The Grid - November 2011

Fellow USARM Members:

With just about a month left until annual Board of Directors elections, it is again time to start considering who you would like to run this great club of ours. We have had a pretty successful year. Our non-profit status is finally official and blessed by the state. Our by-laws are complete. Our training sites are up and operating. And all of this is available for you to see on our website. To add to that, we have had one of the best racing seasons ever.

Now that we have a good foundation to work with, the Club is looking for a "Few Good People" to step up and spend some of their free time helping it to run smoothly into the next decade. If you feel like donating some of your valuable time to USARM, please write a short statement about yourself and why you think you would make a good candidate for the Board of Directors and send it to any director and they’ll make sure to forward it as needed.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this year as President of this great organization. Now I am looking forward to being part of the next step in our evolution. Come join us in the fun!

Thank you.
Best Regards,

Jim Short
USARM President

Summer has come and gone, fall is now upon us and the race seasons in the northern hemisphere for most series are coming to an end soon, if they have not already. That means it's time once again for USARM to hold elections for the Board of Directors. That's where the members have the chance to step forward and participate on the board of directors. It's not difficult and all we ask is you give a hand making sure that USARM can meet the needs of our clients. We are currently in talks and/or negotiations with some clubs & series about staffing future events. Most of the board meetings are less than 2 hours and are held via conference call so there's no travel to get to monthly board meetings. We are looking for a few USARM members interested in serving on the Board of Directors. It’s quite simple, just contact any board member and let them know that you’re interested in being part of the “re-birth” of USARM and to help guide the next stage of growth.

Due to several tragic incidents recently I think that there’s going to even more emphasis on track and rider/driver safety going forward. I think that focus will turn to those that know how to do the job, We are already one of those groups. We all realize how important track safety is, come help USARM show how that's done efficiently and professionally, all while having fun. We’ve been around for a long time and we certainly aren’t going anywhere soon. I’m very excited about the future of this great group and look forward to having YOU come help us move forward. Who’s gonna help guide this club forward?

Mick Housel
USARM Director
2011 Vice President

Yes it’s that time of the year again to elect members to represent you on our Board. It’s not difficult. It’s lots of fun and there are some VERY exciting things on the near horizon.

Our club has gone through quite a few changes over the past years. Several of the clubs we worked with were forced to use racetrack employees for their events. The tracks found that While it was difficult to give up those events what we missed the most was the relationships we had built for so many years if not decades. The good part is that many of the track workers are part of our USARM family so we knew the clubs were in good hands. The sad part is that it left our calendar open and while we plug in events here and there the calendar has definitely taken on a new look – far different that it has been in many years. Other clubs decided to have some of their own people contact workers to work their events and I hope those events went well.

But… there is some excitement on the horizon.

We are in discussions on some future opportunities that will be significant and it could open several new exciting chapters in the history and growth of USARM. We are not at liberty to discuss it at this point due to ongoing negotiations but we hope we can make a major announcement in the near future.

So… are you interested in getting in on the ground floor of this exciting adventure we may be taking soon? If so please contact any Board Member to put your name on the ballot for the next term.

Each term is for 2 years. We meet monthly via a conference call and that has worked out well for everyone. You don’t have to leave home, we have a very active board and there are emails going back and forth to discuss agenda items and review things. We really have a great time together and I hope YOU will consider joining us on the USARM Board.

Jan
USARM Board of Directors
2011 Secretary

Again this year our elections will be run electronically. This allows for any current member with an email address to cast their votes for the candidates for the Board of Directors. Voting electronically will be quite simple. All current (2011) USARM members with an email address in our membership records will be sent an email that has a link that contains a token that corresponds to the status of your vote. You just click on that link and then vote. That token will also be listed separately along with the link in your notification email to be able to manually enter the token and vote if you prefer that or have issues with the link. With the use of the tokens, there is only one vote per person allowed. Voting is anonymous and there's no way for the individual votes to be tracked to see what candidates you voted for.

