VOL. 57 | MARCH 2016 The official publication of the San Francisco Region of the Sports Car Club Of America US MAJORS TOUR US MAJORS TOUR AutO CLUB WILLOW SPRINGS SPEEDWAY INTL RACEWAY p. 10 p. 18 MARCH 2016 THE WHEEL 1 contributors-ad-v01.pdf 1 1/4/16 4:54 PM March 2016 DO YOU LOVE TO WRITE? GOOD WITH A CAMERA? Cover photo and photo above by Dennis Baer 6 Wheelworks 10 US Majors Tour 18 Cal Club Us Majors Tour FEATURES Cal Club Auto Club Speedway January Willow Springs Intl Raceway 7 RE News 30–31, 2016 24 Club News 8 Notes from the Archive C 16 2015 Financials 26 2016 Drivers School Students M 28 Thunderhill Report Y CM MY IN EVERY ISSUE 4 Calendar 25 List of Advertisers 25 Travel Tech 30 The Garage: Classified Ads CY CMY The views expressed in The Wheel are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of San Francisco Region or the SCCA. K SAN FRANCISCO REGION SCCA REGION OFFICE 2015 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MAILING ADDRESS GARY PITTS Regional Executive PO Box 308, Willows, CA 95988 [email protected] ROD SIMMONS Treasurer – Director LOCATION PUBLISHER: THE WHEEL PUBLICATIONS 5250 Hwy 162, Willows, CA 95988 Competition Director Editor BLAKE TATUM [email protected] 530 934 4455 [email protected] 530 934 7275 fax Art Direction & Design JULIE LEFRANCOIS BLAKE TATUM Secretary [email protected] julielefrancois.com [email protected] CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Blake Tatum, The Wheel is the Official publication of the San Francisco region of the Gary Horstkorta, David Vodden, Gary Pitts, Bill Haneline Sports Car Club of America located at 5250 Hwy 162, Willows, Cali- DAN BURGOON Director fornia 95988. It is published monthly by Wheel Publications, 6185 Riv- [email protected] erbank Circle, Stockton, California 95219. Opinions expressed herein CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS & ARTISTS are those of the author and not necessarily those of the San Francisco Chuck Koehler, Stan Guidero, Don Jones, Region, Wheel Publications, The Wheel, it’s staff or advertisers. Mate- CLINT DEWITT Director Julie LeFrancois, Nan Mendes, Sherry Grantz, rial submitted to The Wheel that is slanderous, libelous, profane, pure [email protected] Rafael Soto, Dennis Baer inflamatory criticism offering no constructive alternatives, sexually Learn just how fun and wonderful it is to see your work in print & participate in the club in new ways. explicit or material as directed by The Board, such as competitive series schedules, ads, etc. shall not be published. R.J. GORDY Director POSTMASTER, Please send address changes to: EMAIL [email protected] FOR MORE INFORMATION [email protected] Permisssion to reprint materials from The Wheel is hereby granted to all SCCA regional publications with the agreement that full credit be The Wheel given to the author and The Wheel. BARBARA MCCLELLAN Director P.O. Box 308 [email protected] Willows, CA 95988 The Wheel • ISSN 0888-1103 • USPS 0625-160 • is published monthly for $15 per year for the San Francisco Region of the Sports Car Club of America, 5250 Hwy 162, Willows, California 95988. Periodicals Postage paid at Willows, CA and at additional mailing offices. 2 SFRSCCA.ORG MARCH 2016 MARCH 2016 THE WHEEL 3 2016 CALENDAR 2016 SFR ROAD RACING SCHEDULE Any changes will be shown on www.sfrscca.org FRESNO SCHEDULE SOLO SCHEDULE SACRAMENTO 2016 AUTOCROSS SCHEDULE MARCH JULY, CONTINUED Round #1 Round #7 Event 2 – March 12 2016 Bay Area Autocross Schedule SCCA Sac. Cup /Shriner's SCCA Sacramento Cup SFR Race Drivers School Double Regional 9 & 10 Event 3 – March 13 Tentative as of Jan. 14, 2016 April 2 | Mather Airport May 28 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds March 4-6 | Thunderhill featuring the Golden Gate Region Event 4 – May 29 Porsche Club of America Event 5 – June 19 http://www.sfrautox.com/ Round #2 Round #8 July 22-24 | Laguna Seca Event 6 – July 9 Season Opener Double SCCA Sacramento Cup SCCA Sacramento Cup Event 7 – August 6 Test N Tune Regional 1 & 2 April 3 | Mather Airport May 29 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds March 18-20 | Laguna Seca Event 8 – November 19 March 12 | Crows Landing AUGUST Event 9 Enduro – November 20 Round #3 Round #9 Pre-Reunion Round 2 SCCA Sacramento Cup SCCA Sacramento Cup APRIL PRO SUPPORT All events at Fresno Fairgrounds. March 13 | Crows Landing April 23 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds July 30 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds SCCA MAJORS August 13 - 14 | Laguna Seca Hope to see you there! Round 3 April 8-10 | Thunderhill Round #4 Round #10 Reunion April 3 | Marina SCCA Sacramento Cup SCCA Sacramento Cup PRO SUPPORT April 24 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds July 31 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds IMSA/Continental