GCAC President's Corner

The End is Near. Yes, this event is the Season Finale of 2007. We hope you have enjoyed another exciting year in the world of autocrossing, if you are a “ Newbie “ this year we hope to see you for many years to come. It is and always has been our goal to put on the best events possible and to strive to have the latest and greatest equipment . But the key to our success has always been you, the autocrossers who come to our events. I don’t think that you will find another sport like ours that is so competitive yet so helpful to everybody involved.

Yes, the 2008 schedule is confirmed for the first half of the year. Time to give serious thoughts to all the "Would Of, Could Of, Should Of" thoughts of 2007 and get ready to go at it full speed ahead. It’s time to seriously look at what you need to improve on for next year, Do you need to improve the car or does the driver need improvement? If the driver needs improvement the answer is seat time, that’s seat time at events, not seat time in front of a computer playing games or seat time in front of the TV. If you only come on Sundays you might want to start showing up on Saturdays for the test and tune practice sessions, it’s a great time to tune up your driving and your car.

Evolution Performance Driving School, we held 2 schools last year and hope to do the same this year. It is amazing to see the people improve their driving skills at these schools. Ask anybody who has attended if it is worth the money, I’m sure they will tell you yes. Our next Evo School is scheduled for March 28 & 29 with a fun day for students on the 30. Feeling Lucky? We are going to start a Raffle for Evo Schools, There will be 25 tickets at $10 each, when the 25th ticket is sold we will have a drawing. After each drawing we will start another raffle, we will do this until the event in March.

Kudo’s to Equipe Rapide for putting on a well run Florida State Championship this year. If you didn’t attend it you missed a fun event.

That was FUN, two full days of competition with full courses both days is a blast, definitely keeps you on your toes. I thought we might have more challengers but it was a good turnout. For those not attending you missed a great event.

To db or not to db, that is the question. Today, I was asked to a meeting at Lee County Mosquito Control, sort of like getting called to the Principal's Office when I was in High School ( yes I was there ). The reason for the meeting was the Noise Complaints to some of the Board of Commissioners. After many years of not using a db meter, we gave in and started using one thinking this might resolve the problem of who is too Loud. Unfortunately, this is not solving the problem and it is only going to get worse with more and more houses being built in the area. One of the things we have learned with the db meter is that some of the cars that do not go over the 92db still seem to be very loud and this is the problem. A few cars that have gone over the 92 db did not sound as loud as other cars.

At the next event I think along with the db meter we may have a second person who will record car numbers of those cars that sound too loud through the course and issue some warnings.

Buckingham Airfield is one of the best Autocross sites in the country, it is also the last available site in South West Florida. Lets not lose it over the price of a quiet muffler.

New Equipment! We just purchased wireless transmitters from RaceAmerica for the start and finish line, this will hopefully resolve the issue of wire problems. We no longer will use the JA Circuits timers as the new wireless system goes right into the computer and works with our Axware Timing System. Later this year we hopefully will go wireless to the timing board at the finish line.

What a Blast, I really liked the course at event #1, I think Jim Ink outdid himself on that one. I think everybody also enjoyed the Chicken BBQ as well. Speaking of food, hopefully our new Crushed Cone Cafe Trailer will be ready for the February event, this trailer will replace our very old RV and the open trailer. It is quite an undertaking to get it ready, cabinets are being installed, including a full size sink and water supply, brackets are being installed to hold all the tables and hardware. We will also be using our old 4x8 trailer for cones and it will be backed inside the big trailer and tied down for transport.

Congratulations Abound, Elizabeth Fountain will be taking a maternity leave from being Chief of Timing, In her place will be James Flaumenbaum. Terry Silvernail will be taking over as Chief of Workers, Terry is also our Chief of Sound Control. Tom Gorman will be taking over setting up timing light equipment with help from Mike Lawson. Denise Kirk is now Chief of Staging and last but not least Billy Hriskonich will be Bistro Manager of The Crushed Cone Café.

Special People Awards, Every year we look for the people who go that extra mile to make everything better for everybody else. This years “Worker of the Year “ award goes to Mical & Elizabeth Fountain, “SportsWomen of the Year” goes to Joan Clark and this years “Presidents Award” goes to Dan and Becky Rash.

Evolution Driving School will be here the weekend of March 23&24, that’s a Friday and Saturday. Friday will be a Phase One and Saturday a Phase Two. The cost to attend the school is $250 per day. Special Bonus, attend the school and stick around for Sunday and attend an open practice day with the GCAC Crew. Click here for the online Registration Form.

Personal Notes, Forget retirement, I have purchased all the equipment from a Silk-screening Shop, So please keep me in mind for all your T-Shirt, Sport Shirts, Team Wear, Jackets and Hats.

2006, ANOTHER GREAT YEAR, There is no other way to say it, it was a great year. It’s always great to see all the people I met when I first started autocrossing; although there doesn’t seem to be as many. What really amazes me is all the new people attending our Novice School at each event. These are the people who will keep our sport alive in the future.

