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Message from the President
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The month of
May was a fantastic month! There were so many events this
month that I wanted to take a moment to reflect on just some
of what the club did in May.
Thank you to everyone who participated at Blooming Fest in
West Chicago and helped to make it so successful. A special
thank you goes to JD (Jim Davis) who was kind enough to
bring out 4 of his American Graffiti cars. These classic
cars were placed specially in front of the Dairy Queen as
the grand finale for the club display! In total we had 26
cars which included various cars along with a dragster. I
was so proud of our display and want to thank each of you
who brought their cars out to show or came to enjoy the fun
and festivities. We also received 3 gift certificates from
the city to give away. We put everyone’s name that displayed
a car in a hat and drew out three lucky winners. The winners
were Don Schmitt, Steve Riebe, and Sherry Davis,
congratulations to all of you.
The third weekend of May was especially busy as we had our
Club photo day, as well as, a benefit auto cross racing
event to raise money for the 2011 MWR Convention. While I
wasn't able to attend the club photo day, I heard it was a
great day for all who attended, thank you to our club
photographer (Ken Voegele) for putting that together.
The autocross event was very successful as well and we had
(57) drivers over the weekend. Rick Toth was able to join
us on Saturday in Mattoon to try out autocross racing. The
smile on his face said it all. Thanks Rick for coming to
Mattoon and for your assistance.
The following Wednesday, May 25th, a group of us left for our
2nd Annual trip to Indy 500 for their annual Community days.
We all arrived at the hotel on Tuesday evening and were able
to go to dinner together. The restaurant is within walking
distance and offers good food. The joke of the evening was
the waitresses telling us “to not order the hamburgers”, not
sure if anyone knows for sure why not but none of us did.
The next morning we were off and running to the Indy 500
track, our timing was perfect and we were on the track
around 9:30 am for our first lap. We had a perfect parking
spot this year, right at the entrance to the track, with six
C4s leading our group. We had a great time walking around
the beautiful grounds as well as taking a 2nd lap before
heading home. Be sure to look for the pictures we will be
posting on the website.
The last weekend of the month was another autocross race in
Mattoon. The word would be HOT, the weather and the driving
from our club. Jon Kurtz came out for the first time and
took like a fish to water. Grant Grassmid is becoming a
regular and is quickly becoming a skilled driver and
contender. He even beat me with my own car. JoEllen Baldo
and Carol Kurtz worked at Station 2 to ensure all drivers
completed the course and as well as cones. Thanks to Jon,
Carol and Grant for assisting our club and for helping out
over the weekend. On Saturday evening the drivers and
workers were invited to dinner at the MidAmerica Motor Works
offices. We all had a wonderful time and MidAmerica was
such a gracious host. Look for the group picture taken by
MidAmerica to be posted. June is here already
and with that comes many more events, along with Bloomington
Gold, hope to see you there. - John P Baldo, President
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| First Time Racing |
John asked me to report on my first
day of racing a Corvette in completion. What follows are my
impressions and what I felt like racing what we drove. The
course had 5 turns and the good drivers did it in about 37
seconds, and I completed the course in a consistent 40 seconds.
Approximately 87 cars took 2,400 runs over the
two days at the Cole County Air Port in Charleston, Illinois.
NCCC Champions from as far away as Georgia
and at least 5 or 6 other states came to run the 14 events over 2
days, each car taking 2 runs per event.
The cars, three at a time on the coarse starting at 9:15 am
sharp after the drivers meeting, and running continuously through
4:00 pm.
As a novice driver on the first day I started by registering,
taking my 1991 L-98 roadster through technical inspection.
‘Tech’ assigns a class based on the car’s setup and gives a
quick check of the lug nuts and wheel bearings.
Once through tech I walked the track with JoEllen Baldo as
my instructor to get familiar with the course, then waited for my
class to be staged.
When my class was called I got into the right staging
lane and waited for the Starter to bring me up to the starting
line, I looked down the track to the first turn and selected my
line. The first turn was a
315 degree turn to the left.
The Starter gave me the signal to start, clutch out as
I pushed the throttle to the floor, the tires chirp, the engine
screams to red line. Before the red line it’s hard on the breaks,
steering to the left, don’t cross your arms, squeeze the throttle,
don’t let the rear end swing out.
Hard on the throttle, find the next directional cones, set
up for the next turn a sweeping 315 degree to the right, hard on
the breaks, turn into the corner, slowly push the throttle to
maintain speed, get the car straight full throttle, find the first
cone on the slalom, shift to second, feather the throttle to
increase speed, turn right then left through the slalom. Get the
car straight, very hard on the breaks into the next left hand 315,
down shift to first,
feather the throttle through the turn, get the car straight, full
throttle, steer right to stay on course, back off on the throttle,
and set the car for a sweeping left hander, feather the throttle
increasing without loosing the rear end, around the corner cones,
nail the throttle turn 45 degrees left, power shift to second,
hold the car straight, full acceleration through the timing traps,
hard on the breaks and turn left back to the staging lanes for my
next run.
On that run I was lucky Carol Kurtz and JoEllen Baldo
(the corner workers) didn’t find the cone I almost knocked over on
the second turn and report me in to timing. However, they did
for my off course excursion
on the last turn during a too aggressive rum, two tires in the
grass got me a ‘did not finish’ (DNF) for that run.
Yes the first time through was more trying to figure
that all out, and gaining an understanding of the cars limits.
Drifting my car through the turn, having the rear end
trying to catch up with the front, having the front slide out and
go straight, remembering to get off the brakes an let car find
it’s own way. Getting my
car straightened out before nailing the throttle.
Each of these events as you know can cause a Vette to get
out of shape, but now we are doing it in a place that’s fun and it
didn’t hurt the car. But now I have to work on the brakes of
the '91 to prepare for the next race. See you on the track. |
- Jon Kurtz, Editor |
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