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2008 Membership Drive @ Beaver Springs

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See the 2007 Membership drive! Click here.


2008 GC meeting and Membership Drive:

See all 3 parts to the club meeting and Drag racing videos below:

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June's Garage Club meeting was the annual "Membership Drive" held at Beaver Springs Dragway in Beaver Springs, PA. What is the "Membership Drive"?

The 2007 June monthly garage club meeting was held at Beaver Springs Dragway. We have probably the COOLEST meeting to date at that time. We had a short club meeting, after which we all got to drag race, grudge match, and do our usual bench racing till around ten or so when most packed it up to go home. It went over so well Beaver Bob made it an annual event. This year Bob used it as a trial run for the up and coming "Stop Light Drags". Read on to find out what we thought of it.

There was a huge turnout, even larger than last year. There were 33 racers and lots of spectators. We even had another 12 new members sign up. (See below) There were some who didn't sign in, but participants who signed the roster included Dennis Kowalski, Chas and Molly Pinkerton, Justin Pinkerton, Dave Lehr, Denny and Melissa Aungst, Mike Potts, Doug Garrison, John Shultz, Matt and Karen Doyle, Flashback Bill Stuck, Ben Arnold, Aaron Arnold, Jeff Goodman, Craig Morgan, Chris Ives, Mel and Amy Reichert, Andy Vasbinder, Greg Zyla, Tim Zyla, Jim Manganell, Kerry Moyer, Butch Markel, Ronald Stahl, Lloyd Kapp, Paul Kapp, Jeff Zimmerman, Jake Pennypacker, Bob Holtzman Jr, Dave Szostek, Ron Lemin, Dave Weakley, Shawn Runkle, Kirsten Murray, Kyle Sitlinger, Marley Whitcomb, Michele Whitcomb, Hunter and Ian Whitcomb, Kristopher Warfel, Kim Erb, Jim Beard, Logan Beard, Kevin and Ann Hoffman, Butch Hechler, Charles Derr, Kurt Watts, Jeff Doud, Nash Doud, Paul Skelton, Pat Wirt, Rob Lefever, Andy Lefever, Rindy Foulds, Jeff Damicantonio, Captain Ed Brady, Ryn Nau, George Nau, Ken Horning, Kyle Morgan, Jon Winisko, Dave Carter, Dave Snook, Terry Brouse, Thomas Quick Jr., John Charles Kell III, and, of course, Beaver Bob McCardle, the one who made it all possible.

Beaver Bob took the reigns of this month's meeting. He gathered everyone to start filling out the tech cards and get things moving. He opened by introducing, himself, the Garage Club officers, welcoming everyone, and letting everyone know the rules of this special event.:

  1. ALL racers this evening would be Garage Club members only. Tech cards were filled out with your GC membership number as your race number.
  2. ALL safety rules were in effect. No passenger rides in cars faster than 13.99. Helmets, saftey belts, windows up, etc.
  3. Everyone would have to be teched in before being allowed on the track.
  4. 100 MPH club rules were in effect for people attempting to sign up for that.

Bob had the program set up from the start. For members to get the feel for the upcoming "stop light drags", he sent everyone into staging and gave us till 7:00 to run all heads up racing with the stop light and no time slips or tower readout. This turned out to be great fun! No one had a tree advantage. Once you were staged, the light was completely random when it hit green. I think there was only one red light all evening. Most were very late on the green. Also, you have to gauge how people run visually to pick who you want to race. There are no numbers for you to know exactly how fast you are or anyone else for that matter.

Click any image for larger view!

After the dry run of the "Stoplight Drags" format, Bob shut down the lanes and called everyone in for the official club meeting and awarding of the 100 MPH club stickers. Bob got all of our opinions on what we thought of the event set up. Everyone loved the stop light starting. The track hooked up very well and we all guessed faster than what we really did. It was very hard to judge your times or speeds blind.

