Article in the South Bend Tribune

Many of you took notice to the presence of a special guest at our last solo event.  Sharon Dettmer, a reporter with the South Bend Tribune has taken the time to write an article about the SBR SCCA.  It can be seen in today’s newspaper in the community section, or online at:  http://southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080505/NEWS04/291267385

Thank you to all who took the time to show Sharon what our club is all about!

To continue the club’s PR efforts, I will also be submitting our events to the South Bend Tribune for inclusion in their community calendar.  If any one has any PR-related ideas, please feel free to contact me at pr@sbrscca.org!

~Angie Johnson

PR and Photography Chief

 

More photos from Solo event #1

Jeff Luckritz has provided photos from our first solo event, held at The Tire Rack. You can find results, and links to the photos here

You can also find photos of One Lap of America on SBR’s photo page.

One Lap of America Fun!

Looking for fun? Thrills? Truly unusual street cars? Want to see Brock Yates Sr. and Jr. in person? Show up at the Tire Rack by 9 AM this Saturday and enjoy the opening event of the 2008 Cannonball 25th Anniversary One Lap of America. It’s free and you can wander the pits and get close to some unusual machinery.

You’ll see the 4-time overall winner, a 2002 Porsche 996 driven by Mark daVia. Plus a gaggle of BMWs, Corvettes, and other neat iron. But how about a Smart forfiveone from Canada? No telling what engine they dropped into it. Or a Ford GT, A Mongoose, An  Ultima or an Ultralite (no it doesn’t get far off the ground as its wings are upside down)? And Tony Swan from Car & Driver will be going around in circles in a brand new Nissan GT-R. Drivers have come from around the world to test themselves in this unique event.

The Tire Rack event is a skid pad test with a wet track. A week later those that are left will do it again but with a dry track. During the week they’ll have driven to and competed at Road America, Mid-America, Texas World Speedway, Lonestar Motorsports, No Problem Raceway in Louisiana, Carolina Motorsports Park, the BMW Performance Center, VIR, BeaveRun and back to the Tire Rack. Over 4000 miles in all!

Most of the track events will be Time Trials (full-on lapping of the race course) but there will also be a pair of drag races and an autocross. No fancy support trailers allowed, they have to carry what they need on board. And they can only use 6 tires during the entire week. They run in a bunch of different classes like retro, vintage. alternate fuel, and various sizes of sedans and sports cars. About 100 entries at the moment. Give it a try!

-Lloyd Loring

First SBR Series Solo Report

The first South Bend Region solo event is in the books. It was an event of “Firsts” in several respects. It was my first event as Solo Chair for SBR, the first time we utilized the new SBR club trailer as a T&S/PA vehicle, the first time we processed “Weekend Members”, and the first time many of our solo chiefs were responsible for their particular duties. I am pleased to say EVERYONE did a excellent job. Several guests to the region commented that the SBR team knows how to run a fun event. We are very fortunate to have depth of experience in our event chiefs, and mixing things up a bit this year posed no problems. This is a good thing for the health of our region solo leadership. The future looks bright for the SBR region solo program.

Now that I’ve put a plug in for the workers, on with the report. We had a total of 87 entries maintaining the tradition of starting the SBR solo season with a bang. Of the 87 entries, 15 were non-members given the status of Weekend Members per the SCCA’s new policy for Member Only competition events. We had 40 SBR region members participate which meant that just over 25% of our region membership was there!! We may be a smaller region than most, but we are an active region. The remaining 32 participants were SCCA members from the adjacent regions. Another bright spot is participation of three of the Street Survival school graduates and their parents along with a couple of newly minted SBR members. Getting the word out via the Street Survival school and the efforts of our PR Chief Angie Johnson are paying off at the first event! Speaking of PR, some of you may have been interviewed by a reporter from the South Bend Tribune. Look for an upcoming article in the community section. We will let you know when it is scheduled for print so you can tell you friends and family. If you have any ideas for promoting SBR events and activities, see Angie Johnson or send her a note via e-mail.

