September 24, 1999

Loads of information to advise you of in this newsletter, so settle down for a good long read. And to think, some months, I can barely fill 2-3 pages!!! Hopefully everything is here, but feel free to advise me if you noticed any omissions and/or errors.

We had our first club meeting at the track site on September 4^th. The meeting brought about many good comments and ideas, but it’s too unstructured for a meeting. WE WILL BE RETURNING TO OUR 7 PM MEETINGS EVERY 3^rd WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH EFFECTIVE October 20^th. Plan to attend.

Items of interest brought up during the “at the track” meeting were as follows:

Our November Charity will be Interfaith Emergency Services. What this means to you, is race fees can be paid in either money or canned goods (1 can = $1) starting October 30^thand running through November 20^th. 100% of the race fees will go to this charity, so show your support by racing every Saturday at the ORCCC.
Our December Charity will be the Big Sun Volunteer Service Bureau. Again, 100% of the race fees collected from November 27^th through December 18^th will go to this charity that provides services to those in need in our community.
T-shirts, similar to the ones worn by Bill, Carl and myself, are now available for you to purchase. The shirts are $14 like ours and $19 to have the unadorned areas emblazoned with a design of your choice (within reason). ORDER NOW!
Special thanks to Jim Pfeiffer, for his oval work; Brian Seckel for the great track, the blower and brooms and Danny Mayer for the hoses. We are ready for racing action.
If the leader is passing you in a race, let him pass if you expect him to do the same for you.
No teamwork is allowed during a point series. It screws up the points and it is a points series!!!
The ORCCC rulebook has been dormant for quite a while. Shawn O’Hara suggested it be brought back and the board agrees. Stay tuned for a revised and updated edition that will be provided for all members. Guess what, guys, we’re gonna adhere to it too!

The next meeting for the month was held on Saturday, September 18^th at A2Z Pest Control. Those in attendance were as follows: Billy Newhouse; Danny Mayer; Larry Genova; Manny Ferro; Jim Pfeiffer; Randy Bost; Jack Martin; Tim Richardet; Carl Ross; Brian Allen; myself; Bill Hamilton; Bob Struyk; Matt Mosieur; Mason McCombs; Dave Scrambling; Dave Carmen and his wife; Trevor Iverson and his wife and two girlies. Many items affecting the club’s future were discussed during this meeting. The board was thankful for the massive turnout for this meeting. Hopefully, we can expect to see some of these guys on the track, too. Thanks to everyone for their overwhelming support of the best little R/C car club in Ocala.

Brian Seckel has decided to step down from the position of off-road director. Everyone needs to pitch in and help during this time. Hopefully, Brian will eventually return to his position and this is a temporary thing. Keep us posted, Brian.

Neither foul language nor physical or verbal threats will be tolerated at the track. The racetrack is supposed to be a fun hobby, but sometimes things get kind of crazy. Try to keep your cool. The club wants everyone to have fun at the facility, but threatening others and using foul language deters this ideal.

Well, folks we’re finally going to do it………MOVE. The site location is fine right now, but the county and city know it’s a prime piece of real estate. It’s only a matter of time before they find a less specialized group needing a home. Knowing this day could happen today, tomorrow or years from now, we might as well do it and get it over with. Money will be tight, but remember, we take all denominations of cold hard cash towards our “building” (maybe that should be “rebuilding”) fund. Special thanks to Jack Martin of Jack’s Hobbies for agreeing to handle the on-road racers. Jack has many plans, besides a new oval facility, so show your support by racing with Jack. Special thanks also, to Tom Peek of A2Z Pest Control fame, for allowing us to use his vacant property for an off-road raceway. There will be shade, lots of room, a café type concession area (gads, use your imagination people), private entrance, shade, computer trailer to contain the computer guy, shade, a bigger track (can you say let’s race gas, finally) and the list keeps growing (and did I mention shade?). The plan for the new site is going to be a major improvement over our current site, as we can do more of the things we’ve always wanted to without fear of vandalism. It’s going to be the greatest ORCCC adventure yet. Help is needed in the moving process, so if you have time, money, muscles or any other resources that may help, call the club at 352-369-1895 or e-mail us at staff@orccc.org or stop by the track to find out our latest plans. We need everyone to pull together to assure a smooth transition and remember, folks, the sooner we get the site ready the sooner we can get back to having fun!!

The magical A2Z chair almost claimed yet another ORCCC racer. Dave Scrambling was the unfortunate party to pick that chair to sit in during the meeting. Just when he started to tip, he saved himself by sticking out a hand. Wow, it was like watching an Olympic sport! Quick reflexes, Dave. Maybe you can give private “chair tipping prevention” lessons to Danny Mayer. Love ya, mean it!

I’m sure by now you’ve seen the “Glitch wants to know” section of the website. Well, here are some of the questions, responses and tallies of some of these inquiries.

61% of the 31 voters agree that the ORCCC should annually take a 2 month summer break, while 3% said to make it shorter, 3% said to make it longer, 3% said to make it at a different time of year and 29% said not to take the break at all.
The next question asked showed 16% of the 6 voters prefer to race touring/sedan cars on the oval, while 16% preferred Pancar and touring/sedan cars and 66% preferred all forms of oval classes.
Of the 29 voters responding to the question of how long they had been involved in R/C racing, 17% had less than 1 year of experience, 17% had 1-2 years, 17% had 3-5 years, 20% had 5-10 years, 24% had over 10 years and 3% were not yet racers but were interested in the hobby.

We try to change the question weekly, but Glitch has been at a Club Med in Cancun recuperating from a stress related illness. He is supposed to be returning this weekend and will be posting a new question. He welcomes your suggestions and the staff has agreed to pass your suggestions along to him for possible inclusion in his polling.

Well, that wraps up another edition of the ORCCC newsletter (I won’t bother with the “monthly” notation, as that varies!). I believe we’ve covered everything. If not, there’s always next time. See you at the track!!!