The Link 2004-01 - Motorsport Club of Ottawa

Transcription

The
Link
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General meetings are held the
first Tuesday of every month at 7
pm. All are welcome. Meetings are
held at:
Louis’ Steakhouse
1682 Cyrville Road
Ottawa, Ontario
You can contact and find more
information about the MCO by
phone, web or mail.
Hotline telephone
(613)788-0525
Web Site
Affiliated with
Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs - Ontario Region (CASC-OR)
ASN Canada FIA
RallySport Ontario (RSO)
Canadian Association of Rally Sport (CARS)
Ontario Kart Racing
http://www.mco.org
webmaster@mco.org
Hosted by:
Mail
RallySport
Ontario
M.C.O.
P.O. Box 65006
Merivale Postal Outlet
Nepean, Ontario
K2G 5Y3
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Board of Directors
President • Ron Woltman • H: (613) 831-8682 • W: (613) 863-5360 • xracer@rogers.com
Vice-President • Bennett Leckie • H: (613) 258-0348 • W: (613) 822-1765 • leckierb@hovey.ca
Closed Wheel • John Blouin • H: (613) 443-3507 • W: (613) 945-0329 • jblouin@hmnet.net
Open Wheel, Public Relations • Sam Mandia • H: (613) 745-4227 • W: (613) 228-0250 • fv1200@yahoo.com
Solo II • Charles Payne • H: (613) 792-1083 • W: (613) 772-7349 • payne1083@rogers.com
Richard Muise • H: (613) 241-9983 • W: (613) 765-9169 • observer@IntelligentSand.com
Rob Microys • H: (613) 822-7204 • W: (613) 765-5744 • F: (613) 763-8312 • C: (613) 761-0306 • binky@rogers.com
Appointed Officers and Executive Members
Karting • Paul Swinwood • H: (613) 720-3468 • W: (613) 237-8551 x133 • F: (613) 230-3490 • pauls@iam-net.com
Rally • Craig Hamm • H: (613) 727-3192 • W: (613) 596-7107 • kchamm@sympatico.ca
Solo I • Jeff Graves • H: (613) 258-0497 • W: (613) 843-3000 x5859 • jgraves@storm.ca
Ontario Race Committee Rep • Cindy Armstrong • H: (613) 489-2725 • cindy.armstrong@sympatico.ca
Membership • David E. Butler • H: (613) 596-5518 • W: (613) 226-7755 x16 • F: (613) 828-4400 • mcomembership@yahoo.ca
Assistant Membership • Albert Cohoe
Treasurer • Robert Benson • H: (613) 837-2051 • W: (613) 995-7374 • ben1544@rogers.com
Secretary • John Powell • H: (613) 835-2910 • F: (613) 835-3471 (call first) • mgb296@hotmail.com
Club Merchandise Co-ordinator • Warren Haywood • H: (613) 286-6252 • D: (819) 682-5000 • dubrally@cyberus.ca
Web Site Manger • Aleida Dikland • C: (613) 298-5918 • webmaster@mco.org
LINK Editor • Steven Fong • C: (613) 868-0476 • link@mco.org
LINK Editor • Alan Ritchie • H: (613) 745-6424 • link@mco.org
2 Motorsport Club of Ottawa The Link Jan/Feb 2004 http://www.mco.org
Table of Contents
Editorial Exhaust
Solo 1 Director's Report
Solo II Director's Report
Rally Director's Report
Below Zero Driving is Here
Random Thoughts from the Nation's Capital
MCO Mailbag
MCO Teams Catch Targa Fever!
M.C.O. Monthly General Meeting Minutes - November 4th 2003
M.C.O. Annual General Meeting Minutes - November 4th 2003
Tall Pines Rally
M.C.O. Executive Committee Meeting Minutes - November 18th 2003
M.C.O. Monthly General Meeting Minutes - December 2nd 2003
M.C.O. Executive Committee Minutes - December 16th 2003
Brief History of CARS and Revenue-Sharing
The MCO Racers
Miscellaneous Rumblings II
Bonus Miscellaneous Rumbling...
The Back Seat
4
5
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Motorsport Club of Ottawa The Link Jan/Feb 2004 http://www.mco.org
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A new year rings in different milestones for each individual. For some it’s
losing a few pounds. While for others
it is quitting smoking. For the MCO, it
means some new executive members,
a new web mistress and a last but not
least a new look Link.
The Link has a lighter and more
modern style, with more pretty pictures
to add some variety. Hopefully the
readers will approve, but all show and no
go is the makings for a poseur that has
little substance to back up their good
looks. The overall goal is to achieve a
magazine feel, but also increase awareness of all the different activities that
MCO members can participate in. More
articles from and about the membership.
Articles about all the diverse driving
disciplines from Solo, Karting, Rally and
Road Racing. Not to mention driving
schools and lapping days.
Each issue will have articles that
preview featured events, in addition to
articles about and contributed from MCO
members. The “MCO Mailbag” section
contains member feedback and notable
correspondence from outside the club.
Send in your rants and raves by email or
snail mail. “The Back Seat” has the miscellaneous, odd and hopefully entertaining motoring related items. Send in your
interesting tidbits for The Back Seat. I
know you have something, everybody
has a back seat story!
The Link will slowly evolve over
the year, depending on reader feedback. Here are some planned columns,
depending on the availability of contributions. The “In the Pits” column will summarize race results from MCO events
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The LINK is the official publication of the Motorsport Club of
Ottawa. The opinions expressed in the LINK do not necessarily
reflect those of the LINK Editorial Staff or the Club’s Executive.
Though all efforts are made to ensure that facts stated in the
articles herein are accurate, the individual contributors should
check the accuracy of their articles prior to submission.
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and notable results of MCO members in
outside events. “News of Note” reports
various achievements of MCO members
from the previous months.
The expanded editorial work has its
drawbacks. The Link is now published
every two months. I believe the expanded content and updated format is worth
the trade off.
This issue has some great content.
Robert Roaldi comments on the Ottawa
driving scene, Jean MacGillivary describes her Targa Newfoundland experience, Andrew Harvey donated his Tall
Pines Rally photos for the centrefold and
cover, and John Powell has his regular
and bonus Miscellaneous Rumblings column. Whew, a bountiful crop of content
to start the year!
The Link needs your help. Submit
your articles, or suggestions for articles
and pictures of various events. Send
your contributions to thelink@mco.org.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Last year was my first year as a
member, so please bear with me while I
repeat what is painfully obvious to many
of you. The MCO is still a volunteer
grassroots organization for the development and participation of motorsport.
The membership absolutely determines
the quantity and quality of events. Ring
in the new year by participating, volunteering and most importantly having fun.
The website will shortly
be getting a new look.
Anyone wanting to be beta
tester and review major
changes before release
please contact me. If you
have ideas or comments,
please post to the forum
or email me.
Aleida
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The tracks around Ontario may
be covered in snow, but there is a lot
of activity to prepare for the 2004
season. MCO will be organizing our
first Solo 1 weekend on September 11
and 12 at Shannonville. I will be looking for a few volunteers as that date
approaches.
The other big news is Solo Ontario’s first event at the Mosport GP
track. It will be a two-day event, with a
school on August 28 and a non-points
Solo 1 on the 29th. I will also be looking for instructors for the Mosport
weekend. Other dates of importance
are the open house on March 28th and
Solo 1 school on May 8 and 9.
Hello, everyone! My name is Chuck
Payne and I’m your new Solo II Director.
If you have any questions or concerns
regarding Solo II or any other activity the
MCO is involved in, please don’t hesitate to
contact me.
I would first like to thank Greg Kierstead for his tireless efforts in the last few
years as Solo II director and send congratulations to him on a very successful
‘03 season!
I’m pleased to announce that the Corel
Centre was impressed with how smoothly
his events were run last year. We didn’t
receive a single complaint from the public
or neighbours all season. Great job, Greg!
I’d also like to thank all the volunteers who
stepped up and made it a great season!
Looking forward to our ‘04 season?
Here’s the skinny. The Corel Centre wants
us back in BIG Lot #9. That’s great news,
and a reflection of how well we ran our
events last year. The MCO plans to run a
full season in ‘04 with 10 events; however,
the Corel Centre is not allowing us to book
dates in advance so it’ll be touch and go
for ‘04. Not to worry, we were in the same
situation in ‘03 and we made it work!
We’ll be having road trips to interesting venues in the area. Last year’s trips
included a Corvette Club Solo II and Pro
Solo to make a double header weekend in
TO, a CADL event at the awesome PMG
facility and an overnight trip to Central NY
SCCA’s annual event at Cherry Valley Motorsport Park. Each trip was well planned,
inexpensive and loads of fun. I promise this
year’s will be even better!
There’s more but I don’t wanna give it
all away at once. After all, I need to leave
myself something to write about next
month. Keep reading The Link and stay
tuned to the MCO forums for more.
There is a ludicrous amount of material to cover in this first Rally Group report
of 2004, so I will attempt to keep the
points short, verging on terse.
Last November, yours truly navigated
for John Vanos (MLRC) in PMSC’s President’s Prize Rally, in Intermediate Class
(I am ranked Novice in the provincial
series). Yet another lesson in rally humility! Plenty of cute tricks got us good and
lost, but we sure had a good time doing
it. At least John got some points towards
his series standings and I learned more
about rallying, and had fun doing it. The
day after the rally I headed down to Fenelon Falls for a RallySport Ontario (RSO)
Board Meeting. I have included in this
issue an extract from the Minutes of that
meeting, which was attended by Terry
Epp, President of the Canadian Association of RallySport (CARS) and member
of ASN CANADA FIA. Terry was speaking
solely as CARS President and filled us in
on the history of the revenue-sharing and
origin of CARS, etc. A very interesting
read about rival beer companies, motoring politics, and money (for Bernie E.).
That’s how we got here, apparently!
On December 6, 2003, Frostbite
Rally was run by KWRC out of Maberly.
The roads were so twisty and diabolical,
it’s hard to imagine they exist at all. There
was much puking of navigators (rallying is
such fun!). Several MCO teams competed
in a very tough event. Of 29 starters, 10
were DNF, braking zones were treacherous, reading the road surface material
was often difficult, and it was plenty
brisk. My best finish in an event of this
magnitude came the next morning, placing 7th overall, 3rd in Novice (should have
run Intermediate, would have been first
in class!), and was the 2nd (unofficially)
place in an FWD car. It wouldn’t have
been possible without the very professional and accurate work of my navigator,
Ian O’Halloran. This event was the last
road rally in the 2003 Ontario Road Rally
Championship (ORRC), with championships at stake for two MCO teams. In the
end, Ryan Huber was the Novice Navigator Champion and Robert Roaldi became
Expert Navigator Champion (again, but
for MCO this time). Well done, guys!
The CARS AGM was held January 10
in Pointe-Claire, Quebec. A last-minute
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(best 6 of 11 events)
March 28
Open House
CSC Racing
August 7/8
Event #6/7
Shannonville
May 8/9
Solo 1 School
Mosport DDT
August 28/29
School/Solo
Mosport GP
May 29/30
Event #1/2
Shannonville
September 11/12
Event #8/9
Shannonville
June 19/20
Event #3/4
Mosport DDT
September 25/26
Event #10/11
TMP (Cayuga)
July 17
Event #5
TMP (Cayuga)
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The next meeting of the Ted Powell committee is at
Louis‛ Steakhouse Monday, Feb. 9th at 7pm. Please
come to the committee meeting or see one of the
committee members.
5
bout of the flu prevented my attendance,
but MCO’s vote was represented by Jim
Morrow, and other MCO attendees were
Jean MacGillivray and Jane Lennox. Easily
the post-AGM roundtable topic de jour
was concerning the insurability and legality of rallying in Canada (Ontario, to be
sure). This is based on both the written
word in the Ontario Standard Policy (see
http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/)
//) and the
Ontario Highway Traffic Act (see: http://
www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/DBLaws/Statutes/
English/90h08_e.htm). Does this mean
we’re bad people? No. But it’s time we
set the record straight about sanctioned
motorsports with the powers that be. In
response to this situation, RSO asked
Andrew Comrie-Picard (MLRC) and Jim
Morrow (MCO) to form a committee and
devise a strategy and action plan. This is
going to be a LONG ride. We’ll keep you
posted.
Rallye Perce-Neige (http://www.lino.
com/~rallyperceneige/),
//), to be held in
Maniwaki on February 6-8, is the first rally
of the 2004 Canadian Rally Championship
(CRC), and currently the only remaining
full-snow event. This is due to both the
Rallye International de Charlevoix and Rallye de Quebec being off the calendar (and
Bighorn Rally, Alberta, just pulled out of
the championship). Get your carcass up
to Maniwaki to see a full-blown performance rally on snow and ice! Spectator
areas are fantastic, but always have a full
tank of gas, and dress very warmly! Trust
me.
Related to the CRC, Warren Haywood
and Jodie Shay are teaming up to run
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the full 2004 National Series in Warren’s
Group 2 Golf (basically open class for
2-WD cars). Good luck to them for 2004.
Also, we are hoping to see the return of
Greg Brady and Steven Frankovitch in
2004 to contest the Regional Series and
a few National events. Good luck to them,
as well.
If you want to know what successful
rally co-drivers REALLY do, attend Mike
Koch’s co-driving seminars. Ranked by
CARS as a Master, Mike has racked up
five Canadian Group 2 co-driving titles
(1995-1999) and one Canadian Overall
title, the Deak Trophy, in 1995. Students
will get take-home notes and a certificate.
