Meeting 7-9:00pm-ish on June 11th, 2026 with the monthly meeting happening at Laurel Auto Clinic, aka “Carl’s Shop” in Laurel, MT. You should know by now where this place is at. Attendees tonight were Carl, Jordan, Dean, Briant, Crandell, Luke, Micah, Jared, Bill, Chris, Kindra, Matt and Pepe. Bill brought ping pong balls for his famous ping pong ball trick!! Actually it was aimed (literally) at Matt anytime he mentioned 2:04, or 124 seconds… or two minutes and 4 seconds….. which was only said twice in my presence.
—-*Carl Jones (El Jefe), Matt Boggio (El Jefito) and Kindra (Secretary) graced us with their presence this evening. Please excuse Lane as he was unable to make it*—-
TREASURERS REPORT:
The club’s finances include: “More than $20k but less than $30k” (Carl says). It was revealed that Lane may have taken a trip to Vegas…. Club members hope we still have north of $20k when Lane returns… highly suspect…
- Bridger – We made money! We hit cones! We drove REALLY fast! We went off track! Fun times all around. Great pics too, Thanks Les! Nice video media out there too. Thanks Jordan! Net income was $1803.34, costs were $1084.50. Net revenue = $718.84. Matt was a bit miffed that there wasn’t more pics of Cobalts…..
- Laurel Airport – We had great success with Laurel Airport in receiving us, and they have been excited to have us out to utilize their parking pad and other areas of hard top (Yay!) However, there are no Laurel dates for this season. No response for a June event date, as the 2 week window is closing for this month (boooo). Carl will continue to reach out, maybe we can look to September.
- Harlowtown Airport – Bill had good reception at Harlowtown and it would seem they are willing to let us use their little runway to compete on. There is one caveat with this venue; there is only one entrance to the runway. What does that mean? Well, it means that you should have been to the meeting. OK, I guess I will just tell you. It means that we would only be able to have one car on course at a time. We discussed possibly shortening the course to allow more runs by way of shorter run times. Discussion involved that it really is kind of far, and would be another camping weekend, taking away from families. The strip is smol, and the 1-entrance thing is kind of a bummer. We decided not to pursue Harlowtown for this season, but we will keep them in our back pocket for now.
- Powell Airport – Powell has some pretty good OK open areas, and Crandell has some in’s with Powell and would try to talk with them about using a bit more of the area they have. We will see what we can come up with.
- Lewistown – Carl sent the contract and is waiting on the reply. Still unsure of what the facilities look like, if there are any. It was discussed that this may be our new “local” venue. Maybe have multiple events here. Maybe. Read on….
- Helena – Kindra brought up that if we have to drive some distance to play, then she would rather have multiple events in Helena due to it being a nice venue with showers and grass and bathrooms and all. Jared and Matt agreed, and Carl said he likes Helena as well because it is affordable (all things considered). The total club cost is low. Carl says he still won’t take any gas money to pull the trailer. Bill thinks that is crazy…. and Carl offered to sell Bill his ramp truck so Bill could pull the trailer (I guess the previous vote was for a $25 payment by the club for towing the trailer to events). Bill declined, and said he thinks he has enough vehicles at the moment.
- Shrine – Turns out that Kindra was right 3 months ago. She asked, “Has anyone actually driven by the Shrine lately….?” It would seem that their construction that they said was happening isn’t to make the lot nicer… it was because they’re putting up a huge building in that lot. So sayonara to the Shrine. It was nice never knowing ya.
- AutoX 2027 – Carl was feeling out opinions on the schedule for next season. These are the topics….
- Carl reached out to CW to see if it was possible to set some dates ahead of time for next summer. CW said, “Nah, man. Can’t do it.”
- We also discussed possibly moving the season opener to YDS, and having a choice for RallyX or AutoX depending on weather. Rather than change sanctioning last minute (which may not be possible), we talked about just sanctioning both and then canceling whichever we would not do. Carl will follow up on this.
- Matt and Carl said the springtime out at YDS is a soggy mess and may not be the best choice for a season ending event. Luke thought it might work for keeping the trailer out there.
- Discussed maybe having last RallyX event out at Flint’s, since Big Sky seems hit or miss this season (I mean, “in general”).
