Tarheel Sports Car Club
Heel & Toe Newsletter

February 2015

  Tarheel Sports Car Club

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Be sure to support all of our Sponsors by visiting the THSCC Sponsor Page!

 
Please welcome our newest members: Eric Lind, Francis Chan, Jennifer Parks, John Wolf, Keith Proseus, Maria Mayorga, Mark Beech, Matt Cross, Thomas Middleton, and Zach Williams!

Upcoming THSCC Events

View all events online at MotorsportReg.com!

 

About the Heel of the Month Award

"The Heel of the Month Award was started in 1993 to honor one or more THSCC members each month for his/her recent outstanding driving or for recognition of some special or notable action recently performed either within the club or outside of the club."

February
Heel of the Month

This month the award goes to longtime club member, past Autocross VP, and Club President emeritus, Rodney Wright.

We present this award to Rodney to thank him for everything he has done for the club over the years. While not an officer in 2015, he has continued to help advise staff members and help out.

Clearly, Rodney is preparing for his 2016 Presidential campaign. Thanks, Rodney!

 
Don't forget to join us for our monthly Club Meetings on the second Wednesday of every month at Randy's Pizza on Miami Blvd in Durham!
 

New THSCC Website - we want your feedback!

Please take a moment to visit our newly launched website at www.thscc.com and poke around and tell us what you think.

Send any suggestions or comments to our webmaster at webmaster@thscc.com. We very much appreciate your feedback!

In This Edition

  • February Update
  • Website Launch
  • Kart Enduros
  • Heel of the Month
  • Autocross Report
  • Rallycross Report
  • Track Report

 

February Update

Greetings from THSCC! The year is underway, and it has been COLD in many parts of the state. We hope everyone has been staying warm and safe.

Unfortunately the bad weather has resulted in us having to reschedule our first two events, the Autocross Points Event #1 & Test-n-Tune as well as our Rallycross Points Event #1 & Novice School. Scheduling events this early in the year is always risky, and it didn't quite work out this time. However, we are still on track for events starting in March when things will start to warm up.

The Autocross Points #1 and Test-n-Tune has been rescheduled for the weekend of March 7-8, and will still be held at Danville Regional Airport. The Rallycross Points event will not be rescheduled, however the Rallycross School will be rescheduled for a later date. Keep an eye on our website, MotorsportReg for that event.

We appreciate your understanding and bearing with us with these event postponements and we look forward to seeing you at an event soon!

-Zach Hill, President

 

Website Launch

As discussed over the last, well... forever, we have been attempting to design and deploy a new Website for the Club. We are pleased to formally announce that the new http://www.thscc.com Website is up and running. It passed the test of time and then some. Thank you very much for Carl and Emmie Fisher for devoting so many hours of their time to ensure the Website and Forum were working well and over the years have made many modifications to the site which makes it very special. Although this new site is replacing the original site in its entirety, the original THSCC Web site served us well and will be archived.

Although the new THSCC website is online, it is still considered a work in progress, so you will be seeing new features and content being added and maybe minor visual tweaks here and there once we have tested in our Development environment. We are hoping that with the new platform, it will empower more people to stay involved in the site by creating content such as News Items, Misc Announcements, Schedule Changes (which are always accompanied by an email), and other content that will allow for the site to grow and continue to be dynamic. Officers and designated Staff currently have various forms of access roles and we will continue to add to this, refining

Beyond this, the website has been moved to a new server, which is faster, and has less resource constraints. It is also running much more current releases of key components. We are excited to make this site as usable and interesting as possible. If you want to contribute by supplying feedback, please let us know by emailing webmaster@thscc.com so we can acknowledge your comment or concern, and determine the priority if it requires any action by the team managing the Website.

We have many action items on our plate of tasks to address. Some of these are items such as YouTube Integration, a new Photo Gallery, a new mechanism to view results, and more.

Stay tuned!

-Noah Fleming, THSCC Webmaster

 

Kart Enduros

Kart Enduro signups are now online! If you haven't been to a THSCC Kart Enduro before, now is your chance. These events are arrive-and-drive, two-hour wheel-to-wheel races that require a minimum of three pit stops complete with driver changes.

The weight classing will be slightly changed this year. There will still be two classes like before, Light and Heavy, but the weight cutoff point will instead be at the halfway point between all teams at weigh-in. This will ensure an equal number of teams competing in each class.