The competition was awesome as everyone was evidently ready to show their stuff after a long winter. The annual battles resumed in F stock between George Williams in his 2002 Camaro Z28 just clipping Dave Gushwa in his ‘93 Formula Firebird by .115 seconds for the win. An even closer battle ensued in D stock with James Rose in a ‘05 Neon SRT-4 besting Steve Brower’s Audi TT coup by only .057 seconds! Don’t you just love those stock class battles? Another notable win was in C Street Prepared with Angie Johnson running in the open class beating our RE, Jeff Luckritz (a national race driver by the way) in his road race prepped Spec Miata. FTD was taken by our F125 champ, Randy Easton, with a blazing 31.500 seconds. Quickest entry with fenders was Steve Bollinger in the Bollinger family G Prepared Austin Healey Sprite. The two largest classes represented were Street Touring and Street Modified with nine entrants each and a lot of action. In fact, the various “Street” touring classes comprised a total of 24 entries having fun on legitimate street tires. Gustavo Hammerly in his STS2 ‘90 Miata show many that street tires can stick with a best time of 35.356 besting yours truly by over 2 seconds in a well prepared G Stock car with new R competition tires.

We look forward to May 17th for the solo Test and Tune and Sunday the 18th for SBR series solo #2 to be held at the Tire Rack. Take advantage of our Test and Tune Saturday to give you that edge for the rest of the season. Remember it is all about the seat time! Keep in mind that the Test and Tune is preregistration only. Registration for these and other SBR events can be found here.

See you next month!

Mark

solo@sbrscca.org

Look for Tire Rack on TV!

TIRERACK.com - Revolutionizing Tire Buying

Now through August, keep an eye out for commercials for Tire Rack on television!

Tire Rack has created a few TV spots using the same agency that created the Bridgestone ads for this year’s SuperBowl. The ads are running now, and can be seen on Speed, ESPN, ESPN2, Top Gear and Spike.

Website Updates

Results for Solo #1 are now online, along with photos by Dave Gushwa. If you took photos, please let me know.

We’ve also posted a new document outlining all the membership programs offered by the SCCA. There’s a PDF of the document here, and you can see it on the blog here. Many thanks to PR chief Angie Johnson for creating this document.

Bicycle Rack for Sale

Okay, so it’s not motorsports-related, but it does attach to a car!

For Sale: Yakima Bike Rack - $100

Yakima receiver hitch bike rack. Mounts to any 1.25” or 2” receiver hitch with adapter. Easily removed with one bolt. Holds up to four bikes, without touching any part of your car! Rack folds down for access to your trunk or hatch. In great condition. Similar racks on the Yakima website sell for $175 (574) 675-0641 email Bill Loring

 

Activity Points Update

As of April 22, 69 full-time members of SBR have earned points. We’ll show the top 20 in this blog. At the first event 40 of the 87 contestants were full-time SBR members. That meant that just over 25% of our members were at the event. Here are the top SBR actives to date:

Rank Points Name
1
680
Paul McBride
2
590
William Loring
3
550
Mark Manninen
4
390
Lloyd Loring
5
320
Kimberly Bollinger
6
315
Glenda Bowman
7
300
Bob Bowman
7
300
David Dawson
9
220
Jeff Luckritz
10
200
Steven Bollinger
10
200
David Gushwa
10
200
Angela Johnson
10
200
Leon Krauss
14
180
David Bowman
14
180
Hulbert Colwell
14
180
Randy Easton
14
180
Adam Lewis
14
180
Lynnette Markowicz
19
160
George Williams
20
140
Stanley Jones
20
140
Steve Tamandli

Lloyd Loring

6×14 Cargo Trailer For Sale

2000 Timberwolf Enclosed Cargo Trailer

Trailer Front View Trailer Rear Doors

Trailer Tag Trailer tires

  • 6ft wide by 14ft long single axle
  • Side entry and rear ramp door.
  • Interior plywood walls painted when new with a non-skid painted floor.
  • Tires like new.
  • Very low mileage use.
  • Upgraded high capacity 5,200lb rated Dexter NoLube axle.

The trailer has now been sold. Thanks for your interest!

INR April National at GingerMan Cancelled!

This notice just came through from INR:

Hi all,

Sorry to bring you the news but the INR board has decided to cancel the first national at GingerMan 4/26 & 27. A combination of high costs and low pre-registration have caused them, reluctantly, to reach the conclusion that this is the best choice of action for their region. Their hope is to put the event back on the schedule next season. The event had run for about 50 years at Indy or GingerMan so it was not a decision that was easily reached.