Many thanks to Mike for putting this
together. Here’s the list:
Co-driving Seminar #1, Mike Koch
– January 29
Co-driving Seminar #2, Mike Koch – TBD
Rally Organising Seminar #1, Craig
Hamm (Basic level) – February 26
Rally Organising Seminar #2, Robert
Roaldi (Advanced level) – March 25
This year the MCO Road Rally
Championship is running fewer events,
but as it stands two events are listed
in the ORRC, and we hope to resurrect
the Golden Pine Rally. Our rally friends
in Montreal, the Sports Motor Car Club
(SMCC), have agreed to an MCO proposal
to run a joint championship. I’ll try to get
the basic series regs published for the
next issue. Suffice it to say, if you want
to be ‘crowned’ as an interprovincial rally
champion, compete in as many MCO and
SMCC road rallies as you can.
Check out the new RSO website
(http://www.rallysport.on.ca/)
/ , main/)
tained primarily by MCO member Ryan
Huber. There is an online forum there,
too. That reminds me, the ORRC is being
sponsored by Subaru Canada this year,
and awards for ORRC events will be as
follows (for all three classes): First in
class: $60.00 per vehicle, Second in
class: $40.00 per vehicle. It’s nice to see
the manufacturers paying more attention
to the real grassroots level of the sport.
Thanks to RSO for facilitating those
discussions.
The famous Subaru Snowy Safari
(PMSC) runs out of Minden on January
31, and the even more notorious Ontario
Winter Rally (MLRC) runs out of Coe Hill
(south of Bancroft - Tall Pines-sort-of
country) on February 21. These are not
generally beginner-friendly events, and
true novices are advised to finish, and be
glad of it! These are road rallies on some
of the most sinuous, slippery, remote
roads in Ontario. Check the club websites for info, or results.
Finally, if the Canadian deep freeze
is making your brass monkey do natural
things, the World Rally Championship
(WRC) has come to North America! Go
down to Mexico during March 12-14 to
see the best there is tearing up some
cacti (http://www.rallymexico.com/).
/
/).
Thanks for reading!
MCO members place their non-commercial
advertisements FREE of charge.
MCO members may submit business card size
advertisements for their businesses free of charge.
These advertisements are published space
permitting.
All other commercial advertisements are placed
in full colour in the Web edition of the Link, black
and white in the printed version of the Link. A
year long placement includes direct sponsor links
from the MCO home page (http://www.mco.org).
Contact the Link for more information.
Paul Swinwood
Date: Mon Jan 19, 2004
I have sent a picture or two for a sample of
the reason we cancelled the first Winter school.
The school is all set, just waiting for snow.
Top: Winter Driving School Classroom
Bottom Left: Looking down oval straight
Bottom Right: No snowbanks on oval
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The winter is here, but that doesn’t
stop the driving fun. Winter driving
schools and Winter Solo 2 provide plenty
of activity during the cold months.
The Ottodrome is the venue hosting the MCO’s winter driving activities
(directions available at http://www.mco.
org/school/skid.htm).
The course has been prepared and
groomed by our own Vice-president,
Bennett Leckie. Rest assured there will
plenty of challenges for the novice and
expert. There have been some rumours
of some unnamed member of the executive testing the limits of a Suburban on
the course. The turn banking was said
to be ”effective”.
7
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I have been living in Ottawa for over
a year now and I thought I would report
on the car scene here. It is quite different
from Toronto and the rest of the GTA.
One of the first things I noticed after
moving here was how thin the Auto Mart
magazine is. This is the car-ad magazine
that the local car dealers publish. The
name and the look is the same as the one
in Toronto, but it’s only the thickness of
the Tall Pines spectator guide and is only
published every two weeks. I was reading
it quite a lot earlier in the year when I was
trying to sell my ‘97 Jetta, just to compare prices. I saw the same car ads in it
for months on end. Judging from that and
from the fact that it took me nine months
and seven price drops to unload my
Jetta, I conclude that people here don’t
like to buy used cars.
What I also noticed was that lower
priced models are much more common
than in Toronto. I see more Accents than
Elantras, more Corollas than Camrys, etc.
This is almost certainly a demographic
thing but I don’t know if it’s because people are more reluctant to spend money
or just not inclined to spend it on cars.
A lot of federal government employees
are contract workers, so there may exist
a tendency not to spend much of one’s
disposable income on an automobile if
your job security is always in question.
Another factor may be that, in general,
distances traveled are less here so there
is less emphasis on luxury and comfort.
If you’re not in the car much, there’s no
need for it to be as comfortable as your
living room.
That last thought makes me pause.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find it ironic that
high- performance, expensive automobiles are sold mostly in large urban
centres where there is less opportunity
to enjoy them. It must be fun to brag
about the performance of your Infiniti 35,
I’m sure, but awfully frustrating to know
that you spend the majority of your time
in it idling at red lights. When I lived in
Toronto, I maintained for years that the
most important components of a car are
the seats and the stereo.
Of course, there are Audis and
Benzes on the roads, but they are not
as common a sight as in the big smoke.
I see lots of BMWs, though, and Volvos
are not rare. By the way, although it’s fun
to bash BMW drivers, I won’t gratuitously
think they are the more attractive model.
Kia Rios and Hyundai Accents are also
very popular --- much more so than their
larger stablemates.
I have seen quite a few oddball cars.
In my neighbourhood, there’s a highschool student who drives an early ‘80’s
Honda Civic CVCC to school. I have seen
a two-tone red and white Volvo 122, a
Saab V4 with Cibie auxiliary lights, two
Citroen Deux Chevaux, a recent model
Opel Corsa with diplomatic plates, a
mid-70’s Corolla, several Ford Festivas
and Aspires, and a couple of weird looking micro-van-type vehicles that I didn’t
recognize. And the other day I saw an
early ‘50’s British Zephyr for sale on
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do so here since it has become such a
cliché. But, one of our neighbours owns
a Beemer 3-series, and watching him and
his wife wash that car is like witnessing
an erotic ballet. If they treat each other
as gently and tenderly as they wash and
wax that car, their marriage will last forever. I heard them pull away one day and
the car is an automatic.
From what I can tell, the Toyota
Echo is the official car of the National
Capital Region. I have been waiting at red
lights when I have counted five or six of
them idling with me in various lanes and
heading in different directions. It’s funny,
but I have not noticed many of the new
hatchback versions yet, even though I
someone’s front lawn.
I think that Ford is the most-sold
brand in the east end of Ottawa, where I
live. Late 90’s Escort Wagons are all over
the place and I still see lots of secondgeneration Tauruses that haven’t rusted
yet. I may be stereotyping, but it always
seems to me that those Tauruses belong
to retired civil servants. They have grey
hair and are never in a hurry. There are
Focuses everywhere. If you lump the
hatchback, sedans and wagons together,
they probably outnumber the Echoes, and
that’s saying something. The number of
Focus Wagons on the road is a constant
surprise, unless you stop to realize that
there aren’t that many wagons on the
market these days. A Focus Wagon will
likely be our next car; there’s no shortage
of parts around here, I’m sure.
Of course, there’s no escaping SUVs
. . . much as I’d like to. As with BMWs,
it’s easy to pick on SUVs and it’s quickly
becoming a cliché as well, so I’ll restrain
myself. Because of the close proximity
to water and cottage country here, a lot
of those SUVs have boat-trailer hitches,
so at least some of them are being put
to good use. But there are a fair number
of folks who own full-sized 4x4 pickup
trucks as their family vehicle. Why you’d
want an expensive and uncomfortable
gas-guzzler as the main family driver is a
mystery to me. One day the trend will end
and they will become an embarrassing
memory, like disco. Archaeologists will
scratch their heads in wonder.
Driver behaviour here reminds me
a little of what Toronto was like in the
late’70’s when I first moved there. That
is, by and large drivers are courteous,
but there are more and more exceptions
to that all the time, surfacing especially
at rush hour. The reasons are the same
as always: gridlock, overpowered cars,
societal encouragement of aggressive
behaviour on TV, on the job, and elsewhere. Most people’s jobs are crap, so
why are they in such a dangerous hurry
to get there?
One of the benefits for us in moving
here is that public transit is so good in
Ottawa, and distances so much shorter,
that it has enabled us to get rid of one
car. Being a single-car family is such a
blessing that I think it would be difficult
for us to go back to owning more than
one again. Also, my taste in cars has
changed over the years. I no longer feel
the need that my car should entertain
me. We have a ‘96 Golf CL with nearly
200,000 km at the moment and although
we have vague plans to get a Focus
Wagon, or its equivalent, at some point
in the future, I feel no urgency to look
for another car. This is a new feeling for
me. At one time, I was willing to change
cars at the drop of a hat. I say that, but
at the same time I do enjoy occasionally
dropping into dealerships to talk to car
salesmen. It’s pure entertainment and
free. In Toronto, I could always count on
Ed Richardson to come with me to test
cars, but it’s not as much fun doing so by
myself so I am not harassing Ottawa dealers as much. I hope they appreciate it.
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www.TargaNewfoundland.com
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www.TargaPhotography.com
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www.seko.ca
I figure the elements of a great
vacation include hot summer weather,
like-minded friends, motorsports, and
enough time away to forget about
the cares of the world. (Just think: in
mid-September, Newfoundland was
enjoying record hot weather, up to
37-degrees Celsius.) Great scenery, a
welcoming population and droves of
little kids, starry-eyed about cars, are
pluses. For these reasons and more,
the 2000-km Targa Newfoundland
2003 was the perfect vacation!
In the Modern category, the MCO
teams were: Jim Morrow and I in our
1998 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS (# 908);
Craig Seko and Steve Carrick in Craig’s
1990 Porsche 944 S2 (# 701); and
Glen Clarke and Evan Gamblin in Glen’s
1979 Porsche 911 (# 602). Jodie Shay
navigated for Ralph Grant of the Mon-
treal-South Shore area in the Classic
category, in his right-hand-drive 1970
Volvo 142 GT (# 405).
The Targa started with a Demonstration Day for officials to assess driving talent and competitors to address
any mechanical quirks. The next day’s
Prologue was to seed the cars (from
the slowest to the fastest, to encourage passing and reduce the time roads
were closed). Then there were five long
days of competition, with “offs,” a host
of automotive failures and a lot of hot
competition. In the end, Glen and Evan
placed 14th overall, Ralph and Jodie
- 18th, Craig and Steve - 24th, and Jim
and I - 28th. The Targa field amounted
to 39 cars, four of which did not finish.
Glen and Evan only met this summer, after Evan won a free entry to the
event and began his search for a ride.
Jodie Shay hasn’t known Ralph Grant
for much longer. An amiable transplanted Aussie, Ralph was plagued with car
problems at last year’s TN. It was great
that he had such a good run this year,
with Jodie’s contribution.
These two teams did themselves
proud, finishing second in class
(Clarke/Gamblin) and third in class
(Grant/Shay). In fact, because of
Glen and Evan’s standing, they, along
with Craig and Steve, Jim and I, won
the President’s Plate Award for best
team performance! All of us earned
finishers’medallions, and Craig and Jim
went a little further by creating a Bald
Head Racing Trophy (courtesy of our
favourite designer, Mike Rouleau) that
they awarded to the Novice Targa crew
with the fewest penalty points.
For the Targa veterans, Craig and
Jim, the story was a little different.
Craig’s Porsche suffered hard-to-diagnose electrical problems on Day 1,
earning him a fistful of penalty points
from which he never recovered. We
knew our Subaru had brake issues
on Demonstration Day; despite being bled, they failed on Day 1 and we
went off into the brush on a corner. We
completed the stage just ahead of Car
99, who patiently waited while we were
pushed out by spectators. That night,
John and Clarke Paynter, kind-hearted
brothers who represented the national
Subaru rally team, loaned us their
mechanic and donated a set of Ferodo
race pads, which he installed. Thanks
to their generosity, the car performed
better, although we still carried those
penalty points with us and accumulated
others along the way. There were other
situations that are perhaps best left for
“the pot” at an MCO meeting, but combined they dropped our placement.
But there are great memories, too,
and far more good ones than bad.
My favourite memory involves
driving the Gander North stage on Day
3. It ran through a subdivision and was
like a huge autocross. The stage had
44 lefts and rights, with 29 turns at
junctions over 6.85 km. The Impreza is
set up perfectly now, and it responded
beautifully in the corners. I’m afraid I
forgot driver etiquette: as we crossed
the flying finish, I shrieked several
times into the headset and nearly deafened Jim, who cranked up my happiness another notch with the news that
we had beaten the Targa time!
Another memory that still makes
me chuckle happened after our “off.”
Jim asked if we could run last, as I was
still unnerved by the experience. We
went out after the Paynters, who, with
their modified 2002 Subaru WRX, were
the fastest car and thus scheduled to
drive the stage last. As we waited to be
counted down, I heard someone shout,
“Get the Subarus!”, so somewhere out
there is completely unrealistic film foot-
age of us as “the fastest car,” driving
the stage behind this talented national
team. (They placed ninth overall.)
My spookiest moment came on
Prologue day, when we passed the
damaged 1965 Mustang driven by
Jeremy Hill and Lennox McNeely (who
came second overall), part way up an
embankment. Neither of them were
hurt, but still . . . knowing their competence and experience, it was all I could
do to keep my eyes on the TerraTrip
(our rally computer) and stay focused.
