 August
2007 News Letter
|
Fall Season and School
Throwback Jam
Formula Ford 40th
Vintage Costume Contest
Mike Stevens Circle
CVAR Logo Updating
Greetings Racers-
Seems like its been too long since the last race and
the fall season is finally here, making us all keenly aware that we
didn't get as much done this summer as we should've.
Hopefully time was well spent vacationing, enjoying family or whatever
you like to do outside of racing. Those of you who just worked
really need to strap in the old racer again just for
therapy. We can help you with that. Welcome back
everybody!
School's also back in session with our fall driving
school. I've had several inquiries and hopefully we'll have a few
new faces. Make sure your car is kosher before showing up
with something that may not be met with open arms. We are a
vintage club and it sometimes takes some realignment in thinking to
understand what that means. Also be aware of the late
registration fee within 10 days of the event. That won't be a
nice surprise if you're new with us......or old. Welcome
students!
-I'm pleased to
announce the kickoff of Throwback Jam, which is an
effort to capture the real vintage history and spirit in our club and
share it with everybody. Most of us don't really know what
vintage racing really is. We have a few amongst us who lived it
back in the day and will be sharing in a social setting that will
both entertain and indoctrinate us with the spirit that says it
really is cool to be retro. I don't want to see us as
another club that claims vintage with no ties to what it
really was and is. Tutelage starts with this event's Throwback
speakers, Don Gwynne and Al Schorken. Don
will be talking about his SCCA days from 66-70 in the
Midwest Division, along with the birth of IMSA and some
tasty FIA garnish. Al will take us back to the Riverside,
racing's sacred ground, and what racing an A.C. Bristol was like in the
late 50s among other memories. We will start in the tech
garage after the Saturday night meal. Bring your lawn chairs and
stay for the socializing.
-Don't forget FF40 at Hallett. We have put a lot of
work into this. Please alert all you Formula Ford friends.
We have exhausted our advertising budget and need to get the word out
through the grapevine. -Also remember the Looking
Vintage costume contest at the same event. We need prize
donations as usual. Motorsports books are always a hit. If
you have any you don't want or are done with, please contribute.
See the link on the event announcement for specific
categories. We also encourage
vintage dress throughout the event. No more excuses about not
having time. Search ebay for "vintage racing jacket" and you will
find lots of ideas for well under $50. Sideburns are cheaper
and also acceptable, although some might claim that is a 24 hour job
they don't have time for. -Thanks so much for your
generous donations to the Mike Stephens Victory Circle Fund. At
last count, our Treasurer tallied $4015, including $600 from CVAR
and $250 from RMVR. The rest was made up of individual
donations. I'm sure we will see some of the fruits of this effort
at Hallett in October.
Don't forget the late fee within 10 days of
the event. Some people still claim to have never been advised of
this. See you all there!
Your Prez,
CVAR Logo Update
Your board of directors has (finally) reached a long acknowledged
action item - the freshening of the CVAR Logo. On behalf of the
board, I am taking the point in this effort. I am having a graphic
artist update the current logo and the alternate decal, as both have
history and brand recognition. As an example, the car in the CVAR
logo was originally a C-Type Jag - with minimal effort, we can have
it once again looking 'CVAR-correct'
. CVAR will have the images
formatted to be readily adjustable to HTML, print, embroidery, or
screening uses.
There have been requests to create a new logo. There have been
requests to do absolutely nothing of the sort. There may be a great
new idea lurking out there in the membership. If you think you have
found it, your board would like to see it.
For consideration by the board, any 'new logo' suggestion/idea must
meet the following criteria:
1. Must bring forward the best of what we have now
2. Must have potential for longevity (nothing trendy) - "to become
a classic in itself"
3. Must have utility in all media, in color or black and white
4. Must bring forward the "CVAR Corinthinan Vintage" flavor,
spirit, and symbolism - such as " a true classic, competition,
venerated, gentlemanly, lasts the test of time" etc
5. Must be equally applicable to all CVAR race groups -
6. Must be able to look good on dark cars as well as light
7. Must consider aspects of the current columnal logo (blue patch)
and/or the rectangluar white decal (see #1 above)
8. Must be instantly recognizeable
Please send ideas (written or graphic) or other information to my
attention at j.wilt@sbcglobal.net
with CVAR-Logo in the header, or
by mail to Jeff Wilt, 3465 St. Cloud Circle, Dallas, TX 75229 by
September 15, 2007.
