VOL. 58 | APRIL 2017 The official publication of the San Francisco Region of the Sports Car Club Of America FRESNO AUTOCROSS p. 16 SFR CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES SEASON OPENER p. 18 SFR SOLO ROUND 2 p. 26 APRIL 2017 THE WHEEL 1 SpecRacer - Sales - Rentals - Arrive & Drive Conditions 1. 1st time in a SpecRacer 2. One race or practice day 3. Competition license 4. Subject to availability 5. See website for details SpecRacers are now 7 Seconds faster than a Spec Miata at ThunderHill Services SpecRacer 2017 Pricing* GEN2 GEN3 April 2017 • SRF Rentals & Arrive & Drive Rental (3 day local race & transport) $900 /day $1,133 /day • Cars and Parts Sales Arrive & Drive – your car (3 day race) $400 /day + transport Cover Photo by GotBlueMilk.com • Trackside Support for Your Car Transportation & Limited Support $.75 /mile + $50 /day Above: Fresno Solo, Justin Tang. Photo by Ric Quinonez • Driver Coaching Includes: • Maintenance & Repairs Trackside support <1 hr 6 Wheelworks 12 Thunderhill Park Revs Up for 2017 16 Fresno Chapter Autocross * See details on our website. Unload & loading car FEATURES 7 Worker & Driver of the Weekend 13 Spring Classic May 19-21 at Mazda 18 SFR Championship Series Season Tools to use at track Raceway Laguna Seca Opener Phone (669) 232-4844 www.AccelRaceTek.com 8 Welcome Super Dusters 14 Full Body Contact 24 Track Nights at Thunderhill 9 An Open Letter 15 2017 SFR Road Racing 26 SFR Solo Round 2 10 Notes from the Archive Official Photographer 28 Thunderhill Report Rentals om IN EVERY ISSUE 4 Calendar 4 Travel Tech 29 Race Car Rentals 30 The Garage: Classified Ads Builds .c 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. SAN FRANCISCO REGION SCCA REGION OFFICE BOARD OF DIRECTORS RENT A RACE CAR! MAILING ADDRESS GARY PITTS Regional Executive Mazda Raceway, Sonoma, Thunderhill, & Buttonwillow PO Box 308, Willows, CA 95988 [email protected] SCCA, NASA, Corporate / Private Events or Track Days. LOCATION ROD SIMMONS Treasurer – Director PUBLISHER: THE WHEEL PUBLICATIONS 5250 Hwy 162, Willows, CA 95988 Arrive and Drive, Track Support, Indoor Storage, Competition Director 530 934 4455 Editor BLAKE TATUM [email protected] Coaching, Fabrication, Builds & Repairs, [email protected] 530 934 7275 fax Parts & Upgrades [email protected] Art Direction & Design JULIE LEFRANCOIS BLAKE TATUM Secretary julielefrancois.com The Wheel is the Official publication of the San Francisco region of the [email protected] Office: (831) 240-5347 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Blake Tatum, Sports Car Club of America located at 5250 Hwy 162, Willows, California Lynne Huntting, Gary Horstkorta, David Vodden, Fax: (831) 422-0500 95988. It is published monthly by Wheel Publications, 6185 Riverbank DAN BURGOON Director LesherMotorSports.com Circle, Stockton, California 95219. Opinions expressed herein are those of James Chartres, Bruce Richardson, Allen Davis, the author and not necessarily those of the San Francisco Region, Wheel [email protected] Katherine Flater, Ryan Panlilio MiataRental.com Publications, The Wheel, it’s staff or advertisers. Material submitted to The Wheel that is slanderous, libelous, profane, pure inflamatory criti- CLINT DEWITT Director CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS & ARTISTS [email protected] cism offering no constructive alternatives, sexually explicit or material Dito Milian Gotbluemilk.com, Lynne Huntting, James as directed by The Board, such as competitive series schedules, ads, etc. [email protected] Chartres, Paul Tibbals, Amy Armes, Ric Quinonez shall not be published. Permisssion to reprint materials from The Wheel is hereby granted to all R.J. GORDY Director POSTMASTER, Please send address changes to: SCCA regional publications with the agreement that full credit be given [email protected] to the author and The Wheel. The Wheel The Wheel • ISSN 0888-1103 • USPS 0625-160 • is published monthly BARBARA MCCLELLAN Director for $15 per year for the San Francisco Region of the Sports Car Club of P.O. Box 308 America, 5250 Hwy 162, Willows, California 95988. Periodicals Postage [email protected] Willows, CA 95988 paid at Willows, CA and at additional mailing offices. APRIL 2017 THE WHEEL 3 2017 CALENDAR 2017 SFR ROAD RACING SCHEDULE FRESNO CHAPTER SACRAMENTO SOLO THUNDER ON THE Any changes will be shown on www.sfrscca.org 2017 CALENDAR 2017 SCHEDULE WEST COURSE” APRIL JULY OCTOBER Event 3 - April 22 All events at San Joaquin Fairgrounds, Stockton Event 4 - April 23 PDX/TIME TRIALS MAJOR REGIONAL 9 & 10 PIRELLI WORLD Event 5 - June 10 April 29 Round 3 Hosted by Reno Region SCCA April 30 Round 4 April 1&2 | Thunderhill July 28-30 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca CHALLENGE Event 6 - June 11 June 24 Round 5 All events are at the Thunderhill Raceway Park ~ PRO