June 29, 2000
It’s official, folks, I have a life! So, as you can tell, I don’t sit down and write the newsletter the minute I return from the meetings. Can’t ya tell? Anyway, here it is, the latest and greatest news from the best little R/C car club in Ocala. The latest meeting was held at A 2 Z on June 22nd. Attendees were Tom Hitchcock, Carl Ross, Bill Hamilton, Jeremy Farr, Susan Danvers, Melanie Stalnaker, Dan Heckathorn, Mike Baker, Craig and Joe Boyles, Christian Ginter, Rob May, Danny Mayer, Fletcher Grosz, Shawn O’Hara and Phillip Smith. It was nice to see some of our new members’ faces at a meeting and we hope everyone will join us for our next meeting at A 2 Z at 7:30 PM on Thursday, July 20th. Dates to remember: Voting ballots for the new board can be handed in at the track on July 1st (we are allowing an extra Saturday, since we were rained out last week). The ballots will be counted and the new board will be announced at the race. The new and improved nighttime race schedule will change effective July 1st. Registration opens at 5 PM and races start at 6 PM. (Remember, on-line registration always closes 2 hours before track registration begins! We must receive your on-line registration by 3 PM on race day). We are trying to wrap things up at a decent hour, which is harder with the awesome number of racers lately, yet still reap the benefits of the cooler nighttime temperatures. The work crew, with Tom and Melanie at the helm, are really whipping the new track into shape. There are still quite a few odds and ends that need to be taken care of and then we can start on the next stage of improvements. Please advise Tom if you have an hour or so to spare and he will put your time to good use taking care of some of these tasks. Tom can be reached at 369-8309 from 9:30 AM until 9:00 PM almost every day, if he’s not already at the track working! Here is an outline of the some of the jobs needing to be completed, in their order of importance:
These jobs will really help to get us completely ready to host a world-class race and there are more improvements on the horizon that will just blow your socks off! Over the years, the ORCCC has enjoyed electric bills in the $10 to $15 per month range. We are really anxious to see what the new set up and lighting are going to cost us each month. To this end, we’ve padlocked the circuit breaker box to deter nonessential power usage. The racers have expressed an interest in using the facility at least one night per week to bone up on their evening driving skills. The club has agreed to a Friday Night Practice. This practice session will be open to the public and be free of charge (we will, however, except a buck or two donation to help cover the electric). We will run the lights, but all activity must cease at 10 PM promptly, NO ALLOWANCES. It’s quite enjoyable to sit around and practice without the schedule of a club race. We urge everyone to come out and join us for an evening of R/C hobnobbing. Smokers Alert! We realize you folks all have fine looking butts, but we do not want to see them on the ground of the ORCCC race facility. In one cleanup session alone, Fletcher picked up over 80 cigarette butts! There are plenty of cans to trash your butts, so use them. Thank you and have a nice day. Another reminder, if you are not a racer DO NOT GET ON THE DRIVERS’ STAND. Also, no one should be around the A 2 Z office area and no one should be in the yard of any of our neighbors (if you go to the Kwik King Plaza located next to the track, go out the ORCCC track entrance ONLY). The ORCCC really enjoys folks coming out with their families to enjoy our track, but for obvious safety reasons we must urge everyone to use common sense and keep tabs on your party. The ORCCC is proud to announce that we will divide the classes into regular and pro categories. This will allow greater competition between racers of similar skills. The upside to the "regular" race class is that some of the newly "un-noviced" racers will get a chance to compete in their new class and not suffer the embarrassment of being lapped 12 times by their new competition. We will use the same rules for moving up into the pro levels as we use for bumping a racer from novice class to regular class. That is to say, that when we think that you’re ready and that your skills are sharply honed, you will be invited to move into the pro class. And just like the novice class, once you move up, you can’t go back down to a lower level of racing. One more note, we will never have the novice class turn marshalling the pro class of races. The only time we will have the pro class mixed in with the regular class is if we have less than 3 pro class racers registered to run. The standing rule of the ORCCC is that if you have at least 3 racers in a class, we will run them together. We really think this is an exciting advancement at the track and hope everyone will work together to make this change a positive one! Registration Is Our Friend! When you come to register for a race day, you need to remember to bring your race fee and 2 different frequencies. I will no longer be able to take bits and pieces of information to register you. We are trying to streamline the registration process and possibly poke the information into the computer when you come up to register. This plan will not allow you to register unless you are COMPLETELY ready. Don’t forget that in order to get the ORCCC member discount, you must show your valid membership card when registering. There are too many members for me to remember who is and who isn’t anymore. Help us help you have a better race experience! Here are a few plans we have for the future. Shawn O’Hara’s friend takes aerial photography and he’s going to see about hooking us up! Wouldn’t it be awesome to click on the website and see an overhead shot of the track! Oh yeah (as macho Mason would say). We are still contemplating the date of our grand opening. We’ll keep you posted. Also, there is talk of having an ORCCC community yard sale. The club would make money from donated items and participants could have their own table of slightly used stuff to sell to help finance their R/C habit. The date for this extravaganza has not been decided, but again, we’ll keep you posted. Tom and Fletcher would like to remind everyone that they are flat out pooped from all the work they’ve done at the track. A thank you would be greatly appreciated by these guys and all the other day laborers we’ve had bustin’ their buns to make such a groovy track. Even more important than that, though, would be an offer of help. These guys know what needs to be done, but they really could use some help. Again, if you’ve got some time to spare and really want to be proud that you did your part to make this track #1, hook up with these guys to see what you can do. Remember, it won’t be long before the big R/C magazines are knocking on our door to do a write up about the best little R/C car club in Ocala. You think it’s snazzy to see your name on the website under race results...imagine having your name in a National R/C Magazine!!!! As you can see, there’s always something happening at our premier R/C racing facility. Who needs a job? Who needs a family? Who needs to do housework (did I really type that) when you can be part of history? Join us for a day of racing and bring a friend. R/C is fun to watch and fun to participate in. Whichever you choose, just come on down to Ocala for some real fun!
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