Tire Grand August 18 - 21 | Laguna Seca Round 4/National Tour Prix Laguna Seca April 23-24 | Crows Landing PRO SUPPORT Round #5 SCCA Sac. Cup /PAL Round #11 Event SCCA Sacramento Cup April 28 - May 1 | Laguna Seca OCTOBER, CONTINUED Pro Solo SEPTEMBER May 14 | Mather Airport August 27 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds April 30-May 1 | Crows Landing "Mazda Road to Indy" Season Finale Double Regional 13 & 14 Round #6 Round #12 M AY PRO SUPPORT Round 5 October 21-23 | Thunderhill SCCA Sacramento Cup SCCA Sacramento Cup Sept 9-11 | Laguna Seca June 5 | Marina Double Regional 3 & 4 May 15 | Mather Airport August 28 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds April 14-15 | Thunderhill Annual Awards Banquet Double Regional 11 & 12 Round 6 Check www.sfrautox.com for dates. October 22 | Willows Round #13 Sept 24-25 | Thunderhill June 11 | Crows Landing Pre-register on: Motorsportsreg.com SCCA Sacramento Cup JUNE September 10 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds Round 7 SCCA MEMBERS ONLY Double Regional 5 & 6 Temporary Memberships available on OCTOBER June 12 | Crows Landing featuring the Spec Racer Ford Festival Motorsportreg and on-site for additional $15 Round #14 & the Porsche: Pirelli GT3 Cup Pirelli World Challenge NOTE THE NEW PRICE CHANGE IS SCCA Sacramento Cup Round 8 TAKING EFFECT: $40 prereg, $50 on-site THURSDAY TEST DAY PRO SUPPORT September 11 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds June 25 | Marina June 2-5 | October 6-9 | Laguna Seca SCHEDULE FOR ALL DATES • The "Bill Fleig Memorial" Round 9 Tech Inspection for all run groups is JULY on grid Enduro Day 1 July 24 | Marina Double Regional 7 & 8 • Course Walk (7:30AM – 8:30AM) October 1 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds • Mandatory Driver’s Meetings (8:45AM) featuring Spec Miata Festival & the Porsche: Test N Tune • Two morning run groups: 1 & 2 The "Bill Fleig Memorial" Pirelli GT3 Cup August 6 | Crows Landing • Registration ends at NOON July 1-3 | Sonoma Raceway • First car out in RG3 no earlier Enduro Day 2 Round 10 than 12:30pm October 2 | San Joaquin Fairgrounds • Course Walk August 7 | Crows Landing • Mandatory Driver’s Meeting • Two afternoon run groups: 3 & 4 • Ladies Classes run with their open classes but are scored separately • At each event, classes generally run Photo by Rafael Soto one group later than the previous event 4 SFRSCCA.ORG MARCH 2016 MARCH 2016 THE WHEEL 5 NOTHING BUT DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS, AND OLD WHITE GUYS RE NEWS BY GARY PITTS WHEELWORKS BY BLAKE TATUM Well, the new year is off to a great start. The last time I counted, we have 52 entries for the drivers’ school and more people are trying to find rental cars so they can run the School. It was the night before the primary and the tiny voting district of Thunderhill Raceway was going to control the outcome of the primaries. I found one renter who has a few cars left so I expect we’ll get a few more to have them with us. Please make or other participation from SCCA entries. I haven’t counted entries for the season opener, but entries are them welcome when they attend National, to develop the site for already coming in for the Majors, “The Ultimate Challenge” where we will our events. use by our own club and rental to run both the 3-mile and the 5-mile courses in one event; we’re hoping for other organizations. This is in the We also have a very interesting a big hit here and when we get it, I think we’ll have a great start on a tradi- very early stages and I’ll keep you Fox News Megyn Kelly. Trump jumped on the stage and started to sing along, project developing in our solo com- but had to leave abruptly when his hair got messed up. Ted Nugent opened tional Big Event that will be the envy of all the clubs on the western tier. informed as progress is made. Both Parties were campaigning hard spending thousands of dollars wooing munity which is being led by Board with a thirty minute set and then took a break so everyone in attendance the voters. The republicans were entertaining the constituents at the main As all who attended the Chief’s meeting already know, we exceeded our member Clint DeWitt in conjunc- All in all, the Club is doing well could go outside and shoot their guns. Bill Clinton was driving out of the fa- clubhouse. They hired Jim Thompson to prepare appetizers from the local budget for last year and we now have several profitable years under our tion with the Autocross leadership. both financially and socially and cility when he overheard the Ted Nugent concert. He stopped the motorcade cuisine. Tasty bits like duck wings and lamb shank appetizers were brought in belts and no really big expenses, like new tow trucks, facing us. We also We are in early-stage discussions the future is bright.