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Loud PedalThe Membership Magazine of Oregon Region Sports Car Club of America

Editor:

Randy Unsbee, ABCSponsor PR & Marketing1260 NE 20thGresham, OR 97030 info@sponsorpr.com

Please send address changes to:Oregon Region SCCA4800 SW Macadam Ave., Ste. 110Portland, OR, 97239

Photographers: Doug Berger, George Dwinell, Wayne Flynn, Ron Coelho

The Loud Pedal is published monthly by the Oregon Region of the Sports Car Club of America.

All contents copyright © 2010 by Oregon Region SCCA Inc.

Articles and letters to the editor may be submitted in writing, by mail, by fax, electronically on a CD disk or by electronic mail. Original photographs may be submitted, but do not submit, and Oregon Region will not accept, copyrighted materials without prior written permission from the photographer specifically granting Loud Pedal permission to reprint his or her work.

It is to be understood that all materials submitted and accepted for use by Oregon Region for publication in Loud Pedal may be used by Oregon Region in all of the forms that Loud Pedal is published and in all of the ways that Loud Pedal is used and distributed by Oregon Region, both as a physical magazine, and as an electronic magazine available at the Oregon Region website.

These additional uses include, but are not limited to: membership communications, membership recruitment, and publicity.

Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the credited author only, and not necessarily those of Oregon Region, its officers, members, or the Loud Pedal staff. Publication of ads, articles, photos, etc. are subject to available space.

On the Front Cover:Todd Harris #01 kicked off the new season with a convincing win in Spec Racer Ford at the March Regional Championship season opener. Doug Berger Photo.

On the Back Cover:Driver School entrants negotiate turn 12 at Portland International Raceway. Doug Berger photo. Nick Fluge debuted his blue SPO class Jack Roush Mustang at his Russell Street Gallery. Photo by Randy Unsbee

customers or more than 500,000.

ORSCCA’s Integrated Marketing Communications Program

and international marketing communications expertise:

503-544-5944

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Oregon Region Office4800 SW Macadam Ave, Suite 110

Portland, OR 97239

Voice and Message Line

503-224-9469 Fax 503-224-9542

Mon. - Thurs. 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Please call

or use email below:

office@oregonscca.com

http://www.oregonscca.com

SCCA National Toll Free Number1-800-770-2055

Regional Executive Dan Halloran dan.halloran@yahoo.com Asst. R. E. Dan Mullin danm356@yahoo.comPast R. E. Jeffrey Zurschmeide J.zursch@verizon.netRoad Racing Director Jim Murray jmmurrayjr@aol.comSolo II Director Andy Howe andy.howe@verizon.netRally Director Chris Hale chale@nwscan.netDirector at Large 1 Peggy Gaston peggygaston@hotmail.comDirector at Large 2 Kimberly McFarland kuzmc@hotmail.com

Membership/Merchandise Karen McCoy 503-224-9469 Region Office Admin Karen McCoy 503-224-9469 Secretary to BOD Mary Thompson memamare3@aol.com Treasurer Carrie Sutherland carrie_sutherland@yahoo.comPublicity/Marketing Randy Unsbee info@sponsorpr.comLoud Pedal Publisher/Editor Randy Unsbee info@sponsorpr.com

RoadRally Manager Kevin PoirierRallyCross Manager Rebecca Ruston

Road Racing Director Jim Murray jmmurrayjr@aol.comRace Ops Manager Position AvailableRegl Points Keeper* Kari L.Macfarlane karimac@qwestoffice.netVintage Racing Chair Dan Mullin 541-683-1091 Vintage Points* Dave Franks 503-968-8134

*Please contact Dave Franks for Vintage Series Points. Contact Kari Macfarlane for all other Oregon Region points matters.

Todd Butler todd.butler@intel.com

Course Marshal TBDEmergency Ben Hockman 503-645-4755 Flagging & Comm Ken Killam 503-970-5644Medical TBD Paddock/HotPits Del Bockman 503-515-5977Pre-Grid Julie Winslow 360-513-6728Radio Tech Ric Farrar 503-245-2506Registration (pre-race) Karen McCoy 503-224-9469Registration (at track) Win Casey 503-297-4049Chief Starter Dwain Panian 503-285-0989Asst. Chief Starter Tim Stanley 503-693-8139 Tech Inspection Rick BahrTiming and Scoring Randi Graffy Driver Services/Trophies Kari L. Macfarlane karimac@qwestoffice.net