SUPPORT Event 7 - July 8 June 25 Round 6 West course October 12-15 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Event 8 - July 29 Event 9 - August 12 July 22 Round 7 MAY AUGUST In your street car or your ready-to-racer. It Event 10 - October 8 - Buttonwillow Kart Track July 23 Round 8 doesn’t matter. You want to race. SCCA wants REGIONAL 13 & 14 Event 11 - November 11 August 26 Round 9 REGIONAL 3&4 PRE-REUNION to get you on the track. Come join us for stress SEASON FINALE Event 12 Enduro - November 12 August 27 Round 10 May 6-7 | Regional 3 & 4 @ Thunderhill PRO SUPPORT free fun. October 27-29 | Thunderhill September 23 Round 11 August 12-13 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca All events held at Fresno Fairgrounds, except September 24 Round 12 Time Trial counts toward your competition Event 10, which is at Buttonwillow Raceway. October 14 Enduro Practice license for one of your 3 weekend races FERRARI CHALLENGE REUNION IT’S BACK!! October 15 Enduro PRO SUPPORT RDC FOUR-HOUR ENDURO Get extra seat time PRO SUPPORT October 29 | Thunderhill May 11-14 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca August 17-20 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Satisfy your “need for speed” SPRING CLASSIC 2017 SCHEDULE SEPTEMBER May 19-21 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca APRIL 30 BAY AREA JUNE 11 REGIONAL 11 & 12 JUNE September 1-3 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca SOLO CALENDAR SEPTEMBER 10 TEST DAY 2017 Contact: Dave Deborde, [email protected] & REGIONAL 5 & 6 IMSA Pro Solo: Crows Landing: April 22-23 SPEC RACER FESTIVAL PRO SUPPORT GO TO: www.renoscca.motorsportreg.com for June 1-4 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca September 21-24 | Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca National Tour: additional information and register Crows Landing: April 29-30 SCCA Race Overnight parking Saturday night REGIONAL 7 & 8 SPEC MIATA FESTIVAL Photos Sunday: Tech 7:30 Driver Meeting 8:30 June 30-July 2 | Sonoma Raceway Come by our booth and check out the photos of Come for the fun , your car on the track. We will have proofs shortly after your track time and prints by the end of the Stay for the “Bench Racing” too. Morris Hamm TELEPHONE HOURS RATES Marin/ Sonoma/ Napa/ ARE: 1 car/$10.00 + mileage - TRAVEL TECH Infineon 6 pm–9 pm, Monday through 2 cars/$9.00 each + 1/2 raphers. Chuck Don & Kathy Travel Tech is a volunteer, in shop/at 707-738-8860 Friday mileage home tech inspection service for pre-race Phil Munoz 10 am to 6 pm, 3 cars/$8.00 each + 1/3 Santa Cruz Area, Saturday/Sunday mileage [email protected] and purchase inspection of race cars, 831-297-2457 Logbook for new car or re-issuing a including newly built cars. Travel Tech Tom Turner Logbook is $30 plus San Ramon Area, mileage. Scrutineers are: 925-389-6181 Chuck Koehler 916-409-5205 4 SFRSCCA.ORG APRIL 2017 APRIL 2017 THE WHEEL 5 ANNOUNCING, NO ANNOUNCING!!! DRIVER AND WORKER OF THE WEEKEND AWARDS WHEELWORKS BY BLAKE TATUM DOUBLE REGIONAL, MARCH 10-12 AT THUNDERHILL If a tree fell in the middle of the forest and no one was around would it make a noise? We have all The Driver of the Weekend and Worker of the Weekend Awards are given to an individual or crew heard that theoretical question to which the answer is of course it would, but shy of some strategi- who shows outstanding performance in their role during that weekend’s event. cally placed recording equipment there is no way of proving it. The relevance to San Francisco Re- gion road racing is: if we held a race and no one announced the race did it really happen? Somehow or another our board decided that the customer is at the race track. It is not the volunteer is trying to communicate via the radio announcing or doing the color for our races volunteer work force. The people paying the with someone at the other end of the paddock was not necessary. Apparently they received bills are the drivers. They pay the entry fee that and every time they try to talk there is someone complaints that the public address system was pays for the entire operation. So if there was blasting away. I get that, but I think the solution annoying. Some people were complaining that ever going to be decisions that effect the driver’s the board came up with was throwing the baby all the noise was hindering their ability to do wouldn’t you think that there would have been a out with the bath water. the job. According to some board members they formal polling of them to see what their thoughts One thing we might need to look at is the ability have received several complaints regarding the are? to turn down or off certain speakers that are constant barrage of noise coming from the public As a driver it does not make much sense to me directly blaring into the ear of a particular group.