Currently we have two events posted, and they are held on the Saturday evening during the HPDE weekends at VIR. Those participating in HPDE will have time to head over to the Kart track after their on-track driving, and it's a great opportunity for those who have never been on track to come do some wheel-to-wheel racing.

Spots are limited, as the VIR Kart Track only has 12 karts, so thus only 12 team slots are available. Be sure to sign up early!

Registration links:

 

Also, keep an eye on our website as we may be announcing additional Kart Enduros this year...

 

Autocross Report

Due to the weather, our first event in Danville was rescheduled to the weekend of March 7-8. We will continue with the existing plan, with a Test-n-Tune event on Saturday and the Points Event #1 on Sunday. Registrations were retained, so if you signed up for the rescheduled event then you are still registered for the new date. If you are unable to attend the new date, please adjust your registration accordingly or contact autocross@thscc.com.

The rest of our schedule is shaping up quickly with additional preregistration pages to be posted soon. For those who are willing to sign up extra early the first four events on MSR are up and open to registrations including the 2015 Chick School and our first event at NCCAR.

Currently we have events through May confirmed with more to come including our return to VMP in August, two more events at NCCAR for our July and September events and this year’s NCAC event at……… ZMax!

As a final note from our staff, we would like to offer the opportunity to anyone in the club who is interested in trying to build a course for our 3rd and 4th Points Events (NCCAR and Danville respectively).  If you are interested or know someone new to the sport who would be interested, email autocross@thscc.com or find the thread on our forums http://thscc.com/forum.

See you all in Danville!

-THSCC Autocross Staff

 

Rallycross Report

The Novice School and the Points Event at Wilson scheduled for Feb 28 and March 1 were canceled due to weather conditions. The surface was too wet to take two days of traffic without damaging the venue. The novice school will be rescheduled, the points event will not be. If you were registered for the event, you were not charged and your registration has been canceled. Watch our website for the rescheduled date for the Rallycross Novice School.

Our next rallycross event at VIR the weekend of April 11 but have not yet determined if we want to hold it on Saturday or Sunday. We've strengthened our presence on Facebook with a new group called North Carolina Rally Cross and by posting our events. We've also reached out to other clubs in the southeast to generate interest. We need folks to video and photograph our sessions in order to provide interesting content for the web.

Be part of the Fun…

-THSCC Rallycross

 

In other news:

The club had a small turn-out at the LeMons race at Barber Motorsports Park. Duff Beer Civic finished 16th overall and 3rd in Class B (Ricky Beam and Roger McDaniels); Team Super Westerfield Bros. finished 17th overall and 14th  in Class A (Stephen Westerfield); Shark Bait Racing finished 45th overall and 21st in Class B. (Charles Lankford)

Don’t know who else in club was there……

 

Track Report

Earlier in February, we had a great tech inspection day at Janko Imports, and many cars were inspected. Check out some of the photos of the event here:

picture 1 Picture 2

picture 3 Pciture 4

If you weren't able to bring your car to get inspected, we still have one more tech day coming up:

Registration is currently open but filling up for the April VIR North Course event, so go sign up soon if you haven't already!

Be on the lookout for early-bird registration specials for the CMP coming soon. The earlier you register, the more the discount!

NOTE: that we accidentally listed the wrong date for our September event in the January newsletter. The correct schedule is as follows:

THSCC members will receive a $25 discount on top of these prices if you enter the member discount code.  The discount will be listed on our forum.  If you do not access the forum, please contact us at trackregistrar@thscc.com.

First responders as well as current and former military personnel are also eligible for an additional $25 discount.

As always, let us know if you have any questions at trackadmin@thscc.com and we look forward to seeing everyone next season!

-THSCC Track Staff

THSCC Newsletter

January 2015

Sneak Peak at the Upcoming Website

We are proud to announce a sneak preview of the upcoming redone THSCC website! While there is still much to do before it can replace our current site, please take a look and let us know any feedback you have on what we have so far. The sneak preview site can be temporarily viewed at: http://thscc.xak.us. Please note that it is actively being worked on and may be unavailable or offline while under constructions. Please email your comments about the site to webmaster@thscc.com

 

Sponsor Spotlight:
Radio Active Car Audio

Be sure to support all of our Sponsors by visiting the THSCC Sponsors Page!

 

A Huge Thank You to
2014 THSCC Staff!