Gary Meeker - NorPac Executive Steward gmeeker@earthlink.netJeffrey Niess - OR Deputy Executive Steward niess@comcast.netBen Bradley - Norpac RallyCross Steward bradley@reed.eduHoward Allen howduck@qwest.netSteve Archer mikah@comcast.netBill Bachofner wgbach@comcast.netTodd Butler todd.sherry@verizon.netBill Carr bcarr@varicast.comWin Casey msiltd@integraonline.comErin Ebelmesser lylaskye@msn.comGail Fetterman gailfetterman@comcast.netDave Franks franks97@verizon.netSpencer Gorham sgorstew@aol.comDon Holland hollanddl@verizon.netBob Mead ramead@q.comDan Mullin danm356@yahoo.comAlan Robinson robinsah@engr.orst.eduLewis Scott 503-646-3840Don Smethers don@smethers.comDave Shively mos33c20@centurytel.netGary Van Horn gvanhorn@minetfiber.comSkip Yocom rampant53@gmail.com

Want to advertise in Loud Pedal? Please contact the editor to receive an advertising packet with current rate card. Rates are as low as $5 per column inch and ex-

Region.

managerial occupations.

Median HH income is $98,500, Average HH income is $105,800.

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Randy Unsbee, ABCLoud Pedal Editor, PR & MarketingEmail: info@sponsorpr.com; http://twitter.com/randyunsbee

Roads Yet Traveled

The Editor’s Desk

What’s your favorite drive?

I started a thread on this topic recently via Twitter on the Oregon Region SCCA Facebook page and already have had many interesting comments.

You’ve probably had many favorite and maybe not-so-favorite drives, both on and off the track. As I embark on some new and exciting drives in England this June, I can’t help but think about some memo-rable experiences over the years.

hicle count yet, but I’m hoping for drives at Rockingham and Thruxton circuits in England. We could be talking a V8 Super Car, Formula Renault, Ferrari 430 Scud-eria 16M, Lamborghini LP670-4 SV Mur-cielago or any combination of these and a few more: Porsche Cayman, Mini Cooper S, etc. More on that later.

In the meantime, here’s what I’ll be com-paring these drives to:

On Track

1. First time driving a ¼ midget around a stock car track at age 3 years, 11 months. First win at age 4. Over 200 race wins would follow.

2. First sports car race and win in Mini Cooper at Blackhawk Farms, IL. to be followed by an undefeated 9-win season,

3. First drives in a sports racer (Gaines-ville, FL) a Formula Ford (Snetterton and Goodwood, England), Formula Atlantic and Trans-Am (Continental Divide Race-ways, CO) a Formula Super Vee (Aspen, CO) and a Lotus Elan (Pueblo, CO).

4. Participating (and scoring a DNF) in

at Road America, Elkhart Lake, WI. Just the sheer lunacy of waving cash in front of Formula Ford drivers who thought they (we) were all the next Jimmy Clark or Ma-rio Andretti, makes racing in and surviv-ing that mayhem worthy of this list.

Showroom Stock 4-hour endurance races in a Scirocco at Blackhawk Farms, IL.

6. Okay Nick, this one is for you: pass-

rain at PIR in Portland with my Showroom Stock Neon. Yes, front wheel drive is a big help in the rain. So is growing up in the snowbound Midwest, spending most of your youth broadsliding a ¼ midget around Illinois dirt tracks, and taking skid control training in a Ford Escort and Lotus Formula Ford in rain-soaked England.

I try not to let that last part get around too much so my competitors don’t catch me smiling when it starts raining. I try look-ing worried like many others, just before I drop the hammer.

1. First drive up the California coast from Riverside to Laguna Seca, cutting across the mountains along the way, burning out the brakes on the Firebird rental, descend-ing into the fog bank as the sun set over

Pfeiffer Burns National Forest in Big Sur; all vivid pictures in my mind to this day.

2. Long tow from Chicago in the dead of winter to the Gainesville, FL circuit, and then on to the airport track at Victoria, TX to race a Mini Cooper and Elva C Sports Racer. The truck was an ugly green and yellow Chevy Fleetside I bought for pea-nuts off my dad’s electrical contracting company. My co-pilot was a high school friend who volunteered for the long, over

two-week excursion to two race tracks. I don’t think he ever spoke to me again af-ter that arduous trip, but who could blame him? I think the Elva may have been the one Elvis drove in “Viva Las Vegas.”

