September 28 and 29, 2013 will be the Fall "No Frills" Time Trial, PDX, and Time Trial school.  This event will be co-sponsored between TVR and Alabama region and will allow for extensive track time. 

For more information look in our message board or Facebook page.  Registration is at Motorsports Reg.

We will be having our Board meeting tonight after rescheduling from last week.  As planned, Mini of Birmingham will be hosting our event.

All members are welcome to attend.

We WILL NOT have our board meeting tonight.  It has been rescheduled to next Tuesday, September 17th, at Mini of Birmingham.

The Time Trial results took a bit of time to put together, and we at ALSCCA and TVR would like to thank the Timing and Scoring group that worked so diligently to put this together and check, recheck, and recheck again to make sure it was all there. 

Class results

Full results

Our fall 2012 Teen Driver Clinics got off to a great start on Saturday, September 29th. The class was a little smaller than usual, but that just meant the 7 pairs of students and parents got some additional attempts at our exercises and we were finished by about 3:15pm...just ahead of the rain. 9 volunteers, including 2 first timers, were invaluable as they set up the exercises, provided instruction & feedback, and basically insured the day went off without a hitch.

I received the following feedback from one of the Sep 29th parents:

"My son and I had the pleasure of attending the SCCA teen driving school yesterday.  We were both blown away by every aspect of the school.  I've been to a car control course at Bob Bondurant's school in Arizona and I can truly say that the classroom and driving sessions yesterday were every bit as good -- if not better -- than what I experienced there.  My son's confidence level is much higher and we both now know what our car is capable of doing and what happens as you approach its limits.  Not the least important, we both had a blast!

Among the many things that were fantastic were the enthusiasm and extremely positive and nurturing attitude of the instructors.  It was easy for me to tell that you all do this because you love it, and because you want to help young drivers get the skills they need.

As you requested, I will write both Dr. Hamm and Mr. Allen at the church and tell them how much I value this course and the service that you and other SCCA members are providing to the community.

Thanks again for a great program."

Some space remains in the October 20th and November 3rd. For more information please see the Teen Driver Clinic section of this website or email teen.driver@alscca.net.

We are coming into the Fall season, and many of our local and regional championships are wrapping up.  But that doesn't mean we don't still have events for you to get your driving fix. 

Coming up this weekend we have the first Teen Driving Clinic of the season, and it is a great way for you to pass your experiences along to the up and coming drivers that we will be soon sharing the road.  Everyone is welcome, and please contact Rod Hardiman, or visit the Teen Driving Clinic page.

We have several members of our club that will be traveling to Robbinsville, North Carolina this weekend to participate in the third Chasing the Dragon hill-climb event.  Live Timing is a new addition to the event, please check out the Chasing the Dragon webpage for more information.  http://www.dragonhillclimb.com/

The Alabama and TVR regions are also hosting the "No Frills" Time Trial and PDX event Halloween weekend in October.  This event will be held at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway, and is sure to be a great event.  The event plans to be the second to last TT event for the season, and may end up deciding championships for many drivers in the SouthEast Division.  We are always looking for help from our members, or members' friends and family.  We need volunteers to man the flagging stations, and help with all sorts of stations around the track.  Don't think for a minute that you need experience to do this.  We have a number of experienced workers that will be helping you all weekend long.  This is a great way to experience some of the fastest cars in the southeast looking to set the ultimate fast lap.  This is not racing, this is ALL OUT SPEED!  If you are looking to take your car out of the autocross circuit or off the road and experience first hand driving on a track, then the PDX is for you.  Please visit our forum or Time Trial page to learn more about the options you have.

We look forward to seeing you all over the next month at some or all of our events.

-John Kilgore, ALSCCA Solo Co Chair, Asst Regional Executive

ALSCCA will be having the Points 8 AutoX event at Oak Mountain Amphitheater on Sunday, September 16th, 2012.  During this event, the SRT (Street and Racing Technology) Tour will be attending and have 4 cars on showcase.  Sean Yoder, ALSCCA member and SRT Tour Driver, helped put the deal together and is excited to come by and let everyone check out the new rides  The cars will include a Grand Cherokee, 300C, Charger, and Challenger, all of which will be decked out in the SRT-8 performance packages.  We hope you will come by and check out the new SRT lineup as well as test your skills on the autox course. 

Check out the Autocross page to the left for more information on times and what goes on during one of these events.

This weekend was my first venture in to flagging a club race. I have worked F&C at TGPR time trial events before, and had even managed to drag my wife along in the past. We enjoyed those events, but they were not club races. We decided to help out at Barber this past weekend, and it was great.

Flagging at TGPR is laid back. From most any station you can see 80% of the track. The cars are spread out as many competitors want the most distance between them and the next driver to wring out their best lap times. You know what's coming and how you should deal with it.

Barber is different. You can see only your corner, and maybe the approaching straightaway. The cars show up and disappear in an instant, inches from one another. These guys aren't slowing down to open up a gap ... they are pushing 100% every inch of every lap.

The F&C volunteers are the only signal these drivers have of what lies around the next corner.

I'll admit, it was a little unnerving to hop in to this kind of situation. One where you can't quite grasp the importance of your position until the instant you throw the flag that prevents a crash. However, once that happens, you completely understand the role you play and why you are one of the most important people at the track that weekend. You're not here for free lunch and a sweet spectator position. This is serious.

If you have considered working races, please do yourself a favor and sign up for the next one you can make. The experience is truly exhilarating and rewarding. It will be a weekend to remember. A weekend where you know you were the person that made the race a success.

I hope to see you at a flagging station soon!

Day one is in the books and wow was it successful!  Everyone was on their A game today, so much so that we were able to give the drivers an extra 5 minutes of qualifying time at the end of the day!  Sure there was some rain mixed in, but all in all it was a great day for racing!

If you can't make it out but want to keep up with what's going on, stop on by Live Timing and check out who's running fast laps and listen in on the live stream with our totally amazingly awesome announcers Brian Wilson and Michael Cholewa.  

Hopefully though you'll be able to come out and see what club racing is all about.  Just flash your SCCA member card at registration (where the white Porsche is), sign the waiver, and come on in.  Admission is FREE to club members!

We hope to see you all out there this weekend.