Regards,
Verne Wandell
DA, F&C for GL Div
254120

Greetings; South Bend Region and Porsche Club members

By Dick Wisler

Curt Paluzzi asked me to write my memories of early Porsches and other small cars of the 50’s and 60’s era when I first became enthused with the wonderful world of imported sport cars.

I first became aware of the uniqueness of these little wonders in the early 1950’s. My neighbor had acquired maybe the first near 1949 Volkswagen in the U.S. when Studebaker had finished testing and examining it in expectation of producing a midsize four door sedan in conjunction with Porsche. It would feature a V6 rear engine with unique styling and torsion bar suspension. The project was shelved when Studebaker fell into financial troubles.

I had the pleasure of driving this rare VW for most of one summer in 1954 while I was laid off at Studebaker. The 26-hp bug was vastly underpowered without an accelerator pump in the carb and the crash box tranny made it more difficult to attain any velocity. But the thing turned pretty good. (We didn’t know the terminology called cornering until years later).

About this time in the mid-fifties my VW friend took me to see my first Porsche, a hidden away 1955, 1500 Normal coupe, owned by a little old man out west of South Bend. The pancake flat body reminded me of a flying saucer. He took us for a short mild ride. I rode in the back over the thumping engine. It certainly was like riding in a space vehicle.

I was drafted into the navy for two years in late 1955 and although I spent seven months in San Francisco I didn’t pay much attention to the influx of British sports cars in town, mainly because they were driven by the gay population who usually were attempting to pick up us sailors. I did see a new Karmann Ghia coupe in Hawaii while in port on liberty. It was sharp.

When I returned to civilian life in 57, I was surprised to find many of my car buddies driving British sport cars. In fact my best buddy, Dick Colver, who was temporarily living at my folks home with me, had just acquired a 1951 XK120 Jaguar coupe. This machine really impressed me much more than the other guy’s MGs and Triumphs. Ironically, I drove the black beauty to work at my new job in Elkhart for some weeks in the fall while Dick drove my California beater on his muddy job site at the Robert Young RR yards in Elkhart. He soon bought his own ++!! beater and I came back down to earth. Wedge Rafferty acquired the first Porsche in our gang; a 1957 1500cc Continental Super coupe. He kept us mystified about the roller bearing crank and the necessity of the high idle revs. He could always keep the common guy in awe.

I inaugurated my entry into foreign cars with a 444 Volvo fast back sedan. I liked that it resembled a 1940’s Ford sedan, about 7/8 size. For two years I enjoyed the spunk and handling of this sturdy sedan and even got into some rallying with the South Bend Region. But in the spring of 1959, when my friend Denny Schue brought a new bug-eyed Sprite to my house from Hoosier International Motors (where he was a sales guy) I was hooked into a real sports car… well almost a whole car… weighing in at 1595 lbs. and listing at $1795.00. It was the ideal entry vehicle and was the only new car I ever owned. For three years I was transfixed by this mighty mite. The first two years I drove the Sprite all summer everywhere and also cross-country to Colorado and Florida in the winter. I also started autocrossing with the South Bend Region and joined the club. The third year, 1961 I went to drivers school to gain an SCCA competition (racing) license and ran enough races to get my National racing ticket.

Luckily, Curt Thews was looking for someone with a national license to drive his new 356 Porsche roadster that two different SBR drivers had driven in a few regional races the year before. Since I had just sold my Sprite (!) I was conveniently ready to move up to a better class… and expense free to boot! In the two weeks before the first race, I worried a bit about my lack of experience driving a rear engine car, except for the little time in the early VW many years before. No worry… the Porsche handled as neutral as the Sprite and was a joy to race. However after two seasons of mild success in the F Production category, Curt decided to switch to the H Modified class where he could use his creative genius to build his own race car.

Curt Thews and his brother Russ had built an H Modified race car in the fifties when they were working at Studebaker and before they started the first Volkswagen and later Porsche dealership in the Michiana area. The hand-built Crosley-powered car was named the “Sample Street Special” for the old home that the Thews family resided in on Sample Street, where most of the car was built. It resembled a Lotus 7, before there was a 7. No compound body curves for an easier body build. However the car was outdated in the two-year build time and only competed in a few SCCA events.

