T H E  G R I D
		July 2004

JULY 9-11, 2004 MAZDA RACEWAY AT LAGUNA SECA Count Down to AMA/WSB at Laguna Seca Confirmation letters are in the mail. If you haven't gotten yours, please contact a member of the Board. Remember, you MUST be a current USARM member, in good standing. If you haven't already renewed your membership or you have friends who are new to USARM, completed applications must be on file before your application can be accepted. You will be contacted with a confirmation letter if you are selected to work. Applications are being processed now, so don't wait to send in yours! Please send your applications in NOW! To help speed up the process please send your application(s) directly to: Ted Kuwada 1221 Juniper Drive #G Gilroy, CA 95020 If you recently sent your application(s) to the USARM post office box as is listed on the WSB/AMA application, don't worry, it will be picked up from there, soon after it arrives. However, it will expedite things and also make things easier for Ted if he gets a daily dose of applications to deal with instead of a bi-weekly bunch. So, when you send in your application(s) please send them to Ted at the address above. IT ISN'T TOO LATE!!   New Membership is $35.00 per year Renewal Membership is $30.00 per year

HOW DO I? Subscribe to the USARM Mailing list: There's an email link at the very bottom of the home page of the USARM website where there's a short paragraph about signing up for the USARM Email list. If you click on the "Join USARM E-Mail List" link, it should create an outgoing email to usarm-request@usarm.org with subscribe as the subject. That's all that's needed to sign-up for the USARM Email list. After confirming your subscription to the list, you can then send an email to usarm@usarm.org and that will then be re-directed to those that have subscribed to the USARM Email list.   DIRECTORS: Ken Berri skberri@charter.net Ron Cowen breracer@sbglobal.net Jerry Huff usarm.jerry@covad.net Kati James kati@razzolink.com Stuart Newhouse RabidRacing@sbcglobal.net Jim Short racingjim@earthlink.net Jan Weaver qbweaver@aol.com    **CAMPING**  If you are camping & plan to stay overnight on Sunday in Worker Camping at the Pond, you MUST let USARM know ahead of time; No Later than Wednesday at registration, with a vehicle count & an exact head count. OTHERWISE, you will be charged $20 by Monterey Parks NO EXCEPTIONS!

A Letter from Bill Chamberlin Subject: Reception of the "Jim Thurston" Communicator Of The Year Award I know that lots of you in USARM who awarded me this honor never knew Jim or anything about him, or, likewise, the "Stan Poulos Good Guy Award" you give each year. I knew them both and worked with them both. Jim is the only communicator I know of to call a "Probable Alert"!! We all maybe have had to call a "Possible Alert" or an "Alert". But Jim called a "Probable Alert" at Turn 10 at old Sears Point. Unfortunately, it was for my son, Warren, driving his first National race (started about 9th and was challenging for 5th). He entered Turn 10 with a front tire going down and he was headed for the wall driver's right at the tower at about 115 mph. He managed to spin the car and impact quartering backwards. He was shaken but "unhurt". In about 4/10ths of a second he turned a $9,200 Crosley into about $9.20 worth of bent aluminum tubing! I only hope that I can live up to the award you gave me. Bill   For those of you who know Ron Johnson, He is Pacifica Care Center and would love to hear from his USARM family. His address is: Ron Johnson Pacifica Care Center 385 Esplanada Ave. Pacifica, CA 94004 650-993-5576 ext. 319

The forums (The forums) are setup on our online home for everyone to discuss whatever they like. I'd like to encourage everyone to participate. Have a suggestion for the board? Post it on the forums and it can be discussed by all so that the board knows what we, the members want. The only way for the board to more effective is to know how the members feel about issues. So, head over to the forums, sign up and post your comments and suggestions or just jump into some of the other categories and post your opinions about the various racing series. If there's not a category for what you'd like to talk about, just make sure you're logged into the forums and start it. See ya there, Mick Housel USARM webmaster@usarm.org   ***PLEASE REMEMBER*** You MUST bring your confirmation letter to registration to get a camping pass for Sunday night. If you wait until Sunday to try and get a pass, you will not be allowed to camp free. Monterey County Parks will be charging YOU $20! Hang on to your CONFIRMATION letter. It will allow you to get a camping pass for Sunday night from registration!