I will assemble all comments and submissions for board consideration
by November 15, 2007. The 'restored' CVAR logo and alternate decal,
as well as all proposed logo ideas that meet the criteria outlined
above, will be 1) considered as an action item at the first formal
board meeting after this date, and 2) shared via the website if a
decision from the entire membership is warranted. Implementation is
planned for 2008.
Respectfully,
Jeff Wilt
Tired Dog Racing
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July
2007 News Letter
|
Board Meeting Highlights
Greetings Racers, Families and Friends-
We managed to lure six Board members and our
Chief of Registration to the sumptuous Budget Inn lobby in Fairfield
for a much needed meeting. Topics and results were as follows:
-As an NPO, we are required by the IRS to have a
newsletter, so this format will have to serve as such and will
hopefully evolve into something better. We would gladly accept
the services of anyone who would like to serve as a newsletter editor,
which would be primarily cyber format on the website.
-Per Herb Hilton, we have 305 members in 2007 with 27
being new and 34 guest members from other clubs.
-We had a discussion on the cancellation policy, with
all sides and bad luck considered, we voted not to change the policy, which currently states that no refunds would be made after
the Wednesday night before the race except under extremely extenuating
circumstances. We are sympathetic to those who feel the addtional
sting of lost entry fees while limping home, but we had to draw the
line somewhere to prevent messy negotiations after every event
and inevitable impressions of favoritism. Do your best to
sort potential gremlins at home.
-Registration- Feedback from members and other clubs
has been very positive. Thanks David.
- Formula
Ford 40th at Hallett this fall- We hit
the presses with a shotgun approach to get the event and CVAR on the
map. Most prominent is the facing page in July's Vintage RaceCar
magazine, along with a quarter page in Vintage Motorsport.
Hallett is taking care of ads in Victory Lane and Classic
Motorsport.
-Nov. TWS Enduro- We threw around ideas on making the
enduro more fun and less stressful on cars. There are ongoing
discussions of very creative starts and relays involving teams of cars
from different groups. Stay tuned.
-Event scheduling- We are looking seriously at the
availability of venues in the near and distant future. There is a
lot of competition with other clubs for good dates.
-In the same vein, corner workers are in high demand
and we decided to up the support for ours, which are some of the best,
from $50 to $75 a day. It is still no windfall if you think
about it. We take pride in how we treat our members and our
workers should be no different.
-Instructor credit- The current policy
is that instructors will not pay for the Friday that they instruct.
Given that the instructor would not have any test and tune time while
instructing and that the instructor should be given a credit towards a
"free" test and tune day for each Friday that they instructed.
This was voted in provided that the instructor decided he really did
not have time to test on the school Friday due to teaching constraints.
-Car number conflicts- Each group should have each car
with an unique number, but understand there will be exceptions and
conflicts to be handled on an individual basis.
-Weigh in- No actions will be taken without the
involvment of Group Reps and Group members.
-Rule change process- Voted in as follows:CVAR
A driver-member of a Group writes up
the rule change
proposal, then must obtain written support from at least 51% of the
members of the Group involved. For these purposes a "member" of a group
is defined as a driver that has participated in one or more events in
that Group in the past year.
The proposed rule change and the
signatures are then
submitted to the Group Representative.
The Group Representative will present
the proposed
rule change to the Competition Committee, which is composed of all
Group Representatives and the Authenticity Chairman. The initiating
Group Representatives do not vote on the proposed rule change. The
Authenticity Chairman votes only in case of a tie.
If a simple majority of the
Competition Committee
vote in favor of a change, then the proposal is forwarded to the Board
of Directors.
If a simple majority of the Board of
Directors vote
for a change, then the change will be adopted.
-Club Logo- Still refining some
presented by
Charlie Jones and Andrew Fawcett.....getting closer.