If you want to verify that the correct email address is listed or change your email address in your membership information, just surf over to the USARM Members Network at www.usarm.net and log in. You can then verify all of your contact information to be sure that when we need to contact you about upcoming events, etc., we can. If you haven't yet registered with a username and password, just go to the registration page.

Those that don't have email and have been getting the Grid sent by mail, will be sent a paper ballot to return. If you have email but prefer to receive a paper ballot please contact either Mick Housel or Jan Kaufman. Any requests for replacing electronic voting with a paper ballot MUST BE RECEIVED by 11/20/2010 in order to get a paper ballot sent.

An electronic ballot will count just as a regular ballot will count. There will be multiple people running for the open positions and you will need to choose the candidates you feel will best serve you as a member on the Board of Directors. We will have a deadline for the electronic balloting that will align with the deadline for receiving the paper ballots.

The 2011 USGP is now in the books. Thanks to everyone who stepped up and worked the event this year, it's your efforts that make it happen. In fact, we received an email from Gill Campbell (CEO/General Manager of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca) and she wrote "Thank you for a great weekend – please extend my deepest thanks to USARM and all the volunteers – without the dedication and commitment we have no event – thank you"

Thank you to all of you who came out and worked your butts off and made it another successful USGP. Thank you to all my TM's and experienced workers who helped the new workers (100+) get with the program and show them how it's done. It really showed during the FIM Track Inspections. We passed Friday's Inspection with no complaints. Saturday's Inspection was even better and it was reported back to me that Sundays Inspection was better than First Class. During my after the race meeting with Laguna Seca, Bo told me that Sunday's inspection was the most impressive one he has seen. Everyone was lined up perfectly and standing at attention. That made me happy to hear that. When we pass the Track Inspections it makes everything go much smoother the rest of the weekend. Good job Guys and Gals. Remember how you did it on Sunday, they'll be looking for another one of those next year on Friday.

Thanks everyone for working where you were assigned. I had quite a few cancellations (33) so I had to put people where I thought they would do the most good for the weekend. When I barely have enough people to fill all the positions it's near impossible to move people around during the weekend. If you have worked the same corner year after year and want to work somewhere else next year, please state that on the GP application. Where it asks if you want to share any other information, put "no T-7. I've worked there the past 3 years" and I won't assign you there. Some people want to work at the same turn, same station every year, so I don't know if you don't tell me. It's a pretty big task assigning 325 workers positions and trying to make everyone happy. It takes 4 of us 9 hours to do all the assignments a week before the race.

I hope everyone enjoyed the Saturday night feed. I'm glad Rosebud brought extra clam chowder up to me and my crew, because it was killer good. Award winning from what I hear.

There were a few minor problems this year, not enough working plugs/outlets for 3 pots of coffee in the morning and not enough ice for the turns during the day. I was promised by Laguna that they will be fixed next year.

One last note, I heard some of you were disappointed that you had to work all day and didn't get time off to do the spectator thing. If you signed to work the race for the free ticket and camping and expect to have time off during the day to do the spectator thing, buy a ticket and spectate. Get it out of your system then sign up to work the race the next year. Nowhere on the application does it say you will have time off during the day to so you can wander around. It is a Race Worker Application, not a Race Spectator Application. Sometimes when I have enough workers it can happen that there's some breaks. However, times like this year when I barely have enough to fill the positions, you'll be on station all day except for the lunch break and experienced workers know how to use that time to their advantage.

Thanks again everyone. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Everyone be safe and hope to see all of you again next year.

Ted

It’s so hard to write about a loss but to write about 3 losses in such a short period of time is almost too much. First we lost Dan Wheldon from Indy Car, then Marco Simoncelli from Moto-GP and now Joe Montoya of AFM. They say it comes in threes but I wonder why God needed that level of talent across such different groups.

