RE Remarks - Bill Pintaric

‘Tis the season, the season to be with family and friends, to reflect, and to enjoy the holidays.

It is also the time of year that elections for officers of the Mahoning Valley Region are held. As your new RE, I would like to thank those who have run for office and most importantly, thank those people who have served as officers over the last year or so. There is often no greater role than serving as a volunteer.  I especially want to thank Paul Morrison, who has been RE for the last 3 years. He has represented this region well, and I can only hope that I can do as well as he has.

Just a little background on myself, for those who do not know me. I live in a northern suburb of Youngstown, Ohio with my wife Sandy, and daughter Katie.  I have been a member of the SCCA since 1982, mostly as a driver, although I have been a member of the Board of Trustees of this region in the past. I have also volunteered in Flagging and Communications in the early 90s, but my love has always been driving. I am currently racing National races in the GT Lite class, driving a Nissan 200SX.  Fortunately, with some luck, and very good crew support, I have become a fairly competitive driver over the last several years, which makes racing much more enjoyable.

Dinner at the Pintaric’s usually involves talk of horsepower, either the 4 wheeled kind or the 4 legged kind. My wife and daughter are heavily into horses, showing and breeding Quarter horses and sport horses. That’s another topic of conversation some other time.

The region has some special events planned for the 2007 racing season. We will be holding our annual awards banquet some time soon. Please look in future issues of TRACK for further information.   This event is always a good place to meet up with the people you usually only see at race tracks and has been a enjoyable event.

We are holding a double drivers school at Nelson Ledges in April. This event, while sometimes difficult to schedule and run, as always proved popular with potential drivers and instructors.  We will be asking for your cooperation in this and our other events, since you our members, are what makes this region great.

On the weekend of Memorial Day, Mahoning Valley will be holding a double National at Nelson Ledges, in conjunction with Neohio region. While the term “double national” is technically correct, this will be two Nationals held by 2 different regions and in this case 2 different divisions. It is different than the traditional double nationals that we are used to, but that seems to be Mahoning Valley’s claim to fame. We dare to be a little different. And it works for this region. (Editor's Note:  The Great Lakes Division voted down Neohio's request for the "double".  This vote came in after Bill wrote his article.

And in October, we are holding the Golden Harvest double regional, again at Nelson Ledges. This event has been run for almost 25 years and it holds a lot of memories for many of us in the region and throughout the area.

Please refer to TRACK and our website for further information on these events. Better still, come to our monthly membership meeting held on the first Tuesday of each month.  This is your region, and while the board and other volunteers do a wonderful job, we can always use new ideas, and new involvement. Considering what this region does with the great people that work so hard at our events, just think how great we can be if more of us got involved. Come to a meeting, come to an event. We don’t bite. For those who used to be involved, come on back. Yes, I know, we all have children with soccer, or dance, or karate. Bring the kids to the track. Who knows, maybe they will like it. It’s definitely a different experience.  It would be great to see you again.  And for those who hold memberships, but have never become involved, why are you a member?  Come on out and see us. You may really enjoy this. It’s definitely different than most activities. And the people are great. This area of the country has a wonderful reputation for being very friendly. Ask any driver or volunteer about that fact.

We would really like to see new people at our events and at our meetings. We look forward to seeing you this coming year. If you should have any questions, or comments, please feel free to contact me at billpintaric@aol.com. I check my e-mail most every day, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. With your help, we can make Mahoning Valley Region even better than it is today.

THANK YOU

Dear Paul, Board of Directors & all the members of the Mahoning Valley Region -

A special thank you to all of you for your generous contribution of gifts to the volunteers at the 2006 National Runoffs in Topeka.  You regions gifts were a huge hit with everyone & someone went home to their own region sporting something with a Mahoining Valley logo on it.
 

The National Runoffs & success of the event has to do with the support & generosity from people like youselves.

On behalf of myself & everyone involved with the Runoffs Thank you for everything you did through your gifts, you personal time & most certainly the commitment in everything you do throughout the racing season to make a volunteers world that much more --

Yours for the Sport
Marina Kraft - Des Moines Valley Region
2006 Runoffs Race Chair

Minutes of the November Membership Meeting
 
RE Bill Pintaric opened the meeting @ 8 pm with 10 members present.

October's minutes were approved as well as November's treasurer's and membership report.

Old Business: Our Golden Harvest double
regional probably broke even.   Kryderacing Banquet is this Saturday 11-18-06. Call or e-mail Sandi if you still want to go.   NE Div. Mini-con was held last weekend in New Jersey with about 150 members attending including our president Jim Julow.

New Business: Schedule for 2007 pretty well worked
out with double school, double national and regional in Oct. details to follow.   Beginning Jan. 2007 all NeDiv events will require driver's medical info on helmet.

Carl Holbrook made motion to adjourn and Scott Lane
seconded it. motion carried.

Respectfully submitted - Tom Nutter Secretary

Membership Report

We have about 200 members including dual members.

Happy Birthday Wishes to:

Andrew Bujdoso   12/7
Mark Fickenscher   12/31
Joseph Gonczi    12/31
Greg Grucella    12/30
Hugh Kells            12/29
Rachel Pintaric    12/9
Phyllis Stambugh   12/7
Kim Vernis    12/25

Please let me know if I have the correct date.  SCCA National office sometimes has the dates entered incorrectly in the computer.