-Meeting Adjourned.
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__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Proper
Pacing
A word from your V.P.and Chief Steward-
Several drivers have asked the proper
procedure for
starting a race behind a Pace Car.
From the Chief Steward;
The Pace Car will move out smartly (at
least for a true
vintage Pace Car) and allow the drivers about ѕ of a lap to warm their
tires and fluids, keep up and don’t spread out to much. At TWS after
leaving the carrousel he will slow to about 40 MPH and gather the
field, the racers should form up
2 X 2, as best they can with the twisty
bits, for a
final tight line up before entering the front straight. As you enter
the front straight note your MPH or RPM and hold that until getting the
green flag. The front row will hold the pace set by the Pace Car. If
that is you, HOLD THAT SPEED, don’t fall back OR accelerate.
The Starter will look for a tight
formation all in line
2 X 2, no dropping down or dropping back to get an advantage, no "Texas
starts" and no early acceleration. If the Starter misses an advantage
taken or goes ahead with a start to save time the Chief Steward or
Assistant Chief Steward will be watching
and will take
away any advantage that you might have been gained with a visit to the
fast pits on lap#3.
If you fail to line up properly and cause
a wave off you
are only hurting your fellow racers as the time for your race started
with the first attempted start and the resulting pace lap will kill 4
or 5 minutes of your allotted race time. If you are at fault on the
second start attempt the green flag MAY be given and you WILL BE black
flagged.
Basically;
Just stay in line, holds the Pace Car
speed and at the
green flag accelerates smartly in a straight line for a while and all
will be fine.
Remember, the race is not won on the
first corner.
.Play safe, Have fun
Bob Green
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______________________________________________________________________________________________________
VMC
License Requirements
Fellow Corinthians,
In an effort to
standardize our license requirements the
Board of Directors of CVAR has made the following changes:
- All CVAR members
will be REQUIRED to hold a Vintage
Motor Sports (VMC) competition license.
- As a CVAR member racing on an SCCA License will no
longer be allowed.
- Visiting racers from outside CVAR will be required
to have a VMC or license issued by a VMC Affiliate Club
- We will begin enforcing this change in January 2008.
To avoid having to get
another physical;
When your SCCA license
renewal is due this year, please
obtain the proper VMC paperwork from the CVAR Website (see 'forms' menu
above). Complete the VMC
membership and medical forms (includes physical) and enclose two
passport photos and a check for $25.00 payable to VMC. Mail these items
to:
<>Bob Green
318 NW Jill Ann Dr.
Burleson, TX 76028
Do it now to avoid missing
the February event.
<>Bob Green,
Chief Steward and V. P.
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___________________________________________________________________________
Mike
Stephens Victory Circle Fund
-Most know
by now that we lost HRMC's
Mike Stephens to a long illness. Thanks for all the donations to
his Victory Circle tribute. Treasurer, John Gaudette has extended
the deadline to July 15th. Greg Reynolds attended the July 4th
tribute and said it was a very moving gathering, capped off with Mike's
red Jag making three tribute laps.
In the notice to
membership, have donors make their
checks PAYABLE to
CVAR with a notation the
money is for the
victory circle fund. Mail the
checks to my home
address.
John Gaudette
22210 Prince George
Ln
Katy Texas 77449
I will deposit the
monies, and tabualte an amount
for CVAR to issue
one check which includes the
club donation of $
600-.
__________________________________________________________________________
A word from
Safety Chief, George Curl:
Waiting for the
light to change: Safety notes
Well something is
working. This time last year we had
10 safety related incidents, 9 involving bent metal and one corner
worker injured.
This year we have cut
that by half. Why? Because our
drivers are the best around! Concentration and watching out for your
fellow competitors has made a difference.
This has also added to
my fun each weekend. For that I
thank each and every one of you.
Jim Yule spent most of
the “off season” writing and
rewriting the CVAR safety
program. By now you have a copy or a least
should. It gives us something no other club has, flexibility.
Vintage racing should be
fun and from the looks of
things from my side, I think every driver is having his fair share of
fun.
