Meeting 7-9:30pm-ish on Frebruarie 6th, 2025, with the monthly meeting happening at Laurel Auto Clinic, aka “Carl’s Shop” Laurel, MT. As always. Attendees tonight were Carl, Jerod, Codi, Briant, Lane, Micah “the web page person”, Jessica, Luke, Brad S., Matt, Chris and Kindra. I just wanna give a huge shout out to the web page person who does our club web page.
Last weekend I was cleaning off the fridge door while on an ADHD tangent and wanted to organize my records of my season’s listed with events (yes, it was on the fridge. I AM a mom after all). Well, how do ADHD’ers keep paper records? On small, random scraps of paper, written in with 8 different pens and chicken scratch in the margins of times and placements. So, during this weekend detour, I needed to finish the record and find my standings from a couple of events. I went to the YR108 web page. This web page was SOOO easy to use, had a great layout, excellent pics, and the PRONTO spreadsheet embedded right in. It was slick as snot to use. I was totally impressed by it so what do you think I did? I went on another ADHD tangent for 20-30 minutes and looked at many more events. (More than necessary to complete the first task I had set myself to). So, this is what I am trying to point out. If you haven’t looked at it yet, do. It is literally the best. And as an extra measure of ADHD (I logically used this as a comparison), I searched up an event I went to with another club. Our web page blew theirs out of the water. Nicely done, YR108.
—-*Carl Jones (El Jefe), Matt Boggio (El Jefito), Lane (Treasurer) and Kindra Munda (Secretary) graced us with their presence this evening*—-
TREASURERS REPORT:
The club’s finances include: $16,586.69. The Metra event for June has been paid for, $2280. PortaJohns for the January Rally event has been paid for also, $125 to Cotters. The payment for Arrow (YDS PortaJohns) has been made, but the check hasn’t cleared just yet, $50. The club still needs to pay CW for the use of YDS for this Rally season, $750. The guy that is in charge of the runway light at the Bridger Airport (Mark) has been spotted at Car Quest in Bridger. Kindra was there to witness the interaction…..
Matt: “Hey! How much do we need to give you to get that runway light fixed?” *while walking quickly out the door to follow Mark*
Mark: “I dunno, see ya later!” *proceeds to get in his truck and drive away*
So, what came out of this exchange….? That we still need to pay for it. The previous development has not developed as we thought. The drama is ongoing.
*LET’S GET READY TO RALLY!!! – We continue RallyX season 2024/2025. The January event had a whopping 19 people!! Good job! It was a cold day, but no one really noticed because they were having so much fun! Newbies Dawn and Brad had a great time, and venue owner Flint thought the event went fabulously and is eager to help us refine it and continue using his spot of dirt for our future activities. RallyX event #5 will be set in Bridger, at the Flint’s Offroad Park February-ebrurary 23rd. Come and shake off the dust and get ready to add some snow to that busted up piece of sh–…. Matt reports that the track is made up of powdered sugar AND black ice because this venue HAS IT ALL!! OH YEAH! (insert Mach Man Randy Savage). As of right now it is no longer level and smooth with the corrugation running in line with the track, but ever-changing ruts that seem to shift like the Matrix as the course is developed and used throughout the day.
Apparently, the ripper tore up the packed and aged earth and has reduced some parts of the track to a fluffy mess of softness. This adds to the fun! Will you prove to be one of the talented few who *DON’T* get stuck? Can you be one of the select drivers who can navigate the tricky folds of firmament to the finish? Come and bring your best Rally Ride and see where YOU stand at the end of the day! Who knows that the recent snowfall will bring. How much in total, you ask? Matt says between 12-18” and there’s more to come the weather man says. See if Sancho can compete with that! Wanna be one of the first on a virgin (almost) track? Wanna say you were the first to find and conquer all that the new track has to offer in this season? Come out and see it all! Next event is February 23 at:
99 N Silvertip Rd
Bridger, MT 59014
If you didn’t see the Facebook post for the January event, it was cool to see the drone footage. Really great work! There was discussion about working the dirt at YDS this spring, sometime after RallyX and around trailer cleanup time. More to come and its lots of fun if you know how to run heavy equipment. Or have an idea.