Our 100 MPH club drivers at the meeting included from lowest to highest:

  • 15th Dave Carter @ 100.88 MPH in a '93 Mustang.
  • 14th Shane Ressler @ 105.16 in his Trans Am.
  • 13th Chris Ives @106.54 in his '69 Yenko Clone.
  • 12th John Shultz @ 109.66 in a '69 Camaro.
  • 11th Tim Zyla @ 112.92 in a '98 Camaro.
  • 10th Chas Pinkerton @112.96 in his '76 Astre.
  • 9th John Kell @ 114.01 in his '04 GTO.
  • 8th Jon Winisko @ 114.50 in his Duster.
  • 7th Jake PennyPacker @ 117.67 in his '79 Malibu.
  • 6th listed as #189 (but incorrect) @ 117.98
  • 5th Andy Vasbinder @ 118.07 in his '04 GTO.
  • 4th Ken Horning @ 120.19 in his Cobra.
  • 3rd listed Shawn Stimeling (not sure?) @ 122.36.
  • 2nd Jim Manganell @ 130.83 in his Chevelle. (the fastest car there.)
  • 1st went to Ryan Nau @ 132.06 on his '06 Honda CBR 1000R.

(Keep in mind, there may have been faster passes later in the day. These were the stickers given out at the meeting directly from the tower printout.) After Bob presented the stickers, Dave opened the official meeting.

Official business included:

  1. Club Reminders
    1. If you receive a newsletter in the mail and would rather have e-mail, please let us know. Also if you don't receive a newsletter in the mail and want one, get Chris Ives your address. All new member's will fill out a contact info form and check whether they wish to receive a printed version or not.
  2. Dave went over each of the "Circuit Saturday" cruise routes.
    1. There was a reminder that we have moved the Big Block Circuit to the first Saturday of the month and have moved the Frackville stop from the Dutch Kitchen to A&A Auto Parts at the mall.
    2. The new 4-speed circuit is held the second Saturday of the month. This is to prevent a clash with the "Soda Jerk" cruise in held every first Saturday of the month in the same basic area. generally, members head down extra early to get a chicken dinner at Kauffman's
    3. The Small Block route is still the largest turnout and is held the fourth Saturday of each month.
    4. Stop by our Circuit Saturday web page to see our maps, pics, and videos at http://www.keystonegarageclub.com/Circuit_Saturday.html
  3. "Diary of an American Street Racer"
    1. We discussed the June 15th shoot. See details below.
    2. Keep up on the latest at the Diary of an American Street Racer Page.
  4. Upcoming events.
    1. Denny discussed several upcoming events
      • Ford Carlisle was the weekend of the 7th.
        • Highland asked members to stop by their display and see the suspension designed on Denny's Mustang.
      • Russell Automotive's open house on the 21st from 10 - 2.
        • they wished to feature GC members.
  5. Beaver Bob talked about the Stop Light Drags (originally the Fastest Street Car Shoot-out).
    1. Bob told us the event will be covered by 2 magazines and we could very possibly get some ink in them about the club.
    2. Stop Light Drags shirts will be available and the winners of each event will be featured on the next events dash plaques.
    3. WE WILL NEED HELP. Please plan on being there to help even if you don't race or get knocked out early. Also be in Garage Club shirts. If you don't have one, please ask and we will get you in one for that day!
      • There will be a tent & table set up to handle any new memberships headed our way and we will have T-shirts and sticker for sale as well. This should be a good fund raiser for the club if handled properly.
    4. Visit www.beaversprings.com for up to date details on the events and a full schedule for the year.
    5. Sign up to keep up on the latest discussions and official rules & format at our message board located on the site at http://www.keystonegarageclub.com/phpBB/ under the "Fastest Street Car Shoot-out" forum.

At this time we closed the official meeting and got back to beating our rides for the rest of the evening. Bob turned the lights back on for the towers and gave out time slips. With that we started eliminations with everyone racing for the rest of the evening.

Once you were eliminated, you could just do grudge matches or time shots as long as you wanted. The overall winner of the bracket racing for the evening went to Terry Brouse in his "Wild Thing" Z28 Camaro. Experience at the track didn't really help some of us. The runner up was a new member that only began racing his car a couple weeks prior to the event. Tim Zyla went round after round to earn the runner up spot.


Thanks goes out to Beaver Bob and his entire staff for setting up the coolest meeting, providing the food and drinks, and promoting our club throughout the year!









See the 2007 Membership drive!
Click here.