Meeting 7-9:00pm-ish on July 9, 2025 with the monthly meeting happening at Laurel Auto Clinic, aka “Carl’s Shop” Laurel, MT. As always. Attendees tonight were Carl, Jordan R. Casey, Jared, Lane, Luke, Micah, Chris, Kindra and Matt. Tonight was a slow burner of an evening. The summer air was filled with tales of fireworks and camping. Stories of m-80s and shenanigans caught on Ring cameras…. All club members in attendance still had all ten digits. Life is good.
—-*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: $17,068. This total includes all outstanding balances owed by the club. We are at a financial balance, as there are no outstanding debts or credits. Life is good.
*Metra Meltdown – The ACF sponsored event was a success. Many drivers came. Some new, some returning. Some have even given up their evening to sit around and listen to everyone yammer on about random crap. Jordan R came to his first meeting tonight. Congrats! The Metra Meltdown event gave us 43 total drivers for the event. We had 3 drivers in Starter School, one of which came over to the big boy side of the parking lot to play with us. Were we expecting a throng of newbies lining up to be in School? Yes. Were we disappointed it was only 3? Also yes. Will we try again. Still a yes. We did make some monies with the Archie sponsorship, but I didn’t catch the number.
*Acton Cross – We also had a great turnout for this event, 35 drivers and after expenses ($1047.50), we bagged a whopping $428.85. This number does not include the tamper we are taking out there and the initial buy in of cold patch. It also does not include the money made from those delicious burgers. Luke will figure out all the details and pass Lane some cash. Hopefully nothing shifty happens during that transaction.
*Kirk – Kirk has an idea to have a Metra event that can rival Top Gun in attendance and popularity. He was thinking the “Montana Challenge” and have competition with the other Montana Regions, Bozeman and Great Falls. We talked about ideas, using ACF sponsorship to help promote it, and doing it then. He also mentioned it could be cool to have some neat, limited merch for the winners or participants. We thought it would be interesting to have Kirk design that course next season if we proceed. More to come.
*Cold Patch – We used it, it worked, some came up, most didn’t. If it wasn’t ran over by a tank or a tractor trailer carrying a 600lb drag car….. it stayed in place for the most part. We improvised this time and added some sand on top, hopefully it makes the patch better. Tonight we voted to have 5 bags for each YDS day we are running at every event. Regardless if needed, we will find a place to put it so we can help keep up our most affordable venue.
*Four-Wheeler – It was brought up for discussion and voted in favor to get new tires for the four-wheeler. I guess they’re pretty crappy.
*Course Setting and Design – It was put up on SCCA website that they will now require that anyone setting course take their course design educational training. In short, they have made a course designing course you must take to be an actual course designer to design and build courses. Of course. This requirement goes into effect 3-26-2026. If you’ve been thinking of how to build features, or if you think you have what it takes, send an email out to sanctioning and get access. If you are a Safety Steward, your automatically in. The steps are as follows:
1. Watch video(s)
2. Take Quiz (no cheating)
3. Be awesome and get creative!
You can leave and come back, so there’s no need to carve out time or cram for the finals. It does take about 90 minutes total (not on 1.5x speed either) so it is a bit of a time commitment. But totally worth it.
*Hot Shots – The Helena event coming up this weekend will be designed by somebody and another somebody and if you show up, Carl will be sure to assign ya a task. Remember, many hands make light work.
*Lewistown – Carl has received the contact info, but he didn’t call in time to have an answer for the meeting tonight. We have lots of questions. Questions such as, “Is it a road course?” or “How much does this cost?” and “What days could we do next season?” Carl will work on it hopefully he gets some interest going with those guys about in us being out there.
ee – What? Did you just read that right? Maybe you did. Maybe you should come to a meeting. It might be in the works, Briant may have scrubbed the SCCA Rally Rule Book to make sure we’re doing it right….
** IMPORTANT DATES**
July 26-27 – Hot Shots in Helena
Aug 2 – Lander Valley High School (Wyoming club – Not SCCA but still fun. The widest gates in the world. I didn’t hit a single cone all weekend. Goal reached, sort of)
Aug 9-10 – Helena “I don’t see no stinkin cords”
Aug 22-24 – Top Gun in Helena
Sept 20-21 – Coneheads in Helena
Oct 4-5 – Motorin’ at the Metra
Meeting adjourned and conversation began. Micah had some self-designed shoes on, open toes sneakers. Trinity brought Beckett to his first meeting, his skullet is slapping fr.