CCR-SCCA Central Carolina Region Sports Car Club of America

I would like to invite everyone to the SWCCCR meeting this thursday night June 18th at the Ryan’s on Lauren’s Road in Greenville, SC. We will eat from 6 to 7 and at 7, we’ll cover results from recent events and schedules for upcoming motorsports events in the southeast. We will recap the go kart racing from last months event, recent SE autocross events, CCR Memorial Road Races May 23 and 24 and CMP SCR Time Trial on the 25th. We will also talk some about planning for upcoming events like the Eagle’s Nest Hillclimb August 1st and 2nd. (Start has changed and it will make it more spectator friendly and more challenging for drivers.) Be sure to bring info on any items you have for sale or trade.

Meeting topic - Jim Hall’s CHAPARRALS

When I was a kid, my dad took me to see races at Watkins Glen and VIR (yeah…the OLD VIR) and I saw Jim Hall and Mark Donahue run. I fell in love with Chaparrals and things with wings. After that, ALL my slot cars had to be number 66 brown and white Chaparrals with a red COX sticker on the side. Thursday night’s meeting is Chaparral night. I recently uncovered a couple of videos I think you will really enjoy. Jim Hall did some really unique things during this time period with experiments in aerodynamics and downforce. Some failed and some worked like magic. During the dinner portion of our meeting (6 to 7) , I will be playing the video ” Salute to Chaparral” from Monterrey Historic Races of 2005. This video shows interviews with Jim Hall, Brian Redman and Vic Elford and detailed descriptions and video of all the models including the super sucker J2 and the banana car. If you have never seen the flipper wing cars race, you will see why they dominated (and why SCCA outlawed them.) After our regular meeting, I’ll play a video showing 1966 and 1967 races at Monterrey and Elkhart Lake. This is actual footage including Monza starts with drivers running to their cars to start the race… .drivers like Jim Hall, Richie Ginther, Phil Hill, Charlie Hayes and many others. You will be amazed at the cars at that time, the accidents, the little safety gear and the close racing. If we have time, I also have a video of Phil Hill in 1995 sharing slides and his racing memories from driving for Ferrari, when safety belts were introduced (he said “I thought they were crazy! Why would I want to stay IN the car if the car was wrecking!”), how Fangio was kidnapped in Cuba during an F1 race and many other interesting historical race experiences. Great stuff.

We hope to see you there. Let me know if you have questions or need directions. Thanks again for your participation in SCCA and the South West Chapter of Central Carolina’s Region!

Ted Theodore
tedagmar@juno.com

(864) 915-5052

I would like to invite everyone to the SWCCCR meeting this Thursday night May 14th at the Ryan’s on Lauren’s Road in Greenville, SC. We will eat from 6 to 7 and at 7, we’ll cover results from recent events and schedules for upcoming motorsports events in the southeast. We will recap the Wolf Ridge Hillclimb event and cover plans for the CCR  Memorial Road Races May 23 and 24 (we need more drivers and workers…sign up today!) and the SCR Time Trial on May 25th ($125 for 1 ½ hours on CMP!)Be sure to bring info on any items you have for sale or trade.

We had a speaker but his plans changed. After discussing this with several members, we decided to do something different.

Let’s go let off some steam. We will have a short meeting at 7 to 7:30/7:45 and then drive down to Frankie’s Fun Park on Woodruff Road for some Go-kart fun. It’s $6 a ride but they have a special where we can get 3 runs for $15 so bring your money.!!!   Also, bring a camera and the family. Your wife should get some pics of you smiling like a Cheshire cat. Should be a nice break from the work week and weather should be nice and cool. Let’s do it! Please email me and let me know if you plan to attend the meeting and the karting outing!    tedagmar@juno.com

We hope to see you there. Let me know if you have questions or need directions. Thanks again for your participation in SCCA and the South West Chapter of Central Carolina’s Region!

Ted
tedagmar@juno.com
(864) 915-5052

We will be having our monthly dinner meeting Thursday April the 9th at Ryan’s on “Motor Mile” Lauren’s Road in Greenville, SC. We will eat from 6 to 7, meet from 7 to 8:30.

Meeting … we will review news and upcoming events in motorsports including : rallycross, autocross, road racing, time trials and other events in the southeast. We’ll have our regular swap and trade for those interested in making some money and some space. Nick Hallman will join us to talk about upcoming Black Lake event, and Todd Owenby will report on TRSS school SWCCCR is putting together for later this year in Greenville. Ross Hennin will cover Motorsports Festival and upcoming events. And we should have a report on Buck Muse race last week and Lemons Event at CMP this week.

