May 24, 2000

THE ORCCC HAS THE COOLEST, LARGEST MOST COMPLETE R/C RACE SITE AND IT'S FINALLY UP AND RUNNING!! WE ARE LIKE PROUD PARENTS, WANTING TO SHOW OFF OUR "LITTLE ONE", SO WHY DON'T YOU FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS FROM THE CURRENT EVENTS OR CLUB INFO PAGES AND JOIN US FOR AN AWESOME RACE EXPERIENCE.

Now on to more boring news! The latest club meeting was held on May 18th, Melanie Stalnaker's birthday! Those in attendance were Mason McCombs, Bill Hamilton, Bonita Hansley, Carl Ross, Danny Mayer, Susan Danvers, Tom Hitchcock, Melanie Stalnaker, Fletcher Grosz and Larry Genova. The talk of the meeting was the new site and how well the new construction has gone. We held our first race at our new site the previous Saturday and everyone was so glad that we had no power and/or water problems. It all works! The rest of the meeting, we discussed ways to upgrade the site even further with extra amenities that are sure to make the track a fun place for racers and their entire families.

VOTING TIME IS HERE AGAIN! It's time to elect new board members for the club. If you are interested in holding a position, please contact me by phone, in person or e-mail (click here for ways to contact the ORCCC). To be added to the ballot, you must contact the ORCCC by JUNE 10th. Ballots will be compiled on Sunday, June 11th and mailed to club members. The ballots will also have a space to write-in people who do not make the June 10th cutoff. Only ORCCC members can vote and only ORCCC members can run for positions. Currently, the ORCCC is staffed as follows:
President-Carl Ross
Vice President-Bill Hamilton
Secretary-Bonita Hansley
Treasurer-Bonita Hansley
Off-Road Director-Danny Mayer
Site Director-Danny Mayer
The position of Oval Director has been dropped since we no longer have an oval track.

The club is in the process of negotiating, on paper this time, a lease with Tom Peek of A2Z Pest Control. When we originally contacted Mr. Peek about using his site, we came up with an outline, but we need to formalize it at this time to secure our position at the site. We'll keep you posted.

To build up our war chest bank account, not to mention replenishing the massive costs incurred in building the new site, the ORCCC has decided to raise our prices for membership and race fees. It's just a little, so it won't hurt!! Effective July 1st the clubs fees will be increased as follows:
New annual membership will be $29 (was $24)
Renewal annual membership will be $25 (was $20)
3-month membership will be $15 (was $10)
6-month membership will be $20 (was $15)
Lifetime membership will be $100 (was $75)
Obviously, these prices won't affect you until your membership comes up for renewal or if you are joining the club for the first time after July 1st.
Race fees for members will be $7 for the first class (was $6)
Race fees for members will be $6 for the second and third class (was $5)
Race fees for non-members will be $10 for all classes (was $10 for 1st class and $9 for 2nd and 3rd classes)

Speaking of breaking the bank with the new move, the man who made it all happen was Tom Hitchcock and his band of able-bodied workers. Tom is in the process of getting together figures on how much the move would have cost the club if he hadn't worked so hard at getting donations from area businesses. I think you will all be surprised at how much money we saved because Melanie and Tom were not afraid to ask for help. We'll keep you posted as to the final tally.

The club would like to take a moment to thank all of those people really involved in the relocation process. I know a lot of our members lent a hand when time permitted, but I'm talking here about people that dedicated time just about every day to make sure the racers had a place to race. The following is a list obtained from Tom:
Fletcher Grosz ; Rob May; James Grosz; Shawn O'Hara; Justin Ridgely; Christian Ginter; Kyle Roberts; Danny Mayer; Mason McCombs; Carl Ross; Melanie Stalnaker; Matt Mosieur and I'm adding on here, Tom Hitchcock. Words can not express how thankful the club is that these individuals made it there goal to get the track up and running in as little time as possible. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!

With the onset of a stinking hot summer, the idea of night racing has come back for consideration. Judging by the response of those at the meeting and the response we received less than a year ago at a club race, the ORCCC feels the time has come to host evening races during the summer months. Larry Genova has already offered to obtain aluminum poles that Tom Hitchcock's work crew feels would work perfectly for the site. There is already a sample light on the track that the work crew is trying out to insure we get the most useful lighting for our money. They've tried all different types of configurations that will light well, yet not cost a fortune to operate. I foresee that the club will have already hosted the first night race before the next newsletter hits the streets. Again, we'll keep you posted and check the website often for new developments. 

Fletcher Grosz has done it again. Somewhere within the boundaries of the A2Z Pest Control property, Fletcher found a mechanical device that looked a lot like a compressor. What do you know, it was! It didn't work, but it had all it's parts and that was a good sign. Somehow, he worked his magic (is it duct tape or just a magic wand he uses?) and the thing actually works. The club is proud to announce the availability of a huge community air compressor with 2 lines (no waiting :)) for all the racers. Don't bother lugging your compressor with you on race day, have a blow on us!

The next development after the lights (or simultaneously if we can find someone to rig it up for us) will be setting up a dedicated circuit for A/C's and motor homes. The line will run parallel to the entrance driveway and be on the opposite side of the tree line from the track. This dedicated line will also handle the load of a state series level race. We got it all in OCALA!

Bill Hamilton, aka the Webmaster, is proud to announce the latest and greatest ORCCC merchandise, RACE BUCKS! We tried to think of a way to properly thank our work crew for their outstanding job. The club just doesn't have the money to buy restaurant and/or movie gift certificates, so the idea of RACE BUCKS was born. RACE BUCKS come in denominations of $10, $5 and $1. They work just like real money for paying for membership dues, race fees, concessions, merchandise or anything else at the ORCCC. The club was elated to award bulk bundles to our workers at the May 20th race. The racer can pay for anything at the track with their ORCCC money and get ORCCC money as change. Racers can also ask for their change for real money in ORCCC money. People can buy RACE BUCKS to give to R/C enthusiast for birthdays and other special days similar to giving gift certificates. Personally, I think they look cool and just think...people at home won't be so jazzed about "borrowing" money from your wallet if they know it will only have ORCCC RACE BUCKS inside!! Get some today!!

As you can see the ORCCC has their act together and their goal is to provide the most funnest and bestest R/C race site in Florida. Now that we are in our new location, we urge all racers new to our site to hurry out and see how great it is. We also urge all returning racers to come often to join us for a Saturday of dirt slingin' fun at the best little R/C car club in Ocala, oh yeah!!