Brian Berry

The Trinity Touring Club is hosting two days of autocross racing this weekend, May 18th & 19th.  The Shasta AutoX Challenge Series events are rain or shine, and this weekend is threatening rain, so be prepared for wet and wild!  If you got a look at our January photos, you know we take racing in the rain seriously!  Campers are welcome to stay at the track this weekend.

Setup is Friday at 6pm in the pit area of the Shasta Speedway.  We welcome anyone who can make it out to help!  The more people, the quicker it all gets done.  Jeremy McNeely is our Race Director for the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday, gates open at 7:30am for registration, with driver’s meeting at 9am.  Race entry fee is $30 for members / $35 for guests for each day, and you can pay using your favorite credit card.  Club t-shirts are included with your membership or can be purchased for $15, and we have helmet rentals available if you do not have your own.  Novice racers are welcome!

We’ll have the hot dog crew serving lunch, and a sign-up sheet for our next event at Thunderhill coming up June 1st & 2nd.  Our next club meeting follows on Tuesday, May 21st.

See you at the track this weekend!

The first race weekend of 2019 was blessed with great weather, a fantastic group of racers, and some very dedicated Trinity Touring Club volunteers who made sure everything ran smoothly.  We had all new timing equipment on the tarmac thanks to our Club President Troy Dewell.  Vice President Sharon Haley made sure the 2019 T-shirts (with design by Board Member Gary Brantley), postcards, plaques, and trophies were ready to go.  Randy and Barbra Phelps setup our BBQ and made sure we were well fed. 

It takes a lot of effort by a relatively small number folks to pull off a successful race weekend, and a lot went into this season kick-off.  Thanks to everyone who helped out and contributed.  

It was a sweep for Top TIme of Day and Top PAX by David Winterburn and Blake Dewit, respectively.  Blake also took home the class win for Street in his ES Miata.  Saturday’s Modified class was a close one, with Jeremy McNeely taking the top spot in his turbo charged SSM Miata.  In CAM, Arley Enloe was the top finisher with an amazing 54.480 run in his Hellcat.  Other winners included Jerry Shaha in Touring in a STR Miata, and Ryan Thomas in Novice driving a wicked V8 powered 280Z.  

Sunday saw Mark Talkington take the Touring class win in his STS Miata, with Uriah Siner and Eric Haney in tie for second, each posting a best time of 55.196.  In Prepared, it was Andrew Barbitta in his WRX STI.  Danny Ide got the top spot in Modified in his EM Willys, Keith Smith scored the CAM win, and Sam Wiseman drove a Mustang GT to the top of the Novice results.  

All the race weekend results and member season points to date are posted at https://trinitytouringclub.com/race-results/  – please let me know if you see any issues with the results.

The next event is coming up in just a few weeks on Saturday and Sunday May 18th and 19th – please plan to join us for a fun weekend of autocross racing!

Our autocross season starts this weekend – please join us!  Racing Saturday and Sunday, with a BBQ potluck track side Saturday night.  Entry fees are $35 for non-members, $30 for members, each day.  Electronic payments accepted!  Club T-shirts available for members and for sale to anyone for $15.  Novice racers are always welcome!  We have helmets available for rent if you do not have your own. 

Campers are welcome this weekend, and the weather is looking to be Spectacularly Spring.  We will have the Go Kart available for any children age 8 and above who would like to race with us – see a Club member for details. 

Friday 04.26.2019
– Gates open at 6:00pm for track setup – the more hands, the quicker it goes, so please join us and help out!  Jeremy McNeely is our Race Director this weekend.