It turns out their brakes had failed,
which somehow foreshadowed our own
experience.
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My “this is heaven” moment occurred at Leading Tickles on Day 4,
where we spent a relaxed two and a
half hours. It was 37 degrees Celsius,
so after lunch provided by the local
community, I stretched out under a
shady bush, listened to the live entertainment and enjoyed the soft breezes
caressing my face. I may have even
drifted off a little . . . .
Leading Tickles is a beautiful
spot and the water was so tempting.
Rumour has it that the Dutch team
braved the cold Atlantic for a brisk,
Jean MacGillivray driving this stage!
refreshing swim. Jim and I contented
ourselves with pushing up the legs of
our driving suits and wading in up to
our knees. Back on the pebbly shore,
we examined the little jellyfish that the
tide had brought in. The smarter teams
had brought shorts to change into, and
seemed to thoroughly enjoy their summer afternoon.
It’s hard to nail down a “spirit of
Targa” moment, as there were many.
One of my favourites involves Peter
Ross, a.k.a. “Parking” Pete, he of the
loud voice and engaging personality
who was responsible for shoe-horning
several million dollars’ worth of specialized cars into arenas each night. On
the ferry both ways, we shared a cabin
with Richard and Rick Harper, a fatherand-son team who drove a beautiful
1969 Jaguar XK-E in Touring. Rick told
me that at the awards banquet, he
saw Parking Pete. Having earned two
medallions, for finishing and Touring,
he asked Pete if he’d like one. He then
removed from his own neck one of
these prized Targa medallions, and
gave it to an astonished Pete. What a
tribute to someone who works so hard
each year for the Targa!
At this point, I should mention that
all the thousands of volunteers took a
week off work so that we could go out
and play! And that doesn’t count the
thousands of people who agreed to
have their roads closed down, including
the only road to Leading Tickles, which
was shut for about six hours. Only in
Newfoundland, you say!
Targa Newfoundland was an intense experience! It was physically and
Glen Clarke and Evan Gamblin in Gander.
11
Half MCO
team of
Jodie Shay
(nav) and
transplant
Aussie Ralph
Grant (driver)
in right hand
drive car.
Craig Seko
and Steve
Carrick
in Gander
stage.
mentally challenging, and sometimes
emotionally draining. We were up by
6.00 a.m. each morning and in bed by
10.30 p.m. if we were lucky. I spent an
hour or two each evening going over
the next day’s route book, so there
wasn’t much spare time. But it was
also very social, and we had wonderful meals with fellow competitors and
shared lots of laughs with friends new
and old. There were more acts of kindness and support than I could possibly
mention here (e.g., Evan teaching me
hand signals after our intercom failed;
Parking Pete arranging for the three
MCO cars to be parked together;
Clarke Paynter comforting me after our
“off”).
It was great to meet the Newfoundland people, especially the little kids,
who lined up for our autographs (it’s
true!) and the small Bald Head Racing
decals that Craig, Steve, Jim and I
handed out. The whole thing was absolutely fantastic, and not a day goes by
that I don’t long to be there next year.
The Targa event cost $4500, with
accommodation, travel and some
meals being extra. The Touring event,
which was more like a fast TSD rally,
cost $3500 and attracted 15 entries.
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What: MCO Karting League
Where: Top Karting, 200 D‛Edmonton, Hull (779-0000)
Monthly Schedule: Thursday evenings only at 7:00 p.m.
Entry fee: $40.00. (The fee will be reduced if
numbers are sufficient.) Because of Top Karting's
business policy, entry fees will be collected at the
MCO monthly meetings prior to each event.
MCO members and non-members are welcome.
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Location
Louis’s Steak House, Ottawa, Ont.
PRESENT
2002/2003 Board of Directors:
Ron Woltman, President; Bennett
Leckie, Vice-President; Richard Muise,
Closed Wheel, and Greg Kierstead, Solo
II, Directors.
Appointed Officers and
Members of the Executive
Committee:
Bob Benson, Treasurer; Jeff Graves,
Solo I; Paul Swinwood, Karting; Dave Butler, Membership; Aleida Dikland, Website
Manager; John Powell, Secretary.
Members:
35 Full Members were present, which
constituted a quorum.
Dave Butler (Chair), Cindy Armstrong and
Jim Morrow for their outstanding work on
the Nominating Committee. He also took
this opportunity to introduce Dave as the
new Membership Chairman.
Annual Banquet
Ron then noted that Sam Mandia was
present and had tickets to the banquet
for sale. Sam added that 58 tickets had
been sold to date, and that those who
do not have tickets can reserve them by
contacting him through the e-mail address
on the Club web site.
Rally
In the absence of Warren Haywood,
Bennett Leckie reported that the Lanark
Highlands Rally had been a success, with
29 entries, some from as far away as the
Kitchener-Waterloo area.
Solo II
2002/2003 Directors,
Appointed Officers, and
Committee:
Warren Haywood, Director, Rally,
& Club Merchandise Co-ordinator; Jean
MacGillivray, Club Display Coordinator.
Greg Kierstead noted that it had been
generally a successful season. There
was a net positive income, although lower
than previous years due to increased
expenses. Greg added that next year will
see a new car classification system, and
the Club’s timing equipment needs to be
up-dated. He then closed by introducing
Charles (Chuck) Payne, who has volunteered to replace him as Solo II representative.
NOTES
Closed Wheel
ABSENT WITH EXCUSES
1) Copies of documents marked
“Att.” are filed with the original copy of
these minutes.
2) The 2002/2003 position of Past
President is inactive and one 2002/2003
position of Director is vacant.
3) The Executive Committee positions
of Open Wheel representative, Editor of
The Link, and Public Relations are vacant,
and that of Club Display Coordinator will
become vacant effective at the close of
the Annual Awards Banquet.
The President opened the meeting for
business at approximately 7:15 p.m. and
welcomed guests.
AGM Nominating Committee
Ron Woltman opened by thanking
Richard Muise advised members
that the will be attending the up-coming
Drivers’ Meeting at the CASC AGM, and if
anyone has issues to bring forward, they
should contact him or any other member
who will be attending.
MCO 50th Anniversary History
Book
Crystal Pomeroy reported that pages
for the final text up to 1998 had been formatted, that 40% of the book has already
gone to print, and that the remainder
will be sent within the next week. Ron
Woltman added that the team is working
flat-out and they are pushing for a Christmas publication date. Members should
contact Don Tarte for orders, and 15
pages are still available for sponsorship.
Treasurer
Bob Benson provided copies of his report (att.), and provided a verbal summary
as follows:
Total income for 2002/2003 was
$111,925.41, up from $97,017.82
the previous year, and expenses were
$108,994.63, up from $87,748.63. Net
income for 2002/2003 was $2,930.78,
down from $9,269.19 in 2001/2002.
Accounts showing net income were: Rally,
$2,206.33; Membership, $6,608.35;
Race School, $8,477.37; Solo II,
$1,191.45; and Lapping, $1,446.15.
Accounts showing net deficits were:
The Link, (-) $6,266.58; 50th Anniversary Book (-) $4,770.08; Insurance
Costs, (-) $6.633.00; and the TPSTR, (-)
$1,994.35.
MCO Incorporation Papers
Ron Woltman gave a brief overview
of attempts, including those of Steve
Greiner, to get the incorporation papers
up-dated by the Provincial government,
with little success. He than asked for a
volunteer to take over this task.
2004 Racing School
Rob Microys announced that Shannonville had been booked for April 24th
and 25th, and Ron gave a brief up-date of
progress so far.
CASC Elections
Rob Microys, who is chair of the
CASC Nominating Committee, advised
members that five positions on the CASC
Board are up for election. He added that
there has so far been one person nominated for each of these positions, but if
members have any further nominations
they should contact him.
Solo I & II Competitor’s Meeting
Jeff Graves attended the Solo
Competitor’s Meeting and noted that
there will be no major changes for next
year, except that a national set of safety
standards and rules for lapping and driver
education events are intended to be
implemented. Jeff added that four MCO
members received trophies at the meeting.
13
Club Web Site
Aleida Dikland reported that there
have been just up-dates and no major
changes recently, but such changes may
be coming soon as a result of suggestions received. If anyone has further
suggestions, they should contact her.
Calabogie Motorsports Park
Ron Woltman attended an official
Open House on October 25th, and gave
members a brief account. Ron has had
discussions with the track management
regarding the possibility of MCO events
at Calabogie, including a race. Those
wishing to submit letters in support of the
track may do so through Ron or may write
to local newspapers.
CASC Issues
Ron gave a brief account of the
proceedings of the last ORO meeting,
including race dates, and advised that
July 3rd and 4th have been reserved for
the 2004 TPSTR, but that August 15th
and 16th remain a possibility. Changes in
the administration of Affiliation Fees are
expected to be implemented in 2004.
Membership
Dave Butler advised that we currently
have 218 members, of which 182 are Full
Members. He also announced that Albert
Cohoe has volunteered to be Assistant
Membership Chair, that 35 Full Members
were present at this meeting, and advised
those with membership problems to
contact him.
The Link
Ron Woltman announced that we
need a new editor or co-editors for The
Link.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:10
p.m. on a motion by Nick Berry, seconded
by John Blouin. Carried without discussion.
Note: The 2004 Annual General Meeting followed this meeting after a short
break.
Prepared by John Powell, Secretary,
MCO, November 16th 2003, amended
December 17th 2003.
Tel. 613-835-2910; e-mail,
mgb296@hotmail.com

Location
PRESENT
2002/2003 Board of Directors
Ron Woltman, President and Chief
Executive Officer; Bennett Leckie, VicePresident; Richard Muise, Closed Wheel,
and Greg Kierstead, Solo II, Directors.
Committee
Bob Benson, Treasurer; John Powell,
Secretary and Clerk of the Board of Directors; Jeff Graves, Solo I; Paul Swinwood,
Karting; Dave Butler, Membership; Aleida
Dikland, Website Manager.
Members
35 Full Members were present, which
constituted a quorum.
ABSENT WITH EXCUSES
2002/2003 Directors,
Appointed Officers, and
Committee
Warren Haywood, Director, Rally,
& Club Merchandise Co-ordinator; Jean
MacGillivray, Club Display Coordinator.
NOTES
1) Copies of documents marked “Att.” are
filed with the original copy of these
minutes.
2) The 2002/2003 position of Past
President is inactive and one
2002/2003 position of Director is
vacant.
3) The Executive Committee positions of
Open Wheel representative, Editor
of The Link, and Public Relations
are vacant, and that of Club Display
Coordinator will become vacant
effective at the close of the Annual
Awards Banquet.
Dave Butler, Chairman of the Nominating Committee, opened the meeting at
8:30 p.m., and the following business was
conducted:
Opening Business
Dave Butler welcomed those present,
gave an outline of the purpose of the
meeting, and introduced the outgoing
Board of Directors present as noted
above. John Powell was appointed as
Secretary of the Annual General Meeting.
A quorum was established, also as noted
above.
Minutes of the 2001/2002
Annual general Meeting
The Secretary informed those
present that the minutes could be either
read in full and then voted, or approved as
published in The Link of December 2002.
Paul Swinwood moved that the minutes
of the 2001/2002 AGM be accepted as
published in the December 2002 issue of
The Link, seconded by Terry Dale. Carried without discussion.
2002/2003 President’s Report
- Ron Woltman
Ron gave an overview of the year’s
events, noting the financial successes of
the Winter December 17, 2003 Driving
Schools, Winter Solo II (Slush ‘n Slide),
and the Racing School. He added that
the Ted Powell Summer Trophy Races
were also a success despite a modest
loss, which was offset by the net income
generated by the Racing School, and the
costs of the Barbeque were well worth
its positive acceptance by competitors,
officials and workers. He continued by
noting his satisfaction with the Club’s current financial position, our active voice at
CASC meetings, the progress of the Solo
II series despite an increase in facility
costs, and the quality of the members of
the Executive Committee, most of whom
have volunteered to continue in their current positions. He closed by stating that
there is a good possibility that MCO will
be organizing a Solo I weekend next year,
and that, through his involvement with
the MCO 50th Anniversary book, he had
learned much about the Club’s history.
2002/2003 Vice President’s
Report - Bennett Leckie
Bennett noted that this was his
second term as Vice President, and
that he has been involved in a variety of
disciplines, including schools and lapping
events. He commented favourably on the
number of volunteers from the membership at events, which showed the depth
of the Club, but would like to encourage
more of their involvement in disciplines
other than their own. He next noted the
success of the Instructional Lapping Day
and that he hopes to make it a standalone event in 2004, and closed by
commenting on the help of the BMW Club,
which was reciprocated at their school at
Mt. Tremblant.
2002/2003 Director’s Report
- Richard Muise
Richard opened by noting, amongst
other items, that 12 of the 35 members
present were active road racers, and went
on to give an overview of possible rule
changes for 2004. He asked that anyone
with comments to make at the CASC
Driver’s Meeting send them to either
Cindy Armstrong or himself. Other items
mentioned were that Nov. 15th will be the
date of both the CASC and VARAC AGMs,
Stefany Malanka is a finalist for assistance from the Driver Development Fund,
and that those worked at Regional events
should submit their WRRC forms. For
next year he noted that MCO will have a
very busy schedule, that he would like to
institute a bi-weekly e-mail bulletin to briefly up-date members on important news,
and that he would like to be involved in
more aspects of race organizing.
