Submitted by Jeff Janoska

http://groups.google.com/group/marrs_moms

A group for the non-racing co-partners of drivers in the Mid-Atlantic Road Racing Series with small children. Fathers, mothers and significant others are welcome. Purpose of the group is to facilitate interaction at the track for those with small children.

The purpose is a bit open, but we seem to have a growing number of little people coming to the track now. Thought it might be a nice place for the non-racing parents to organize get togethers/ side-trips/etc when at Summit Point or the out of region races. For example, the beaches are pretty darn close to NJMP and I imagine a bunch of moms/dads would love to go to the beach as a group.

WASHINGTON D.C. REGION
SPORTS CAR CLUB OF AMERICA
Flagging and Communication
Newsletter
April 2010

MARCH IN REVIEW – TIME FOR SCHOOL!
Advanced Flag School
It certainly felt good to be back at the track after this long, snowy mid-Atlantic winter. We kicked off March with the annual Advanced Flag School, which this year included Crash and Burn training. Forty-eight dedicated folks pretty much filled the Summit Point registration building for the morning classroom session. The morning was spent covering a variety of decision-making scenarios that that we frequently encounter at Summit Point, with the goal of understanding what influences captains’ decision to leave a car or ask for a hot pull, and what factors effect whether a hot pull can be done under a local yellow or if additional action from the operating steward is needed. Following this exercise, SRF driver and health and safety professional Terry Carraway gave a very informative presentation on heat stress and heat-related illnesses. Terry has been kind enough to present at our Advanced Flag School for a number of years on a variety of health and safety related issues, and I personally want to thank him for all his great work. If anyone has a suggestion for a health and safety-related topic to be covered at next year’s AFS, let us know and Terry will be happy to talk about it. In the meantime, stop by the Hagerman paddock at any of the MARRS events, say hi to Terry, and thank him for his efforts to keep us safe on station.
While folks ate lunch, our own Toree Holmes gave a short presentation on responding to cars on fire, and proper use of a fire bottle. After lunch the group adjourned to the outside of Turn 10, where the EV folks were waiting with two cars – one for burning, and one for cutting. Wayne Armbrust proved that every part of a car can and will burn with proper application of diesel fuel. Special thanks to Craig Zane for donating a bunch of fire bottles for use. Those donated fire bottles really allow us to keep out costs down, as we do not have to discharge, then refill, the region’s bottles. Also thanks to Steve Huemmer and John McCauley for their efforts on behalf of EV, and for making sure the track fire truck was on scene, just in case.

SPRING DRIVER’S SCHOOL
Spring Driver’s School was held at the Summit Point circuit March 19-21. This year the region went to a three-day double school format, which was…..interesting. The Friday schedule-makers were a bit, shall we say, optimistic in what could be accomplished in one day, with the result that the final checkered for the day did not drop until 6:20 pm. At least Saturday and Sunday had more reasonable end-times. We were a bit light on flaggers, especially on Friday and Sunday, but in general the weekend went off without a hitch (other than the usual start-of-season rustiness in some of our radio call), and we trained somewhere around 68 new drivers.
There were two positive things that came out of the weekend. The first was the weather, which was absolutely GLORIOUS for a driver’s school. Hopefully we will not pay for that good fortune later in the season. The second, and most important positive aspect of the driver’s school, was that we had six excellent students in our novice flag school. After a morning classroom session with instructor James Noel, novice flaggers were assigned to trainers out on station for the rest of the weekend. Feedback on all the novices was very positive, and we certainly hope they will come back and join us for MARRS 1. Please join me in welcoming all of our new flaggers: Kim Ward, Kim Roberts, Joe Roberts, Larry Stroup, Michael Handelman, and Jim Pugh.