3. First drive across England from Lon-don to Snetterton, to Oxford and Stratford, then down to Goodwood Circuit, and back across to Snetterton. I landed in London during the worst snow storm in 20 years suffering from jet lag and food poisoning. It took me several hours just to stumble my way out of London. Having never been in a right hand drive car before, I spent much of the time bouncing off curbs and trying to shift the window crank. And, talk about

That’s another story. Crazy.

4. Towing a Trans-Am racecar from Den-ver to Trois-Rivieres, Quebec in 17 hours without relief. What is it about pulling all-nighters getting the race car ready, and THEN driving cross country to make a race without any sleep? Talk about lunacy.

5. Driving from Denver to Chicago with my future wife in a four-door Chevy Che-vette in the midst of a winter blizzard. The ice covered roads had potholes the size of bomb craters. Talk about lunacy. Oh, I said that already?

6. Driving solo in my 240Z across the Rocky Mountains in the midst of a win-ter blizzard and total white out conditions without snow tires or chains on the way to California. Now, talk about luna…um…I think I see a pattern developing here …

Do you have some great drives (and may-be photos) you would like to reminisce about, whether on or off the track? Send them along and we’ll try to use them in up-coming editions of the Loud Pedal. Share them with us on Facebook and Twitter. In

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2010 Test Days$400

Portland International Raceway

Vintage Racing recently lost a real good friend in Bruce Goronsky of San Francisco

with cancer.

Bruce had put up a valiant

year and had such a positive attitude. I actually thought he

Bruce was a Vintage racer (Ford Mustang in Hertz Rent a Car livery), ran the San Francisco Region program for a number of years and a well respected man in the advertis-ing community.

He will be missed by all who knew him. I am proud to have called him my friend.

Vintage races is coming at Pa-

You can go on line now for the schedule and register. Check out Northwest Region’s website.

The next race is the series is the Rose Cup at Portland Inter-national Raceway June 11-13.

Letters

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Just when you thought he might really pass up the racing season, the invitation arrives to attend a showing at his gallery and pie diner. Not only did Portland’s Nick Fluge sur-prise us with the quality and quantity of his new oil paint-ings, but with a new race car to replace the Derhaag Corvette he recently sold. Watch for Nick at the Rose Cup this June and preliminary races leading up to the big race weekend.

Randy Unsbee photos.

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Now you can stay in touch withOregon Region Sports Car Club of America

Share event information, schedules, victories, stories, and suggestions in real time.

Use these Web 2.0 social media channels in conjunction with Oregon Region SCCA’s LoudPedal magazine and Web site: the key hubs to

happening in the region.

Soon to launch: Oregon Region SCCA’s Blog, opt-in email, texting, and video for the complete interactive motorsports experience.

http://www.facebook.com/orscca

http://twitter.com/orscca

http://www.oregonscca.com

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For years, Norton and my vacations would always involve a race. Nort would crew and I would help drive the tow vehicle. Our honeymoon was a trip across country to the runoffs in Atlanta in 1976. Nort’s Dad asked us what we wanted for a wedding gift.

(type and number of the race car). That was a real adventure in itself and I’m sure most of you have some good road trip stories too. Nort’s always saying, “We’ve been so lucky to have the chance to travel and meet a lot of nice folks through racing”. It’s amazing that wherever we went; Long Beach, Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca, Vancouver, B.C., you name it; there was always that familiar “face from home.” With her professionalism, enthusiasm, generosity and warmth, Gail Fetterman makes a great “Racing Ambassador”.

When asked, “How long have you been in motorsports?” her reply was, “30 years, I started late, but it has been a joy to be involved with such wonderful friends. I brought my folks out to one of the race days when I was Chief of Communications. My Dad was so shocked to see that our form of racing was so family-orientated. He didn’t have any reservation about me working at the track after

Oregon Region did a GREAT JOB. I remember a lot of us crying after the weekend was over. There was so much stress to do well

manager for a uniform company in Portland. Then I found a great place to work at the Port of Portland. I worked for the Port for 24 years with my last title being Dock Superintendent. I was “in charge” of the longshoremen loading and unloading container ships”.

track at times for Pro Drive, with lots of weekends spent at P.I.R. working races. For racing, she had been a turn worker in F&C, Chief of Communications, helping out in registration for Team Continental car club, registration for Cascade Car Club, and an SCCA Steward. Her future plans for racing are, “Working many race weekends at P.I.R. I’m also hoping economics and if my body will allow me, to travel a few more years. I would really like to go to Goodwood in England.

will even offer you one of her homemade treats.

Favorite Author: J.A. Jance, Jan Karon

-

Favorite Entertainer: I don’t have one

only “movie star” I kept articles on

Favorite Movie: “the Fighting Sul-

on PBS.