President:
Rodney Wright

Autocross VPs:
Brice Johnson
Noah Fleming
Derek DeLong


Rallycross VPs:
Charlie Guthrie
Drew O’Neil


Track VPs:
Stephen Westerfield
Zach Hill


Treasurer:
Bowie Gray, Sr.

Mgr. Business Dev.:
Dustin Fredrickson

Site Coordinator:
Brice Johnson

Secretary:
Steven Spampinato

Sergeant at Arms:
Rodney Wright

Keeper of the Bus:
Chris Suich

Chief of Timing:
Carlton Whitehead

Members at Large:
Matt McGrain
Ryan Holton


Webmasters:
Carl Fisher
Emmie Fisher

Please welcome our newest members, Rodger Boles and Joe Lohr!

Upcoming THSCC Events

Event registrations are online at MotorsportReg!


Autocross Points #1 & Test-n-Tune on February 21st & 22nd at Danville Regional Airport


Rallycross Points #1 & Novice School on February 28th & March 1st


HPDE and Kart Enduro - VIR North Course on April 4th & 5th 

 

About the Heel of the Month award:
"The Heel of the Month Award was started in 1993 to honor one or more THSCC members each month for his/her recent outstanding driving or for recognition of some special or notable action recently performed either within the club or outside of the club."

January Heel of the Month:
This month's Heel of the Month award has been awarded to a relatively new member, Tristan McBride. He begun autocrossing last year and took to the sport quickly. Within a few events he was finishing mid-pack in the highly competitive STR class in a borrowed S2000. Tristan also quickly began helping out wherever he could at events, and volunteered to run for Registrar in 2015, where he was subsequently elected. Please join us in congratulating Tristan and thanking him for his commitment to the club!

Don't forget to join us for the monthly Club Meetings on the second Wednesday of every month at Randy's Pizza on Miami Blvd in Durham!

2015 THSCC Staff

Meet your new staff members:

President - Zach Hill

First introduced to motorsports at a THSCC autocross in Laurinburg back in 2007, where despite my unwavering confidence, I DNF'd every run and came in DFL! But most of all, I was astonished that I could drive my car as fast as I could legally and not have to worry about getting a ticket! Instantly hooked, I attended every autocross I could, eventually progressing to HPDE events in 2010, and in 2014 began wheel to wheel racing. 2015 marks my third year proudly representing THSCC as an officer, having previously been a Vice President for the autocross and track programs. As your club President this year, I'm excited for the future of this club and honored to be a part of its leadership as the club enters its 51st year of operation. I'm looking forward to a great year of fun events!

Secretary - Steven Spampinato 

My name is Steven Spampinato, I am your club secretary, and I have been autocrossing occasionally since 1996. I have a 2006 Civic SI that is my Kid “Daddys” Taxi on the weekdays and Street Class Racer on the weekends.  I love my lumpy meatball of a FWD sports car.

Registrar - Tristan McBride

I have been to 4 auto-cross events so far. I enjoy every minute of these events, and am now your new registrar!

Timing and Scoring - Carlton Whitehead

I started autocrossing with THSCC in 2006 and has been addicted ever since. When he's not building software to fund his addiction, he might be petting his cat, Tulip, his partner's dog, Gidgett, or building software to make autocrossing more awesome.

RallyCross VP - Charles Lankford
  

I don’t really know what to say. I’m just an old guy that loves motorsports. I’ve lived in Cary for the last 17 years and recently discovered a love of trying to drive fast. Lacking experience, I joined THSCC to learn from and to share experience with other like-minded individuals.  I’m VP of Rally Cross because no one else was stupid enough to take the job this year….. but someone has to do it. Nothing in life is free

Novice Coordinator - Jennifer Vance

This will be my fourth season with THSCC Autox, and my second participating in the HPDE program.  I love my car and I love THSCC!

Novice Coordinator - Rob Lupella

Been Autocrossing for 14 years. Worked as Novice Coordinator for over 7 of those. Gets a kick out of watching novices improve on each run. Enjoys walks on the beach, fine wine, honesty and puppies. Turn offs include mean people, Chrysler products, and  rain.

AutoCross VP - Brice Johnson

I have been autocrossing with THSCC off and on since 2000. I'm looking forward to a great year for the program with a good variety of sites culminating in hosting the NCAC!