WHAT IS A FLAGGER?
(Read on, Gentle Reader, Read On)

WELCOME TO THE SOMETIMES INSANE, OFTEN HECTIC,
BUT ALWAYS FUN WORLD OF FLAGGING

WHAT IS A FLAGGER? Flaggers are indeed a strange breed. We dress in white, like a convention of bakers or negative images of Johnny Cash and willingly stand outside from early morn to late afternoon, rain or shine, burning sun or freezing cold. We nourish their bodies with Gatorade, cold dead chicken and cow patty hamburgers and, at the end of the day, cold beer. We do this while spending our own money to drive hundreds of miles to a racetrack and stay in a cheap motel.

WHY DO WE DO THIS? Well, the obvious answer is we're insane. Not really, but it certainly doesn't hurt. We do it to be a part of the action, there's no better seat without a steering wheel. Ask any flagger, they'll tell you it'd be extremely difficult to return to the role of spectator after experiencing life on the corners. While we've all got a bit of adrenaline junkie in us, our real goal is to help make racing as safe as possible and to enjoy it from an up close perspective.

THE PEOPLE: Many came for the racing, but stayed for the friends and camaraderie. You may find it a bit daunting to mingle with the "old hands" at first; flaggers tend to be a close knit bunch. Don't be discouraged, you'll find flaggers quickly develop fast friendships. Travel to a few races and you'll soon make comrades across the country that are will always be there for you. After all, you sometimes literally put your life in the hands of your fellow workers on the corners.

What flag did you say I had to use?

We have all counted to see if we have the right number of flags for the day’s event. For WSBK, the flags are just a bit different and maybe this will help. REMEMBER, this is ONLY a guideline and may change!!

Course Marshals Priorities

When you are a course marshal, no matter what job you are performing, you should always keep in mind these five priorities:

Do's and Dont's

PRIORITIES

On station, the following priorities SHOULD BE FOLLOWED AT ALL TIMES:

1. YOURSELF: Your safety is the most important thing. Becoming a second incident while trying to deal with the first is not conducive to having a good day.

2. YOUR BUDDIES: Your fellow workers must be able to trust you are watching their back. Take care of the other people on your station, they'll take care of you.

3. SPECTATORS: This usually means keeping photographers or others with trackside credentials out of hazardous areas. In pro racing, you may able to pass responsibility for paying spectators to the security personnel. If not, remember, even if they are total a**holes, they are the customers: Be polite, but be firm.

4. DRIVERS: It may sound cruel to place them last on the list, but they have accepted the risk of racing (as we have to a lesser extent) and have the car's safety features for protection. The only protection you and I have is a white suit and a yellow flag.

Most important is to take your job seriously,
have fun and take care of yourself and your corner.

A HUGE “THANK YOU” to Scott Berri, Steve Johnson, Steve Ynzunza and Gary Thomas for all the work in getting the new number boards ready for this event. We could not do this if it weren’t for the helping hands of members like this!

The Tale of the Red Suspenders

Once upon a time, in a land far away, called 'Thunder-thunder-Thunder Hill-Hill-Hill, a mighty battle was set to take place. The Ponies were all in place to face the opening flag; but WAIT! What's this? They can't leave….And why not, you may ask?

Well, therein begins our Tale of the Red Suspenders!

With a mighty hitch and a desperate clutch, our fair damsel could not send them! While holding the # 5 pizza paddle, high in the air, a very strange thing happened. The sparkling white garments that clothed her went SOUTH! (Seems our fair damsel forgot to apply a necessary waist cincher). With a halting gait, a stuttering walk, and a fumbling grasp, fair damsel tried in vain to walk the line waiting to give the ponies the long awaited # 1 pizza paddle. Finally, with a deep breath and a firm grasp, they were under way, roaring down to do battle with one another on the blacktop battlefield.

From on high, comes the hero!

Seeing the plight of fair damsel, our 'crusading commando' offers up his ONLY waist cincher. Through the heat of the battles and the heat of the day, fair damsel felt more secure with the waist cincher but what of our poor 'crusading commando' you may ask? He was doomed to stay on high for upon trying to climb down from lofty perch, his garments would not uphold alone! Alas, no smooze or smooch for him this day.

The overseers of this mighty battle saw the plight of the 'crusading commando' and took pity on him, praising his gallant actions. It was declared that very day that a special award of "The Red Suspender" was to be given to our hero!