*AutoX 2025 – There is a lot gonna happen this season and we have solidified some great dates for the schedule Summer 2025. So, work on those engines, get those tires ordered and make sure to have good brakes and wheel bearings! Remember, bungee cords are NOT proper battery tie downs.
-> Cody, WY – No answer from either the Fairgrounds OR Fremont Motors. Sounds sus that they don’t want our money, no cap. But if they ring up and flip, that would be so tough frfr, bet. (Jerod)
-> Helena – Events were listed, as well as the regions associated with those dates. We decided against a co-op with Bozeman this year, our schedule is pretty full. However, if you want to go to Helena and participate, you are more than welcome. They have a great schedule lined up this year and they have events in August if you need that monthly hit of adrenaline. Remember that the grass CANNOT have stakes driven in (sprinkler repairs suck and cost money) and that is it an alcohol free zone.
-> Metra – Finalized and paid for June.
-> ACF – We are hoping to have Archie Cochrane allow us to use their lot for Tech Day again May 3rd. We are also hoping they will sponsor us for the early Metra weekend in June. Lane will check it out and make it happen for us.
-> Bridger and Season Opener “The Aviator Cup” – It was discussed that the April council meeting is the one that has discussion for the airstrip in Bridger. Apparently, Mark (airport light guy) is now the Bridger Mayor too. The Bridger Counsel meeting that happens in April when they talk about the use of the airport by our club, so we will see what they decide. Fairly certain it will be a go this year as it has been in the past. It was mentioned that we will not only need to avoid the white strips (slick) but also some areas where the rubber snakes are coming up. It was mentioned that we could just do a mirror of last season. So that means that Carl will go off the track on the west side this year.
-> YDS – CW is ok with us using cold patch this next summer. He is uncertain if it will work but is willing to let us try. We decided to have 4 bags on hand at the first YDS event. We discussed the trailer legs of the “Draggie” big rigs tearing up our patches, and it was mentioned that they complain about the cold patch doing something to their tires (probably just using it as an excuse as to why they lost or some crap). We will see this summer how it goes. Hopefully it is a welcomed addition, as YDS is our most affordable venue.
-> Early season racing – It was brought up that sometimes, early season racing can be as unpredictable as a Montana Winter. If you happen to come to an event unprepared, we have lots of cool merch you can get to help cover your bald ass heads or flat chesticles. Look for the Trailer or ask any club member for great hoodies, beanies and shirts with the NEW logo!
*Safety Stewards – WE NEED SOME MORE!! (Seriously. Plans this summer involve having a couple more Safety Stewards so sign up!) RallyX needs some (time is almost up for this season and requires a minimum number of events shadowing to become certified) and AutoX needs some too (Events start early, so it’s a great time to get going on the super simple process before the summer starts). If you’re interested, email SCCA Region Services first, then they will open the Portal of Awesomeness for you to enter and become certified. This is a ‘go at your own pace’ set up, and they will guide you through, as a Safety Steward may have once done for you on your first run in AutoX. After you request courses on becoming the very valuable and completely necessary Safety Steward, the Link of Safety will present itself to you. Please direct any questions to Briant.
EMAIL: regionservices@scca.com
*$pon$or$hip – Thoughts on a sponsorship structure for the club. We discussed tiers, banners, shoutouts at safety meetings, logos on helmets and vinyl on the trailer to showcase those who support us, with logo size possibly being a direct representation of how large the donation was.
It was thrown around that a structured (bronze, silver, gold…etc) package type of deal could allow for greater options for donors. But we decided on a better description. Keep your eyes peeled guys! Lane is working on getting more put together here, and he has revamped the donation request letter. The draft he presented tonight looked very nice. He has increased the description and included average cost of events to help describe how our club uses the donations we receive. There is more to be decided on this topic. Until then, mention the club to places you think might be interested and see if anyone is willing to give us some money. Talk to Lane or Carl if you have some ideas and to get the necessary fliers for tax reasons. We always could use some more money. $$$$
*Business Cards – In the works. Micah brought a mockup and will get it started with printing. It will have the *new* YR108 logo on it, the QR code, as well as the current years’ schedule. Micah reports they are super cheap to print, so we will add the schedule and update every year! Looks good, Micah!! Come to the March meeting to get your stack to pass out. Any cool car you think would be fun to invite. And not just for AutoX, but for RallyX too. It’s not too late to invite drivers to RallyX. Get out there and be approachable. Talk to strangers. That guy in the Post Office parking lot. Those dudes at the gas station that look like they’re not hooligans. That chick with tires bigger than yours. Get the word out! (Just make sure to brush your teeth and have on a little bit of deodorant)
*First Responder Cup – First Responder Cup followed up by Codi. This topic had more speed bumps than a church parking lot. Essentially, it was a big fat NO. They felt it would promote poor/dangerous behavior afterwards when stooped drivers want to race Billings Police Department or Montana Highway Patrol out in the streets at 2 in the morning. Thanks for the effort anyways, Codi.
