The April 2017 monthly meeting of the Central New York Region of the Sports Car Club of America was called to order at 7:21PM, Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at the American Legion in Liverpool, NY by Regional Executive Ed Leubner. Twenty one people were in attendance.
Leubner welcomed new attendees Dave Moreau (long-time member) and Steve Olenbacker. (Apologies if spelling is incorrect.)
Ed Leubner made a motion to accept the minutes of the March meeting. After discussion, Scott Newton noted that an adjustment needs to be made to update the solo non-member price to $50 ($35 entry + $15 weekend membership). A motion was made to approve the minutes by Mike Donofrio; it was seconded by Mick Levy. The motion was approved by unanimous voice vote.
Regional Executive's Report
Ed reported that he pulled the Miata out on Friday and also that he recently bought a 1998 M Roadster and looks forward to running it at a few solo events.
Assistant Regional Executive's Report
A.R.E. Mark Bizzozero reported that he ordered his Snell 2015 helmet and is looking forward to getting the Mini on the Road in the next couple of weeks.
Treasurer's Report
Treasurer Jay Cartini submitted a report (attached to e-mail) showing a March 1st opening balance of $8,374.55. Monthly income of $2,324.00 and expenses of $1,520.41 resulted in a March 31st closing balance of $9,178.14. The club purchased an advertisement in the next edition of Apex magazine at 50% off their normal rate, for a cost of $350. Jay also noted he received the official charter for 2017 from National.
Treasurer's report
Secretary's Report
Secretary Chris Whaley was unable to attend tonight's meeting, however, he relayed to Ed that the Mustang Club had inquired about what dates we wanted to set up at Wegmans on Route 57. The gathering runs from 7:30AM to about 10:30AM each week.
Activities Report
Activities Chair Ted Barbuto asked if Lynn Hidy had verified that we were set for our Aug 9th meeting at the Yacht Club. Ed did speak with Lynn and Lynn was still unsure. He will follow-up.
Solo Report
Solo Chair Scott Newton reported that we concluded a solo meeting immediately prior to the start of the regular monthly meeting during which time some changes were voted upon and adopted. The changes for the 2017 season are as follow:
1. Some event schedule times have been modified slightly so that we can stay on-time. Event schedule will now be as follows:
8:00 AM - Course open for walking
8:00 AM - Registration and Tech Open
9:15 AM - Novice Course Walk
9:20 AM - Registration and Tech Close
10:00 AM - Mandatory Drivers' Meeting
10:30 AM - First Car Off
Approx 3:30 PM - Last Car Off, Cleanup begins
Approx 4:30 PM - Awards Ceremony
2. Late registration may now be possible. There will be a $10 late registration surcharge. All late registrations are at the discretion of the event chair. First-time autocrossers are not eligible for late registration.
3. A stationary tech line will be standard operating procedure.
4. We are switching to grouped class awards. There will be only 8 classes:
a) Street (excluding SSR) + HCS
b) Street Touring + Classic American Muscle
c) Street Prepared + Street Modified + SSR + HCR
d) Prepared + Modified + KM + FSAE
e) Junior Kart
f) Pro
g) Novice
5. We are switching to "RTP" (Racer's Theoretical Performance) style points system for class and PAX championship points payout. Fastest driver receives 101.00 points. All other drivers receive points based on a percentage of winning driver's time. For instance if FTD in the class was a 50.000, and the 2nd place competitor had a 51.000, or 2% slower, they would then get 98.00 points (for 100 - 2%).
6. When we have enough workers, we will have an announcer to announce the times of each run on the PA. At least one loudspeaker will be directed towards the course for the benefit of course-workers.
The following solo items were discussed at the regular monthly meeting:
National is changing incident reporting. No more green card. All incident reports are now online. The old forms must be discarded.
Oswego County Airport provided a letter for agreement. Jay has looked at it, Ed has looked at it. There are still a few minor details to work out, however, it is generally acceptable.
CVMP is undergoing a possible ownership transition. Karl Hughes anticipates that he will know the day the transition happens and if it will be a problem for the running of our event(s).
Oswego County airport is having a pancake breakfast fly-in on two occasions that coincide with our events being held at the adjacent EVOC facility: June 11th and Aug 13th. They will let us put literature at their event describing what we do. These could be good opportunities to get some new members.
RallyCross Report
RallyCross Chair James Quattro reported that we had a extraordinarily well attended on March 19th with 38 paid entrants, including two Porsche 944s with 2 drivers each. James noted that our CNYRP events are very strong. He placed a $20 Facebook post bost and got tremendous response from it. MArk Mangicaro commented that we should increase of solo event post boosts from the current $5 to $10 or $20. Our next RallyCross event is Sunday, May 7th at CNYRP.
Flagging and Communications Report
Mick Levy reported that last weekend was the Green Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International. He ran in to Area 10 Director Earl Hurlbut who commented he was doing a lot of traveling. There is nothing this week at WGI. Next week is Endurance racing.
Racing Report
No report.
Old Business
None.
New Business
Karl inquired about the newsletter. Ed said he has had difficulty getting in touch with Dan.
Mick noted that Fernando Alonso is giving up his seat at Indy to go for the Motorsports Triple Crown.
The winner of the 50/50 raffle was Chris Murphy. Chris took home the princely sum of $15.
At 8:19 PM a motion was made by Rex Franklin to adjourn the meeting; it was seconded by Karl Hughes and passed unanimously by voice vote.
Our next meeting will be held Wednesday, May 10th, 2017 at the American Legion in Liverpool at 7:00PM.
Respectfully submitted by Mark Mangicaro