Message from the President
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
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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