Curt’s idea for a new car was based on an old DKW Junior passenger car frame and two crated 1500 Porsche Carrera engines he had acquired. Curt’s long time plan was to use these oddball components to construct a two-cylinder Porsche-powered H Modified race car. So, as some of you are thinking even yet today, that idea will never fly: out of balance or what? But don’t tell a stubborn German it can’t work; he’ll try all the harder.

The car was first assembled with the full Carrera engine to run the annual Bellefontaine, Ohio hill climb. We were able to take the overall win and set the hillclimb record against a formidable field. We first campaigned in the HM class at the Waterford Hills track near Detroit in the H Modified International meet in 1965. We started in the slowest unproven class, and worked up to the fastest class for the feature race on Sunday. We chased the pole sitter around for a second place finish out of the 50-car entry for the weekend. Not a bad start for a new home built.

However since we were carrying the full 4-cylinder engine block with two pistons and rods removed, we were carrying about 200 lbs. more than most of the 800 to 900 lb. competitors. Curt had the plans and some of the machine work done for a pure 2-cylinder but gave up racing after two seasons, running the full block with limited success.

The highlight for me driving the “Thews Special” was running both engines at Lynndale Farms. It was a nice little 2-mile track about 3 miles west of Milwaukee that was active for a few years in the mid sixties. We ran the inaugural weekend with the H engine on Saturday and switched over to the 4-cylinder for the FM race on Sunday. The F Modified race on Sunday was part of the opening day feature race with maybe 8 to 10,000 paying fans in attendance.

Newly retired Stirling Moss was the paid-for grand marshal and the newly introduced Shelby Cobra made a few parade laps. The ensuing half hour delay on the grid was probably the reason our very efficient hand brake was left on for the standing start. By the time I noticed it halfway into the first lap the rear brakes were gone. We struggled on through half of the 100 mile race before retiring with other maladies. The shame was, I think that I could have taken the 3rd place class trophy. I had practiced faster than the older gent in a Porsche 550 Spyder that got the award presented by Stirling with a picture to follow. Curt was the keeper of the trophies we won in those years. I would have loved to keep that one.

During the 60’s I also co-drove two different 356 Porsches in the Badger 200: a preliminary production category race at Road America on Saturday before the Can-Am race on Sunday. Kind of a big deal for us amateurs. We ran Bert Olsen’s street coupe in the first race and was able to pass 25 faster cars in the first laps with our borrowed Michelin street tires in the driving rain and we finished 5th in class.

We suffered mechanical problems and didn’t do well the next year in the old yellow ex-Runeman 356 Porsche roadster that Bert now owned. The next year he installed the full Carrera engine in the yellow car. At C Production points races in Cendiv this attempt was foiled by mechanical problems also.

I remember standing behind the pits in one of the last 500-mile races in the late 60’s and watching a young Roger Penske working to pull an upset with his tiny RS Porsche Spyder against the big Chevy V8-powered cars. He almost did it. I thought then that this young guy might get somewhere in racing!

I now own a 914 2.0-liter track car and a Classic-made 1955’s type Porsche Speedster replicar. My best friend down here in Florida is a Porsche driving instructor at Sebring.

Dick Wisler

Solo Primer

SBR Members,

Our Solo Chair, Mark Manninen, is going to give a short presentation about Solo(aka autocross) at the next membership meeting on April 1st at Mancino’s. With our first Solo coming up on April 20th at the Tire Rack, this would be a great opportunity to pick up some tips from Mark and the rest of the Solo Experts present at the meeting. It may or may not make you faster, but it beats the heck out of shoveling snow, scraping windows and sledding! It’s time to play outside.

The SBR Board meets at 7:00 pm with the general membership meeting at 8:00 pm.

Hope to see you there.

Jeff Luckritz

The Trailer Progress Continues

P3290039.JPG

The work continues on the SBR Solo Trailer. Jeff Luckritz, Steve Bollinger, Mark Manninen, and Bill Loring met at Mark’s business on Saturday, and made a good amount of progress. The old trailer was unloaded, and the shelving from the old trailer was test-fitted into the new trailer. New shelving was also added. We also admired the work that Steve and Mark had done earlier. The trailer has wiring for AC power thanks to Steve, and Mark outfitted some security panels that cover the inside of the windows when the trailer is traveling or in storage. You can see the pins for the panels in the above photo. Lloyd Loring also stopped by, to check on the progress, and to talk about the the new PA system.