I first met Dan Wheldon during an Acura Test event at Sebring a few years ago. I was sitting with Marty (my husband) in Race Control as the drivers came in for a Driver’s Meeting that first morning. I was surrounded by heroes. There were 5 Indy 500 Winners all hanging around together, messing with each other. Dan, Dario Franchitti and Gil De Ferran were the three who were laughing the hardest. I don’t know what had occurred but apparently Dan was famous for practical jokes and they were all trying to get one up on each other before the day even began. I didn’t know him that well but what I remember is that when he talked to you he looked you straight in the eyes and he gave you his undivided attention. From what I’ve heard over the years is that he is well known for that very same thing and it impressed me. I also know he was a shoe fanatic and a neat-freak and they talked about that during the online memorial on Sunday while sharing lots of great funny stories about the man behind the legend.

The situation at Las Vegas where we lost Dan was a great concern to everyone there at the track. The drivers all seemed to have this feeling of concern before they took the green flag but they are professionals and they did was they had to do. They were at such high speeds with an unforgiving track and it only took a few laps before the chaos began. Many people see the footage and the fire in the initial part of the situation but the worst was yet to come. There were cars launching, cars spinning and cars hitting. It wasn’t a car or the wall that caused Dan’s fatal injuries but the catch-fencing and the sheer speed of the cars that took the life of this young man.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – He loved racing and he died doing something he absolutely loved and he was truly passionate about. While that doesn’t ease the pain or bring him back it does make you think about life and how important it is to enjoy every day we have to its fullest.

Marco Simoncelli lost his life during an “unpreventable” crash in the first couple of laps of the Malaysian Moto-GP race on October 23rd. There’s that moment when you see an incident and you know the result before it is ever announced and that was obvious with Simoncelli’s crash on Sunday. I never got to meet this remarkable young man but I thoroughly enjoyed watching that mass of hair flying free before he put on his helmet or watching it spring free when he pulled off the helmet. His racing career had grown in leaps and bounds but all that history can never replace his presence at the track. He’s been described as a true gentleman and that he had a heart of gold and the loss of such a gentle soul leaves an deep empty feeling around the racing world.

Joe Montoya’s passing touches me more. Joe has been well known to so many of our USARM Family through AFM. He was instrumental over the years in helping us when we were suddenly in need of equipment for various races long before we had the World Superbikes and Moto-GP. He was always so helpful and so accommodating to support our club.

Joe was out for a ride with other bikers in Castro Valley on October 23rd and he was impacted by a car that ended up in his lane. The report clearly states that the accident was not his fault but still…. The motorcyclist loses. And we all lose. We lost a knowledgeable, fun, energetic guy who knew every aspect of motorcycle racing. He could spend hours just sitting around talking about this race or that pass and you could see the sparkle in his eyes grow brighter with every story. Here’s a wonderful guy out with his buddies for a ride on a beautiful Sunday and for some strange reason the car swerves into his lane and he’s hit and is gone – just like that. That situation, since it is so close to so many of us, leaves such a deep sad hole. It’s hard to have the words to convey how much he will be missed by us all.

Joe’s accident hits home for me because it’s the same scenario my brother, Bob, went through in the late 80’s up at the Russian River. Bob survived but for some reason God needed Joe up above.

We can never understand why God takes someone when he does. With these three wonderful men, who were all so heavily involved in racing, I just envision some incredible event called the Heavenly Grand Prix.

God Speed Dan
God Speed Marco
And God Speed Dear Joe

Jan

Download November 2011 Grid (PDF)

The USARM Board recently decided to go "Green" and thus a new era has begun for the USARM Grid. We do realize that there might be some that have internet access that still would like a printed version of the Grid. You will need Adobe Acrobat to be able to print the PDF files. You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free.

Download November 2011 Grid (PDF)

Ken Berri	Jan Kaufman (Weaver)	Mick Housel	Jim Short
Director	Secretary	Vice President	President
Chris Vlastelica	Ron Vlastelica	Rosebud Vlastelica
Director	Director	Treasurer