Speaker… Wesley Nicholson will be speaking on the Wolf Ridge Hillclimb. Wesley is one of the founding fathers of this event which many believe will be as well known as Chimney Rock. It’s a challenging run with lots of switchbacks and…it’s May 2nd and 3rd. We will be showing pictures of cars and in car footage from George Bowland, Stan Vann and others. If you are a driver – come take a look and get signed up. You might be able to join the Wolf Ridge “2 Minute Club”… that is reserved for drivers who have run the course in two minutes or less. If you are available to coursework, come find out about lodging, food and other perks. If you are free that weekend, come on up and watch. This is a great event and we’ll look forward to hearing all about it.

Hope to see you there. Thanks!

http://www.myautoevents.com/pls/mae/frmClubDetail.Show?psCLUB_ID=507

I would like to invite everyone to the SWCCCR meeting this thursday night March 12th at the Ryan’s on Lauren’s Road in Greenville, SC. We will eat from 6 to 7 and at 7, we’ll cover results from recent events and schedules for upcoming motorsports events in the southeast. Be sure to bring info on any items you have for sale or trade.

Todd Owenby will have some updates on the TRSS school and upcoming autocross events and Scott Franklin can update us on Road racing news.

Our speaker will be Steve Cook. Steve is a driving instructor for BMW Performance Driving Center, Skip Barber Driving schools and the Manager of his own company called Learning Curve. Steve has many years of driving experience beginning in the 70s running autocross at NC State and Chimney Rock Hillclimbs and continuing today as he  road race an RX7 in SCCA .  Steve will be speaking on Brushing up your driving Skills in preparation for spring driving competition… whether autocross, road racing or time trial. He will provide us with some ideas and ways of improving our skills and getting that edge back as the season starts. He will also be talking with us some about his new company and what services he provides.

We hope to see you there. Let me know if you have questions or need directions. Thanks again for your participation in SCCA and the South West Chapter of Central Carolina’s Region!

Ted
tedagmar@juno.com (864) 915-505

We had 38 people in attendance for our meeting last night …good crowd and a great meeting! For the door prize, we had Douglas’s 5 year old daughter, Taylor pull the winning raffle ticket for the Magellan GPS from Continental Tires…and she pulled…her dad’s ticket! THANK YOU Brian Gause and Continental Tires for donating that for our chapter!

We had updates on road racing events from Scott Franklin, autocrosses in the SE for next two months and Teen Survival training plans from Todd Owenby, and a report on FSAE competition at VIR needing volunteers from Steven Cagle. (Contact me if you are interested in volunteering some time to help out with this college competition design and racing event.) Ross Hennin gave a report on CSCC events and plans for 2009 including autocross events at the old Anderson Fairgrounds and the 2nd Annual Clemson Car Show coming up in April of this year. During the “items for sale” section of the meeting, several mentioned parts and tires they would like to move and John Finger let us know he had some Mazda’s he would like to sell!

Bob Haubenreich was our speaker on Data Acquisition systems. He did a great job of explaining the fundamentals of data systems, how they work, what you can get from them and how to use that data to make real world improvements. He used a number of case histories from autocross to road racing to show how results and improvements are generated. We had great input from members that use systems and questions from the group and a lot of after meeting discussion as usual. It’s great to hang out with sports car folks, network, learn some and share your experiences. Next month, we will have Steve Cook, a driving instructor for Skip Barber and BMW Performance Driving Center speak on driving skills and techniques for picking up speed.

Look forward to having you at the next meeting, 2nd Thursday of the month in Greenville, SC. Please contact me if you ideas for meetings or questions. Thanks!

Ted Theodore
tedagmar@juno.com

Happy New Year … looking forward to getting the SWCCCR Group together again. We will be having our dinner meeting this Thursday the 12th at Ryan’s on “Motor Mile” Lauren’s Road in Greenville, SC. We will eat from 6 to 7, meet from 7 to 8:30.

Door prize… Continental Tires has been a real friend to CCR and sponsored our region for a number of years. They recently donated a Magellan GPS to give away as our door prize thursday night. You must be present to WIN!!!!
THANKS CONTINENTAL!!!

Meeting … we will review news and upcoming events in motorsports including : rallycross, autocross, road racing, time trials and other events in the southeast. We’ll have our regular swap and trade for those interested in making some money and some space.