2002/2003 Director’s Report
- Greg Kierstead
Greg stated that the past year had
been his second term as Director, that
it had been a great experience from an
organizational perspective, and that it has
broadened his awareness of the Club’s
activities and business. Although he is
not running for Director in the coming
election, he will still be involved in Solo
II, and would like to increase the number
of the core group of competitors in this
discipline.
Treasurer’s Report - Bob
Benson
Bob reported that there was no
change from the report that he gave
earlier in the evening at the November
General Meeting.
Ratification of the actions
of the 2002/2003 Board of
Directors
Nick Berry moved that the actions of
the outgoing Board of directors be ratified, seconded by Rob Microys. Carried
without discussion.
Old and New business
There were no items under New
Business. Under Old Business, Paul
Swinwood gave a brief overview of the
results of MCO members who competed
in various Karting series.
Election - Report of the
Nominating Committee
Dave Butler reported that the Committee had approached a large number of
members, and that this year an election
will be required for the Director positions.
The candidates for election to the Board
of Directors are as follows:
President - Ron Woltman (incumbent
- acclaimed).
Vice President - Bennett Leckie
(incumbent - acclaimed)
Directors - there are six candidates for the
four positions; John Blouin, Steven
Fong, Craig Hamm, Sam Mandia,
Richard Muise (incumbent), and
Charles Payne.
Election - Appointment of
Scrutineers
Albert Cohoe was appointed as Chief
Scrutineer, and Alan Ritchie and Paul
Swinwood as Scrutineers.
Election - Candidates
Addresses
John Blouin
John mentioned that he thought that
it was time for him to “put his money
where his mouth is” and offer himself as
a candidate for the Board. He gave a
brief overview of his 27 years in the Club,
stating that he was most satisfied with
his encouragement of the entry of new
competitors into racing through “Team
Pumpkin”.
Steven Fong
Steven noted that he was a first-year
member, and had competed in Solo II. He
mentioned that getting people to show up
for events was half the battle.
Craig Hamm
In the absence of Craig, Dave Butler
briefly outlined his work on behalf of the
Club, especially in Rallying.
Sam Mandia
Sam outlined his love of working for
the Club, and noted that his priority would
be to get more people involved.
Richard Muise
Richard stated that he was just completing his first term as Director, having
previously been editor of The Link. He
would like to finish a second term, as he
thought he now had a better understanding of the issues, especially those regarding racing.
Charles Payne
Charles noted that he thought that
it was important that each discipline be
represented on the Board of Directors,
and that he would like to see the Club run
events in all disciplines.
Election – Results
After receiving the report of the
Scrutineers, Dave Butler announced that
the successful candidates for the four Director positions on the Board of Directors
for 2003/2004 were John Blouin, Sam
Mandia, Richard Muise and Charles Payne.
Election - Destruction of Ballots
There being no appeals or protests,
Dave Butler called for a motion to destroy
the ballots. This was so moved by John
Blouin, seconded by Chris Krepski. Carried without discussion.
p.m. on a motion by Nick Berry, seconded
by John Blouin. Carried without discussion.
MCO, December 3rd 2003, amended
December 17th 2003.
Tel. 613-835-2910; e-mail,
mgb296@hotmail.com
15
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17
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Location
Louis’ Steak House, Ottawa, Ont.
PRESENT
Leckie, Vice-President; Richard Muise,
Closed Wheel, and Greg Kierstead, Solo
II, Directors.
2002/2003 Appointed Officers
and Members of the Executive
Committee
John Powell, Secretary; Jeff Graves,
Solo I; Paul Swinwood, Karting; Dave Butler, Membership; Aleida Dikland, Website
Manager.
Leckie, Vice-President; John Blouin,
Closed Wheel; Sam Mandia, Open Wheel
and Public Relations; Richard Muise; and
Charles Payne, Solo II; Directors.
Committee
John Powell, Secretary; Jeff Graves,
Solo I; Paul Swinwood, Karting; Dave Butler, Membership Chairman; Steve Fong,
Link Editor; Alan Ritchie, Assistant Link
Editor; Aleida Dikland, Website Manager.
Members/Guests
None
ABSENT WITH EXCUSES
Warren Haywood, Director, Rally and
Club Merchandise Co-ordinator.
Committee
Bob Benson, Treasurer; Jean MacGillivray, Club Display Co-ordinator.
None
Committee
Bob Benson, Treasurer; Craig
Hamm, Rally; Albert Cohoe, Assistant
Membership Chairman; Warren Haywood,
Club Merchandise Co-ordinator.
NOTES
1. Copies of documents marked “Att.”
are filed with the original copy of
these minutes.
2. The position of Past President
is inactive and one 2002/2003
position of Director was vacant.
3. The 2002/2003 Executive
Committee positions of Open Wheel
representative, Editor of The Link,
and Public Relations were vacant.
4. The 2003/2004 Executive
Committee position of Club Display
Coordinator became vacant effective
at the close of the Annual Awards
Banquet, November 8th 2003..
5. Sufficient members of the Board of
Directors were present to constitute
a quorum for those matters requiring
a vote.
The President thanked the outgoing
and welcomed the new BoD and Executive members present, and opened the
meeting for business at approximately
6:30 p.m..
Executive E-mails
Ron noted that our e-mail practices
are resulting in an over-use of the Executive e-mail address. This address is for
the purpose of conducting business, and
is being over-used for protracted discussions. He advised that it is not a discussion forum, and such are best conducted
in person at meetings, or on the Club
Forum on the website. Also mentioned
by John Powell was that members should
not use e-mails on old topics to discuss
new ones, especially without changing
the subject title, as this unduly complicates the keeping of Club records.
BoD and Executive Contact
Information
Ron next advised those present to
send their contact information to the
Secretary, and that this should also be
shown on the masthead of The Link.
The Link
Ron asked Allen Ritchie, the new
Assistant Editor, to contact Mark Atos,
the previous Editor, to arrange for the
transfer of equipment and files. He
also asked that members of the Executive Committee ensure that they submit
monthly reports to The Link for publishing. He closed by noting that Jean
MacGillivray had offered to assist with
the proof-reading of Link submissions.
Later in the meeting, Steve Fong, the
new Editor, reported that the December
Link is planned to be a catch-up edition,
and he is considering a new format for
2004. It is expected that it will possible
to catch up on outstanding Link submissions within two weeks.
Club Representatives for Major
Meetings
Ron Woltman advised that he would
like to have representatives, and preferably also alternatives, delegated to attend
major meetings, such as the ORO, Race
Committee and RSO. He noted that he
usually attended the CASC Presidents’
and ORO meetings, Cindy Armstrong the
Race Committee, and Ryan Huber, who is
currently residing in Toronto, RSO meetings. Richard Muise then volunteered to
be the alternate representative at ORO
meetings. Ron next asked if it would be
preferable for the Race Committee representative to be a member of the Executive Committee, to which Paul Swinwood
replied that such an appointment would
require a formal process.
Business Cards
There was a brief discussion on
the benefits of printing business cards
for BoD and Exec. Members and the
information to be shown thereon. Sam
Mandia will coordinate implementation.
Executive Committee
Appointments
The appointment of persons to the
various positions on the 2003/2004 Executive Committee was finalized as noted
in the Header to these minutes, and
approved by the members of the BoD
present. The position of Club Display
Coordinator is still vacant, but later in the
meeting Dave Butler advised that he may
know of a possible candidate and will
contact him.
Ottawa International Auto
Show
There is a possibility that CASC
would be willing to support the Club in
having a joint MCO/CASC booth at the
Ottawa International Auto Show. This
show would be an opportunity to gain
more exposure than at Speedorama.
Rob Microys has volunteered to investigate further.
2004 Racing Events
There will be a new layout, retaining
two tracks, and volunteers are needed
for the coming Sunday to rough them
out. Negotiations are also under way for
us to dig a pit to provide water for laying
an ice foundation for the tracks.
The rental for 2004 will be
$3,500.00 for our Club dates, with others to be negotiated. The Ottodrome
will retain two Sunday dates for winter
Enduros on the oval, and we will have to
arrange our own snow plowing for our
area.
Bob Armstrong has again volunteered to be Co-Chief Instructor.
Solo II (Summer and Winter)
Chuck Payne reported as follows:
A competitors’ meeting for Summer
solo II will be held, probably in March,
and the storage shed needs a new locking arrangement.
There was a brief discussion regarding alternate sites to the Corel Centre,
especially if the Senators reach the
playoffs.
Repairs are required for the timing
equipment, and there is need for a new
tent better suited to our needs.
The status of the Winter Solo II
(Slush >n Slide) rules has yet to be finalized, and there was some discussion
on this topic, including the use of RallyX
rules instead of Solo II.
Ron opened the topic by noting
that July 2nd to 4th has been reserved at
Shannonville for the Ted Powell weekend.
There was some discussion on what to
do about the August 14th/15th reservation. We could pass it on to the BMW
club or cancel it, and the general feeling
was to cancel the weekend and perhaps
notify the BMW club that the date could
be available.
Calabogie Motorsports Park should
be ready for use by mid-summer, and
they are interested in having MCO
organize a race. Ron Woltman mentioned that this could possibly be done
in conjunction with VARAC, possibly with
the FF1600 series present, but it would
have to be “invitational” as it would not
be part of the CASC Regional calendar.
Bennett Leckie suggested that we run a
lapping weekend as a shake-down if we
had an open weekend, and John Powell
suggested that we could try to revive the
“Thanksgiving Speed Weekend” that was
run by BARC in the ‘60s, as this may appeal to VARAC for its historical aspects.
Those present thought this event to be
desirable if it could be organized, and the
proposal will be investigated further.
Also discussed briefly was the possibility of assisting VARAC with an event
at Mt. Tremblant in 2004.
Later in the meeting Sam Mandia
stated that he would like to see more
racing members on the Race Organizing
Committee.
Ron next broached the topic of the
proposal that MCO organize a Solo I
weekend for 2004. Jeff Graves outlined
details of what the Club’s commitments
would be as organizer, following which
the Members of the BoD present authorized him to contact SoloOntario, confirm
our commitment, and take a lead role in
its organization.
Winter Driving Schools
Club Web Site
Paul Swinwood reported as follows:
Membership
Ron Woltman asked Bennett Leckie,
Dave Butler and Albert Cohoe to develop
options regarding the use of potential
savings from the new Affiliation Fee
structure to be implemented by CASC.
He also asked Dave to participate on the
Club’s behalf in the CASC pilot project
for on-line membership applications and
renewals.
Solo I
that she would like to include photos and
videos of members in action on the web
site, and asked for contributions.
Monthly E-mail Bulletin
From interest expressed in responses to his post on the Club forum, Richard
Muise suggested the institution of a periodical e-mail bulletin to members. This
would contain brief up-dates on current
information in a more timely manner than
The Link, and Richard volunteered to help
in its implementation.
Monthly Club Meetings
During a discussion on this topic, the
following points were raised:
Sam Mandia stated that he would
like to get more members out to the
Monthly General Meetings, and that perhaps we could make the January meeting
a “bring a friend” night, perhaps with
some incentives, although they hadn’t
worked that well in the past.
John Blouin mentioned that we
should get the business portion over
quickly by just giving a summary of the
main points, with the details published in
The Link. We could then return the meetings to more of a social occasion with
guest speakers, movies, etc., as had
been done in the past.
Ron Woltman suggested that
another, more central location might be
better, such as the St. Anthony’s club
on Preston St., and perhaps the topic
should be brought forward to a future
Exec. Meeting..
Shoppers Drugmart Proposal
Ron has received a proposal from
Shoppers Drugmart to use some of the
services offered by MCO as gift certificate incentives. Ron will meet with their
representative to discuss details and
report back to the BoD/Executive Committee.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:00 p.m..
MCO, November 24th 2003,
amended December 17th 2003.
Tel. 613-835-2910; e-mail,
mgb296@hotmail.com
Aleida Dikland advised those present
19
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Location
PRESENT
Leckie, Vice-President; Sam Mandia, Open
Wheel and Public Relations; Richard Muise;
and Charles Payne, Solo II; Directors.
including Mark Coughlin (?) of NCKC.
Club Incorporation Papers
Ron Woltman opened by announcing
that Albert Cohoe had volunteered to take
over the up-dating of the Incorporation
papers.
John Powell, Secretary; Bob Benson, Treasurer; Jeff Graves, Solo I; Craig
Hamm, Rally; Paul Swinwood, Karting;
Dave Butler, Membership Chairman; Albert
Cohoe, Assistant Membership Chairman;
Steve Fong, Link Editor.
Paul Swinwood gave an up-date, including that there will be 5 events starting
on January 18th 2004, one school for the
BMW club, and he is looking for volunteers
as instructors and workers. Bennett Leckie added that there will be two new track
layouts, with the Trackside course being
longer than Treeline. Cindy Armstrong suggested that we consider offering student
discounts, to which Ron Woltman replied
that this is an excellent suggestion, and it
will be considered.
Members
Winter Solo II (Slush ‘n Slide)
Committee
Sufficient members were present for
a quorum.
ABSENT WITH EXCUSES
John Blouin, Closed Wheel.
Committee
Alan Ritchie, Assistant Link Editor;
Aleida Dikland, Website Manager;
Warren Haywood, Club Merchandise
Co-ordinator.
NOTES
1) Copies of documents marked “Att.”
are filed with the original copy of these
minutes.
2) The position of Past President is
inactive and the Executive Committee position of Club Display Coordinator became
vacant effective at the close of the Annual
Awards Banquet, November 8th 2003.