2006 AWARDS PRESENTATION, This year we will have a BBQ Chicken Lunch just before presenting the 2006 awards. Before you ask, the BBQ is taking the place of the Banquet. We hope you all attend the January event.

WHAT’S UP FOR 2007? Our Florida Special Tour 2 day event will be held March 3 & 4. There will be special awards for the 2 day event. Can’t attend both days? Sunday will be scored as Event #3 for points. Our Almost Famous “Crushed Cone Café“ will be getting a face lift. We are replacing the old RV with a new 24 ft. enclosed trailer that will double as equipment hauler. It will be towed behind the timing RV and simplify getting everything to the events. We will start using the Center Grid configuration more this year, this will help when flooding is a problem. We will also be looking into some new Cordless Timing lights from Race America, this would end the problem with the long cords that every once in while somebody runs over with their car.

Car Class Changes, Hopefully SCCA will have the car classes for 2007 posted before our January event. If you have any questions please contact me and I will do my best to find out. The changes will include some of the 2007 new cars and any changes made during 2006.

2007, What’s in store, Its now been 12 years since we started Gulf Coast Autocrossers, when I think back how it was that first year and what it is now I’m sometimes really amazed at the difference. I really think that we can’t get more state of the art then what we are, so we will look at improving all the little things. Seeing as many of you have tried very hard to destroy cones I will be ordering some more new ones for you to take aim at. Please, try to remember, the object of autocross is to miss the cones.

Many people have asked if we are going to host another SCCA National event, sorry, the answer is NO. We will hold our “Florida Special Tour” in March this year, it will be a 2 day event requiring attending both days for an event trophy. Sunday will be a points day if you can’t be there both days.

2007 Schedule, The event dates for the first half of the year have been posted on the website.

At this past event I had to give some verbal warnings to a couple of people about mufflers, READ THE RULE BOOK, MUFFLERS ARE REQUIRED. Yes, you can change things from the cat back, but that doesn't mean you can run without a muffler. From now on if your car is too loud you will not be able to run, I don't care what somebody else told you, I'm telling you now, your car better have a muffler.

Shame, shame, shame, we had a couple of people who did not show up for their worker assignment on the last shift and people who already worked had to help out. Well, they have been disqualified for this past event and will be required to work before they run at the next event. I know that sometimes you may not want to work, but everybody has to. And please, try to be ready when it is time to report to work, after all, you don't like it when you have to stay out there to long because somebody is late.

Remember when you first started Autocrossing ? Who was there to help you learn all the tricks ? Who was there to help you learn the proper line through that really tough corner.

For most of us there wasn't anybody, you had to learn the hard way. We have our Novice Schools to try to help those people just starting out or those who feel they need a little extra help. It also helps keep people interested in our sport if they understand it better.

We need extra instructors, how about helping us out on Saturday morning, I promise you won't regret it. If you help us out you don't have to pay for practice on Saturday. Just be here by 8:30am.

I have helped a lot of Novice's at a lot of schools and have always come away feeling good about it. How about you ?? -DAVE

From now on run group A & B will work first, so if you want to work first you better get there early. NOTICE: No more mister nice guy at Registration, Registration will close at 9:30 a.m., If you come in late you may register after the Drivers meeting, There will be a late entry fee of $10 and you may miss a run. Moral of the story is get your butt out of bed and get there early. Remember you must have a current Drivers license, no more excuses, no license, you can't run, end of story.

NOVICE SCHOOL: We are going to start having Pre-Registration for Novice School, If you know of someone who is planning to attend one of our schools, have them contact me. Remember, we are always looking for instructors to help out at our schools, this is a great way to help someone just starting out and it also helps you hone your own skills. Having the novice schools is a great way to get people started in Autocrossing and let them gain enough information to stay interested.

www. gulfcoastautocrossers. com This is the address for Gulfcoast Autocrossers Ltd.. If you haven't looked at it yet, do it know, lots of good stuff. Special Thanks to john Taylor for doing such a great job on our website. John spends a great amount of time keeping the web site updated, including points the night of the event.

The numbers on your car must be large enough and visible enough to be easily read from the timing vehicle, if they are not, you will be asked to back out of staging and correct them. Numbers should be on both sides of the car, also your class should be on the car. We will have paper numbers and tape available at Tech. NO MORE SHOE POLISH ALLOWED.... We also have magnetic numbers available at registration. Two driver cars, if you come to the line with the wrong number, sorry, no after run corrections.

That's right, It's not a misprint. We will provide a FREE LUNCH on both Saturday's and Sunday's at all of our events. Saturday will be our almost world famous hot dog lunch, with or without chili. On Sunday it will be hot dogs and hamburg/cheeseburgs. Lunch includes chips, soda's etc.. Sorry, we don't have any Grey Poupon, so don't ask.