MARRS 1
Registration is open for MARRS 1 to be held April 24-25 at Summit Point. Please come out and support our MARRS drivers, and one of the best amateur road-racing series in the country. This year’s format is similar to last year’s, with two exceptions: 1) the number of race groups has been expanded to 9, providing SRFs with their own run-group; and 2) Sunday’s races are based on group car count: <20 cars = 16 lap race; 20-34 cars = 18 lap race; 35 or more cars = 20 lap race. As usual, register on the DLB website, which can be accessed from the main page of the Region’s website, www.wdcr-scca.org.
MARRS 1 Schedule:
Saturday Flag Meeting: 7:30 am at the base of the tower
Registration Schedule: Friday – 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Saturday – open 7:00 am for workers
Sunday – open 7:45 am for workers

VRG – JEFFERSON 500
Once again this year the D.C. Region is supporting the VRG Jefferson 500, a three-day event running from Friday April 30 through Sunday May 2. Currently there are approximately 150 cars registered for the event, which is slightly ahead of the registration pace of last year. We are looking for SCCA flaggers to provide the bulk of the flagging support for the event, and I can promise you now that if you flag the event you will receive the following perks:
• Lunch all three days
• Ticket to the Jefferson 500 Dinner Saturday evening, plus a discount on the Friday evening Marlboro dinner ticket
• A long-sleeve event shirt
• A pass to Summit Point Karts

Bryan Redman cannot make it this year, but Grand Marshal for the event will be Porsche and sportscar-racing legend Vic Elford, a 2-time class winner at LeMans, and overall winner at Sebring in 1971. I’m sure Vic will have some great stories about driving those awesome Porsche 917s.

Please plan to join us for the Jefferson 500 April 30, May 1 & 2. To register for the event, send an e-mail to James Noel (jamesnoel@verizon.net) and Steve Hyatt (Stephen@atspeed.org) and specify which days you plan to work. A copy of the schedule for the event can be found online at www.vrgonline.org/events_calendar/Jefferson/J10/j500_schedule_withlogos.pdf. Flag meetings will be 7:45 on Friday and Saturday, at the base of the tower. Please register now if you would like to attend the Friday and Saturday evening dinners. Dinner tickets cannot be guaranteed if you register after Friday April 16!

ALPHA CLUB NATIONAL TIME TRIALS – JUNE 24
We have been approached by the D.C.-area Alpha Romeo Club to provide flaggers for a time trial event being held in conjunction with their National Convention celebrating the 100th anniversary of Alpha. The time trials are at Summit Point on June 24, which is the Thursday before MARRS 5. The time trials will have 3 run groups, with morning practice and afternoon timed runs with each car getting a warm-up lap, 3 timed laps, and a cool down lap, with 3 cars on the track at a time. The Alpha Club will provide lunch and a commemorative shirt, and there may be an opportunity to see some historic old cars run at the end of the day. There is an Alpha concourse being held at the Stone Manor Inn on Saturday which includes many pre-war and very expensive cars, and those cars have been invited to do a demo run at the track at the end of the time trials. If you are interested, let Greg McDermott know at gjmcdermott@cox.net

THE STRAIGHTPIPE
The Washington D.C. Region’s newsletter, The Straightpipe, is now an online-only publication, with its own website www.straightpipemagazine.com. Please check it out – it is a very nice website, and articles are published on an “as-submitted” basis. The editors are always grateful for submitted articles and pictures, and F&C even has its own section!

F&C NEWSLETTER
In addition to the e-mailed copy and to help you keep in touch the newsletter is also posted on the WDCR web site each month and available through:

http://www.wdcr-scca.org/ClubRacing/FC/FCNewsletter/tabid/1575/Default.aspx

CONTACT INFO
There is a common e-mail address for the WDCR FM staff; FandC@wdcr-scca.org automatically sends a note to each of the WDC Flag Marshals.
If you would like to contact us individually:
Greg McDermott: gjmcdermott@cox.net
Wayne Armbrust: sccaflag@visuallink.com
Dale Ferril: Kearneyracing@yahoo.com or 301 322 3240 (M~F 8am to 5pm)
Cheryl Hasychak: hasy@netzero.net

A Unique Opportunity!