December Renewals

Richard Dunlap
Greg Grucella
Jim & Toni Morgan
Kenneth Piper
Bob & Barb Ruman
Amy Ruman

2007 SCCA NATIONAL CONVENTION

In 2007 the SCCA National Convention moves to San Antonio, Texas, on the famous Riverwalk. This should be a great venue and initial reports from those who have done a reconnaissance mission to the Crowne Plaza RiverWalk hotel (headquarters) are very excited about the site. Aside from all the great sight-seeing opportunities San Antonio offers, the meat of the convention will feature some pretty fantastic seminars and town-hall style sessions.

The Convention is for you, the SCCA Region Executives and all Region leaders, to gain the information you need to make your Regions successful in 2007. Take a look at the schedule under the "Convention" tab on the SCCA.com home page. It is packed full of some very useful topics from RallyCross and Time Trial program planning to Solo Site Acquisition and a full track on Region management. Plus there are other sessions offered for Marketing, Finance, Licensing, and Risk Management.

In the past, some of the most popular sessions have been known as "best practices" designed for leaders and experts in their respective competition venues to share with others what works and what hasn't. These sessions usually involve very lively and thought provoking discussions, and seldom is there enough time to thoroughly explore the topics raised.

The National Staff has hashed over the Convention schedule several times. Every year it is a huge challenge to ensure that overlaps and conflicts are kept to a minimum. What you see published now is probably version 145, or 146, or maybe 201, I forget. But I think it is one of the best schedules developed for the SCCA annual gathering and goes a long way to minimize those conflicts.

Please make your plans now to attend. This is the most important meeting as an RE and Region leader for you to attend. I look forward to seeing you there. We will learn a lot, share a lot, and have a ton of fun!

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

As I write this letter, I’m returning from the Northeast Division’s mini-Convention. What a great time I had, but more important than a great experience, I learned a tremendous amount about how the Club works and operates at that level. I met a lot of interesting folks and the ideas and energy level of the people that attended this event was truly amazing. My thanks to the NE Division for inviting me.

As we are in the convention and round table season that means the race season has come to a close. It allows us to look back on what was a very busy and successful year. Great first year Solo and Club Racing

Championship events at Heartland Park. RallyCross continues to grow and it looks like we may be headed to a national finals in that next year. In terms of our subsidiaries, we had a historic review of Enterprise and a return of Pro Racing into the black. Club finances are running ahead of budget in what was predicted to be a very hard year.

However, we can only spend a few moments on reflection, because it won’t be many more days and the 2007 race season will be upon us. One of the first and most important events on the National calendar for early next year is the Convention. There will be a location change for the 2007 convention as it will move from Kansas City to San Antonio. We’ll be housed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel which is located right on the Riverwalk (not that any of you would care about that). We are scheduled to start on Thursday, February 1 and the grand finale will be the Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on Saturday, February 3.

I hope to see many of you at the Convention. It’s the one time of year that you can interact with both your Board of Directors as well as the National Staff. There will be many learning and “Best Practice” breakouts and of course, the Annual Meeting and Town Hall. It is extremely important that each Region have at least one representative at the Convention. The National Staff is gearing up to make this convention unforgettable, not to mention a great value for all of our attendees.
Hope all of you have a great holiday season and hope to see you all at the Convention.

---Jim Julow, President and CEO
 

CLASSIFIEDS

Free to Mahoning Valley, Neohio, Misery Bay, Steel Cities and Western New York Regions members.  Ads will run 3 consecutive times (asterisks at the beginning of the ad indicates how many times the ad has run).  Ads must be resubmitted after their 3rd run.

* FOR SALE:  Motec M48 Engine Management System.  Call 330-854-4889 for details.

* RACE CAR PREP:  Kryderacing offers race car preparation, chassis set up, trackside services, race car transportation, etc.   Check out their Website  www.kryderacing.com

** FOR SALE: 1990 Chevrolet Suburban
350 CID Engine, 4 Wheel Drive, 8 Passenger / 3rd Seat
144,000 Miles, AM/FM Radio, Cassette Player, Electric Windows, Electric Mirrors, Air, New Muffler & Exhaust System, Tow Package with Electric Brake.   $2950.00 - OBO. Phone: 330.447.1969.    Email: kmast@adelphia.net

** FOR SALE:  F-PROD Fiat X/19 96% complete, needs wired, plumbed, and safety gear. 4 engines, 3 trannys and lots of parts. Oh yea, and 1 complete running street legal x/19 in pretty good shape. solid investment, worthy project, needs completed.  Contact Eric Avendutti  H 440-238-3330, W 330-725-3999

** FOR SALE: GTech Pro RR, Never Used.  Still in box.   $240.00.  Call Reed Kryder 330-854-4889.

** FOR RENT: ITS Nissan 240SX or ITA NX2000 for Regionals or Driver Schools. Kryderacing - 330-854-4889.
 
 

TRACK is the official monthly publications of the MAHONING VALLEY REGION of SCCA INC.

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