The following is
straight from the new student manual.
Read it and remember that prior to race weekend we all should be
working to make our cars as safe as possible.
We run cars upwards of thirty years old and without
proper preventative maintenance you may experience mechanical and
electrical problems that can end your weekend prematurely. Race car
preparation includes frequent inspection (wheels, bearings, brakes,
frames, fuel lines, throttle cables, crack testing etc.) This is an
important part of racing SAFELY.
Have Fun! Watch out for the car directly behind the
car directly in front of you!
_____________________________________________________________________
Hallett Costume Contest-
see Hallett Schedule listing for contest
details
Last
year's was a big hit, but we
still heard lots of "I didn't have time." Search Ebay for
"vintage racing jacket" and you will find lots of cheap, cool
stuff. You don't need to enter the contest, but please join us in
the wearing something for the weekend. We also need prize
donations for the contest. Thanks and enjoy your summer.
Dave
Peterson
President
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_____________________________________________________________________________
Classifieds-
I have a 24 foot (20
foot x 80" box) on 102" four
wheel brake axles. It
was custom made for my Cobra
which has been sold. Has
a front passenger side door
and a 4 foot driver side
door. Metal cabinets in
front and a electric
winch w/ 30foot remote control
and battery.
Chuck Rhodes at chazrhodes
' at ' sbcglobal.net or
281 351 6743
Mike
Stephens Victory
Circle Fund
|
6/28/2007
Friends and Racers-
It was with sadness that we learned of the death of
Mike Stephens this past Saturday, better known as the patriarch of the
Stephens family who owns and operates Hallett Motor Racing
Circuit. Mike passed at home with family after a long
struggle with an undiagnosed illness. Some of us may
remember Mike as a rough and tumble competitor with a big presence, but
his extended family members knew him from a much more humble
perspective. At the last Hallett event, I was slow leaving and
late afternoon was turning to evening. There was a gathering of
corner and track workers in the grove across from the tower.
I listened as they told stories and peacefully watched the sun go
down. How strange, I thought, workers who didn't want to go home
after a long weekend, but then it struck me - this was
home. "This was Mike's deal" one of them said referring to
the gathering, often accompanied by a camp fire. "This was
what he was all about."
Some of us have history with Hallett over many
years of club events and know of its tenuous history and once
impending doom. If not for big Mike and the Stephens family, it
might well have faded away as so many tracks have in our
memories. Mike made it family. He gave it the county
fair feeling that we don't feel anywhere else. Thanks so
much Mike.
In Mike's honor, the CVAR Board has elected to name
our spring event, the "Mike Stephens Classic." Also in his honor,
we are contributing as a club to his wish of constructing a fitting
winner's circle, which will be dedicated by the family. We
also want to give every member an opportunity to contribute in any
amount. Please do so by July 10th as per the following:
Re-Mike Stephens Victroy
Circle Fund
In the notice to membership, have donors make their checks PAYABLE to
CVAR with a notation the
money is for the victory circle fund. Mail the checks to my home
address.
John Gaudette
22210 Prince George Ln
Katy Texas 77449
I will deposit the monies, and tabualte an amount for CVAR to issue one
check which includes the
club donation of $ 600-.
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News
From the
Prez:
|
5/26/2007
MotorSports Ranch - Cresson
A peek at next year's schedule
I had to miss this year's Marvelous
May event at MSR, but
got enough feedback to conclude that the numbers show an upward
trend in
fun and downward trend in incidents, breakage and carnage. Most
of the
115 racers in attendance enjoyed the near-perfect weather
with only
two minor incidents and one oil-down. Other numbers for your
consideration include 794 signing the gate waiver, 70 of which were
minors. With the price of tires and fuel, they'll
probably
settle for the next psycho X-Box variant.
I got a call from Homeland
Security, citing a hub of
questionable activity visible on their satellite and infared
imagery. Turns out it was just Camp
Geezer and only
a threat to
decency. Lively action and apparent
enjoyment was observed in all groups. Thanks to our
talented
photogs who sent pictures.