In the early hours of the following morning, after much revelry the previous night, the great overseers bestowed the award of the Red Suspenders so that once again the 'crusading commando' could resume his loft in comfort and be able to present the speeding ponies with un-furled flags and hearty waves.

In all modesty, fair damsel regained the ability to hold huge pizza paddles, smile bravely at the mighty competitors, sending them on their way to glory and fame that only is known to a few. The overseers were once again smoozed and smooched, happy with the outcome of the first ever award of….

THE RED SUSPENDERS.

Jerry Huff, USARM Board of Directors presenting check to Allan at Okizu office.

At the annual banquet (back in Feb), we raised $550 for camp Okizu, which is enough to send a kid with cancer to camp for a week. Please checkout their website http://www.okizu.org/ . We are trying to work with the Shelby club to get rides for the kids at future events, and it is great to be able to bring a little joy into the lives of these kids and their families.

PAYING THE RENT

"This is a term I learned in my former life, before retirement back to California. It meant that in my career I had to do a lot of boring or unpleasant chores, in order to build job security and keep the institution going. Only thus would I be free to pursue interesting personal choices.

And what, pray tell, does this have to do with being a USARM worker? Bear with me.

For 11 seasons I was an SCCA member in MidDiv, gaining a National F & C license. Driving hundreds of miles to the nearest tracks, every weekend was an amateur event, even the two Pro Formula Ford races I worked were part of a club schedule. Then I took a few years break.

Here in San Francisco Region SCCA, I started over again as a provisional. But what a difference, all the big name events close by , letting me on a corner (if not on the land line); NASCAR, CART, IMSA! I went to as many as I could. But of course I had to earn the privilege, demonstrating qualifications and gaining trust through working Regionals.

It was fun while it lasted. Eventually those headliners became too stressful and wearing, so I retired a second time to USARM. I like it very much-but notice a troubling though familiar pattern. We have plenty of names on our worker list, too many of whom seem to like only the glamour of Super Bikes or Pre-Historics.

Well folks, as the old melodrama had it, "you must pay the rent, you must pay the rent"! Its no secret USARM isn't the same style as SCCA. I hope we'd recognize our need voluntarily, not as part of a cast system. To maintain USARM, we require adequate staff for the Green Flag, Skippy School, and others we may think are beneath us.

Actually, they are beneath us, because they support us. If the bread-and-butter groups no longer hire us, because we can't competently service them, then we're all S.O. L. If you haven't experienced such events, I'll tell you they're not boring. Some of those drivers going around and around may be champions of tomorrow, or neighbors out to develop their skills. Even if not, they deserve the best we have to offer.

Race working is a team effort, not a solo performance; doing it only once or twice a year will leave you a rusty stranger. So please sign up and show up throughout the year, ready to pay the rent up front."

Jud van Gorder, April 2004

Tired of "Jeopardy", "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", "The Weakest Link" and all those other brain-buster shows? Here's a simple quiz that colorfully covers all you need to know to impress your friends. (See the answers in the next Grid)

          A. WHO was Red Beard?
          B. WHO was the Red Priest?
          C. WHO was Red Five?

Please remember, this is your publication. It will not be published unless you want to contribute to it. The Grid staff needs your input to make this a newsletter that will be informative, interesting & maybe even FUN!

So send in anything you have of interest to:
Kati James - kati@razzolink.com or in writing, in person anytime you see her. Articles can also be submitted to the PO Box but it may take a bit longer to get them into the Grid.

Suggestions are cheerfully accepted!

 

COMING SOON! Car and Bike related items for sale by our members If you have something related to racing that you wish to list in The Grid Please submit it to Kati James: kati@razzolink.com Or in writing to any BoD member. This is a service offered free of charge to you, our USARM members. Be sure to include your contact information, price of the item(s), description, condition (new or used) and any other information to help sell your item (s)

 

BE SURE, IF YOU ARE CAMPING THE NIGHT OF JULY 11TH AT WORKER CAMPING, GET YOUR CAMPING PASS FROM REGISTRATION!
YOU MUST HAVE YOUR CONFIRMATION LETTER TO DO THIS!!!

 

If you know someone who is a USARM Member & not getting The Grid,
please let one of the BoD members know & they will be added to the roster.