- We discussed dropping the April event for RallyX, Matt says the April one usually have the highest turnout.
- Jordan suggested AutoAuctions of Montana. I guess they have a nice layer of asphalt and if we time an event right after an auction, we may have some room…. Luke said he would go EF it and see what its about.
- No news about Hardin because Lane was gonna do some research and he wasn’t here tonight to give his presentation. Automatic 10 point deduction on that assignment.
- COSTCO was discussed, turns out that sitting vacant doesn’t make money… who knew. Jared is hoping to investigate. Carl mentioned his concerns is keeping people off course.
- Dean suggested maybe we RallyX in the summer. Matt says YDS would be out during the summer cuz of the Drag Season, and Big Sky as well. That would leave only Flint’s. Discussion about maybe finding another venue.
- Someone mentioned the Army Reserve place. Carl said that at one time we had a event set up and ready to go and the captain came out and told us to pack it up. But that was a while ago. Jordan says that the people change so maybe the next guy or the current guy would be more interested.
- Land – Discussion about purchasing our own land was brought to the table tonight. We discussed that it would be a minimum of 2-4 acres for the smallest possible venue. It would be ideal to have about 40 acres, some for AutoX and the rest for RallyX. The road course idea would need close to 150 acres. Bill researched on Google (and thereby making him an expert) that undeveloped land is roughly $3k an acre and if we looked at 20 acres (modest, but still somewhat large) it would be $60k. If the club used its funding for a portion, how would we be able to pay for the rest? Jared and Micah talked about storage units… Chris mentioned small cottages/out buildings for rent. Bill and Matt thought that where ever we looked, we would want to be next to the highway for entrance. No one wants to drive 15 miles in on gravel. Bill said that Matt could shuttle people in with his ginormous trailer. It would also be ideal for development with electricity in the future. Matt mentioned Midway and their sponsorship of equipment. Fine tuning will come as this idea develops. It you have an idea, or a parcel of land you just don’t know what to do with, bring it to a meeting. Or let Carl know and he can add it to the idea pile.
- Track and Track Design – Coming from the SCCA, we now need to have certified track designers. The name and design are required to be entered into the online paperwork at the time of sanctioning. If you think you have what it takes, maybe you’d like to be the one to decide features or just how long to make that glorious slalom you always wanted, talk with Carl or Matt and get your certifications in order. They know what to do and can help you get started.
- RallyX – RallyX events will need a new lead track designer and safety steward, as Matt has stepped down from those roles for RallyX. If anyone is interested in doing this, see Matt or Carl. Matt will still do the sanctioning paperwork for RallyX. If you think this position might be for you, go check it out. You have a few months to get it figured out.
- Helmets – Check your brain buckets peeps, the final SNELL year is 2010, as those helmets are only good until October of this year, 2026. The SCCA has extended through this season to allow the new year rating to be maximized for your new purchase. If you’re unsure, talk with Briant, our new Chief of Safety/Tech Inspection/Master Classer.
- Denver – Carl says it was fun. Bill said he lost a wheel. Matt said he had to chisel out 10 pounds of smol rocks from the inside of his car. Gravel in the wheels, the fenders, the bumper, the passenger seats….. rocks every where! The convoy down was “2 miles long and fun as hell”-Matt. Luke says, “We would pull into a gas station and it looked like a takeover!” Sounds like quite a few people had a blast and there is always room for more. Maybe this would be a yearly club thing…. Apparently Carl was very fast in his old ass mustang.
** IMPORTANT DATES**
- June 13-14 – Riverton, WY – Wind River Casino
- June 20-21 – Helena – Region 38 at RMESTC
- June 27 – Bozeman – The Commons
- July 11 – Bozeman – The Commons
- July 18-19 – Riverton, WY – Central Wyoming College
- July 25-26 – Hot Shots – Helena RMESTC
- Aug 8-9 – Motorin’ to Lewistown – Lewistown Raceway
- Aug 15 – Lander, WY – Lander High School (15,000 m² with no light poles…)
Meeting adjourned sometime in the evening. Matt was very excited about Denver. Luke says he lost 5 employees this week, so he is the new closer. Want a part time income? Go check out Lockwood IGA and their newly busted fence post.