Please welcome David Griffith as
your new Chief of Tech
as nominated and voted in by the Board to replace Roger
Bailey, from whom
we are still reaping benefits until he is able to sell his house to
translocate
to Ohio. Keep filing those complaints to the health department
about
whatever vermin could be infesting his place. Maybe we'll
discourage
enough buyers to see him debut the Lynx B, which technically is a
predator, but
could be vermin depending on his driving.
After submitting our 2008 TWS
schedule to A&M guru,
George Curl, we decided we could not wiggle enough to avoid home games
for
certain, so the word is to reserve your motel rooms
now.
Tentative dates are:
-Fall Driver's School/Races
Sept. 5-6-7
-17th Vintage Fall
Festival Oct 30-Nov 1-2
Track Manager, Rusty, assured these
dates were solid
and I have submitted the paperwork. Despite what the word may be
on the
street, he has not heard of any impending sale. We will
release the
final 2008 schedule this summer (ed- there will be a Feb. TWS race too,
it just isnt on a football weekend). Stay tuned.
We will convene our second Board
meeting of the new
regime in the next month or so and hope to come out with a new club
logo and
other tidbits to report soon.
Have a great summer and watch for
notes on "green
racing" and "an ode to car builders" in coming issues
this summer. Watch for Formula
Ford 40th Anniversary ads in all
four
vintage magazine issues coming up. Thanks to Andrew for great
work on the
ads and his leg-work on this event.
Dave Peterson
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News
From the
Prez:
|
4/5/2007
Hallett Rocks
Eagles Canyon Rescheduled
New Logo Needed
Well, Hallett came off like a well-oiled machine,
being dubbed by many as the smoothest event in years. We
had zero oil-downs, no car-to-car contact and all the rough
weather passed through Friday night. We had to close to 120
entries at one point, but I heard something like 112 with no-shows
factored in. Twelve states were represented with
Michigan being the furthest locale. It was good to see all
our visiting members and some new faces. Thanks to all who
travleled far and wide to see us.
Racing was close and challenging in all
groups. I happened to catch the duel between Reed Yate's MG
TF and Blake Gibb's MG TD and it was great to watch these old
war-horses negotiate the twisties with impressive speed and
plenty of body english.
If you missed the spring Hallett this year, you missed
a great one, but get ready for FF40 (Formula Ford 40th Anniversary) at
HRMC in the fall which promises to quite an event.
After some deliberation, we decided to reschedule the
Eagles Canyon event from June to November (ed.: date is now
november 30th-december 2nd).
Stephen Page has been working very hard and didn't want to throw in the
towel, but recognized that a good first impression would require
ammenities like bathrooms, shade, etc. Thanks to Stephen for all
his efforts with the ECR. Plan your racing schedule accordingly.
Along with the new face of CVAR, we need a new
logo. Some have submitted some very good ideas so far. One
requirement from the founders, was to retain the Corinthian column
somewhere. It can be integrated or used as a border.
We are kickng off a logo design contest of sorts with a prize to be
offered (we don't know what yet). We want something that
really grabs you, has a vintage feel, and stirs up nostalgic
feelings. The basic racing flags and lettering designs kind
of blend into what every racing catalog/team/business has already done,
so think outside the checkers, so to speak. It needs to be
suitable to put on a shield type background for decals and
patches.
See you at the track.....
Dave
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Weigh-in
report from Roy Allen:
|
3/23/2007
If you attended the Spring Opener at TWS, you were
surprised with
having to weigh your race car. First, I want to thank all for
making this go as
quick a possible. Second, I want to thank Ron Shade for providing
a
neat set of wiz-bang scales complete with large digital read out for
"vintage eyes". As part of "Bring Your Vintage Spirit", we want
to
ensure no one has a competitive advantage by being under weight.
We
really had doubts that anyone, after adding all the necessary safety
equipment would be under weight.