AutoCross VP - Derek DeLong

I have been a member of THSCC since 2013 and a VP of autocross since 2014.  I compete in STR class with a 2006 S2000. I joined THSCC after attending two autocross events as a spectator because of the comradery and friendly competition I saw among all the members and people I meet along the way.

AutoCross VP - Noah Fleming

Noah joined the club in 2008. Since then he has held the staff position of Worker Coordinator in 2011 and 2012, and Autocross VP in 2013,2014, and 2015.

Additionally, in 2015 he has taken on the role of Webmaster, managing the THSCC Website and working to deploy a new, updated site.

He first learned of Autocross from Zach Hill, who belabored him to autocross until he caved, then subsequently became hooked due to the comradery, competitiveness, and general mechanics of the sport.

He will always remember his first autocross in Sandford, NC, when his Novice instructor, Rob Lupella; said to him, "I guess we are going to drive the course backwards!"

Since beginning autocross, he has become involved with Track/HPDE related programs, and Karting. He has driven a Mazda RX8 in CS/STX, Mazda Speed3 in the old "TIR" class, and now runs his 2002 Honda S2000 in STR. His biggest accomplishment was placing 1st in STR class at the 2012 North Carolina Autocross Championship.

He looks forward to the clubs progress and is amazed at how the club has changed in the years for which he has been involved.

"To Motorsport commradery... *Clink*..."

Track VP - Stephen Westerfield

Stephen has been an active member since 2003 participating in autocross and track events. He has been instrumental in the successful operation the HPDE program, continuing the tradition of fun, safe events and providing the highest quality instruction to our students.  Stephen plans to autocross his Mustang this year and also competes in LeMons endurance racing.

Newsletter Editor - Kolu Roth

I started out spectating at autocrosses in 2010 and finally was talked into the challenge of learning to drive an S2000 in 2011. VTEC! I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of becoming a better driver, learning how to handle lots of different situations on the road and just the fun & camaraderie of being part of the THSCC Family.

Mgr. of Business Development - Dustin Fredrickson

Dustin has been a THSCC member since ~2003 and has served 2 terms each as Autocross VP and club President.  For the past few years, Dustin has spent his time behind the scenes managing our Club Sponsorship program, and in his free time is a driver/co-owner in the 'Simon Says' Chumpcar racing team.

 

AutoCross Report

2014 was a great year for the autocross program

Highlights included a record attendance to our novice school, 8 points events including two wildly popular events at the NCCAR road course facility, and our best Jimmy V fundraiser event ever. The "Jimmy" event was a great occasion for us and Triad Sports Car Club to come together to remember a great friend and mentor that we lost in 2014, Jim Feinberg, as well as to raise money for a great cause. It was our 10th year raising money to fight cancer research, and to date we have raised over $50,000.

2015 is starting to shape up. We plan on having at least 8 events this year including not just one, but TWO autocross schools to help bring new participants into the sport. Our traditional novice school will be held March 28, and the women only "chick school" makes its return this year on May 16. Both events will be at Danville regional airport. Look for more details at motorsportsreg.com.

We hope to have the final calendar posted shortly, but events are already booked for February through May, with later dates still to be determined as we pursue new sites for the program. We are considering using Piedmont Dragway again, Fayetteville's Crown Coliseum, as well as making a return to Virginia Motorsports Park after many years away from there. As details firm up, we will post them on facebook, the forums, and of course, motorsportsreg.com.

Lastly, if you have been a part of the program for a while, and want to try your hand at course design, we need event chairs for upcoming events. We are always looking for creative designs. Contact autocross@thscc.com if you are interested or find the thread on the forums. We're gearing up for another great year!

 

RallyCross Report

2014 Review
Last year was an exciting year for rally cross; attendance was up; and we added a late summer event at VIR that was run in conjunction with the track program. At least two of our members drove in both. 

We also ran on a 5/8 mile banked clay oval at the Fayetteville Motor Sports Park that was as sticky as asphalt in places and as slippery as glass in others. Those events were exciting, indeed. We even had a visit by Ezra Dyer of Car and Driver and Yahoo Auto who did a video article at one of those events. It can be seen at: 
https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/a-dirt-track-date-with-the-range-rover-evoque--british-speed--carolina-mud-150043673.html

Congratulations to the 2014 season point winners:

NO4 – 4-wheel drive cars running dedicated rally tires 
Winner – Ray Metts
Second – Kevin Allen
Third – Sebastian Kokoszka

NO2 – 2-wheel drive, over 2.4L running dedicated rally tires
Winner (T) – Ricky Beam
Winner (T) – Drew O’Neill

NU2 – 2-wheel drive under 2.4L running dedicated rally tires 
Did not have a competitor that qualified for season championship points.

