President’s Column, April 2007

by Bob Morin

Since last month’s column, we held the Winter Doldrums Party at our home in North Granby, CT.  We had a very nice mix of old-time member, fairly regular newer members and first-timers or near first-timers and we were essentially full at the 30 member limit, so I would have to call the evening a success.  Clearly, this Winter has been a mild one, so maybe there wasn’t a lot of commiserating about doldrums, but anytime you can get together with great BMW friends, it has to be a fun night.  There was plenty of food and drink and everyone seemed to enjoy the night.  Thank you to Sheila Morin for hosting and to all who attended as well.

By the time you read this, we will be part way through a very busy time on the Chapter calendar as we should have already completed our first Driver’s School of the year and we should be heading into an always popular social event on the 28th of April.  Of course, that is the Wine & Cheese Party at the home of Jim & Maria Hurczyn in Bristol, CT.  Hopefully, we can enjoy the wine in moderation as many of us will be right back at it the very next day when we host our first ever Street Survival School on April 29th at The Hartford Insurance facility in Simsbury, CT.  This event is already waitlisted as I write this, so we just have to keep our fingers crossed for some good weather, although rain would make the skid pad exercise much easier. 

Five days after that event, we’re back at Lime Rock Park for our second Driver’s School and then on May 20th Mike Zarolinski has agreed to set up a repeat of last year’s successful Bring More Wax Show & Shine Picnic in Manchester, CT at Wickham Park.  This event is rain or shine as we do have a covered pavilion just in case. 

For F1 fans, our season has begun and I can report on the first race, since my column is late again this month.  Australia was actually a pretty exciting season opener and not bad from a BMW standpoint either.  Friday test driver Sebastian Vettel was third in the first round of qualifying, while Heidfeld and Kubica basically watched.  By the second session, the BMW Sauber boys sent out the regular lineup and Heidfeld ran fifth with Kubica ninth.  Even with Michael Schumacher home in his retirement rocking chair, the two Ferraris were first and second this point, but surprisingly, Felipe Massa was one driver with the better time and Kimi (Mr. Personality) Räikkönen was second.  Equally surprising were the other top teams.  Over at McLaren Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton’s third best time was embarrassing two-time defending champion Fernando Alonso who was only seventh and Alonso’s old team Renault was fourth and eighteenth with Giancarlo Fisichello besting newcomer Heikki Kovalainen.  By Saturday’s final practice before qualifying, Räikkönen had moved to the top of the chart and Fisichello breathed some life back into Renault with the second best time.  Lewis Hamilton was becoming the story of the weekend as he still held third over his much more experienced and higher paid teammate Alonso who was in seventh.  Unbelievably, next up was Anthony Davidson was fourth in the Super Aguri-Honda.  Massa was next for Ferrari and Heidfeld was sixth.  Just as amazing, Sato in the other Super Aguri-Honda was ninth, so both of the Super Aguri-Hondas in essentially last year’s factory Hondas were ahead of the factory Honda team that had spent millions to build this year’s car.  And then there’s the Toyota team who spends more than all the other teams to be in a terrific thirteenth and fourteenth at that point.  Jeez!

Finally qualifying came and now we’d get to see who had been playing games so far.  This turned out to be pretty exciting as well.  Räikkönen grabbed the pole for Ferrari while Alonso finally stepped up for the other front row spot.  Next up though was Nick Heidfeld and the BMW Sauber.  Lewis Hamilton put the other McLaren Mercedes in fourth with Kubica in fifth and Fisichello brought the Renault in at sixth.  Surprises?  Well, aside from the BMWs being so well placed, Renault being sixth and thirteenth, Mark Weber and the Red Bull Renault in seventh, the two Super Aguri-Hondas being tenth and eleventh ahead of the factory Hondas in fourteenth and seventeenth and of course, Felipe Massa having a mechanical problem that put him sixteenth in the other Ferrari.

The race was almost anti-climatic but Heidfeld ran as high as second and Kubica was right there as well until he suffered a mechanical DNF.  In the end Räikkönen went on to win for Ferrari with Alonso and Hamilton rounding out the podium.  What a great weekend for Lewis Hamilton to begin his F1 career with McLaren.  BMW saw Heidfeld hold on for fourth and they are third in the manufacturer’s standings behind McLaren and Ferrari.  It could turn out to be an exciting season.  BMW isn’t quite there yet, but they aren’t so far off that if a few cars break of struggle in qualifying, we might even see a win this year.  Of course, that assumes that they can keep pace wit the progress that the others are sure to make as well. 

In News From National, the membership drive still seems to be working as 443 members have signed up 629 new members so far.  The Chapter Congress in April should be a winner as 113 members from 47 Chapters had already signed up by March 21st. 

I need to get this off to Nancie, so that’ll do it for this month.