Continued on page 23)

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Race Sponsors with ORSCCA receive:Full race weekend naming rights and trophies

Free four-color, two-page spread in the award-winning Loud Pedal magazine

Internet wire service press release written and placed by award-winning motorsports journalist and marketer to more than 50,000 enthusiasts on Google and Yahoo! news sites, and more

Placements throughout 2010 on Facebook, Twitter, the Oregon Region Web site, Oregon Region Blog, and more

Trackside hospitality, display and banner privileges

Exposure to and loyalty from thousands of

Inclusion in all Oregon Region collateral materials

Don’t miss the

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at 503-544-5944

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Once upon a time, there was a young man who wanted to go racing. He eagerly drove to watch races in the Can-Am se-ries; the Trans-Am series, and any other events he could get to without interfering with his college classes. He learned the ins and outs of Laguna Seca before it added the twisty bits and added the Mazda name.

some) and watched the likes of Dan Gur-ney and Mario Andretti (then the current

brand-new track.

Time marches on, and there’s no Can-Am series, no USAC championship, but we still have the Trans-Am; not this year at Portland, but hopefully next. The Trans-Am looks a little different from the halcyon days of 1970, but it’s still just as exciting and still draws the fans.

The young man looks a little different, too. Not so young. After nearly 40 years, he

auspices of Pro Drive (shameless plug), he found his way onto the track and nothing has been the same since. We might say “the rest is history” but that would be en-tirely too predictable. Hopefully there’s still more history to write.

the no-longer-young man is the writer,

ured it out; well, I confess; I am the per-petrator. My racing “career” (quotes in-tended) began late, has been conspicuously inconspicuous, and I hope will continue for some time. Maybe I’ll even win a race.

But out there in the great gray Northwest, there are many of you who will have had longer, more distinguished and more inter-esting times in racing than I ever will. My goal today is to invite you (and you and you and you) to share this space by pen-ning subsequent chapters of “Racing for Dummies”, which I hope to make an irreg-

ular forum for sharing your stories, color-ful and otherwise, about your experiences in racing, notable and otherwise.

So to kick this off I’ll tell a couple on me; short takes on some of the things I’ve learned in my also-short racing “career” (quotes intended again). I hope maybe I’ll stir a memory or two among you, and prod you into an e-mail or phone call to share your stories with me, for publication in this space. I promise that, if you don’t, you’ll have to just deal with me and my re-petitive, annoying tales working into your brain (think Chinese water-torture).

For starters, then, a few pieces of advice and commentary. These are just a few of the grand insights I’ve learned in my brief time:

--HANS device. This is a great inno-vation in driver safety. Everyone should have one. I think before long each of us

bought mine, I thought it very impressive and safe. Very high-tech and snazzy. I

ing the HANS, feeling sporty and quite up to date. After the session I returned to the pits to discover that, although I was wear-ing the HANS device I had neglected to

met. Advice to (the other) dummies: the HANS works best when you connect it to the helmet.

--Arm restraints. We open-cockpit driv-ers are required to wear these so our arms

rolls over. They also, I would note, prevent me from adjusting my mirrors, stretch-ing, or picking my nose. As if I could do that with the helmet on (presumably at-tached to the HANS device). Have you noticed, though, that F1 drivers don’t use arm restraints? Hmmm. Maybe they’re so highly trained they can keep their arms

yesterday. Anyway, back to the arm re-

The Twisty Bits

Jim Murray, Road Racing DirectorEmail: jmmurrayjr@aol.com

straints. Frankly, I had never encountered these before, but I agreed with the concept and learned to get into them as I prepared for each session. I wriggled my hands and arms into them as the next-to-last thing before I started the car, without thinking

I realized that the way I’d attached them to the belts, it would take me Forever to

long, you ask, did it take me to make this blinding glimpse into the obvious? Three seasons. Probably 30 race weekends. 100 days in the car. 300 sessions. Amazing.

Let’s just stop there. Tell me your stories;

Our March weekend was gifted with great weather. Entries were pretty much as ex-pected; we had a great contingent of stu-dents (20) who will hopefully enjoy many of this year’s races. Spec Miata was well represented. Many thanks to Brian Towey and Bruce Wilson who ran an excellent school; students commented on how valu-able the track time was, particularly run-ning with some experienced company as a number of the Spec Miata frontrunners also instructed, and ran in the students’ on-track sessions.