*Trailer Clean Out – That will be decided after the end of RallyX season but before Tech Day. More to come and a great time to be had by all. Many hands make light work so be sure to come out and have a blast with us (and I mean a fun time as well as the power washer).
*Starter School – The first Metra and hopefully the ACF sponsored event will be a great time to explore the possibilities of a Starter School (of sorts) for new drivers, interested people who don’t wanna commit to a full day of racing, or those who just wanna start slow (no pun intended)
and just get their toes a little wet with AutoX. It was discussed to have the Starter School at one end of the Metra lot, with 2-3 simple features for folks to come and give it a go. For this, it was discussed we WILL need at least 4 Safety Stewards for the June Event at the Metra. We will still need to hash out parking, how to keep people separated, if we will run it one day or both days, along with actual track design and who will actually be there for this event. It was discussed also if someone wanted to do the Starter School in the am, and then the actual AutoX in the pm, we would need 2 safety meetings possibly. More to come about this exciting opportunity. Matt brought up an interesting topic. Most people *think* they’re fast until they get out on our course. Then they find out real quick fast-like and in a hurry that they are in fact, not. Basically, the top 10 positions in the standings are pretty much filled with the top ten club members. If you come into an event as a Noob and place #11, you’re doing a lot of crap right, and sitting in tall cotton, lol.
*Hooptie Day – The YDS event on June 8 event is a Saturday (not June 9th, 2024 like Matt was trying to make us believe. And the 8th being a Friday was another clue he was still a year behind) and will be the day to get your Hooptie out and come take a run with it. We discussed the Glizzy Gran Prix and maybe changing it up with ice cream. Possibly Choco-Tacos. I would prefer fudge-cicles myself. Talk about Jerod being a throat goat and calling him Brenda was a hot topic for about 10 minutes. I’d pay to see that, fr.
*Posters – It was discussed that the posters will be separated by season, and this year’s AutoX poster pic winner is Brandon and his LeMans! Great job getting hustling for those votes! Dan will be given the pic and the schedule and will be proofread in the upcoming days for printing. The runner up for the pic contest was suggested to be the background photo and was met with enthusiasm. No need to vote on that. Although the runner up was Matt, we can be certain he would have voted against it just to be the irrational one. Briant brought up issues that several pics submitted for voting weren’t even club members for YR108 and there are some issues with the resolution on some submitted pics. Briant will revamp the rules for this upcoming RallyX poster contest. It is about making sure it is easy for Dan to print and use the images we submit (he does this for free), as well as keeping the focus on our club and our members, and not someone from Pennsylvania or some crap like that. Chris mentioned it is cool to see the poster car at the events when you are a spectator.
*Venues – It was discussed to look at other airports and other venues to keep the choices coming in. Maybe the Shrine again? Maybe looking to co-op with the Porsche Club? Chris will see what he can find out with Lewistown Raceway.
** IMPORTANT DATES**
March 2 – RallyX in Bridger, MT (rescheduled from Feb 23rd due to weather)
March 16 – RallyX
April 13 – RallyX
Meeting was adjourned when Jerod decided he need to leave. Post meeting chatter was about getting sponsorships from Trojan and Adam and Eve. I would totally rock a sponsorship logo on Grrtie for that. Luke, Lane and Micah mentioned that Adam and Eve could sponsor a ████ ███ for the cars (I could see that on a Miata) and maybe a leather bra (rather than a clear bra) with studs. I would totally rock that. On my car. Just the car.