President’s Column, May 2007

by Bob Morin

Since my last column, we held our first Driver’s School at Lime Rock Park on April 6th.  It was certainly one of the coldest Driver’s Schools we have experienced in quite some time.  Thanks to Steve Wasley, Frank Giacalone and Wally Thomas, we had a great day however.  We had some key volunteers who were unable to make it that day, including Wally, our chief instructor, but we had an excellent group of substitutes filling in.  We also had a dedicated group of outstanding workers who weathered the cold temperatures and nasty wind so everyone else could come out and play.  Thank you to all and hopefully May will at least be warmer.

Upcoming events when you read this will include the May 20th Bring More Wax Show & Shine in Wickham Park, Manchester, CT.  Last year, this was the first event that Mike Zarolinski took on after becoming a member of the board and it was a great event.  Mike plans to build on his experience and make this year’s event even better.

On June 10th, Rudy and Cheryl Basztura will be organizing a CT Winery Tour and there has been a great deal of initial interest in this event, so you should not delay in signing up if you plan to attend.  Then, on June 23rd, we have an event at HMS Motorsports in Peabody, MA that should be a great day.

In F1 action, Malaysia and Bahrain were both run since last month’s column.  BMW Sauber is hanging in there with this year’s big boys, Ferrari and McLaren.  In Malaysia, they qualified fifth and seventh with Heidfeld besting Kubica and in the race Robert’s car failed him again while Nick scored his second fourth place finish.  Perhaps the highlight of the race for me was hearing that Ron Dennis was whining about BMW’s strategy being a bad strategy because he felt that they were running too light in qualifying so they could be higher on the grid and then they would have to pit too early to make the strategy work.  The good part was when Nick stayed out longer than all of the front runners, especially Dennis’ two McLarens.  Not that BMW’s strategy is any of his business, but it was great to prove him wrong.

Next up was Bahrain where Heidfeld again qualified fifth and Kubica was sixth.  Heidfeld scored his third straight fourth place finish and Kubica scored his first points of the season, coming in sixth.  The highlight of this one was Heidfeld passing Alonso on the track and then holding him off for the remainder of the race.  Kubica was still a bit off the pace, finishing some 45 seconds back, but at least was able to contribute to BMW Sauber’s points total, as they hold onto third in the Constructor’s Championship.  In the last few years, F1 has pretty much been the Michael (Ferrari) and Fernando (Renault) show.  This year, so far it is still pretty much of a two team race, but either of the drivers on those teams seem to have a real chance at victory.  Add BMW to the mix, and make no mistake, they are almost to where they could actually be contending for a win and certainly a podium is within their grasp this season and we have the makings of a very interesting season so far. 

I should have a lot of news next month.  The Chapter Congress in Valley Forge, PA will have occurred as well as our first ever Street Survival teen driving event and our second driving school, plus the Wine & Cheese to talk about, so stay tuned.  And of course, after a month off, there will be another F1 race on May 13th. 

Nancie is very patiently waiting for my column, so I’m going to cut it a bit short this month so I can hit the SEND key.  I hope you’ll come out to an event soon.  See you then.