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CONGRATULATIONS NORTHERN NEW JERSEY 0N 75 YEARS!! 1950-2025!
Stories, Past and Present, from our Northern New Jersey Region. This month’s story is from the NNJR April 1982 Pole Position titled “The Road Race Driver’s Club Seminar” written by Mark Senecal.
"Every year at the New York Auto Show there is a meeting of the Road Race Driver’s Club (RRDC) and this year was no exception. Assembled on February 6th for this traditional seminar were several representatives of Northern New Jersey Region including our F&C chief Scott Van De Weghe and his bride, the B&B Lunch Club, as well as JoAnne Morgan and myself. (In real time, Scott Van De Weghe was just honored as a 50 year NNJR member at last month’s NNJR Region Party.) Folks from New England region came down, New York region members came over and some EMRA people came out. There were about a hundred souls waiting for the words of wisdom to be imparted by the members of the RRDC.
The RRDC speakers change somewhat from year to year and this time we had Skip Barber of Skip Barber School fame; Bruce McInnes (Skip’s chief instructor) driver of many formula cars and ex-Bob Sharp driver; Bob Tulles of Group 44 and JRT Racing who is one of the most popular sports car drivers around; Bill Alsup who is a driver and now team manager of a CART racing effort; George Alderman, a long time veteran SCCA Driver and current IMSA GTU pilot; Mike Dole, a VP from Jaguar with Bugeye racing under his belt; Ken Slagle, our current CP National Champion; Bill Goobleman, a European Formula Atlantic Champion who has also run Formula 2 and F5000; and finally, John Fitch, Champ from years ago and designer of the Lime Rock race course. You can see why the seminar is so popular with the racing crowd.
Skip Barber led off the talk with a survey of the audience to determine drivers, workers, mechanics, and people who came in just to sit for a spell. The group seemed to be mostly regional racers who worked on their own cars. Skip highlighted these pointers: 1. Only downshift when braking; 2. Know how many revs you are turning when you lift to brake…..;3. Don’t check your gauges in a corner………The well-spoken Bruce McInnes was up next, and he stressed that racing took a proper attitude, physical knowledge and skill……..The last speaker was our own reigning C production Champion, Ken Slagle and he handed us a definition of oversteer and understeer……..There’s lots more but why pass along all these tips in the Pole Position. Come to the RRDC seminar next year and ask some of our best drivers about some of your worst problems."
NNJR NEWS
Thank you to our e-newsletter Editor Peter Schneider for publishing our monthly newsletter. If you are interested in joining the volunteer e-newsletter staff, please contact Peter Schneider at pjschneidernj@gmail.com.
NEDIV CONVENTION UPDATE PDATE
A fun and successful NEDiv Convention was held February 21-22, 2025 at the Lackawanna Radisson in Scranton, PA. We had 87 attendees, the largest group since 2017. We kicked-off the convention with a Welcome Reception on Friday evening including an ice cream station and a performance by a Comedian. Sessions were creative and well attended with an awards luncheon held on Saturday. The day concluded with a chocolate milk and cookies send off. Thank you to Chris Mosley and Kathy Barnes for their work on the Convention committee. Linda Santangelo-Mosley, NEDiv Convention Chair.
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