The President opened the meeting for
business at approximately 7:00 p.m. by
introducing the new Board of Directors and
members of the Executive Committee in attendance, and welcoming guests present,
are performing a service for the sport.
Ron answered that this question had been
posed to CASC, and as they could find no
reason in their records for its existence,
there will be no such fee in future.
Ted Powell Summer Trophy
Races
Ron then gave a brief up-date on the
race weekend, and noted that a decision
will need to be made on whether to run a
test day or other event on the Friday. He
also noted that there are still openings for
volunteers on the Race Organizing Committee.
Possible Race Weekend at
Calabogie
This is under active consideration, and
if the event is to be held, it will probably be
on the Thanksgiving weekend.
Charles Payne informed members that
the dates have been set up but the rules
have yet to be finalized.
At this point there was a break from
7:50 to 8:00 p.m..
Rally
Dave Butler reported that we currently
have 161 members, and that membership
cards have yet to be printed. Ron Woltman
added that the issue of what to do with
savings from the new CASC flat rate affiliation fee is currently under review.
Craig Hamm gave an up-date, the
major points being:
Next year’s Lanark Highlands Rally will
be on the Regional calendar, there will be
no MCO winter rally this year as efforts are
being devoted to the Winter Solo II, and
next year’s rally calendar is on line. The recent RSO minutes contain a history of the
development of CASC, RSO and CARS. The
Rally Group will be conducting seminars
this winter on rally administration, organizing, etc., and will initiate investigations on
running a closed road performance rally in
2005. Ron Woltman added an up-date on
the Waupoos Winery Rally/Tour, to be held
in the spring of 2004, and Richard Muise
has volunteered to be the organizer.
MCO Racing School
Rob Microys up-dated members on
progress to date, including that tuition
fees will be the same as last year and
registration is now available on line or by
downloading the form in PDF and mailing
it in. Ron Woltman added that there will
be a flat CASC fee of $500.00 for the
school. Cindy Armstrong asked why there
is a fee for instructor’s licences when they
Membership
Treasurer
Bob Benson mentioned the previously
reported income and expenditure figures
for 2002/2003, and up-dated members
on the 2003/2004 situation to date as
follows (notes att’d.): There is $35,896.44
in the bank, from which must be deducted
accounts payable of $17,559.00 for the
TPSTR, Racing School, and 50th Anniversary History Book. Cash flow to-date for
this fiscal year are: income, $3,008.00;
disbursements (including the foregoing
accounts payable), $34,166.30; leaving a
balance of (-)$31,158.30. Disposable cash
currently sits at $18,337.44, with up-coming Winter Driving School expenses of
$3,500.00 to $7,000.00 all totalled.
Public Relations/Marketing
Sam Mandia reported as follows: We
currently have 30 active racing members,
and they are invited to attend TPSTR Or-
ganizing Committee meetings and provide
input on promoting the race to their fellow
competitors. Attendance at the Annual
Awards Banquet was sixty-six members
and guests, and 82 prizes were awarded.
Of those who were approached to donate
prizes, there were no refusals. Themes
were announced for some upcoming
General Meetings. For example, January
will be “Bring a friend”, February “bring
your wife or spouse” (an Hon. Member
“Or both?”, other Hon. Members “laughter
and ribald comments”), and so on. Sam is
planning an MCO Karting League starting
on January 15th at 7:00 p.m.. Information will be on the web site. Post meeting
entertainment this month will be a video of
the SCCA HP run-offs. Rob Microys gave a
brief up-date on the proposed MCO/CASC
booth at the Ottawa International Auto
Show.
Performance Rally School
Craig Seko announced that a Performance Rally School will be held in Newfoundland in October of 2004, and invited
members to express their interest for one
to be held in Ontario.
Closed Wheel
Richard Muise reported that Stefany
Malanka has won a CASC Driver Development Fund scholarship, and that there has
been some debate over possible Touring/
GT Series rule changes including introducing Rewards Weights.
MCO Information Bulletin
Richard next announced that he is
looking at the introduction of a bi-weekly
members’ e-mail bulletin containing latebreaking news and information.
The Link
Steven Fong reported that a catch-up
issue will be sent out in December, and
starting in mid-January a “new look” Link
will be introduced. He intends to include
more “in depth” articles and a more organized lay-out.
Solo II
Chuck Payne up-dated members on
scheduling issues at the Corel Centre if the
Senators make the play-offs, and that he is
looking at getting a Regional event back on
our calendar. Ron Woltman expressed the
Club’s appreciation to Pat Weightman for
the use of his timing board.
Solo I
Jeff Graves gave an up-date on the
prospective MCO Solo I event on September 11th and 12th 2004 at Shannonville.
MCO/VARAC Partnership. Ron Woltman
informed members that there is a possibility that we may partner with VARAC on an
event in 2004, possibly at Mt. Tremblant,
and if not, at Calabogie.
CASC Race Committee
Cindy Armstrong reported as follows:
The Race Committee was in need of a
Training Coordinator, and Cindy has volunteered for the position. One of her objectives is to develop an Operations Manual.
For the 2004 season a registered number
will be required for drivers to score points.
There will be no cost for numbers from
00 to 299, and $50.00 for numbers
outside that range. There has been a
huge increase in yellow flag infractions for
2003, and new rules will be implemented
regarding disciplinary measures.
RSO
Craig Hamm reported that RSO is to
start training performance rally marshals.
NCKC
Mark Coughlin (?), a new member of
the NCKC executive gave an up-date on
the karting situation in the Ottawa area,
and the need to grow the karting community.
p.m. on a motion by Richard Muise, seconded by Craig Seko.
MCO, December 16th 2003.
Tel. 613-835-2910; e-mail mgb296@hotmail.com

Location
Aleida Dikland, Website Manager; Warren
Haywood, Club Merchandise Co-ordinator.
PRESENT
Members/Guests:
Louis’ Steak House, Ottawa, Ont.
Board of Directors
Leckie, Vice-President; Sam Mandia,
Open Wheel and Public Relations; Richard
Muise; and Charles Payne, Solo II; Directors.
Committee
John Powell, Secretary; Bob Benson,
Treasurer; Jeff Graves, Solo I; Craig
Hamm, Rally; Paul Swinwood, Karting;
Dave Butler, Membership Chairman;
None
ABSENT WITH EXCUSES
Board of Directors
John Blouin, Closed Wheel.
Committee
Albert Cohoe, Assistant Membership
Chairman; Steve Fong, Link Editor; Alan
Ritchie, Assistant Link Editor.
NOTES
minutes.
2) The position of Past President is
inactive and the Executive Committee
position of Club Display Coordinator
became vacant effective at the
close of the Annual Awards Banquet,
November 8th 2003.
3) Sufficient members of the Board of
Directors were present to constitute
a quorum for those matters requiring
a vote.
The President opened the meeting
for business at approximately 6:30 p.m..
Paul Swinwood reported that the
21
facility is all set to go; stone dust has
been put down where needed, plowing
has been arranged, etc. Sam Mandia
added that information has been sent out
to radio stations and newspapers. Paul
then opened a brief discussion regarding tuition fee discounts. Bennett Leckie
questioned the possibility of WDS tuition
discounts but no reduction in the fees for
the Racing School which has also shown
a very good return on investment. Ron
noted that in his opinion the two could not
be compared as the WDS is a service to
the general public, whereas the Racing
School is not. He added that we should
focus on the positive public relations
impacts of offering discounts to registered students. Paul suggested that we
offer the Club member’s rate of $125.00
to qualified students and seniors over the
age of 60 years, with no piggy-backing
of discounts for those who were already
members. This was approved by the
BoD members present.
Winter Solo II (Slush ‘n Slide)
Warren Haywood reported as follows:
The Winter Solo II should be separate
from the WDS for insurance purposes
and be covered as a Solo II series. The
flyer and Supplementary Regulations have
been sent out for review. The first event
will be run on January 11th ‘04, and there
will be an on-line registration form.
There followed some discussion on
the topic of entry fees:
Bennett thinks that the fees of
$30.00/members and $35.00/non-members per event are too high, and that this
decision should be reviewed. Warren
replied that the fees were the same as for
Summer Solo II, and that we have 30 to
35 competitors currently interested with
none questioning the entry fees.
Bennett responded that the Summer
Solo II faces higher facility costs than the
Winter series, and he still disagreed with
the level of the fees.
Craig Hamm noted that the difference between member/non-member
event fees should be at least $10.00 to
promote the benefits of Club membership. He added that he thought that this
provision had been agreed upon in the
past, and was surprised that we were still
forfeiting $5.00 to non-members.
The consensus was that the entry
fees would be reviewed if problems arose
with the number of entries.
Event Flags
The Club’s current collection of flags
is in need of some replacements. Richard Muise will investigate the cost of two
new Starter’s sets.
Ottawa International Auto Show
Rob Microys has advised the Executive Committee that he has hit a snag
regarding high booth costs, and this was
discussed as follows:
Apparently CASC has offered their
display set-up, but there has been no
firm commitment of funds to offset booth
costs.
Bennett Leckie asked if there was
a firm dollar figure given to Rob that the
Club can justify, and Paul Swinwood suggested that the show would be worth an
expenditure of $500.00, but not one as
high as $1500.00.
Bennett then suggested that we ask
Rob to submit a budget for $500.00,
with justification for any amount in excess
of that figure.
Club Flyer
Ron Woltman noted that he would like
the flyer to tie in with CASC’s “Take it to
the track” booklet so that the two would
work together. John Powell noted that
so far only two rough drafts had been
prepared, one by Steve Fong and the
other by himself, and he and Sam Mandia
stated that this point would be included
in any design. Regarding printing of the
flyer, Sam advised that glossy paper
would cost more than plain, or we would
have to print fewer flyers for the same
amount.
Public Relations/Marketing
Sam went on to report as follows:
Business cards for the BoD and Executive have been printed and are available
to those present at the meeting, and that
he can arrange for MCO event banners
in order to present a more professional
image. He reminded racing members that
they are welcome to attend Race Committee meetings and offer their opinions
regarding promotion of the event. He has
not received any refusals by the radio
stations and newspapers contacted to
publicise the Winter Driving Schools. His
marketing goal is to have MCO considered as the main contact point in our area
for motorsports resources.
Shoppers Drug Mart Life
Experiences Program
Ron Woltman gave an up-date on
the request from Shoppers Drug Mart to
include our events as “extreme sports”
in this program. Paul Swinwood volunteered to take the lead on this opportunity and prepare a business plan, etc..
Treasurer
From page one of his monthly report
(att.) Bob Benson presented his comments regarding selected financial issues
for consideration as follows: Regarding
the issue of membership fees vis a vis
the reduction in CASC affiliation fees,
Bob noted that membership fees should
always be at least sufficient to support
The Link. He added that the 2003 end
of business year expenses shown for
The Link are lower than what they would
have been if a full year’s issues had been
published. On the question of a test day
preceding the 2004 TPSTR, he noted
that this would expose us to the same
financial risk as in 2001, when the net
loss for the event was $(-)5,015.94.00.
He added that our loss of $(-)2,115.40
for the 2003 event would have been
considerably higher had we paid a
worker’s subsidy as we did in 2001.
Yearly cash flow has shown a downwards
trend in year end net income since 2000,
when we were paid for our assistance in
organizing the Canaska Cup races. (Sec.
Note. The actual end of business year
net incomes as a percentage of gross
incomes were: 2003, 7.13%; 2002,
9.55%; 2001, 8.50%; 2000, 31.69%;
and 1999, 3.72%.) Bob closed by noting
that our financial status to-date for the
2003/2004 business year is: income,
$3,863.00; expenses and accounts
payable, $34,670.57; net negative cash
flow, $(-)30,807.57; and disposable cash
of $18,688.17.
TPSTR Test Day
Discussion on this topic was coloured to some extent by the Treasurer’s
comments. The main points were:
Bennett Leckie observed that the TPSTR
date was not conducive to a financially
successful test day, and that we need a
decision now regarding changing it to a
Lapping Day/School. John Powell noted
that it was already on the CASC calendar
as a test day even though it is still tentative, and that CASC should be informed
of this in order to avoid the confusion
regarding the test day that occurred in
2003. Paul Swinwood stated that the
TPSTR Race Committee should be asked
give their input regarding the viability of a
test day. Bennett then added that our representative at the next ORO meeting must
have the authority to tell them whether
or not we will be running a test day. Ron
Woltman advised that he wanted a decision by January 20th 2004 so that out
representative could inform the ORO at
their meeting on January 21st. He added
for information that the next TPSTR Race
Committee meeting would be held in the
week of January 5th.
Membership
CASC has sent us the information
package on the new website including the
pilot project for central on-line membership applications in affiliated clubs, and
Dave Butler has downloaded it. Ron Woltman asked Dave if we could participate
in the pilot, and Dave answered that we
could.
There was a discussion on the delay
in issuing membership cards, and Ron
asked if we were holding them up. He
noted that we should get something temporary out to members on receipt of their
application or renewal, with a reasonable
turn around time, possibly two weeks,
for the permanent card and membership
package. He added that, as advance notice was sent out for renewals, this would
only apply to such if they were submitted
in advance of their membership expiry
date, and the Club could not reasonably
be held responsible for the consequences
of late renewals.
