo Dragstrip (National SCCA asked for a write up about this collaboration for their newsletter – Inside Line);
A fully functional website;
Obtained two 2-day weekends for our 2010 schedule;
Initial discussions with the military base regarding use of the airstrip for some of our events;
Set the weekend of Febrary 27 & 28 for the Evolution Performance Driving School at Hilo Dragstrip. This event is open to anyone wanting to become a better autocross (and street) driver. The Evolution Performance Driving School event is listed on the Evolution website and is now accepting online registrations.
The Region also began to establish an Officials and Solo Chiefs program and by the end of the year, the Solo Committee had its initial planning meeting. The first full Solo Committee meeting will be January 10.
In 2010, our program includes:
A full Solo program;
A Car Control Clinic;
The Evolution Performance Driving School;
A fun rally;
The Trans-Pacific Exchange road race in Bremerton, Washington (which will include a driver’s school this year);
Expansion of our website features;
The addition of a Membership Committee;
We also hope to continue our discussions with the military base in 2010 regarding having some of our events on Bradshaw Airstrip.
Mahalo to all our members, our weekend members, workers and all supporting family members who helped to make 2009 a banner year for the Big Island of Hawaii Region SCCA. We look forward to seeing all of you in 2010.
Barbara Archer, RE
BigIslandSCCA.org - Big Island SCCA
Big Island of Hawaii Region SCCA
RE’s CORNER April, 2010
Aloha!
Our first Rally, Kohala Kountry Roads was held on March 14. A great thing about rally is that we don’t have to fit our dates around when we can get the track! We had entries from 10 teams, not bad when you remember that each team is at least two people! So, for our club, this was a good first outing, and from the feedback we received, it is something everyone would like to try again. It takes time to put a rally together, so for those wanting to support this program, we will need to put our heads together for a planning session. If you can help with the rally program, contact me.
Our first event winner was non-other than Jevon Sanborn’s mom! Road expertise must run in the family! On the other hand, Jevon and his team of co-drivers, Josh & Kevonu, didn’t make the top three! So, you can always rally to beat the Big Island of Hawaii Region’s 2009 Driver of the Year award winner!
The end of the event saw 25 patrons delivered to the Monstera Restaurant at the Shops at Mauna Lani, which should make the SCCA a good candidate with some potential sponsors. Sponsorship is a two way street, and you have to give if you expect to get, so it was a good experience, and rally is a good way to promote the Big Island of Hawaii SCCA.
Each of the teams received a pair of custom dash plaques for entering the event, and the winners were awarded full color wall plaques for first through third. The awards were presented at Monstera, so no waiting!
For 2010’s first Solo, March 28, there were several shared cars. Brandon Wilk and Nicholas Buscher double entered their cars, insuring there was more than just one car in class. Margie and Michael Oates shared their Miata in E stock too. Even so, that still left our entry list a little thin, with just 17 participants. Let’s hope the economy and all the broken cars make a comeback! We did attract a couple of new entries, Rick Bowers driving a Miata, and Chris Jay, with a Honda S2000. These guys were competitive right from the git-go, and with some practice, I bet they will be even quicker.
Our next Solo is coming right up, April 18! The interval has been brief, so get ready to head out to the track, especially if you missed March 28. PAX championship points are on the table!
On the numbers, I have been asked what is the big deal? Why do we need to spend extra money for number sets?
The first reason is to identify you to the timing and scoring people, especially if more than one person is running a car. It also is important for scoring penalties, for corner workers calling in cones or offs. The information is relayed to the timekeeper, and then in turn to the scorekeeper. These folks refer to the cars by number when communicating on the radio and entering the scoring in the computer. Sometimes a radio transmission gets garbled, and sometimes the timing and scoring folks need to double check on a car’s run. That is when numbers make all the difference. Secondly, when someone tries to write an article for Motorhead or Motorbeat, we look at a picture, and can’t make out the number, especially if it’s been wet, and not everyone is very precise with tape. So, that’s the deal, good numbers help us to do timing and scoring, and to write and publish articles and pictures of YOU! So all the sticky tires or horsepower will be for naught if you don’t get scored properly, and that is why numbers are important.