The three-day weekend, school and Re-gional, went off well thanks to our cadre of workers; being new in this job I continue to be amazed and thankful for our people who show up and make it happen. Can’t say enough about our people.

Looking forward to April we anticipate passing out some cash, courtesy of our Sunoco sponsorship touted in last month’s column. Who knows which group will get it this month? We’ll decide that later; each weekend it’ll be a different group so everyone gets a chance over the course of the year. To be eligible, you have to use the gas, have the decals on the car, and the patch on the suit. And of course, enter the race…

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PLACE: China Bay Restaurant

PRESENT: Board Members: Dan Halloran, Dan Mullin, Jim Murray, Andy Howe, Peggy Gaston

Members: Mary Thompson, Karen Mc-Coy, Randy Unsbee, Todd Butler, Gary Manchester, Carrie Sutherland, Margie Swanson

Absent: Jeff Zurschmeide, Chris Hale, Kim McFarland

CALL TO ORDER – RE Dan called the meeting to order

REGIONAL EXECUTIVE INTRO - None

MEMBER/NEW BUSINESS COM-MENTS– Margie asked about any progress on the BBQ issue. She has mentioned it to an-other user group and they showed interest in the project as well.

If we were to go forward with the project, it would be used only for the end of day activities and as such would not compete with the food vendor.

Dan has spoken with Mark at PIR and he in turn will discuss it with Ovations to see if they have any objections. Dan will check back with Mark and advise at the next BOD meeting.

Karen advised that while she was attend-ing the Ntl. Convention this year there was discussion about having a Norpac Seminar this year. She, along with sever other Re-gion Administrators felt that it would serve our groups well to unite and share ideas.

They have made plans to hold this one-day session on Nov. 6th in Reno. There will be no cost to the region and will focus on Solo, Rally and Road Racing.

Carrie advised that she is no interested in being the end of the years awards chair-man this year. She feels that there needs to be new ideas developed and hers are ex-

hausted. She is happy to pass on any help that she can to the new chair.

COMMITTEE & OFFICIALS REPORTS

REGIONAL OFFICE REPORT – Karen reported 95 hours for the previous

She went over the new Ntl. membership dues and levels of membership as well.Region dues were discussed and it was de-cided that they should remain the same.M/S (Dan M./Andy) M/P.

Karen advised that we had 20 students and

The following reports were presented and discussed:

Oregon Region Balance SheetRoad Racing Balance SheetSCCA Properties Balance Sheet

TREASURER REPORT – Carrie proposed that we place the funds that currently reside in the Properties ac-count into an account that would generate some residual.She passed on info on one that she had investigated as an example. Karen will check at our current banking source to see what they can offer us for this small amount that the account holds.

LOUD PEDAL REPORT – The March issue goes to the printer on Monday.

Randy presented a weight & print options comparison sheet for review. He men-tioned that if we were to make changes we would need to sell ads to cover the addi-tional costs.

Jim said that he felt that quality was an important factor in gaining new business leads, so any small additional costs would be worthy.

DIRECTOR’S REPORTS

SOLO II REPORT – Solo hosted their kick-off party at Sykart and is ready for the season ahead. Listed below is the current schedule as of now.

Practice Day Saturday, March 27th - PIR North PaddockEvent #1 Sunday, March 28th - PIR North PaddockNovice School Saturday, April 24th- PIR South PaddockEvent #2 Sunday, April 25th- PIR South PaddockIntermediate School Saturday, June 12th, Packwood, WAEvent #3 Sunday, June 13th - Packwood, WAEvent #4 Saturday, July 10th - Packwood, WAEvent #5 Sunday, July 11th, - Packwood, WAEvent #6 Saturday, August 21st - Packwood, WAEvent #7 Sunday, August 22nd - Packwood, WAEvent #8 Saturday, September 18th - PIR South PaddockEvent #9 Sunday, September 19th - PIR South Paddock

RALLY REPORT – Absent 3/28 will be a Rally X at WA. County Fairgrounds

DIRECTOR I REPORT – No report

DIRECTOR II REPORT – Absent

ROAD RACING REPORT – Jim advised that Sunoco would be an additional fuel supplier at the track this season starting in April. As a sponsor they have provided a fund of $3,000 to be used as awards to drivers.

Buy their fuel, sport their patch and sticker your car to be eligible. Details on award criteria will be forthcoming. Todd Butler brokered this deal and Jim thanked him for his efforts.

submitted to national. The Rose Cup schedule is in process and as usual will most probably undergo changes.