You can see more photos here.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Help Needed for SBR Club Trailer Fit-out

This Saturday 3/29 from 8:00 AM until 3:00 PM we will be pulling the equipment and fixtures from the old trailer and refitting shelving and equipment to the new trailer. All painting is complete, now comes the heavy lifting. We need people with tools, creativity, and strong backs to get this done efficiently.

Contact Mark via phone 574.271.0810 between 7PM and 10PM of send me an e-mail at solo@sbrscca.org if you can help

Online Registration for Solo Event #1 is Now Open!

Well, the title says it all. Come one, come all. Register for the first Solo of the season! Click on this link here, and you’ll be on your way.

We have a new registration system this year, which will require you to create a new login. We’re very sorry about that, but we think the overall experience will be better, and the club will save money.

You can learn more about the new system at this link.

So, what are you waiting for?

The work on the Solo Trailer Begins

P3150027.JPG

Solo Chair Mark Manninen is shown here applying primer to the new Solo Trailer. Mark and Bob Bowman spent much of their weekend inside Mark’s place of business, where the trailer is currently being stored. They applied a coat of primer to the entire interior, and then added a coat of white to the walls and a grey non-skid paint to the floor. Lloyd and Bill Loring stopped by to give unsolicited advice and criticism. And we took a few pics, which can be found here.

Thanks to Mark and Bob for taking the time to do this work. The new trailer looks great. We know that there will be challenges ahead in getting everything “just right.” But we’re confident that those challenges will be met with typical SBR skill and enthusiasm.

If you have skills or supplies that might be of use in fabricating interior fixtures and electrical, please contact Mark.

SBR Club Trailer is Here!

sbr-blog-trailer.jpg

After a very short waiting period, the new SBR club trailer is here. The new trailer will serve to transport our usual stuff to the solo events as well as serve as the Timing  & Scoring / PA announce platform for all solos as well as any other club supported functions. The trailer is a foot wider and two feet longer having significant added cargo load capacity with dual axles. We added special features such as windows, cable hatch, RV type door latch, spare tire, and roof vent. We will setup the trailer for external generator power or power from any 120V source. Lloyd Loring’s existing PA equipment is is being upgraded with a new PA amplifier to serve us for years to come. This is a big change for the region solo operations and we hope the new systems will enhance the T/S & PA announcer work experience.

Special thanks to Adam Lewis who made arrangements with United Trailers of Bristol, IN and Mobile Structures, Inc. of Elkhart, IN. who worked with us on a design to meet our unique needs, and got us a killer deal with a very quick manufacturing duration to get our 2008 season going.

Certainly consider United Trailers  http://www.united-trailers.com/ and MSI  http://www.mobilestructures.com/ for your next race or utility trailer. Great people to work with.

Mark Manninen  solo@sbrscca.org

GLDiv Double Driver’s School

A flyer, entry form, supps and hotel information has been posted for the GLDiv Double Driver’s School, scheduled for April 18-20th at Nelson Ledges. See all the info here.

Spring Training Cancelled!

Steve Harris has told us that due to bad weather in Toledo, the Spring Training classes set for March 8th have been cancelled, and will be rescheduled at a later date.

SBR Club Trailer

Good News! Our new club trailer/ Timing & PA vehicle is sitting on the dealer lot and will be officially ours next week. Now the fun begins. I am planning on starting on the basic interior fit out the weekend of 3/15 & 3/16. We will be painting the inside, possibly putting in something non-skid for the floor, fitting out shelving, and other non technical stuff in preperation for the PA equipment transfer to follow. Anyone that may have extra heavy duty white or gray paint, painting brushes, rollers, masking tape,  they can donate, send me an e-mail.

Also, we are looking for a small wall or floor mountable cabinets or shelving with door(s) that we can fit and mount the PA amplifier and equipment into. I does not have to be very big. We just don’t want to buy new if we can get good used stuff  that can be painted or refinished. Again, donations are welcome.

If you are interested in helping out, send me an e-mail.

Thanks,

Mark Manninen, Solo Chair solo@sbrscca.org