Financial Impacts of New CASC
Affiliation Fees
Ron Woltman gave an overview of
the potential effects of savings due to
the new affiliation fee structure on Club
finances including a suggestion to reduce
membership fees. A study is underway
with a report to be submitted to the BoD.
Bennett Leckie is conducting that part
of the review of the current affiliation
fee portion of membership dues, estimated to be $5.00 per member. He will
liaise with Bob Benson to get other cost
figures.
Use of Wristbands at Club
Events
During a brief discussion on the
advantage of using wristbands for the
Winter solo II series, Craig Hamm noted
that they will be used at Club rallies in
2004. He then suggested that wristbands should be used at all MCO events,
and it was agreed that this should be
implemented.
Rally
Craig Hamm gave an up-date on the
rally situation, including that the upcoming CARS AGM will be held at Dorval,
Que., and that he would like to attend.
He added that Ryan Huber, our representative at RSO meetings, will raise the topic
of having training sessions for performance rallies in Eastern Ontario.
Solo II
Chuck Payne reported as follows:
SoloOntario is moving to adopt the CNAC
rules for the 2004 season. The organizing of a Regional Solo II event by MCO
is in question as the Corel Centre will not
commit to any dates this far in advance.
During a short discussion Chuck asked
if anyone knew if Calabogie would be
acceptable for insurance purposes, and
Jeff Graves replied that it would probably
be acceptable. Ron Woltman added that
at the present time Calabogie is unwilling
to commit themselves to event dates as
planning approvals are not yet final. Jeff
Graves then noted that he has run Solo II
events in the past on oval tracks, and the
discussion continued regarding possible
sites.
MCO Recreational Karting
Sam Mandia advised those present
that the series will be held at Top Karting
in Hull starting on January 15th 2004 at
7:00 p.m.. Registration will be $40.00
per event, and must be paid in advance.
2004 Ferrari and Race Car
Parade
Ron Woltman announced that the
two parties contesting ownership of this
event will be brought together to settle
their dispute in the near future. The City
of Ottawa has said that no party can go
ahead with the event without the involvement of MCO. He closed by noting that
due to the high profile of the Ferrari and
Race Car Parade, he wants a dedicated
team for the event.
Solo I
Jeff Graves advised those present
that the next Solo I Organizer’s meeting
will be held on January 8th 2004, and we
will need to make a track deposit.
The first meeting adjourned at approximately 9:15 p.m., but those members of the BoD still present re-convened
at approximately 9:30 p.m. to consider
a request for a special expenditure which
was missed during the BoD/ Executive
meeting, as follows:
PRESENT
Board of Directors
Leckie, Vice-President; Sam Mandia,
Open Wheel and Public Relations; Richard
Muise, Director.
NOTES
minutes.
2) Sufficient members of the Board of
Directors were present.
Donation to the Almonte
Amateur Radio League (AARL)
Craig Hamm reviewed for the BoD
members present the proposal contained
in his e-mail of December 12th 2003 (att.)
for a donation of $150.00 to the AARL.
He explained that, despite motorsports
not being the prime area of interest of
the AARL, they have made a significant
contribution to the success of the MCO
rally series, and that a contribution would
not only be an expression of our thanks,
but an indication to the community of our
good faith. The BoD members present
unanimously approved the donation of
$150.00 to the Almonte amateur Radio
League for the reasons noted above.
The supplementary meeting of the
Board of Directors was adjourned at approximately 9:45 p.m.
Prepared by John Powell, Secretary
and Clerk of the Board of Directors,
MCO, December 22nd 2003, amended
January 2nd and January 9th 2004.
Tel. 613-835-2910; e-mail,
mgb296@hotmail.com
23


The following is extracted from the
Minutes of RallySport Ontario Board
Meeting of November 16, 2003, held in
Fenelon Falls, Ontario.
Welcome from Terry Epp, President
of CARS, who gave a history of CARS
and its revenue-sharing agreement with
CASC-OR, a copy of which is distributed
to board members. Current contract
distribution is as follows:
1. ASN Canada FIA + CASC-OR
2. ASN Canada FIA + CARS
3. CARS + CASC-OR
Before 1991, CASC (National) was
the sporting authority in Canada for the
FIA and Rally was within CASC. CASC
comprised of five territories: Atlantic,
FAQ, CASC-OR, CASC-West and CASCBC. A conflict arose over who would
get the sporting rights for the Canadian
Grand Prix. CASC had an opportunity to
sign with Molson’s as a sponsor for the
event, and went to FIA (who gave the
race sanctions) to get approval. Labatt’s
also wanted to sponsor the event, and
went to Bernie Ecclestone (who had the
teams and drivers). The result was that
the event would have been sponsored
by two competing breweries, and a
stalemate arose. Bernie wanted to take
sporting authority away from CASC to
end the stalemate. FIA then appointed an
individual, Benoit Mailleux, and sanctioning powers (ASN) for Canada were turned
over to him. Benoit called the organization ASN Canada FIA, and asked Roger
Peart to run it.
CASC was displeased, and not all of
its regions were going to sign with ASN
Canada FIA. Paul Cooke established the
Western Canadian Motorsport Association (WCMA) for all of western Canada.
Benoit agreed to give amateur sporting
authority in the west to WCMA, that being
Regional Racing, Solo, Karting, and Rally.
ASN Canada FIA approached Ontario region and wanted them to sign with ASN.
CASC-OR agreed to sign (after a secret
meeting of five race-club president and
the executive of CASC-OR).
If it had happened, there would have
been no national authority for rallies, and
Rally would have be divided into regional
bodies. CARS had been formed just
in case a national Rally body would be
needed, and CARS was acting as organizing committee for Ontario’s Rally of the
Voyageurs. One by one, the Voyageurs’
organizing committee resigned and
appointed a CASC National Rally Committee member in their place, so now they
had national authority for Rally and CARS
was born. They signed up 76 people as
the charter members of CARS and they
continued to run Rally across Canada.
ASN Canada FIA did not like what
was happening, since CARS would not
sign with them. ASN Canada FIA signed
up eastern Canada and that became
ARMS. ASN Canada FIA also signed
with FAQ and now had four territories,
but Rally was now outside of organized
motorsport and operating on their own.
CARS needed to change its bylaws to
reflect their national perspective. They
required that licence-holders be mem-
CARS now needed to reach agreements with the territories. The first
agreement was with CASC-OR regarding licence revenue-sharing. This later
became cumbersome and was discontinued, but other revenue-sharing (club
member levies) was agreed upon, as per
the existing contract between CASC-OR
and CARS. By signing the original agreement, CASC-OR validated the ASN Canada FIA contract that gave Rally in Canada
to CARS. CARS quickly reached similar
agreements with ARMS and WCMA. CARS
could not reach an agreement with FAQ,
as Quebec did not want to give sanctioning power to CARS. FAQ has a seat on
the ASN Canada FIA advisory board, as
does CARS.
The 27 clubs that are members of
CARS control all rallysport in Canada.
CARS member clubs, by five regional divisions, appoint the five directors of CARS.
Each CARS director is responsible for





bers of clubs. ASN Canada FIA wanted
CARS to return to the regions, but CARS
refused. ASN Canada FIA continued to be
recognized by FIA, who were mainly concerned with racing as major source of
money. After much brow-beating, CARS
finally met with ASN Canada FIA.
In the end, CARS agreed to sign
with ASN Canada FIA, with the condition
that all rallysport would be assigned to
CARS only, and that CARS sign agreements with the ASN territories. CARS
also agreed to abandon direct membership and institute a club- membership
concept. CARS would not be an ASN
territory, and all CARS member clubs
in Canada would have to be members
of an ASN territory. CARS had already
begun to create GCR’s, licences and
procedures. CARS has the mandate for
all rallysport in Canada, including national
rally championships.
rally where they were elected and could
form committees/organizations to effect
this. In Ontario, RSO was set up. RSO
needed a committee, which was elected
according to RSO bylaws established
on incorporation. RSO incorporated to
protect directors under the Corporations
Act. All member clubs of CARS must
have ASN insurance. If a club has trouble
paying premiums, they can ask CARS for
help and they are prepared to pay.
The current revenue-sharing agreement with CASC-OR was altered twice, but
not formally changed. Agreements were
made in principle and verbally changed.
Terry believes if RSO can become closer
to CASC-OR, there will be some advantages; however, certain protections need
to be built in so that race clubs don’t end
up running ally. RSO has not recognized
enough advantages in aligning with CASCOR at the present time.
Nigel Mortimer pictured above
 
The Motorsport Club of Ottawa
has currently 34 active road racers. I
recently posed a series of 4 questions
to them.
1) How did you get involved in racing?
2) Why do you race?
3) What are your short- and long-term
goals?
4) What have you learned from
racing?
The following Link articles answer
these questions. The first question-andanswer session features open-wheel
racer Nigel Mortimer.
Nigel Mortimer on Racing
I race because it has been in my
blood since I was three years old. My
mother bought me a red pedal car,
and I used to amaze her with how fast I
could corner on our walkway. She took
me to see Stirling Moss race at Crystal
Palace in England and the die was
set. I didn’t know this until my father
introduced me to car magazines, and
at fifteen years of age I spent my summer school vacation reading Car and
Driver and Road and Track. As a result
my dad and I drove to Mosport, after
I had just got my licence at the age of
sixteen, to see Jackie Stewart, Jackie
Ickx, Graham Hill, et al. at the Canadian
GP.
I got involved in racing at the age
of eighteen doing local slaloms. This
led to helping some local slalom racers
and then an offer from Ron Woltman
to build the motor in his Datsun 2000,
which he then graciously allowed me to
drive. Subsequently, Martin Handforth
asked me to prepare and drive his
Brabham sports racer and Chevron Formula Atlantic cars. I was able to afford
a Formula Ford and never looked back.
Racing has taught me numerous
things, namely to control my temper
and have a methodical, organized approach, plus a multitude of mechanical
and analytical skills, and an ability to
function well under stress.
My long- and short-term goals
are to keep racing my Formula Fords
with Lew Mackenzie and to work on
a Formula One team. I have already
achieved some dreams that I never
thought would happen, such as racing with my son, going to Goodwood,
and testing a Formula Ford in the wind
tunnel. I am a very happy man, which I
owe to racing.
Jean-Guy Fournier, the recent winner of the Frank Hicks Open Wheel Award, sent
along his personal web site.
See www.competition89.freesavers.com
25
“Power to the People”


November 2003
I used to be a volunteer
interpreter at the Cumberland
Heritage Village Museum,
and one of their buildings
is the first Esso station in
Eastern Ontario (and perhaps
the oldest still in existance
in Canada). It was called
Watson’s Garage, and used to
stand at the corner of Queen
St. and Dunning Rd. in the
present village of Cumberland.
It was moved to the Museum
site around 1990, and Imperial
Oil paid for the moving costs
and provided some old gas
pumps. The photo was taken
sometime in the mid ‘90s
during one of the annual Heritage Steam and Power shows
held at the museum, and I am
playing the first owner of the
garage, John Watson, in the
year 1925. I grew the beard
because I always wanted to try
one, and also so I could play
various village old farts when I
worked at the Museum.
By the way, for anyone
interested in local history, the
museum village is a gem (and
one of this city’s best-kept
secrets, it often seems). The
Museum is located on Queen
St. (Old Hwy. 17) just east of
the present village, their phone
number is 613.833.3059, and
they have a web site at
http://collections.ic.gc.
ca/cumberland/
Little did I know when I started this
piece in early September that some politico
would hijack the title for an election slogan.
Anyway, now that the August 2003 blackout is behind us, at least for now, it’s time
for another of my “rants”, starting, as is my
wont, with a an historical overview.
About a century ago, there were men
of vision (sorry ladies, but given the culture
of the time …) who saw that an abundant,
reliable and economical supply of electrical energy, available in all areas of the
province, was the way to economic growth
and a better way of life for all sectors of
society. For several reasons, including the
immense capital costs and the provision of
economical power to both industry and ordinary consumers, Ontario chose to generally
follow the European model of a publiclyowned utility rather than that of the privately
owned utilities of other jurisdictions, notably
those in the USA. The founders of our
system deemed that electric power should
be a public good, and that its generation
and distribution should be for the benefit of
all and not for the private profit of individuals or companies.
There were two main reasons for
this approach. One was that, in spite of
a plentiful supply of falling water to drive
generators, the cost of developing and constructing the infrastructure for a widespread
system was so high that it was largely
beyond the means of domestic private
capital at the time, and the use of foreign
capital, and thus foreign ownership of the
system, was not favoured. On the other
hand, government involvement in such capital projects for the public good would be
in line with previous projects regarding the
construction of canals and railways, both by
the former Colonial governments, and, after
1867, by the Dominion government, including Sir John A. MacDonald’s Conservatives.
The other, more philosophical, reason was
the concern that profit-oriented private
capital would concentrate on geographical
areas and types of users from which an
immediate return on investment could be
realized; in other words, industrial concentrations, the rich, and large urban areas.
This would be in contradiction to the goal
of cheap, plentiful, and dependable electric
power for all areas of the province, and all
segments of society. Thus was formed a
provincial publicly owned utility, the Hydro
Electric Power Commission, later Ontario
Hydro, which, by the way, is the reason that
Ontarians generally refer to electricity as
“hydro”.