Jim asked if there was anyone who would help to get an ambassador program start-ed. (Continued on page 23)

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Rallying with Chris & Kristen

Chris Hale, Rally Manager and Kristen E. TaborEmail: chale@nwscan.net

I know that some of you were outside the last Saturday of March enjoying the won-derful warm weather. Where was that weather on Sunday??

Oh yes, it was rainy and windy and chilly, so it must have been time for RallyCross.

RallyCross of the year is always wet, windy and chilly. But I think Mother Na-ture went a little overboard with the details this year. I woke up in the middle of the night and heard the rain pounding on the roof, and I knew it was going to be a slippy

We had a huge crowd for the morning ses-sion; the 2WD classes drew short straw this time and were competing in the morning session with the All Wheel Drive classes running in the afternoon.

The sun peeked out a couple of times dur-ing registration, and luckily the rain held off for most of the morning session. How-ever, that didn’t do anything about the deep and sticky mud the cars had to com-pete in. The parade lap saw a few cars be-come a bit entrenched, but we had a couple

tug so no one was stuck for too long… un-til later, that is, but I’ll get to that shortly.

event of 2010, which is always nice to see. Along with new competitors, our timing and scoring guys rolled out a new toy—Live Scoring.

You could use your smart phone to check

ing, though) to see how you and the com-petition stack up. Also, friends and family at home could keep an eye on the ORG website and watch the scores as they came in. For future events, you might want to

It was fun watching from the sidelines as the cars slipped and slid around the course—the wheels may be spinning at max speed, but actual speeds were very

ute plus times. As the morning session wore on, and the rain continued to hold off for the most part, the times started to get faster. The surface started to dry out a bit, which allowed the mud to get tacky and have more grip.

Of course, just before the afternoon com-petitive session began, the skies opened up and it poured rain for a short period

messy, muddy, slippery conditions of the

having fun—the big silly grins gave that emotion away. Several people got stuck

day, including the Tabor Rally Team’s truck; don’t worry, it was rescued the next evening by a couple of accountants (that would be Dad and Mark) using one of our other trucks and a series of tow ropes.

ORG’s next RallyCross is set for April 18 out at the Washington County Fair-grounds—don’t worry, we’ll get someone out there to drag out the ruts before the next event, and typically our April event usually has good weather. Hope I didn’t

and what ORG does, please come to the ORG Rally Day at RalliTek on April 10, from 10am to 4pm. There will be various sessions throughout the day to learn about all kinds of things associated with rally—the day starts off with a general “What is Rally” chat, followed by opportunities to learn about the different volunteer posi-tions; things you need to know as a novice stage rally competitor; writing your own course notes; and learning about Road Rally (aka time-speed-distance rallying) and RallyCross.

There will be stage rally cars present to check out, and “roaming experts” avail-able to answer all your questions. We’ll have a BBQ going with lunch items, and a

ity, Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon. It

Other upcoming events: ORG is taking a stage crew up to Washington State for the Olympus Rally, a round of the Rally America National Rally Championship, the weekend of April 24-25. Oregon’s round of the RA National Championship occurs with the Oregon Trail Rally on May

Come to our Rally Day to learn how you

Oregon Trail Rally:It’s time again for the most exciting motorsport in the world to make its annual visit to Oregon. Round 4 of the Rally America Championship comes to town, May 14-16, for the extremely popular and challenging Oregon Trail Rally. This year’s event will follow the familiar format of spectator special stages in the heart of the city at Portland International Raceway (PIR) on Friday. This year’s combination of forest and rural grassland stages will be a mixture of old and new and is sure to challenge the rally drivers. Fans can catch the action at PIR on Friday evening, and we are planning a Rally street party on Saturday evening in Dufur after the conclusion of the day’s racing action. We have received great support from local businesses and land-owners and we are delighted to be able to bring this national event and the associated economic

will be supporting two spectator sites in the immediate vicinity, and invites all fans to attend the after race party with the rally teams on Saturday evening.

17

The editor of the Loud Pedal tolerated my procrastination long enough for me to de-lay writing this month’s column until AF-

Despite the fact that I’m both tired and sore, it was a good weekend.

The most amazing thing from the whole weekend was that Oregon Region Solo was (aside from the late night drags) the only motorized track user during the week-end. Saturday had no other scheduled user

with the club).

Sunday, we were to share the track with drag racers, but the morning showers rained them out. This left me the perfect

So, about sound… if you attended the event on Saturday and your car was over 90 decibels, you probably had me give you a heads-up. There weren’t very many of you.

