Hello LVR Members,

The North/South Challenge has been canceled for 2010. The Mineral County Airport manager advised Reno’s RE that the Federal Aviation Agency had issued new rules for the operation of airports throughout the United States. The airport manager sought clarification of the complex rules through a consultant based in Denver and was advised that because the regulations were new and had not been tested, that a strict interpretation would be the prudent path to follow. Accordingly, the airport manager has advised SCCA that the airport property will not be made available for the 2010 North South event.

Solo Summer Night Series will be held at the Silverton Casino and Lodge. The dates are June 12, July 10, July 30, and August 28. There has also been a change in the entry fee for these events. The cost has been lowered. Member cost will be $30, weekend member cost will be $45.

I want to thank all of you, the members. I am happy to announce that we, Las Vegas Region, have reached the status of “Medium Region”. This means we have over 201 members. I am also happy to announce that the Region has added over 30 new members to its family this year so far.

Celebrating their anniversaries with SCCA the past few months are:

Carl Heuer 42 yr member

Nancy Schilke 34 yr member

Barbara Hale 33 yr member

William Wells 30 yr member

Gary Szabo 23 yr member

Terry Mayo 22 yr member

james Kant, Bill and Jeane Martin, David Roberts 19 yr members

Kim Wanker 18 yr members

Glenda and Jeffery Cates 16 yr members

Rick Kostelaz, Marc Segal, Russ Baumeister 15 yr members

Charles Weiss,jr 14 yr member

Robert Bazak 13 yr member

Sam Marano, Eric Johnson, Bart Freevol 11 yr members

Raymond Feil, Barbara Joos 9 yr members

Chris Barth, Alex Hironaka 7 yr members

Jonathan Cordova, Nadine Skougard, Robert McVane 6 yr members

Brian Hayashi, randy Harrison, Michele Abbate, Gary Koyama, Aaron Godwin, Larry and Yvonne lee, Jack and Sue Stoddard 4 yr members

Rick Rowland II, Marlon Tecson 3 yr members

Kai Jones, Rasmus and Stephanie Hansen, Chris Westmorland, Dawn and Jim Gregorio, Dawn Barth 2 yr members

Sam Vereschzagin
RE Las Vegas Region SCCA

The North South Challenge, which was scheduled to be run on the Mineral County Airport in Hawthorne, Nevada over the Memorial Day Weekend, has been canceled.

Reno Region SCCA’s Regional Executive, Dave DeBord has advised LVR that because of the unavailability of the Hawthorne site the annual North South event will not be held this year. Dave sited a lack of alternate sites and the short notice as reasons for canceling this year’s North South event.

The Mineral County Airport manager advised Dave that the Federal Aviation Agency had issued new rules for the operation of airports throughout the United States. The airport manager sought clarification of the complex rules through a consultant based in Denver and was advised that because the regulations were new and had not been tested, that a strict interpretation would be the prudent path to follow. Accordingly, the airport manager has advised SCCA that the airport property will not be made available for this years North South event.

Dave DeBord advised Las Vegas Regions Solo Chairman, Rick Kostelaz, of this situation about a month ago. Both parties attempted to locate an alternate site for the event. The abandon airport at Manzanar on California Hwy 395, near the town of Lone Pine was investigated as an alternate for this year’s event. The site, which is equidistant from both Reno and Las Vegas, was found to be available and acceptable with a main runway measuring almost one mile in length and nearly 300 feet wide. However, the small town of Lone Pine has limited facilities and the two major motels had already been booked for the Memorial Day Holiday weekend leaving very few rooms available for SCCA. Dave and Rick discussed alternate dates for the event however, the Reno calendar has already been set for 2010 and is quite full leaving no three day holiday dates open.

Next year will be Las Vegas Region’s responsibility to manage the event. LVR will make every attempt to schedule the event on a three-day weekend, not necessarily on Memorial Day. The Solo Chairman as well as the Regional Executive will welcome comments from the membership. Questions such as; is Manzinar an acceptable site for LVR members and would the membership entertain having the event on an alternate three day weekend.

SOLO Chairman

Rick Kostelaz

LAS VEGAS REGION SCCA PRESENTS MINI MADNESS

By Rick Kostelaz

On March 27th Las Vegas Region held Round 3 of our 2010 autocross competition series. Once again Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted us on their Bullring paddock. The Bullring paddock and parking area consists of some very nice asphalt measuring approximately 300 ft by 1600 ft with additional areas available for pit and paddock use.

Our course designer, Dave Hironaka, put this nearly half million square foot facility to good use designing an unusual course specifically contrived for the Mini Cooper. When actually driven the course had some fast sections punctuated by a very tight middle section which featured three 180 degree turn-arounds, then finished up with some fast but technical long sweepers and gates. The times ranged from a 42.776 for Paul Durr in his Kart to a 78.648 for Mindy Morrissey in her Mini Cooper S.

This year Las Vegas Region invited the Mini Cooper club to join the autocross fun as they held their annual “A Mini Vacation In Las Vegas” event here in Las Vegas. Each year, in the recent past, the Mini Club has invited Mini owners from across the nation to a Mini vacation here in Las Vegas. The event draws hundreds of Mini owners and for the past two years Las Vegas Region SCCA and the Mini Club have made our autocross part of the festivities. This year we had thirteen mini’s join us in our autocross and as word gets out we hope to have many more mini’s in the coming years. Go to www.amviv.com for more information.

As might be expected for Las Vegas in March, we had a little wind during the morning which diminished as the day wore on. Temperatures ranged in the low seventies and the sky’s were clear and bright blue. An altogether perfect day for our third SOLO of the year.

Bart Freevol was our event chairman for the day and he managed to get all ninety drivers four runs in the morning sessions and five runs in the afternoon for a total of nine exhilarating runs. Bart ran a smooth event managing to get all eight-hundred runs completed before our five o’clock cut off time. Our events are limited to eight hours of run time because our paramedic/ambulance team is there for only eight hours.

Competition:

F-125 As always our fastest times were put down by the Karts, Paul Durr ran the fastest time of day with a 42.776 in his 2002 CRG Heron while second fastest time went to Paul Cottrell in has 2005 shifter kart with a 45.017.

BSP & SM Aaron Godwin drove his Mitsubishi Evo to an impressive 47.031. Aaron also took top PAX time with an adjusted 40.681. He was followed by Brandon Chappell in his Mitsubishi Evo with a 47.672.

D Modified & E Modified The Mitsubishi’s were followed by Eric Waugh driving the D Modified 1987 Honda CRX to a very nice 49.675. Rick Kostelaz brought out his EM Fiero Tomcat for the second time this year and managed a 49.991.