Northcoast Challenge Recap

A few quick comments on the Ohio race. UNBELIEVABLE and I wish more of you had been there. For you racers that missed this event, you missed out on a great time. Tony Husak and the MARCS Club once again pulled off a very planned and executed event. This was year 10 in Ashabula, OH and one that will be remembered. Although we had lots of rain on Thursday, the weather cleared up for the race weekend and we had a great time. We had several new racer, as well as racers moving up in class. This provided a lot of excitement and close racing.

In addition to the Tony and the MARCS Club, we need to remember and thank our series sponsors, Horizon Hobby, and Desert Aircraft. These sponsors provided many of the prizes and a lot of their money in support of USRA racing. Their sponsorship of the USRA is because they too love racing. It’s up to us to make their sponsorship count. We do that by having exciting racing at quality events and doing what is necessary to promote our sport.

Looking Forward

For those of you at the race this month, you already know my mantra, “Take personal responsibility for the promotion of the USRA”. We all love Giant Scale Racing and need to do more to get more people involved. We are all ambassadors to Giant Scale Racing and are all responsible for its future. It's up to us, as individuals and racers, to get more people into our sport. We are all members of our local flying clubs and flying fields and we need to figure out how to get others interested. It takes planning and effort to do this. It might be a “pain in the back” to pack everything up to go to a club meeting and make a presentation, but the rewards are worth the effort. The board is in the process of getting materials together to aid you in your efforts for presentations. As that comes together, I will let everyone know how to acquire these materials. I ask each of you not to let the “other guy” do the work, but to take the reigns and find more racers.

The Texas racers are putting together one or two GT racers to be used as loaners for quality pilots that we want to start racing. You and I know that once the hook is set, we have new racers. Fred French is putting on a race in the middle of July at his own flying field for Q40's and Sundowners. Getting a mix of Sundowners at smaller races is very important to building for the USRA’s future. They should have 8-10 Sundowners there. Let’s be creative and keep pushing forward.

2010 Races

I am leading the effort in Texas, along with Randy Rich, Jeff Powell, Jerry Bradley and Bobby Slaughter to have a race next year in Texas. With a race in Ohio in June, the date range for the Texas race will be early August. Bring lots of sun screen and water. We are in the early planning stages and looking at more than one location. Additionally I personally would love to get another race location on the West Coast. Don’t get me wrong, racing in the desert is fun... but airport racing gives us more options and chance of spectators. If Parker is the solution, then there is an additional five thousand dollar expense that has to be covered. We are working on Parker as we read this, but much is up in the air.

2009 Officer Elections

This summer ballots will go out for our board members. If you have someone you want on the ballot please nominate them by sending me an e-mail. Please don’t surprise someone by nominating them without their permission. We have openings for President, Vice President, and all three regional representatives. Remember it is a two year term. The election results will be announced at the fall race.

Eric Hunter
USRA President