The 2010 Road Rally season provides a unique opportunity for Washington DC Region members. In one year, you can progress from being a beginner to participating in the United States Road Rally Challenge, and do it right here in our own backyard. That’s right, you can do it all without even renting a motel room. It is indeed a unique opportunity for WDCR members. Never before has this been possible!

Check out the calendar on the Region’s website, and you will see that it is possible. This month, the season begins with a rally school where you will be taught the fundamentals and be given a textbook to use as a reference. There is also a short rally included in the school to test the skills you have acquired in a fun atmosphere.

Here is the really great part! There is a style of event called Monte Carlo, or Monte for short. On a Monte, the locations and times of arrival for all the checkpoints are given in the route instructions and the route instructions are simple. No one gets lost on a Monte.

The Rally School will teach you all the techniques you need to know about competing on a Monte. Then, we have several events throughout the season that are Monte Carlo style events. The “Get-the-Dust-OFF” and the “Historic Bridges of Frederick County” are both Montes that give you opportunities to hone your skills. Finally, you can wrap up your year with the “Catoctin Monte”, your Region’s award winning National Rally.

The “Catoctin Monte” is the keystone event in the three event weekend known as the United States Road Rally Challenge, the most important event on the SCCA’s calendar of National Rallies. It is held just north of here in the beautiful Catoctin Mountains during the season when the trees will be at high color.

Don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity. Check out the Road Rally calendar and plan out your season.

Submitted by Steve Hyatt.

You want to do what?

That is the answer I got from my wife last September. I had told Tracy that the need for speed had bitten me again.

See, it had been almost 20 years since I stepped out of the race car for a number of reasons and sold the car to my dad. I crewed for him till his racing stopped. I remain active in the SCCA and WDCR in numerous roles, but I wanted to be back in the driver’s seat.

The search for the type of racing took a long time. It was not till about Christmas that I decided on RallyCross. It seemed to allow the maximum fun for the right amount of money for our budget.

So the fun began. I started to research the classes and results of any RX, I could find. EBay, Craigslist and Racingjunk.com were the most read websites. The first event was only a month away and no car in the garage or even a good prospect. I narrowed down the choice to front wheel drive which would allow me to use my current towing arrangements and I raced a VW Rabbit and a real MINI in my club racing days. I was sure I would miss the first event which was now 3 weeks away, when a friend gave in and sold me a 1991 VW Golf GTI. Back to my racing roots!!!!

We picked the car up 14 days before the event. The new Racing Wabbit made it home with only one hitch- the front spoiler did not clear the ramps on the tow dolly. It’s a RX car and needs more ground clearance anyway.

I then remembered the problems with full time jobs, kids, the honey do list, and prepping a race car. With a lot of help from the whole family, most of the important thing got cleaned, changed, repaired or updated.

Then the weather steward gave us a week due to a huge rain system dumping 3 inches of rain on Summit Point- more prep and more details taken care of and the sorting of 3 sets of tools acquired since my racing days.

The race weekend is here and the list is long…… probably a little anal about packing tools and spare etc…

Check the list, load the truck, check the list, load the car, check the list, and leave for Summit Point. Not to insult the family, but it was good that all 3 of them were supporting club racing’s driver school or they may have seen a side of dad never before revealed.

Then the event goes off without a problem, almost; the car does great, the wife and kids get to ride and see the fun. The car decided it needed a 5 minute timeout in the middle of the 3rd run in the afternoon. It just shut off. Then as the masses were coming to push me off course to wait for a wrecker, it started and has been fine since. Who knows?

The best part besides driving the car back on the dolly with not having to fix anything, one was the huge smile on my face and the look on my friends and family as I was telling my war stories.

Have to run- the next event is only 2 weeks away and I have so much to do……

Stephen C. Hyatt