SO4 – 4-wheel drive, over 2.4L running street tires
Winner – Brett Murphy
Second – David Brown
Third – Brandon Creede

SU4 – 4-wheel drive under 2.4 L running street tires
Winner – Nathan Miller
Second – Drew Sheffield

SU2 – 2-wheel drive under 2.4L running street tires
Winner – Charlie Guthrie
Second – Pete Guthrie

2015 Rally Cross at a Glance
Next year we plan to run a full rally cross schedule (8 to 9 events) with events being currently planned for VIR, Wilson Fairgrounds and Fayetteville Motor Sports Park. We’re also holding a Rally-X novice/practice day in conjunction with our first event at Wilson on February 28-March 1. This would be a great opportunity for folks who are not familiar with rally cross to enter the sport.  Other locations may be added if we can find them and work out the details.

Car classes and rules will stay the same as last year. 

We’re currently considering offering events at VIR in conjunction with the HPDE program similar to the Summer Sampler Event last September. We’re meeting with VIR later this month to firm up our plans for that venue. We’ll firm the schedule with other venues after that date.

 

Track Report

Happy New Years from the 2015 THSCC Track Staff.  We hope you and your family had a great holiday season. The staff has been hard at work discussing next season and getting our schedule confirmed. Once again we have two events scheduled for VIR this year as well as our annual DE down at CMP. Here are the dates, so mark your calendars and schedule those days off so you can be sure to join us.

April 4-5, 2015 - Virginia International Raceway -  North Course (including Karting Enduro on the evening of Saturday, April 4)
June 6-7, 2015 - Carolina Motorsports Park
Sept 5-6, 2015 - Virginia International Raceway - Full Course (including Karting Enduro on the evening of Saturday, September 5)

Registration for the April event is open now and we are offering discounts for early sign ups.

  • Register between now and January 13, 2015 and your fee will be $400
  • Register between January 14 and February 28, 2015 and your fee will be $425
  • Register between March 1 and April 4, 2015 and your fee will be $450
  • THSCC members will receive a $25 discount on top of these prices if you enter the member discount code.  The discount will be listed on our forum.  If you do not access the forum, please contact us at trackregistrar@thscc.com
  • First responders as well as current and former military personnel are also eligible for an additional $25 registering after January 14. 

Keep in mind all vehicles running our events must pass a tech inspection.  We should have our annual tech days scheduled and registration open soon.  If you aren't able to make one of the tech days, you can have your car inspected by any reputable shop using or tech form found here. 

For details on registering for any of our 2015 events, keep your eye on our Motorsport Registration home page.  We will be opening registration for the karting events at VIR, the annual tech days, as well as the CMP and VIR-F DE's between now and the middle of February. 

As always, let us know if you have any questions at trackadmin@thscc.com and we look forward to seeing everyone next season!

THSCC Track Staff

 

Member newsletters are no longer sent out. All club communications are now over email via MotorsportReg. Become a member to receive club updates!

 

[Under Construction] Content to come...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THSCC Sponsors:

Apex Performance
Atlantic AutoExchange
Automotive Performance
   and Chassis
Black Forest Industries
Cline Hall Agency
Competition Cages
F&S Enterprises
Greazy Todds Garage
Hart Investment Management
Rush Hour Karting
Tidewater Z Auto Service
Tire Rack
ZdayZ

KNS Brakes

Triangle Imports

THSCC thanks our sponsors for their support:

Apex Performance

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Atlantic Auto                              Exchange

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APC919-319-3484
214 Hillsboro Street #103, Cary, NC 27513

TireRack Installer, Road Force Balancing, Spec Alignments
Corner Balancing and Track Preparations, Brake System Flushes and more!
 
THSCC discount - 10% off services!

 

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Black Forest Industries
Black Forest Industries
1000 E. Chatham St.
Cary, N.C. 27511 
Phone: (919) 468 – 5400
Fax (919) 859 – 9734


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Cline Hall Agency
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Competition Cages

 

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F and S                              Enterprises
 

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Hart                            Investment Management

 

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Rush Hour Karting

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TidewaterZ

 

 

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www.zdayz.com

www.facebook.com/groups/ZdayZ/

 

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