TBARA e – NEWS MAY EDITION MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT This month starts off with the unfortunate news of the passing of Debbie MacMillan, wife of car owner Gary and mother of driver Erik. Debbie fought a courageous battle with cancer but sadly passed away on May 15th. Our thoughts and prayers are with Gary and Erik. Please support them as they go through this difficult time. Also, we were saddened to here of the passing of long time three quarter midget racer Fast Freddie Stutz. Freddie was seriously injured in a recent TQ event and eventually passed away due to the injuries sustained in the crash. I know many of you raced with Freddie and knew him personally. Turning to other news, I’m sure you’ve seen by now that our fuel price has dropped to $4.25 per gallon. I really want to thank Doug Hoelzle for keeping an eye on this for us. We’ve had really good car counts thus far although we’re starting to taper off a little it. I can’t say thank you enough to the owners and teams that come out and support us at every event they can make. I’ve gotten several calls from other sprint car organizations around the country about our car counts. It is noticed. As we head into June this is our busiest time of the year outside of Speedweeks. Let’s be careful and not hurt too many cars and keep our fields full. There is a fair amount of news to follow in this month’s letter. As always, please be sure and read everything in detail. There are a few items such as tire compounds and race line ups that will require feedback. Take care and we’ll see you at the races. MAY EVENTS RECAP We had 24 cars at the May 10 Desoto race and 29 cars at the May 31 show. As mentioned earlier, we cannot emphasize the importance of good car counts enough. We make sure the total cars on hand are noted in each event press release. Thanks again to everyone for keeping the numbers up. Congratulations to Dave Steele and Larry Brazil, Jr. for picking up the main event wins in May. Larry also pulled of a sweep with his heat race win on the 31st. Both events ran very smooth and there was plenty of action for the fans. BEHIND THE SCENES Many people are involved in making a TBARA event happen on time and with few if any glitches. The technical director (Danny Kramer) is well known to all as are the officers (Lenny and Terry). Who does the points? Who determines the lineup? Who feeds the information to the announcer regarding cars, drivers, and sponsors? Glad you asked! Lee Schmidt is the Association’s Secretary and statistician. She computes the points; point averages, makes out the heat race line ups, and re-computes the lineups for the features. Lori Martin, who is not an officer, spends time gathering information for the announcers including, but not limited to, drivers, owners, and sponsors. If you make a change in any of the above or add sponsors, please see Lori at the races or contact her via e-mail at lori.g.martin@kraft.com Beverly Heckman checks each car at each race to ascertain if the proper decals are displayed on the wing to support our series sponsors and qualify a car owner for contingency awards. LITTLE 500 SUMMARY The Little 500 has long been a place for Florida racers to shine in a national, prestigious event. In recent years, few Florida cars have made the thousand mile trek due to many factors, including travel costs and competing against the 410 cubic inch sprint cars prevalent at this race. However, four teams decided to try it again, the most notable being Heckman & Heveron, who vowed to retire at the end of the race. Also racing were Jack Nowling and Troy DeCaire, Lenny Puglio and Dave Steele, and Dick Fieler and Sonny Hartley. Hartley crashed out of the race on the 48th lap when the brakes malfunctioned. Heveron, Steele, and DeCaire were running in a tight pack. On the 96th lap, going into turn 1, the oil filter gasket on Heveron’s car blew out oiling down the track. Heveron spun, and Steele and DeCaire got into the wall damaging both cars. Heveron was out, but Steele’s and DeCaire’s crews made repairs and returned to the track 1 or more laps down. Steele eventually dropped out as the damage was too severe and DeCaire was collected by a slower car in turn 1 and hit the wall. In the final, official finishing order, Steele was 18th, DeCaire was 24th, Heveron was 28th, and Hartley was 31st. Wait 'til next year! DRIVER SUBSTITUTION vs. CAR COUNT One issue that hurts car count is driver substitutions. Under our current rule, when there is a driver change that car must start in the rear. We all know the reason why this change was implemented. It’s a sound rule but perhaps a little modification is in order. The problem comes up when a regular competing car has a driver absent for any number of reasons (vacation, work, etc.). If the car owner still wants to support the club he gets penalized twice. Once for the substitute driver and then once again when his regular driver returns. It’s the return of the regular driver that has car owners questioning why run with a substitute driver for only one or two shows. This is important when you consider that 1 car in a 20 car field is a 5% reduction. DRIVER SUBSTITUTION vs. CAR COUNT (continued) There are two proposed methods to eliminate the second penalty. One would be for each car owner to have a registered permanent driver. When that driver is absent the car would have to start in the rear. Upon the return of the permanent driver the car would go back to its point average grid position. Points gained with the substitute driver would not be used in the average. This proposal neither favors nor hampers a car owner however it is more difficult to manage. A second, simpler approach is to simply grid the cars by driver points. At first this may seem controversial but it is actually quite easy. (Hint: Other organizations do it this way also). It eliminates all of the number swapping issues from the past also. Additionally, it is easier for the fans to understand as they focus on the driver not the car owner. Consider the issue and both ideas carefully. This is something we really should consider as it will benefit the club and not disadvantage any teams. CAR NUMBERS Looking forward to the 2009 system we are considering limiting each car registered with TBARA to a unique number. As an example, there will be only one car with the number 3. This number is currently held by Robert Stephenson. Letters after the number (X) are fine but will have no bearing on the scoring. The car will be scored as 3. Therefore, no other cars will be allowed to use the number 3 with other letters to differentiate (3y, 3ws, etc.). The current system used to retain and assign numbers will stay in place. Please consider this and be prepared to discuss at the annual meeting. TIRE COMPOUND OPTIONS Some owners have expressed a desire for the TBARA to change tire compounds from the current 45 to a 50. I spoke with Irish Saunders of Hoosier Tire and was advised we could have either or both at no change in price. This would give the owners an option on their right rear tire compound. All existing tire rules would still apply. You would have to select the compound and use the tire in your heat race as you would still be required to start the main on your heat race tire. Input from owners is solicited and needed. PUSH TRUCKS Thank you again to all the push truck drivers for the great support in May. We had on average 5 trucks which really helps speed the show along. We can always use a few more so please get the word out if you know someone else that would like to help support the club. E-MAIL NEWSLETTER Everyone that has signed up for the e-mail newsletter is giving it good reviews. So what are you waiting for? If you have e-mail, please sign up. MEDIA UPDATE Our progress with the web site has stalled. The new site with a fresh look was supposed to be completed by this time. The web is so critical yet this is one area where progress has been too slow. We are addressing this issue at time of publication of the newsletter. We plan on being back on track and moving forward with a new direction this month. DRIVER AND OWNER POINTS As a reminder from an item in the March edition, driver and owner points will no longer be published with the newsletter. Please refer to www.TBARA.com for complete and timely point’s information. If you do not have access to the internet we can provide copies on a case by case basis. As always, the points are available for review at every event. |
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