From the Editor's Desk

Hi, there — 

It's crazy to think that on May 19th, it's the first time I can say that we've gotten to race.  Mother Nature has been a real mother this year.  Even our first Rallycross and Autocross events were plagued with A LOT of rain. (at least it wasn't snow)

Regardless of the weather, it was good to get back behind the wheel and race.  I went to the Evolution Performance Driving School in NY in April.  Not surprising, it rained 80% of the day. I I thought with my newly learned skills,  I'd be much more comfortable racing on Sunday.  However, it took me well into the afternoon event to get my head fully removed from my butt, and finally feel comfortable with myself and the car.  I'm hoping the shorter time between this past event and our next one will help me to actually try out some of the amazing things I learned at the school.

Let's all collectively cross our fingers and do the anti-rain dance for the 27th!  See you at registration!

Keep it Classy Susquehanna - Melissa Mauro
Editor, The Squeal

Note from the RE

Well, the season has FINALLY begun after a much longer wait than usual. I think we are all grateful for that. In addition, there are a lot of exciting things happening here in Susquehanna Region and a lot of key players who deserve our thanks for helping us step up our game already this year. In no particular order…

• We’ve got a venue committee on the hunt for new autocross lots, thanks to Chris Brown for agreeing to chair this committee along with the support of Rob Springer, Kevin MacDonald, Dennis Latshaw and Tracy Holmes.
• Chris Brown is pulling double duty with that responsibility and taking on Junior Solo Chair, where he’s already making progress and taking on more responsibility.
• Thanks to Lisa Leathery, we’re entertaining the possibility of a Road Rally event this year and Cars and Coffee events in the future.
• Our RallyCross program is kicking butt with two near-sold-out events already this year thanks to the leadership of John Roscinski and key committee members like Adam Moore, Bryan Roper, the Chilcotes and Nick (and Lisa!) Landis.
• We have a new truck that is all but outfitted for long-term success of the region thanks to the hard work of the truck committee of Markus Houser, Bryan Roper, Alan Lesher and Rob Springer.
• Carlisle Events has agreed to allow us to use their short autocross track for autocross schools, thanks to Henry Brillinger’s willingness to step back in and coordinate.
• And finally, Melissa Mauro, who continues to take on more for this region (even when I insist she not!). In addition to being the editor of the Squeal and the Queen of all things MSR, she’s agreed to help me coordinate the 2018 NEDiv Mini-Con and has just been all around helpful, handling miscellaneous tasks so that I can spend more time with my family as we deal with some major health issues.

This list is not exhaustive, by any means. I want you to know that if you have dedicated any time at all to making sure we can all continue to do what we do, I appreciate it. We appreciate it.

Photo Credit: Tom Hamm Photography

2018 Autocross Season has FINALLY Begun

by Chris Benfer

After Mother Nature cancelled our Hershey event, she is threatening to make our first official event of the year very wet.  By the time you read this we'll know whether we got the rain they are calling for, but I hope not.  :)  Either way, we're at almost 120 entrants for the morning and 100 entrants for the afternoon and registration hadn't closed yet, so it looks like we're going to have great attendance and hopefully get this season kicked off properly.

Our next event will be coming up very soon (May 27th) so if you drove your way to victory you don't have much time to gloat.  And if you didn't do as well as you would have liked you have a chance to redeem yourself.  Anyone who is interested in helping out with setup is always welcome, and we're definitely looking for folks who have an interest in learning course design, so come on out on May 26th and lend a hand!

If you haven't registered for the events next Sunday, click below to sign up!  The results from the Farm Show events are also listed!

Photo Credit:  Mike Vanino Photography 

Constantly Tinkering

by John Roscinski

If you’re anything like me, you can’t leave well enough alone. There’s always a different damper setting to try, different tire pressures to run, a new air intake to build, more weight to shave (usually with the help of a pressure washer in my case). We’ve also been fiddling with the whole RallyCross program. Little tweaks here and there to make things easier, better, and hopefully more fun! We’re also always on the hunt for more venues. If you know of a 10+ acre lot in the region that would be suitable, let us know! See you in June!

Check out the May results and register June Rally event below:

Region Merchandise Available!

Have you been looking for region specific apparel and gear? SCCA Gear has added a new section for region merchandise and we've made sure that the Susquehanna region is a part of it.

May Regional Meeting

Thursday, May 24th • 7:30 p.m.

Our next meeting will be held on the second floor at Appalachian Brewing Company, 50 N. Cameron Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101. All members are encouraged to attend. Come an hour early for dinner (and a drink) with other members.

Meeting Agenda

• RE's Report - Poole
• Treasurer's Report - Lesher
• Autocross Report - Benfer/Brown
  • ​Event Recap on first two Farm Show eents
  • Update on Carlisle Event venue for school
• Rallycross Report - Roscinski
  • ​Event recap on second Rallycross event
  • Update on Timing Equipment research/purchase with TNiA grant - Roper
• Street Survival Report - Mauro
• Truck Committee Report - Houser/Committee
  • ​Update on Truck Committee on progress - light installation, plan for graphics installation, inspection, purchase of cone carts
  • Update on sale of old timing equipment to BMR
• AX Venue Committee Report - Brown/Committee
• NEDiv Mini-Con Committee Report - Poole/Mauro
• Club Communication Report
  • ​Website report - Poole
  • Facebook report - Austin
  • Squeal report - Mauro
• Old Business
  • Road Rally update - Leathery/Poole
  • Update on sale of old club truck - Houser

Motorsports, Susquehanna Style

News from SCCA

2018 Rules