All did not go exactly as the visionaries
intended. There were some concessions
made to industry, largely in the form of rate
discounts for large volume users, and many
rural and northern areas did not get electricity until after World War II. There were also
some smaller private and municipally owned
generating stations which were allowed to
sell power into the grid, and later on, some
coal fired steam generating stations had to
be built to supplement the water powered
generators due to increasing demand. By
and large, however, by the late 1960s, all
but the remotest areas of the province were
receiving abundant, reliable, and reasonably
priced electric power, a large portion of
which was still being generated by water
power. Then, beginning in the latter decades of the twentieth century, things began
to go off the rails.
Due to post war immigration, both
domestic and foreign, and to the “baby
boom”, Ontario’s population ballooned
to the extent that, nearing the end of the
twentieth century, it was greater by several
millions than that of all Canada at the end
of the nineteenth. With this also came
industrial growth and a boom in electrical consumer goods, and together they
resulted in an increase in demand for power
far beyond that which had been projected.
The result was a rush to build more coalfired steam generating stations, the addition
of natural gas and nuclear fired steam
plants, and an extension of the transmission
system to deliver the increase in capacity,
all of which dramatically increased Ontario
Hydro’s debt load. At the same time, due in
some measure to political pressure, hydro
rates were not increased enough to cover
the escalating costs, and this was especially true concerning the discounts offered
to large volume industrial and commercial
users.
Then there were the well known
problems with the nuclear fired generating
plants. The technology was innovative and
expensive, and Ontario was a world leader
in its practical application, but as with all
new technologies, there were teething
problems. Personally, I am not anti-nuclear,
but I must say that these plants have yet to
achieve their full promise. One reason for
this situation, and problems with other parts
of the Hydro system, stems from what I
consider an unwise decision - and here
we’re starting to get into my “rant”.
In order to reduce costs and maintain
lower rates, the bean counters at Hydro
Paul Sontrop Photo – from Ontario Farmer, Sept. 30, 2003
convinced management to reduce the
workforce and cut back on maintenance
at generating plants, including the nuclear
fired plants, and of the transmission system. I can remember when Hydro works
crews routinely trimmed back tree growth
around local feeder lines and regularly
replaced older transformers, but I haven’t
seen much of this for the last fifteen years
or more. And when was the last time you
saw a Hydro helicopter flying along the
high-voltage transmission lines scanning
them for problems? You can’t remember?
Neither can I. I have often wondered if the
damage from the Ice Storm of 1999 would
have been so severe if the maintenance
had been kept up. In my experience, and
I’ve had a few years of it, any skimping on
regular maintenance is “short term gain
for long term pain” to reverse a common
saying. So we had difficulties with new
technology, a heavy debt load for new
infrastructure, reduced maintenance, and
incompetent management due to the policy
of governments to appoint political hacks
to executive positions at Ontario Hydro. No
wonder there were problems.
Instead of fixing the existing organization, the simplistic answer of the recent
Progressive Conservative government
was privatization. With the election of the
Harris government, there came into power
in Ontario a gang of classical free-market
liberal ideologues masquerading as traditional Canadian-style “Conservatives”. To
these idiots, private enterprise could do no
wrong, government enterprises could do
nothing right, and their “free-market” god
was the divine benefactor of all mankind.
The founding belief of classical liberals was
and is that the rational man, acting in his
own self interest (the “free” market), will
automatically act to the benefit of all. Have
these people learned nothing in the two
hundred and fifty years since the inception
of their ideology? Although humans can be
educated in the benefits of rational behaviour, and do occasionally use reason, the
classical liberal idea of such perfection is
frequently brought to nought by baser instincts such as greed and selfishness. The
proofs of this are the facts of history which
categorize the failings of the “free market”
and private capital since the dawn of the
Industrial Revolution. Some failings were
in the economic sphere, but most involved
“human capital”. There were stock swindles, short-sighted abuse of resources, raw
materials and the natural environment, child
labour, long hours, low wages, suppression
of workers’ rights, abuse of the political
power which resulted from their wealth and
influence, and, well, the list goes on.
Now to the best of my knowledge,
there is no natural law or economic principle which guarantees that private enterprises are more effective and efficient than
public ones. Members of my family have
worked in the private sector all their lives,
mainly in small and medium sized businesses, and their horror stories of inefficiency,
ineffectiveness, waste, nepotism, and poor
worker relations, to name a few, top any
that I ever encountered in thirty-seven years
in the Federal Public Service. In fact, it has
been my experience, both personally and
gathered from other sources, that when
public services or enterprises do perform
inefficiently or ineffectively, it is because
there has been political interference at the
behest of some pressure group or vested
interest, or unwise decisions by political appointees in senior management who know
little or nothing of the operations under their
charge, and who ignore the advice of their
“in house” experts. It is my view that, as
demonstrated by the privatization of electric
utilities in other jurisdictions in recent times,
and our experience to date with hydro
privatization, there is no guarantee, or
even likelihood, that such privatization
of Ontario Hydro will result in greater
efficiency or produce any benefit to
consumers! Furthermore, electrical
energy today is not a commercial commodity, but an essential public service.
As such, its management and operation belongs in the public sector where
it can be under the control of, and
operate for the benefit of, society as a
whole, and not just for private gain. If
they had concentrated on better management of the existing structure, maybe the
Conservative government wouldn’t have had
to resort to such slight-of-hand as subsidizing lower electricity rates for consumers
from taxes paid for by those same consumers. They were bribing us to support
them with our own money!!!!
Speaking of power …
Ever wonder where the term “horsepower” comes from?
These horse powered treadmills were
once common on farms, and were used to
power a drive belt for other stationary farm
machinery. They were eventually replaced
by stationary steam and internal combustion engines, tractors, and electric motors,
and gave us the term “horse power” as a
unit of measure of the rate of doing work.
There were similar treadmills powered by
other animals, such as oxen, men, and even
dogs. So, how much dog power (dp) does
your car’s engine produce?
It’s over …
…at least for this year. The length of
my rant on Ontario Hydro precludes here a
full season wrap-up, so I’ll content myself
with an outline of our misadventures during
the Test Day and Celebration weekend
at Mosport, the last race meeting of the
27
season.
We started still on the “sh*t wagon”
mentioned in October’s column. After a
complete check of the ignition system back
in the shop, I found what I thought to be
the cause of the misfire, a faulty distributor
rotor. Jeff Graves was along for the Test
Day and the Saturday of the race meeting, as he had rented the RX7 to get some
racing experience and a signature on his
Novice licence. In the first test session,
with me driving, the car seemed to run
fine, although I did notice a slight hiccup
near the end. Jeff drove the car in the next
session, but after a few laps the gremlin in
the engine returned. As Jeff needed some
track time, he finished the session, and
then it was back to the head-scratching.
After checking the ignition system again,
which included replacing the older of the
two coils, I became convinced that, while
the faulty rotor was indeed part of the problem, there was also something going wrong
somewhere else.
Going on the assumption that if an engine isn’t running properly, and there are no
expensive mechanical sounds, the fault lies
in either no spark or no gas. I had checked
the fuel system back at the shop, and
noticed that the fuel flow, although higher
than the stock specification, was lower than
I thought it should be for a bridge-ported
engine, so I decided to check it again at the
track. The fuel flow was less than someone
with kidney stones trying to pee! As there
were no fuel leaks this could only mean
a problem with the pump, the filter, or a
blocked fuel line or pick-up. We first tested
the flow after the pump but before the filter,
and got a beautiful, steady stream, so we
took out the filter and could hardly even
blow through it! What? I was told that these
are supposed to only require replacement
once a year, and this one’s nowhere near
due. Time to re-examine the filter replacement schedule (they’re cheap enough) and
clean out the gas tank during the off-season. Anyway, a quick trip to Canadian Tire
in Bowmanville for a new filter, and the next
flow test back at the carburetor produced
a stream that filled a one litre drink bottle in
about twelve seconds. Problem solved in
time for the last test session.
As Jeff needed the seat time, we
nominated him as Team RRSP’s “test driver”
for the last session. The car ran fine, and
after several laps Jeff got down to a time in
the mid 1:40s – a little over a second faster
than my best time in the car. Towards the
end of the session, however, the car began
to hiccup again, this time in the corners,
and the first suspicion was that it was low
on fuel. A few laps later the old miss at
high revs reappeared, to the consternation
of all. Back in the paddock the first thing
we checked was the fuel level, and it hardly
registered on the dip-stick. And no, the
fuel gauge isn’t working, but that’s another
issue. We filled her up and checked that
gas flow, and got a stream that would do a
peeing drunken elephant proud. Problem
solved.
Saturday was Jeff’s race day, and
other than the pouring rain and fog, things
went well and Jeff got his signature for his
licence. The car ran fine, and Jeff qualified 6th in GTC. In his race, in the rain and
mist, Jeff did a best time of 2:01.893,
which was 3rd fastest in GTC and 7th fastest
overall. He started 7th in class, gridded
behind the car that qualified in that position. Why I don’t know, as he qualified 6th,
but the gridding was not the best organized
all weekend. During the race he picked up
three places, one in a pass, and finished a
well-deserved 4th in class. And I think I now
have him converted to racing.
My turn came on the Sunday. During
the warm-up, the weather was dry but the
car didn’t have much grip, which I put down
to the cold temperature and the lack of
rubber on the track due to all the rain. It
was pretty much the same in my first race,
with the addition of an occasional front-end
lock-up under braking, which was to cost
me four class positions. As I didn’t qualify
the car, I was supposed to start at the back
of the grid, but they tried to line me up in
9th spot. We found out that they still had
Jeff as the driver and hadn’t been informed
that there was a second one-day entry for
me (something that they didn’t get right all
day). Eventually they told me to wait and
they would wave me off when everyone
else had gone through. They didn’t. After I
pulled out on to the track for the formation
lap, I noticed there were still cars coming
out behind me. Well, figured if there was a
protest, we could at least show that we had
tried to be honest.
That first race was pretty much an
adventure in searching for grip and coping
with locking front brakes, with mixed success. On lap six I locked up going onto
three and slid straight off. This cost me
two class positions as I watched a whole
bunch of cars go by before I could re-join.
Then on lap nine I locked up going into nine
while trying to pass, and was yet again
headed straight off when I felt a bump from
behind which turned we part way around
and I went off sideways. Apparently a GTA
Porsche coming up to lap me had also
locked up in trying to avoid my lock-up,
and bumped my hind end. Again I watched
traffic go by and lost another two class
positions, finally finishing 7th in class thanks
to two cars breaking out.
In my second race I managed to cope
with the lack of grip and locking front
brakes a little better by not pushing quite
as hard. I started and finished 4th in class,
although my times averaged about 2 ½ seconds slower than what I was normally capable of. But the car otherwise ran fine, with
no hint of a miss throughout the rev range.
Altogether it was another weekend of mixed
blessings. We cured the engine problem
and Jeff ran well on the test day and in the
wet on his race day. I had problems trying
to convince the grid marshal that I was
really me, lost several class positions in
my first race by not coping too well with a
green track, but recovered reasonably well
in my second even though I was slower than
I would have liked to be.
Parting Shot
“They” haven’t given me much “ammunition” lately, but seeing how we’re putting
military terms to civilian use here, I’ve often
wondered about the origin of the term “a
parting shot”. Well, a little while back, as a
birthday present to myself, I bought a book
on sale at 50% off (I can’t resist a bargain
on a book) called “Swinging the Lead &
Spiking his Guns: Military and Naval Expressions and their Origins” by … hmm, they
don’t give the author’s name here. Anyway,
it’s a compilation by Castle Books, of
Edison, New Jersey, published in 2002, and
in it I found several expressions of interest
which I may share with you later. There was
one, however, which reads as follows:
“Parthian shot
In the ancient world Parthian warriors,
who at one time held sway over a large area
of Asia stretching from present-day Iraq to
Pakistan, were renowned for their skill as
mounted archers. While riding away from
an enemy, either in a real or feigned retreat,
they could turn back in the saddle and fire
arrows at their pursuers. So a Parthian
shot became, by analogy, a ‘parting shot’, a
final remark passed in such a way that your
opponent has no chance of responding.”
So, I guess that this is my “Parthian
shot”, but think you now, are my retreats
real, or feigned????
by John Powell

Don’t “dis” the Navvy
The term “navvy” has a long history.
The “mechanicks” who built and worked
the canal network of the early Industrial
Age in Britain were called “navigators”.
Because inland navigation required long
stretches of water at a constant level,
they became expert at choosing suitable
routes through varied terrain and, where
necessary, building locks, aqueducts, embankments, cuttings and tunnels in order
to maintain such constant levels. With the
introduction of steam-powered railways
in the early 19th Century, the builders
of the lines faced similar topographical
challenges to those of the earlier builders
of canals, and perhaps even more so,
as the first such railways were built from
remote areas down to sea ports in order
to transport coal in bulk.
The initial solutions of the railway
builders were to use cable systems
powered by stationary steam engines to
pull the cars up inclines and to control
their descent on the down slopes, or to
build larger and more powerful locomotives. The first of these was cumbersome, expensive in terms of plant and
equipment, and slowed the movement of
the trains of coal cars. The second was
limited by the technology available at the
time, as prior to the introduction of steel,
locomotives were built of wood and many
cast-iron parts, which made larger ones
extremely heavy. At the same time, most
locomotives still used vertical cylinders,
which limited the conversion of the power
of a downwards- moving piston rod into
rotary power at the driving wheels, which
was required for tractive effort. There
was also the problem of controlling the
train when descending steep grades,
as the braking systems of the day were
rudimentary at best, and in fact would
remain little improved until the adoption
of the Westinghouse air brake late in the
century. Finally, the design of and material used in the tracks and roadbed of the
day could not stand the weight of larger
locomotives, nor the pounding caused by
the vertical force of the piston rods when
on the downstroke. So what to do?
