Tristan Herbert will be piloting one of two 2012 HPA/RennGruppe Volkswagen Jetta GLIs in the 2012 Pirelli World Challenge. Herbert exploded onto the pro racing scene in St. Petersburg last year setting the pole and winning the race. His accomplishments continued throughout the season as he amassed five podium finishes and culminated with earning the 2011 Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car Rookie of the Year. Grassroots Motorsports Magazine awarded his team’s independent privateer efforts with an Editor’s Choice Award as one of the Top 20 Achievements for 2011.

HPA Motorsports and RennGruppe have aligned with Volkswagen of America, Inc. contingency program which is the largest of any manufacturer in the series.  Volkswagen of America, Inc. has also signed on again as one of the main series sponsors.

“I’m really proud of this team and our success in last year’s World Challenge season”, reflects Herbert. “Although we had many challenges to overcome, the team was able to pull together for a great season. Building on a successful rookie year, I’m confident in our team’s ability to take home a championship this year.”

HPA Motorsports has signed on as a primary sponsor for the RennGruppe Volkswagen Jetta GLI effort.  “This is a tremendous opportunity for HPA and RennGruppe to develop these Volkswagen race cars.  This alignment comes right in the middle of our Volkswagen MK6 initiative and direct injection product development.  It is the perfect fit,” said Marcel Horn, owner of HPA Motorsports.

Since 1991, HPA Motorsports has led performance trends in the industry, raising the bar with every project. Consistent performance improvements are a given at HPA.  Their State of-the-art facility utilizes cutting edge technology provides research and product development that is un-paralleled in the industry.

RennGruppe played an invaluable role in the success of last years team effort. The team’s Principal Crew Chief, Cameron Conover, earned the “Crew of the Year”, exemplifying the Team’s outstanding track preparation and development of its #33 Volkswagen GTI.

Herbert is looking forward to continued partnership with two other integral sponsors. Germanautoparts.com has signed on as the team’s primary parts provider. Germanautoparts.com is staffed by passionate professionals well-versed in both driving and parts making them a natural fit for the team.  Brimtek, Based out of Northern Virginia, is also continuing its support for the team.  Brimtek is a leading strategic support company for various Federal and Military branches.

Herbert has his sights set on the checkered flag at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. This doubleheader weekend kicks off the Pirelli World Challenge Championship series on March 23-25, 2012. This will be the launch of a remarkable season for Tristan Herbert and his team.

www.tristanherbert.com

www.hpamotorsport.com

www.renngruppe.com

www.germanautoparts.com

www.brimtek.com

Some of you may recall that the theme for our 2009 Washington, DC Region Awards Banquet was the Region’s 60^th birthday. This bothered me a little, as the late Dave Roethel (our second Historian) told me many years ago that our Region goes back to 1944 (not 1949). I could not verify this with SCCA National (who could only verify our existence as far back as 1949.) The oldest record in our own archives is an issue of the Straightpipe from 1951, but even that issue inferred we were a Region before 1951. That Straightpipe indicated it was “Volume 2,” and if typical journalistic conventions apply, the Straightpipe, one may assume, existed in 1950. Still, no proof-positive for our Region’s birth year.

Flash forward to January 2012. Our RE, Jack Burrows, visited me to drop off some items for the Region’s archives from previous Board member Steve White, but more apropos to this story, Jack also dropped off the “thumb drive” he purchased for the Region — a thumb drive that contained scanned pages from all of SCCA’s SportsCar issues from the first issue up to and including 1970. (If you want to purchase your own copy, contact www.sportscarscan.com — the archive costs $375.) Jack agreed with me that our Region ought to own such an archive, and he was generous enough to buy the archive at his expense and donate it to the Region. At last, I hoped, a chance to verify our genesis.

SCCA began in Boston and would remain in New England for well into the 1960s. Even in SCCA’s infancy the Board recognized that chapters or “Regions” would eventually parallel the club’s growth. Volume 1, Number 1, dated March 1944 listed only six members: Theodore F. Roberston, president; Chapin Walour, vice-president; Everett M. Dickson, secretary-treasurer; and four non-officers: John F. Duby; Arnold H. Enborg; George F. Schulz; and Robert E. Townsend. By the end of that first year membership would jump to 59.

The SCCA’s bylaws were restrictive as applied to membership: you had to actually own a sports car, for example. Obviously, that necessitated a definition for a sports car. Amusingly enough, that definition would change fairly quickly and often, but here’s how the club officially described a “sports car” in 1944:  “…Our definition… includes any quality car which was built primarily for sports motoring as opposed to mere transportation. In other words, any car which rates higher than average in construction and engineering, and which, preferably, has open body work. In view of the difficulty of formulating a closer definition, it will be the duty of the club officers to pass on the eligibility of any particular car. Incidentally, the club is primarily interested in the preservation of sports cars built subsequent to 1914, as older cars are not suitable for the events planned by the club, and are also amply cared for by other car clubs.”

With that definition in place, ARTICLE IV – DISMISSAL of the Bylaws notes that members could be dismissed from the club for, among other reasons, “Disposing of a sports car to a non-member without either first advertising the car in a Club publication or notifying the officers at least 10 days prior to the disposal of said car” and even “Breaking up a sports car or permitting the breaking up of a sports car without the approval of the Officers” and even “Having knowledge of the breaking up or possible breaking up of a sports car and failing to notify an Officer within a reasonable period of time.” In the club’s first year, one member did get the axe for violating that first ownership rule. Further, member candidates had to be sponsored by a member in good standing.

So what were they driving or owning? Here is a list of some of the 134 cars as owned by the 59 members at the end of the year: 21 Mercers; 15 Mercedes; 15 Stutz; 13 Packards; 9 Duesenbergs and 9 Rolls-Royces. At the end of 1944 that said something about the somewhat patrician makeup of SCCA membership.

I finally hit “pay-dirt” in that November-December issue of the Club magazine: “REGIONAL EXECUTIVE  Lt. (j.g.) S. Hempstone Oliver, USNR, has accepted the appointment of Regional Executive for the Washington, DC Region. He will represent the Club in that region, and will handle all Club affairs therein. Hemp needs no introduction, as he is one of the best known and most active of our members, having sponsored no less than twelve members into the Club.” This is the first mention of any Region in SCCA. Within a few months Hartford (CT) would get its own Region, followed by Philadelphia (PA).

In closing, the SCCA National publication SportsCar was originally called “Sportswagen” but few liked that name and it would be changed in the Club’s first year of existence to “Sports Car.” Additionally, Hempstone Oliver would become in the 1950s, the Curator of Transportation for the Smithsonian Institution and remained in that position when the Museum built the American History Museum on the Mall in Washington, DC.

— Steve Lloyd, Historian

Washington, DC Region, SCCA