The majority of our cars were under 85 decibels. Denis Cornforth had the sound meter during the last session of the day (while I was driving) and he indicated that the loudest car registered 99 decibels.

This was, according to Denis, the new Olerich Corvette. I apparently only man-aged around 90 decibels while driving Chuck Jarvie’s Formula Ford.

What did I learn? First, a Radio Shack sound meter has its shortcomings. With the microphone open to the wind, the wind will register on the meter.

The meter will only read sound within a 20-decibel range (which is adjustable, for-tunately) so I was constantly adjusting the meter to get readings on all the cars.

I took reading with the meter set to “A” weighting and “Slow” response. The me-ter was approximately 42 inches above the ground, 50 feet from the edge of the course.

I positioned myself so that a well-driven car should be full throttle in front of the meter and going away from the meter.With the meter set to “Slow” response, good drivers tended to register higher readings.

In order to get a high reading with the me-ter set to “Slow” response, the sound has to be sustained for a long time (relative to autocross time). A brief lift off the throttle will result in a large break on the meter’s reported sound level.

There were a couple cars that were clearly very loud, but the driver didn’t sustain the throttle long enough to give a big reading. By contrast, George Hudetz registered 95

Andy Howe, Solo II DirectorEmail: solo.howe@comcast.net

Solo II Report

car was fairly loud and he was full throttle for a long time.

Saturday was fair weather, but Sunday was not quite as nice. What impact did this have on sound levels?

I checked cars during one group (we were somewhat short handed for workers be-cause of the weather) and it appeared that sound levels were up about two decibels from Saturday.

This was in spite of the course being damp and drivers using less throttle (generally speaking) than they did on Saturday. File that away for future use.

Next event weekend is April 24th and 25th. Saturday will be the annual Nov-ice School with Sunday being our sec-ond points event. The location is the PIR South Paddock.

18

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NorPac covers an area from Central Cali-fornia north through arctic Alaska and

dle of Montana. And it size ranges from the large, San Francisco 4,400 members to

When I became Regional Executive sev-eral years ago I was only vaguely aware of the organizational structure of SCCA.

Topeka that took my money, gave me a li-cense, created the GCR, and sent a monthly magazine.

Closer to home and much more visible was the local

who always made sure I cor-

forms and reminded me to thank the workers for mak-ing my racing possible. That was my SCCA and it worked great.

After becoming the Grand Poobah of the Oregon Re-gion I discovered I was also on the board of the Northern

of the SCCA. Huh? What was that? Well there is an SCCA organizational level between Portland and To-peka designed to coordinate the activities of neighboring regions and to help improve the quality of the SCCA experience among those re-gions.

In many parts of the coun-try adjoining regions share race tracks so the regions get together annually to sort out schedules. They want to make sure they coordinate their activities to the best advantage of participants. Sitting together in a room makes the process move fast-er so more work gets done in a shorter period of time.

SW Montana at 66 members. Road Rac-ing activity is concentrated in the larger regions with the smaller regions concen-trating on Solo and Rally. (Continued on page 21)

Dan Halloran, Regional ExecutiveEmail: dan.halloran@yahoo.com

From the R.E.

20

April 17-18 -- ORSCCA Single Regional, with Chicane @ PIR

April 18 -- ORG RallyCross #2, Hillsboro, OR

April 24-25 -- Solo Novice School and Event #2 @ PIR South Paddock

May 7 -- CSCC Friday Nighter, Portland/Vancouver Area

May 14-16 - Vintage CSRG @ Thunderhill

May 14-16 -- Oregon Trail Rally, Hood River, OR and PIR

May 30 -- ORG RallyCross #3, Hillsboro, OR

June 4 -- CSCC Friday Nighter, Portland/Vancouver Area

June 11-13 -- ORSCCA Rose Cup Double Regional w/NORPAC Vintage, with Chicane @ PIR