Speaker… Bob Haubenreich will be speaking on Data Acquisition and telemetry systems for modern racing cars. Bob road races a Formula Ford and works for Michelin here in the upstate. I asked Bob to start off with fundamentals of telemetry and take us through the data available and how to read it and use it. I think if you plan to get into some form of racing, this information would be helpful and well worth your time.

Bio : Bob Haubenreich has been involved with vehicle dynamics and data acquisition for over 20 years. Working for industry leaders Michelin and BMW, he gained valuable experience both in the lab and on the track. After returning to graduate school at age 40, he started developing vehicle dynamics simulation software for the NASCAR market. He has worked as a race engineer in the Winston Cup and Busch series. His experience as a test engineer and race car driver complement his analytical understanding of vehicle dynamics.

Mr. Haubenreich started his own engineering consulting firm in 2000 to provide services to the motorsports community. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University.

Hope to see you there. Thanks!
Next month - Steve Cooke (driving instructor from BMW Performance Center and Skip Barber) will be speaking on Competitive Driving Skills development and his new driving school.

Ryan’s Steakhouse on Lauren’s Road (Motor Mile) in Greenville.
Eat from 6 to 7. Meeting from 7 to 8:30.

Next Thursday night, we will have our dinner meeting with updates on southeastern motorsports events, sell and swap shop, and other regular features. Todd Owenby will be reporting on upcoming autocross events and Scott Franklin will be updating us on road racing events. A representative from the Clemson Sports Car Club will be on hand to tell us about their autocross in Anderson, SC on November 9th. (It’s not too late to sign up!) We have a great cross section or road racers, autocrossers, time trailers, rallycrossers, tuners and people that just love cars! You will enjoy networking with people with a common passion for all things with 4 wheels. If you know of any car shows or events in the area in the coming months, please bring the information to the meeting. Thanks!

Our speaker for the evening will be Michael Mitchell. Michael is the Curator of the BWM Car Club of America Foundation.  Both the BMW CCA and the BMW CCA Foundation are headquartered in Greenville, SC.   Michael started with the Foundation in 2002 and he has been full-time with the Foundation since 2006.  He is over the Foundation’s Archives, and works directly with Bill Wade, the Foundation’s Tire Rack Street Survival  Director. Michael’s motorsports interests include autocross, rallies and concours, and event photography.

Michael will be speaking on the Tire Rack Street Survival® school program which is sponsored by Tire Rack, BMW, BMW Car Club of America and Sports Car Club of America. TRSS is a safe teen program designed to go beyond today’s required driver’s education and give teens across the U.S. the driving tools and hands-on experience to become safer, smarter drivers. Trained and qualified in-car driving instructors are provided as well as classroom experience for each student. The reports we received from the TRSS training done  in Charleston this year by SC Region showed it was helpful, fun and productive for the students AND the volunteers who helped run the event.

Last year, over 5,000 teenagers died in motor vehicle crashes, the leading killer of American youths aged 16 to 19, accounting for more than 40 percent of fatalities in that age bracket. To reduce this number, Tire Rack Street Survival® has developed a non-profit, national driver education program aimed at teaching teens the skills they need to stay alive behind the wheel.  http://www.streetsurvival.org/index.php

SCCA Central Carolinas is working with SWCCCR to put on a TRSS training school here in the upstate next spring. We will discuss after the meeting how you may be able to help in making this event happen and making a difference right here where we live.  Todd has taken the initiative to begin this project and we appreciate his efforts.

Please bring a friend and introduce them to our SWCCCR group. We look forward to seeing a good turn out. Thanks for your support!. Questions? Ideas for speakers or vendors? Items for Sale? Write me at tedagmar@juno.com

Ted Theodore
tedagmar@juno.com
(864) 915-5052

We had an excellent turn out for the SWCCCR September Thursday night meeting. Five new people attended and we look forward to having them at future meetings.