Saturday 04.27.2019
– Gates open at 7:30am for registration and tech inspection – you can register for both days and reserve your run groups, first come, first served
– Driver’s Meeting at 9am under the cover, followed by run groups 1 & 2
– Lunch break – Hot Dog cart available – Please bring some extra cash and support our vendor!
– Driver’s Meeting at the conclusion of lunch break, followed by run groups 3 & 4
– Racing event concludes around 4pm
– Dinner setup starts around 5:30pm

BBQ Potluck Saturday 6:00pm – Track Side
– The Club is providing the BBQ and soft drinks
– Please bring a side dish, salad, or dessert- Provide your own adult beverages
– Have some great food and stay a while!Sunday 04.28.2019
– Gates open at 7:30am for registration and tech inspection
– Driver’s Meeting at 9am under the cover, followed by run groups 1 & 2
– Lunch break – Hot Dog cart available!
– Driver’s Meeting at the conclusion of lunch break, followed by run groups 3 & 4
– Event concludes with track clean up around 4pm

Come help us kick off our racing season this weekend!

We are excited to begin our 2019 points season April 27th and 28th at the Shasta Speedway!  We’ll have our 2019 club t-shirts available, and the hot dog crew will be there for lunch both days!  Gates open at 7:30am with Driver’s Meeting at 9am Saturday and Sunday.  Setup will be Friday at 6pm, and campers are welcome at the track – come stay a while and race with us!
The Club is hosting a BBQ potluck at the track Saturday April 27th starting around 6pm – we’ll be providing the BBQ and soft drinks, you bring a side dish, salad, or dessert, and whatever adult beverages you prefer, and plan to join us in the infield for some good food and great company after the event on Saturday. 

This year, our season is 12 events, including a weekend at Thunderhill with the North Bay Corvette Club coming up June 1st & 2nd.  Our full schedule is on our website.   We are keeping the same rules as prior years for member championship qualification even though we have added dates to the season – best 8 of 12 events will count towards class rankings, and you need 4 events minimum in your class to quality for a season win.  This means you can miss 4 events and still score the maximum points towards your season results.  Each day of a weekend race counts as a points event.

You can now pay electronically for registration and fees at the event!  We’ve signed up with Square to offer credit card payments and Apple and Android pay for our members and guests.  No cash, no worries!  Amounts will be rounded up to the next whole dollar to cover the 2.7% transaction fee, so if you were to use your favorite credit card to pay for a race entry fee as a Club member, it would be $31 ($30 + $0.85 fee = $30.85 rounded up).  All TTC payments through Square are direct deposited into the Club’s account at Tri-Counties Bank, minus the processing fee, the next business day.  What a great way to earn some reward points!

See you at the track!

Our next club meeting is on Tuesday, April 16h at Players Pizza in Anderson.  Social hour 6pm – 7pm, meeting starts at 7pm.  Everyone is welcome!  We will be planning for our 2019 season kick-off racing weekend and BBQ potluck for April 27th and 28th.

Meeting Topics:

•     Update on Finances & Insurance
•     Follow-ups from March 24th event
•     Season merchandise update
•     Timing equipment upgrade
  
•     Electronic Payments @ the Track (Square)
  
•     Shasta AutoX Challenge Series Races #1 & #2 
  
•     General Discussion

See you soon!

We had a great turn out Sunday for our final pre-season event of the year, with 42 drivers signing up to take on the course!  The track was a challenge and bested a few drivers and cars before the day was done, with David Winterburn coming out on top in his JBS Sports Racer with the top time of the day and the Modified class win.  Blake DeWit managed a 5th place best overall time in his E Street Miata, securing the PAX win for the day and for the Street class.  Other class winners were Andrew Skemp in Touring, Andrew Barbitta in Prepared, Keith Smith in CAM, and our fastest Novice was Sebastien Hamill in a Miata. 

Complete results are posted https://trinitytouringclub.com/race-results/

Our points season kick-off double header weekend is coming up on Saturday and Sunday, April 27th and 28th.  The Club will be hosting a BBQ potluck that Saturday night, and campers are welcome at the track!  We will have club t-shirts ready and hope you are planning to come out and join us for a great weekend of autocross racing.

