Group, I want to introduce myself to you all, and also give you some advance information on the 2009 Oktoberfest club races.
My name is Chuck Taylor (charles.taylor@terrigoren.com), from the Peachtree Chapter. For the past four years, I served as the Chair of our Driving Events Committee. For 2009, I’ve handed that job over to Mr. Kelly Childress, and I have assumed the responsibility of running our chapter’s Club Racing activities, taking over from longtime CR Chair Steve Maguire.
Kelly and I, along with our co-Chief Instructors Tom Melton and Eric Nissen, and a cast of excellent volunteers, are taking the lead in putting on the Road Atlanta track events for Ofest. All four of us are current club racers, in BMW CCA and/or NASA, and we’re very excited about the upcoming 5-day blast at Road Atlanta. We think this is one of the finest, and most challenging, tracks in the US, and we want you all to come out and experience this world-class track for yourself!
I imagine most of you already know the dates, but we have the track from Wednesday to Sunday (Sep 30 thru Oct 4), with DE activities going on all 5 days, CR School on Wednesday and Thursday, and the Club Racers taking to the track Friday through Sunday.
As an added incentive, the Petit Le Mans race weekend is immediately before Ofest, so come early for the Petit, and stay for the full Ofest experience.
We are still getting details worked out, and will be posting them to the BMW CCA Club Racing website soon, but for those of you who participated in the fantastic 2008 Ofest, the basic approach will be very similar.
We will be issuing the same “challenge” that Vince Leo and gang did last year, regarding racer participation. We fully expect to have two race groups, and if enough of you sign up and commit, we can do just that. The Road Atlanta track, at 12 turns and 2.54 miles, will allow for about 64 cars per race group, so look for a scheme where we will set registration up with a target # of cars and a deadline date. I believe we should be able to get 100+ cars this year. If enough of you sign up and pay, we can keep two race groups. If not, well then we turn one race group back to the DE group, and we don’t want to do that, now do we?
Again, similar to last year, the event registration will be a 2-part process, starting with the usual club racing site registration, followed by online payment through http://www.motorsportreg.com/ to secure your participation.
So, start making plans to join in for the 40th Ofest Club Races, and watch the Event Schedule for further details.