Gary Ramsey did a great job speaking tour group about SAC and how they started building Cobra Replicas. Make no mistake, this is NOT just another “kit car”. The degree of attention and commitment to excellence is obvious in their work. Gary walked us through some of the history of SAC and his experience racing at dirt and asphalt tracks in the southeast. He said that SCCA has been a wonderful club for him to run with, make friends and share. He answered some questions on Dynos and gave us some information handouts to better understand how they work. We left Ryan’s Steak house after our regular meeting and went down to the SAC shop on Lauren’s Road. Gary, Jack and Joey had Gary’s monster Blue Cobra from the hillclimbs this year on the dyno ready to go. Gary passed out earplugs and fired it up. It took a while for the tires to warm up to get stick on the drum but he took up to 400+HP on his pull. It was really amazing to watch that kind of power on a dyno. One thing Gary said stuck with a lot of us “Running your car on a dyno is one of the most humbling experiences you can have.” Everyone thinks they have more power than they really have. On the other hand, dyno time is still one of the best ways to find all those little places extra HP is hiding. SAC put on quite a show and the tour of their shop was a real pleasure.

Make sure to visit SAC at http://www.southac.com/

Great MEETING! Thanks to Jack, Gary, Joey, their wives and family for hosting us at their shop. We wish you continued success with your shop and with your Cobras in shows and hillclimbs! Thanks to all who came out!
Ted

The SouthWest Chapter of Central Carolina’s Region will hold it’s next meeting on Thursday, September 11th at Ryan’s Steak House on Laurens Road in Greenville, SC. We will meet to eat at 6:00 to 7:00 and start our regular meeting at 7:00.

We will have updates and results on current events in motorsports as well as a schedule on events in the next two months (including the Black Lake 2 day autocross September 26th and 27th at the Michelin Proving Grounds in Laurens, SC.) We’ll also recap the Eagle’s Nest hillclimb with three of the TOP 4 finishers present! Great representation from our SWCCCR group! We will also have a trade and sell time so bring info on the junk that’s in your garage that is soon to be someone else’s treasure!

For our speaker this month, we have something special. We will be joined by Jack Abney, Gary Ramsey and Joey Burton from Southern Auto Classics on Laurens Road. Along with making some excellent AC Cobras from scratch, they also have a dyno , I have asked Jack, Gary and Joey to come speak to us on Dynos. They will cover all aspects of dynos from how they work, what variables they adjust to reach optimum performance, how to read your charts, costs and what you can do to make the most of your dyno time. After our meeting, we will drive down to his shop (just a mile or two from Ryan’s down Lauren’s Road) and they will put one of our member’s cars on a dyno and do a pull for us. This is a great chance to improve your understanding of dynos and get better value when you do take your car to a shop.

Take a look at their website when you have time. www.southac.com By the way, that beautiful blue Cobra that took 2nd place overall at Eagle’s Nest Hillclimb was driven by Gary Ramsey. Gary is an incredible driver and that is one wicked awesome car!

We really appreciate the guys from SAC coming to speak and look forward to a great turn out.

Thanks. If you have any questions or need directions, please give me an email or call.

Thanks for making SWCCCR what it is today! THIS would be a great meeting to bring a friend!

Ted
(864) 915-5052
tedagmar@juno.com

Thanks to everyone that attended last night. We had some first timers from Clemson University and Phillip Hodge from Greenville. We’ll look forward to having them join us in the future. Brian Guinn celebrated his 48th birthday with us as well.

Todd and Scott recapped upcoming events in road race and autocross and Nick Hallman told us a little about the Tire Rack Teen Street Survival Program SCR is putting on in Charleston this weekend.

Dick spoke a little bit about getting involved in our club and areas we need member support. From site selection and acquisition, to finding sponsorship for events, to corner working races and hillclimbs, CCR needs you. It doesn’t have to be an area you are trained or have experience in. It has to be you that says “Can I help”. We had some door prizes provided by Redline Rim Repair …contact these folks at http://redlinerimrepair.com/ for your rim repair needs. They recently did my rims on the Z3 M Roadster and I was very impressed with their work.

Dave McKenzie CCR AX Director and Nick Hallman SCR AX Director spoke to our group about the autocross programs, member participation, our site situation and plans for new site acquisition and the September Michelin “Shootout at Black Lake” event. This promises to be a memorable event and we are all excited to see this on the horizon. Dave mentioned several events coming up including our 24 hour autocross. Nick told us about the Allied vs Axis competition in Charleston this weekend. We appreciate these guys coming and we’ll look forward to running some events and getting ready for the battle at the Michelin Testing Grounds between the two clubs.

We closed the meeting mentioning how new people are coming in and we are in a growth mode and about how we lost one of our SWCCCR past attendees in Steve Poe. Bruce advised us more about Steve’s accident and the importance of safety in our sport.

Thanks for attending and we’ll look forward to seeing you in August.

Ted