June 12-13 -- Intermediate School and Solo Event #3 @ Packwood, WA

June 26-27 -- ORG National RallyCross 2010, Hillsboro, OR

June 27 -- ORG RallyCross #4, Hillsboro, OR

July 2-4 -- ORSCCA Double National, with Chicane @ PIR

July 2 -- CSCC Friday Nighter, Portland/Vancouver Area

July 10-11 -- Solo Events # 4 & #5 @ Packwood, WA

July 31 -- CSCC Mountains to the Sea Rally, Portland to Coast

August 7-8 -- ORSCCA Single Regional, no Chicane @ PIR

August 8 -- ORG RallyCross #5, Location TBA

August 13 -- CSCC Friday Nighter, Portland/Vancouver Area

August 21-22 -- Solo Events #6 and #7 @ Packwood, WA

August 28-29 -- NWR Double Regional w/NORPAC Vintage @ Bremerton

September 11 -- Rally Against Parkinson’s

September 12 -- ORG RallyCross #6, Hillsboro, OR

September 10-12 -- SFR/NORPAC Vintage Weekend @ Thunderhill Park

September 11-12 -- ORSCCA Single Regional, no Chicane @ PIR

September 17 -- CSCC Friday Nighter, Portland/Vancouver Area

September 18-19 -- Solo Events #8 and #9 @ PIR South Paddock

October 1 -- CSCC Friday Nighter, Portland/Vancouver Area

October 8-10 -- ORSCCA Double Regional, with Chicane @ PIR

October 10 -- ORG RallyCross #7, Hillsboro, OR

October 16 -- CSCC Autumn GTA Rally, Portland/Vancouver Area

October 23 - Mt. Hood Rally

October 23-24 --ORSCCA Regional w/NORPAC Vintage @ Oregon Raceway Park,

Grass Valley OR, co-sanctioned with NW Region

Oct. 30-31 Vintage CSRG @ Thunderhill

ORSCCA Board Meetings are held the First Wednesday of Each Month at China Bay Restaurant,13281 SW Canyon Rd., Beaverton, OR

21

(R.E., Continued from page 19)

This is a very diverse and talent and ex-perience-laden group. Since our events

able to manage schedules with phone calls and email. But we missed the opportunity for training and sharing of ideas. We have not always used the resources we have to improve the SCCA experience for our members. This year we are attempting to change that.

Gordy and Todd Butler are announcing a Division-wide Training Session scheduled for November 6, 2010 at the Atlantis Casi-no & Resort, Reno, NV. Training Sessions will be in the following areas of interest:

These workshops will focus on what makes a good event. They will help devel-op, prepare and operate fun, safe events, determine the best way to evaluate the suc-cess of events, and how you can duplicate “best practices” from other regions.

The $75.00 registration fee includes a light lunch and dinner on Saturday. Rooms have been blocked at the Atlantis Hotel for $79.00 per night plus taxes.

Suggestions for additional workshops are welcomed and encouraged. Any and all topics will be considered. If you have any questions or suggestions please contact ei-ther Linda Rogaski at lrogaski@hotmail.com or phone 916-991-3010; or Carol Deborde at c_deborode@charter.net or phone 775-267-4845.

This is your chance to get more involved in improving SCCA and using the knowl-edge and experience you have accumu-lated over the years to help others in our sport. Oregon Region has some of the best Road Race, Solo, and Rally organizers and workers in the country.

Step up and show the rest of our division how good you really are.

22

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(Board Minutes Continued from page 15)

His thought would be for someone knowl-edgeable to meet and greet prospective members and show them around the track and answer questions that they might have concerning the different specialties and race groups etc. Gary said that he would be happy to offer some time to this effort and

Jim said that he would spend some time on it as well.

PAST REGIONAL EXEC – Absent

ASST REGIONAL EXEC - Dan talked about the FOPIR Day at PIR. Several drivers took advantage of the annual tech inspection that was offered during this event. He felt that there was a good turn out and that it was well organized.

REGIONAL EXEC – Dan thanked Carrie for her efforts on our behalf as treasurer. He noted that many businesses and groups fail without having good checks and bal-ances in place.

(Gail Fetterman, Cont. from page 9)

Favorite Food: Chili and French Fries

(Favorite Non-SCCA Activity: Travel-ing to other races. I have met so many

all around the USA, Canada, Mexico,

suits. I didn’t get any

did my sister. (Peggy’s

a person, “little” John

John talked me into

SCCA race, cold and

or anything else. They

he put me on the head

person to take over from Carrie for the 2010 season.

In regards to the NORPAC Seminar, Dan said that he is not in favor of our participa-tion in NORPAC as he does not see any

Much discussion followed with pros and cons. His feeling is that since there is no cost to the region whatever has been planned should go forward.

Dan is pleased that Jim & Gary will work toward an ambassador program. He feels that we need a boost to help maintain our membership and encourage new folks to join us.

Adjourn 8:45 M/S (Dan M./Peggy) M/P

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Thompson

24

Loud PedalOregon Region SCCA4800 SW Macadam Ave, Ste 110Portland, Oregon 97239http://www.oregonscca.com

Change Service RequestedIssue: April 2010