We are racing this Sunday, March 24th at the Shasta Speedway in Anderson!  Weather pattern is unsettled, but currently showing mostly dry for the weekend with no rain Sunday.  This is our final pre-season ‘Test and Tune’ event before our regular season begins next month.  We will have the Go Kart gassed up and ready to go!  The Club will be providing Starbucks coffee and Heavenly donuts to get us started off Sunday morning.  We do expect 4 run groups and will be taking registrations up till the end of lunch break. 

Saturday 03.23.2019– Gates open at 5:00pm Saturday afternoon for track setup – please come by and help us out! 
– Jeremy McNeely is our Competition Director this year and will be our track setup guide

Sunday 03.24.2019– Gates open at 7:30am for registration and tech inspection- All cars not at our first event need to be tech’d and helmets inspected for the new year
– Driver’s Meeting at 9am under the cover, followed by run groups 1 & 2- Lunch break – we are on our own for lunch
– Driver’s Meeting for late registrants, followed by run groups 3 & 4

Entry fee is $30 for members and $35 for non-members – cash or check.  Becoming a member is as easy as completing the membership application portion of the Tech Sheet and paying for an Individual ($30), Family ($35), or Business ($200, $400, or $600) membership.  This is a great time of the year to join the club as you will get $5 off the entry fee for all 11 planned races this year – make it to half of those, and your membership pays for itself!  Plus you get a rad t-shirt at the beginning of our regular season in April, can compete for season trophies, and get the opportunity to help run our events.  Join the club!

We will be printing our season merchandise soon, so if you are interested in sponsoring the Club and want your company’s logo and info on all of our stuff, now is the time to sign up!

Other Info:

1.  Helmets:  Helmets are available to rent for just $1 (and we will hang onto your driver’s license until it is returned).  If you bring your own, it must be SA/MA 2005 or better (same as last year).

2.  2019 SCCA Classes and Rules:  Changes are in the works – checkout the 2019 draft at https://www.scca.com/downloads/43452-2019-solo-rules-book-1-2018-01-02-draft-d-reduced/download We will have a hard copy of this once it is finalized – for now, it is only available online as a download.

See you at the track!

Our full season schedule for 2019 is now published at https://trinitytouringclub.com/race-schedule/ – check it out!

We are meeting next Tuesday for our regular club meeting, and our final pre-season race is coming up on March 24th.  The PG&E camp is long gone and hopefully we will get some nice Spring weather for the March race!  More updates to follow.

Please mark your calendars for this year’s race dates, and I hope to see you soon!

I’m sorry to report that due to the damage caused by the February 13th snow storm, we won’t be racing this month.  Our track is currently home to a full scale PG&E work camp and is not available for us to use.  Rather than reschedule, we are going to skip this event, so our final pre-season test & tune is Sunday, March 24th, followed by the start of our points season in April.

Do not despair!  We are planning an expanded schedule for our regular season starting in April, with 12 days of racing, including a weekend on the big pad at Thunderhill June 1st and 2nd with the North Bay Corvette Association.  Races at the Shasta Speedway will be two-day events for April, May, September, and October, with single day events slated for the hottest months of July and August.  We are doing our best to work around all of our neighboring club’s events and should have few conflicts.  Details and dates are forthcoming!

Again, sorry for the cancellation this month, and I will be sending notification when our regular season dates are confirmed.  Mark your calendars for the June event at Thunderhill, and I hope to see you at the track March 24th to close out pre-season!

Our next club meeting is coming up on Tuesday, February 19th at Players Pizza in Anderson.  Social hour 6pm – 7pm, meeting starts at 7pm.  Everyone is welcome!  We will be reviewing the schedule options for our regular season starting in April, and planning for our next pre-season race on February 24th.

Meeting Topics:

•     Update on Finances
•     Pre-Season:  Debrief Race #1 and Planning for Race #2
  
•     Update on Storage Options @ the Track
  
•     Finalize 2019 “Shasta AutoX Challenge Series” Schedule
•     General Discussion

I hope to see you there!