As the early railway builders realized
that the challenges they faced were similar to those of the canal builders, except
they could accept slight changes in
gradient instead of perfectly level ground,
they turned to the “navigators” for their
expertise. With the coming of the railways
there was a decline in canal building, and
so many navigators, from what we would
now call civil engineers down to common
labourers, found new employment laying
out and constructing railway road beds,
tunnels and viaducts. At the same time
there began the trend to professionalize
the higher trades, and the term “navigator” came to be used mainly for semi- and
unskilled labourers. And, as is common practice with users of the English
language (at least it was until the coming
of modern techno-babble and politically
correct English), the term was soon
shortened to “navvy”. Although it remains
common in British usage, and despite its
crossing to North America with Irish and
English railway labourers in the mid -19th
Century, the use of “navvy” in Canada and
the U.S. is almost unknown today. Except
in rallying, where once again it is used as
an abbreviation of “navigator”.
So, rally drivers, don’t “dis” your
navvy. He or she is the successor to a
long line of those skilled in finding the
best route to your intended destination.
(Hear, hear! Ed. Jean)
Basic Rules for Driving
in Toronto
(E-mailed to me by a friend who lives in
the Big Smoke.)
1) Turn signals will give away your next
move. A real Toronto driver never uses
them.
2) Under no circumstance should you
leave a safe distance between you and
the car in front of you, or the space
will be filled in by somebody else,
putting you in an even more dangerous
situation.
3) The faster you drive through a red light,
the smaller the chance you have of
getting hit.
4) Never, ever come to a complete stop
at a stop sign. No one expects it and it
will result in you being rear-ended.
5) Never get in the way of an older car
that needs extensive bodywork. Ontario
is a no-fault-insurance province and the
other guy doesn’t have anything to lose.
6) Braking is to be done as hard and late
as possible to ensure that your ABS
January 2003
kicks in, giving a nice, relaxing foot
massage as the brake pedal pulsates.
For those of you without ABS, it’s a
chance to stretch your legs.
7) Never pass on the left when you can
pass on the right. It’s a good way to
scare people entering the highway.
8) Speed limits are arbitrary figures,
given only as a suggestion, and are
apparently not enforceable in Toronto
during rush hour.
9) Just because you’re in the left lane and
have no room to speed up or move
over doesn’t mean that a Toronto driver
flashing his high beams behind you
doesn’t think he can go faster in your
spot.
10) Always slow down and rubberneck
when you see an accident or even
someone changing a tire.
11) Learn to swerve abruptly. Toronto is
the home of high-speed slalom driving
thanks to the Provincial Highway
Department, which puts pot-holes in
key locations to test drivers’ reflexes
and keep them on their toes.
12) It is traditional in Toronto to honk your
horn at cars that don’t move the instant
the light turns green.
13) Remember that the goal of every
Toronto driver is to get there first by
whatever means necessary.
14) In the Toronto area, “flipping someone
the bird” is considered a polite Toronto
salute. This gesture should always be
returned.
15) At least four more cars should proceed
on a left turn after the light turns red. If
you fail to do so, you will be rear-ended.
16) The highways can also be used to
dispose of any messy garbage that
may be lying around. These items are
better off cluttering the side of the
road than cluttering your car’s interior,
where they may distract you and cause
an accident.
17) If someone cuts you off, you should
return the gesture by speeding around
them on the right, pulling in front of
them and slamming on the brakes. This
works even better when your car is of
lesser value.
18) Never make eye contact with
another driver when passing through
Scarborough. ’Nuff said!
29
I’ve Decided to Buy a Cell
Phone ...
(I hear a chorus of yawns and “so
what” from my readers – come on, you
should know me by now. There has to be
a story or rant here somewhere, right?)
… but not just yet. Well, Susan’s
old “big box” cell phone, and by that I
don’t mean where she bought it, died
at the CASC Celebration weekend last
September. Its use was mandated by the
Terms and Conditions for Returning to
Racing which I was given (married men
understand these things), the other main
item being preparation of a Will. I’ll get
around to that eventually, too. No, really,
I will, honest! In any event, I dutifully
lugged “the lump” around all season in
order to check in as required. Except, of
course, when the battery was flat or the
air time hadn’t been topped up.
Now as those of you who’ve read my
previous rants will know, I am decidedly
“underwhelmed” by modern electronic
“high-tech” gadgets as tools, and cell
phones are no exception. Up until recently, their range and area of coverage
was seemingly limited to the GTA and 25
miles each side of the 400 series of highways. The cost of the phone and usage
fees were high, batteries could run down
quickly if you didn’t keep on top of them,
and their replacements cost an arm and
a leg. In an emergency, there was the
same issue with unanswered calls and
busy signals as with regular phones, and
so on. To me, a CB radio was a much
better tool for emergency use, and has
been since the mid-1960s. It had better
range and coverage; cost of the unit was
comparable, and in some cases still is;
air time was and still is free; they worked
off your car battery, or the electricity
mains for a base station; and someone
always monitored Channel 9 for emergencies.
True, some of the early deficiencies
of cell phones have been addressed. Areas of coverage are now better, and the
cost of the phone itself is much lower,
with more features, but there are still
points that irritate me:
• Cheaper units seem to have more
limited range and coverage.
• Most phones, including some less
expensive ones, have a multitude
of features, but are they really
necessary? Some may have a use
for call answering and waiting;
a 10-year electronic “day-timer”,
•
•
annotated; a 500-name directory,
with full personal and business
details; wireless e-mail capacity; a
palm computer with keyboard and
web access; a calculator that does
fractions, percentages, logarithms,
and even walks your dog; and
soon to come, no doubt, a viewphone and who-knows-what other
gimmicks. However, I don’t need
them, and there are probably many
more like me. What we would like
is a reasonably priced phone with
greater range and area of coverage
instead of the “image” and “tie-me-tothe-office” toys.
Then there is the fee structure. Why
should I pay for incoming calls from
god knows who? I don’t pay for these
calls on my regular phone, and I
shouldn’t have to on a cell phone.
And the service access plans are
confusing. None of them can be
directly compared with ease when
making a choice, even on the one
web site that I found that lists them
side-by-side.
Finally, there is the issue of idiots
who insist on driving with cell phones
glued to their ears. They’re not
entirely to blame, as they have been
conditioned by the marketers of cell
phones to be paranoid if they’re not
immediately available to answer the
phone, and that they would lose their
“image” if they weren’t “connected”,
which leads me to the conclusion of
this rant.
Most modern “high-tech” electronic
goods are marketed on the basis of
image and conspicuous consumption,
or even over-consumption, and not as
household tools. Although image is a factor with items such as freezers, washers,
driers, vacuum cleaners and other such
appliances, i.e. tools, they are marketed
mainly on the basis of efficiency, utility,
reliability, longevity and repairability. Even
motor vehicles, once the pinnacle of
“image” marketing, especially in North
America, are now paying more attention
to practicality. Not so with “high-tech”
tools and appliances. Here the marketing
concentrates on emotional responses
– keeping not just up with, but ahead of
the Joneses. And the Smiths, Tannenbaums, and whoever. If you don’t have
the latest (insert here the name of any
“high-tech” item), with all the bells, gongs
and whistles (most of which you’ll probably never use, especially as the user
manuals are written in such a way that
you’ll never figure them out), then you’re
a (shudder) “technology challenged” nobody who is to be scorned or pitied! Oh,
And if you want an original, real, REO Speed Wagon … this
classic 1948 stake truck, from an ad in the January Eastern
Ontario edition of the “Ag Dealer”, can be had for a mere
$4,500.00.
the shame of it all!! Oh, how this irrational
claptrap insults my sense of logic!!!! And
yes, someday I will be looking for a cell
phone that meets by needs, but …“Aux
armes, citoyens! Formez vos battaillons!
Marchons! Marchons! A bas le marketing, regagnez votre vie!”

Pay Attention to
the Road Signs
Before pop-rock bands …
This one’s for long-suffering wives
and girlfriends. I was driving up the 5th
line (Dunning Road) one day in November, when just past Innes Road a tour
bus with a male driver passed by going
the other way. The thing about this that
caught my eye, though, was what was
displayed on the route sign of the bus
– “WE’RE LOST”. Well, ladies, at least
there’s one male driver out there who’s
honest!
Guess the hi-jackers can’t
read
Name that Part!!!
Where
in the
World?
Answer:
Europe
France
Paris
Parting Shot
Location
Pretoria, South Africa
(also the home of the
personal car flamethrower
security system)
Answer: Roller rockers for a VTEC camshaft (S2000)
Who cares?: The simple additonal roller bearings greatly reduces valvetrain
friction vs. solid valve lifters for better engine efficiency and higher revs!
… there was the real REO Speed
Wagon! In 1904 Ransom Eli Olds founded
the REO Motor Car Company in Lansing,
Michigan, after leaving the Olds Motor
Vehicle Company, which he had organized in 1897. Olds Motor Vehicle were
makers of the famous “Curved Dash” Oldsmobile, and later became a division of
General Motors. Ransom Olds is credited
with building the first automobile factory
to use the assembly line (Henry Ford was
a pioneer in making popular priced cars,
but was not the first to use an assembly
line), and with offering the first practical
automatic transmission in 1933. As a result of the Depression, the car company
was closed in 1933, but the sister truck
company continued to operate.
The REO Motor Truck Company
dates from 1910, and soon introduced
the “Speed Wagon” line of trucks, which,
as near as I can determine, lasted until at
least the late 1960s. The company was
merged with Diamond T Trucks in 1967
and became the Diamond REO Trucks
division, maker of “The World’s Toughest
Trucks”, of the White Motor Corporation. Despite its excellent reputation, the
division folded in 1974 due to financial
problems, and the rights were sold to
private investors in 1975. Production
was resumed shortly thereafter in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and as late as
1995 they were still producing 150 Class
8 Diamond REO trucks (highway tractors)
per year.
31
From: “OTC Invitations” <invitations@opentrackchallenge.com>
To: <invitations@opentrackchallenge.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 5:58 AM
Subject: 5 Tracks, 5 Days: 2004 Paul Mumford Memorial Open Track Challenge
April 19 (Monday)
Willow Springs Int’l Raceway
April 20 (Tuesday)
Thunderhill
April 21 (Wednesday)
Sears Point/Infineon
Welcome to the world’s premier time trial and “season in a week” racing program, Open
Track Challenge (OTC) Have you ever wanted to be a part of a Formula One, World Challenge,
or LeMans team? Do you think you have what it takes to be competitive with some of the best
drivers in North America over a week of non-stop motorsports decision-making and racing?
Open Track Challenge (OTC) will put you to the test as we compress an entire season of racing and team strategy into one week. The OTC Grand Prix (OTC GP) was designed to accomplish two things:
1. Provide a simulated racing season for the top club racers on the cusp of turning pro (a
development program for the “Stars of Tomorrow”, if you will.)
2. Incorporate the best practices of all the major motorsports programs around the world
and put it in one endurance event.
The format for the The OTC GP calls for one practice, one qualifying session, and one
race each day. The first four races will be 30-minute sprint races from a rolling start. The last
day’s race will be a 50-minute race from a standing start.
OTC’s Touring Challenge was designed to be the ultimate test of production vehicle competition. There are a number of magazine tests out there but they all sell the process short
through some component of subjective criteria. Other motorsports venues that try to do the
same, but lack the duration, environment, and sheer track time to fully distinguish a winner.
Using our format, OTC Touring Challenge has become the benchmark in street car competition. Each car will be given roughly two hours of track time at each venue to lay down its three
best laps. Those three laps are then added together and your cumulative time is your score
for that day. As soon as you have three laps that you are happy with, you are free to begin
traveling to the next venue. OTC’s
Unlimited Challenge was designed to be the ultimate test of the weekend track day participant. While the Touring Challenge is limited to road-going production vehicles, Unlimited Challenge opens the door to all closed-wheel vehicles and allows the competitor more resources
to compete. Each car will be given roughly two hours of track time at each venue to lay down
its three best laps. Those three laps are then added together and your cumulative time is your
score for that day. As soon as you have three laps that you are happy with, you are free to
begin traveling to the next venue.
Visit www.opentrackchallenge.com for more information about the hottest motorsports
series in North America.
OTC GP Requirements
Touring Challenge Requirements
• You must have a Competition License
from a major sanctioning body (FIA,
SCCA, IMSA, NASA, BMWCCA, PCA, etc.)
• Your car must have a full roll cage as
well as meet our other safety items. See
Rules page for more information.
• DOT-R or slicks required.
• You must submit a driving resume to the
Organizers evidencing a safe competition
history.
• You must drive the car from track to
track.
• All track competition is on street tires with
a treadwear rating of 140 or higher.
• 3 sets of tires allowed for the week.
2003 Unlimited Division Champion
2002 Radical SR3
DJ Johnson/Mark Dalen/John Morris
2003 Touring Division Champion
2002 Mosler Photon
Rupert Bragg-Smith/Mike Vietro
Unlimited Challenge Requirements
• Cars may be trailered to each track.
• Tire choice is open, DOT-R and slicks
allowed.
April 22 (Thursday)
California Speedway
April 23 (Friday)
Arizona Motosports Park

The Link 2004-01 - Motorsport Club of Ottawa

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