Well, the numbers are in.....Starting Thursday and
continuing thru
Saturday, we weighed 98 cars, totaling 174,347 pounds. The "pig"
of
the group after deducting for fuel, which we did for all cars
(I'm
sure everyone was honest), turned out to be Dan Haynes in his 70
Mustang at 3181 lbs (calculated dry weight).....As an interesting
side
note, Dan, in the last race on Sunday looped it in T7 and landed
on
top of the hill near the Flag Stand at T8. Sam LeComte, who
was
working T7 measured the broad jump distance at 65 feet. Dan
described
it as a "Dukes of Hazzard" leap. I guess pigs do fly after all,
orange ones
anyway.
The Group 1 cars averaged, 2720 lbs: Group 2
averaged 1430 lbs; Group 3
averaged 899 lbs (jeez- donut up); Group 4 averaged 2066 lbs; Group
6
averaged 989 lbs; and Group 7 averaged 1945 lbs. Our next step will be
to determine the Minimum Race Weight for each car, using the
Historic
GCR as a guide. If anyone knows the specific weight or has
homologation papers for their car with the Race Weight noted, or
just
wants to help out, please e-mail me (
).
comments from the Pres:
Thanks for the report Roy
and your effort on this.
Poor Dan- you guys now have a whole new batch of material on him.
Fortunately the car only sustained bent strut rods and a busted spoiler
on the "endo" landing.
Would've been nice to
have in-car footage on that.
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News From
the Prez:
|
3/20/2007
New board intro,
Feb. race ramblings,
Chief of Tech is
departing
Greetings racers, workers and friends from your "new
shift" here at CVAR. Can't say we are improved
yet as we are still putting together the pieces of the new
management system. There is a lot involved and each day
we have more regard for what outgoing President, Art
Summerville, dealt with for 11 years. Its like running
a fair-sized business with a totally new personnel structure and
tools. We have a lot more helping hands, but that also adds
complication to some degree. Not to sway your confidence, but
sometimes finding the checkbook is a major undertaking.
Along with the division of tasks, we have reduced some by moving
away from the paper chase to an "all-cyber"
communication/registration format. Most of you have adapted
well, but a handful may feel stranded. Please offer your
web-saavy to anybody you know who lives near you and may need help with
this. Otherwise, most public libraries have free internet service
and can provide assistance. To ease the transition, you should've
gotten a card in mail inviting you to the spring Hallett event and
telling you how to stay in touch from here forward. Thanks to
David Littlefield for this effort and his stellar work with the
online registration. Also to be commended are Webmaster, Andrew
Fawcett and Membership Chairman, Herb Hilton.
Another new addition is that each race will have a
Chairman,
a point of contact for anything specific for that event or
facility. Your Hallett Race Chairman, spring and fall, is Greg
Reynolds. Please address any other questions to the
person with the specialty that relates best to your question (on the
website). It will help slow some of the email traffic
of us shuttling your questions around to the right person.
Now lets get to the good stuff and talk racing.
Our
season kickoff at Texas World Speedway was threatened by weather as
usual, but things generally proceeded unencumbered. We had
135 total entries with 12 in the driver's school. The racing
groups were large and I think everyone found someone to race
with. To note:
THANKS FOR A WONDERFULL TIME!
I was allowed to participate as a guest in last
week's
event at TWS and I just wanted to thank everyone that I met for their
generous hospitality and support. You have a great organization
and I only wish that it wasn't such a long drive for me to attend your
events. I look forward to possibly doing another event some time
in the near future.
Randy Urlik, RMVR, car #800
We want to continue to hear good things like
this.
Please continue to make visitors feel welcome and show them how we're
different.
With all things mechanical, things can go wrong
(except
for Vees). The only thing I can say is that maybe we can
round up on safety and down on risk with more thorough off-season and
pre-race inspection of wear-prone items and things that need to be
fastened/tightened.
Well, we're going to lose Roger Bailey, our great
Chief of
Tech, to a career move away from us. We will greatly miss
him and want to wish him luck. He will be at Hallett, so give him
your regards one last time through Tech.
Tony Shores had emergency abdominal surgery this
weekend and
is expected to make a full recovery. We wish him well.
Hope to see you all at Hallett. I've got to sign
off
and register right now to avoid the late fee. Everyone
please be aware of it within 10 days of an event. We don't want
anyone upset because they didn't know.
Sincerely,
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