Hey Everyone!
Finally have had some time to sit down and write up my 2011 Season Wrap Up. I have to admit I've been procrastinating a bit as every weekend I seem to find other things to do (like the 25-hour) and by Sunday night can't find the mental energy to sit down and type. That said...Andy Chittum has done an outstanding job summarizing the October and November races blow-by-blow such that I won't even attempt to improve his excellent write-up. Instead I am going to point you to his blog instead. Andy's BTM Racing Blog can be found here: http://btmmotorwerksracing.blogspot.com/
2011 Season NorCal SpecE30 Regional Winners
First off, congratulations are in order to Andy and Brad McClure of Team BTM Motorwerks for bringing home the 2011 NorCal Regional SpecE30 Championship! It was a close and hard fought battle to the end with Loren Trefethen finishing #2 in season points and Team North Bay Bavarian, Greg Peterson and Ric McCormick, rounding out the third podium spot. Our last two races of the season were exciting to watch and even more exciting to participate in.
Season Loose Ends
With Jim Bucha's help we took care of most of the loose ends from the October 2011 race weekend. For the PointSix Fast Race Lap award, since we ran two track configurations, we flipped a coin between Loren Trefethen and Team Gone Racing to see who would take home the Ben Franklin. Loren won the toss. Same for the North Bay Bavarian Fastest Pole Position lap time. Andy Chittum and Tommy O got to flip a coin for the $100 award...Tommy O had the luck for that flip!
AIM Random $100 Draw - 6th Place or Lower October and November
Random draws of finishing position for the Saturday race in October and Sunday's final race in November go to the following lucky winners. Thanks to my daughter Madeline for picking the winning numbers. They are: #23 for Saturday and #9 for Sunday. I asked why she picked those numbers...23 because she likes the sound of that number (makes sense) and #9 because that is her soccer jersey number (makes even more sense). Ron Harness wins for Saturday and Robert Lamb for Sunday's race. Congrats guys!
The Evil Genius Racing Hard Charger Awards - Recall that in the last three years, for the last race weekend the EGRHCA traditionally goes to the Regional Champion. Brad McClure picked up a crisp $100 for that....easy. Now, since an October EGHRCA winner was not picked it was decided to pick one from the season ending race weekend. After Sunday's final race, where Greg Peterson successfully held off Brad and Loren in a very hard fought battle, Mr. Evil Genius himself, John Pagel came to me after the race and wanted to award Greg the weekend's hard charger. Great choice but one our constraints on the EGRHCA has been that a racer can only win one per season and Greg having won in August, we had to choose another racer for the award.
This was going to be difficult...I spoke with Will Faules and he really didn't have a standout in mind. So once again, I was left with the executive decision to pick a hard charger. The problem I had was, from my vantage point on the race track, I could not gauge much from my position. Dang...who to pick? My choice became crystal clear walking past Impound after the final race. I ran into Rick Row on his way back to his trailer, beat-tired and oil -grimed from working beneath Greg Peterson's race car (he and Matt had to drop the tranny to get the flywheel out). It then occurred to me that Rick should be awarded the EGRHCA for all the unselfish help he has given to his fellow racers fix their cars throughout the 2011 season. I think it's safe to say that almost the entire SE30 field has at some point sought out help or advice from Rick during the season. I quickly located Will Faules and ran my idea by him and he wholeheartedly agreed that Rick was a great choice. Rick is ALWAYS first in line to help out a fellow racer. His BMW mechanical knowledge and know-how is seemingly inexhaustible. Congratulations to Rick, for being the October 2011 recipient of the Evil Genius Racing Hard Charger Award!
North Bay Bavarian Fastest Pole November Weekend $100: Tommy O collected another cool $100 bill for taking Saturday's pole.
Point Six Fast Race Lap $100 Award: Andy Chittum clocked the fastest lap of both Sunday's races, congratulations Andy.
Anarchy Eyewear Sunglasses: The winners of the coolest shades in the paddock were to go to 11th place for Race 1 and 29nd place for Race 2. Jim Bucha was 11th in Race 1. Race 2 was a problem as we didn't have that many cars in the field. So to fix that I picked the last place in the field without a DQ and that was Larry Moore. Greg Peterson will hook you up! Wear 'em proudly boys!
Trefethen Wineries Fine Wine: Fine wine donated by Trefethen Wineries went to 5th place for 17th position for both races. Those racers are Andy Chittum/Larry Moore for Race 1 and Derek Welch/Jim Bucha for Race 2. Enjoy your fine wine over the holidays from Trefethen Wineries! Thanks again Loren!
Pro Racing Simulator Race Winners: Brad McClure and Greg Peterson gather up one hour each of SIM time for their first place wins.
Pro Racing Simulator Race Hard Chargers: Saturday's Hard Charger (most positions gained during the race) goes to (according to my ciphering) new SE30 racer Fred Freihofner (Q24 P18) for Race 1 and for Race 2 John Trefethen (Q25 P15). Nice work boys!
TFB Performance $75 Coupons: I didn't get with Timmy Barber to pick finishing positions for Race 1 and 2. I asked my other daughter Hannah, now home for Christmas from college, to give me two numbers between 1 and 27. She picked 10 and 20. Daring to delve once again into that strange and fascinating thing called "a woman's mind", I asked why those numbers? 10 is the day of her birthday and 20 is simply 2 times 10. Of course! I love the way women think! Robert Lamb is the winner for Race 1 and Ted Hill is the winner for Race 2.
If we add up all the contingencies for the weekend (including Regional Championship Toyo Bucks) we're looking at about $3,750 in weekend prizes. A big thanks to all our sponsors and supporters.
Again, its been my honor to serve as NorCal Se30 Series Director. You guys are the greatest! On behalf of NASA, our new Assistant Series Director Jim Bucha and myself, wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas Holiday and a Fun, Fast and Safe 2012 Season.
Cheers,
Scott
