February 2011 SASCA Meeting #3 Minutes

7:30pm Meeting called to order, 23 February 2011. Diana Stevens, Club Secretary, presiding.

Old Business

2010 Year End Party – Was held at Clear Springs restaurant. Everyone had a good time and the food was great. Awards were given out and we even had some surprise gag awards made out of “retired” cones, thanks to Craig. Most notable were Eric Yee’s 4 awards of various titles for being the top cone dragger.

2011 Schedule – Retama has an event that is causing a schedule conflict for the June 5th date. Perhaps we can do a co-event with Spokes for June.

June Divisional – Planning is still in the works. The date is confirmed/contracted, but no other details have been set as of yet. Stay tuned!

Novice school – March 5th is the date! The event is full and registration is closed.* Currently we have a list of 6-7 confirmed instructors. ***We still need volunteers for event setup !***

Novice Awards at the meetings – Dalton will get in touch with the Novice coordinator to ensure that someone is present at the meetings with novice trophies and regular class trophies.

New Business

February Event – Great “first” event at Retama Park! Despite the weather being drizzly all week, the autocross gods smiled upon our race day and the morning was free and clear. A million thanks go out to John Patterson and Eric Poyer for voluntarily cleaning 55 gallons of crud off the lot. The pavement was in excellent condition and Vivek’s course was a LOT fun; technically challenging with a good mix of wide and tight turns.

Grid Woes – Concerns were made about the outbound/inbound traffic from grid crossing. Some were having troubles knowing where to go and in order to keep confusion from slowing egress from the track, we need to figure out a way to mark who should stop and give right of way where. Diane suggested a stop sign be placed for the traffic entering the track for the start.

A lot of people were entering the event area without wrist bands. We need to figure out a way to prevent access without a wrist band at the next event.

John suggested a professional lot cleaning business come out to clean the lot before the next event. He has a friend who will give him a bid.

Decibel level readings were taken and a few cars were found to be out of the acceptable level range. We need to get everyone within spec so we can continue to race at Retama and keep the horse owners, property owners, and security happy. Reminder:95dB@50 ft from the edge of the course as specified by the SCCA rules. A tripod has been purchased for use at the sound logging station in order to abide by SCCA standards. A BOD meeting for official adoption of these rules is suggested ASAP.

Suggestions for a chair position for Car Classifications was given by Dalton. All agreed as we have noted several cars coming out that are definitely not properly classed. Seeing as SASCA is going to host a divisional event, this is imperative to discuss with the BOD soon.

Seeing as there were some cars out of spec at our first Retama event, we are going to be designating a new worker assignment for the events: Sound Logger. The sound logging station will be setup and a worker from each work group will be designated by the worker chief at the usual time of worker assignments. Readings will be taken in every heat to ensure compliance.

Another note about the Retama venue: We had several of the Selma squad cars and Retama Park security out at Retama watching over the event. Their presence is welcome and we remind all those attending the event, racers and spectators, to mind their manners and obey the traffic laws and drive slowly and respectably in the lot. I doubt the Selma PD will be forgiving of antics on their roads and we certainly do not want the club attracting negative attention, so be sure to tell your buddies that you invite to the events.

Membership – We had several people at the event paying for their memberships. While this is acceptable, we’d like to remind everyone that the easiest and fastest way to join is online at the axware site. You can pay for your membership online with a debit/credit card so you don’t have to worry about bringing extra cash to the event.

Equipment – The new cones are in and Ricky was the first to christen one of them, dragging it all the way back to the grid.

March Event – Chris Leclair has been voluntold for course design for the March event. Jay Cryderman has volunteered to tow the trailer to the event.

Meeting adjourned at 8:21 pm.