| VARAC March 2011 President's Newsletter |
Hello
Here's the latest VARAC Newsletter - it's now not that long to the start of the season, so lets focus on a few key issues the BOD wants to raise...
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VARAC Off-Track Insurance
We'll all be using our trailers very shortly as we start on the 2011 season, and, sadly, we hear regular stories of trailers being stolen, often with cars in them.
You can insure against this - in fact, you can insure your race car, trailer and all your tools for the whole time that your race car is not on the track.
I've personally had this coverage for years, and regard it as a sensible precaution, so we've used the numbers of members in VARAC to arrange a very beneficial Off Track Insurance package for trailer, tools and race cars for our members.
You simply estimate the value of your race car and trailer, and you can then buy insurance in one of several "bands".
The Insurers will accept your word as to the value of your car and no appraisal is required. If there is a claim, they reserve the right to ask you for evidence of value if they think you might have inflated the value a bit - but they have agreed to accept as evidence Ads for similar Cars for Sale.
We all know there are loads of race car sites on the web (race-cars.com, racecarsdirect.com etc.) so finding an ad to support your valuation of the car should not be difficult.
There is one other clarification, as well, and that relates to carrying spare engines. While the policies automatically include $8,000 for trailer contents coverage, this does not include spare engines. However, these are covered at an additional premium of $9 per $1,000 engine value - i.e. a $2,000 costs $18. Again, it is up to you to give a realistic engine value.
This really is a good deal - we've used the strength and numbers of VARAC to negotiate a really sweet deal. I recently did some checking and the premium is about 1/3 to 1/2 of comparable policies. - and I urge all VARAC members to take advantage of it so we don't have any sad stories such as we heard last year of Dino's trailer and car going missing.
The details of the policy are here - DETAILS HERE
If you are interested in applying, and note that this policy is only available to VARAC members (how many more hints do I have to drop to get Membership renewals in?) please use the Application Form that you can find here : APPLICATION FORM HERE
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Test and Tune Day - 22 April 2011 at Mosport
I've recently sent out an email to all members about the 2011 Test and Tune Day which will be held on Friday, 22nd April (Good Friday) at Mosport from 9:00 to 5:00 p.m. I thought I'd include it again here so that everybody knows what we've arranged. This is the ideal opportunity to get your car through its Annual Inspection and do some laps of the Circuit to blow the cobwebs off it, and you! At lunchtime, we'll serve the usual delicious burger/hot dog and soda. DETAILS: 1. starting at 9:00 a.m., track sessions will be 25 minutes duration, with a 5 minute changeover/clean up period before the next session. 2. we will alternate sessions in 2 groups: Group 1. Vintage/Historic and Open Wheel, Group 2. G70+ Cars. We will have VARAC scrutineers working in the Paddock so you can get your car through its Annual Tech. 3. we will enter the track at the corner 1 ramp from the end of the pits. The exit is the usual way from Corner 10 - except that no cars will be allowed to stop in the pits and must move immediately through to the Paddock so we can control the number of cars on the track. 4. we are limited to 10 cars on the track at any time by Insurance requirements. Based on previous track days, this should not be a problem. We'll work on a "first come first served" basis but as this is testing, many cars will leave the circuit before the end of the session, so we anticipate releasing cars onto the circuit to always maintain a 10 car limit. So you might have to wait a while until somebody leaves the track - but we do have it all day so there will be ample track time available. 5. We're using the main circuit and there will be corner worker coverage at some of the corners, so we will limit this session to Licensed Drivers and race cars only.
Mosport is a handful when you are licensed and in a race car - so sorry, we are not going to use this as a training ground for unlicensed drivers or street cars.
As we will only have about 30 to 40 cars, there will be NO FUEL available at Mosport, so you will need to bring it with you. COST AND PAYMENT We're encouraging everyone to use our ONLINE REGISTRATIONS AND PAYMENTS system only - it makes organising these events so much easier if we don't have to handle cheques or cash on the day! We're reflecting this in our pricing for this event: a. IF YOU REGISTER AT THE TRACK ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT, THE COST IS $250 FOR ONE CAR AND $75 FOR EACH ADDITIONAL CAR b. BUT IF YOU PRE-REGISTER, USING OUR ONLINE REGISTRATIONS AND PAYMENTS SYSTEM, THE COST IS $175 FOR ONE CAR AND $75 FOR EACH ADDITIONAL CAR. SO YOU SAVE $75 BY PRE-REGISTERING ONLINE! You can pay online by Credit Card, Paypal or Direct Debit if your card has a Visa/M'Card Logo. Our refund policy is: - - if you cancel before 8th April, you get a full refund
- if you cancel before 18th April, we'll refund the full amount you paid LESS $25
- if you cancel after 18th April, we'll refund the full amount you paid LESS $50.
REGISTER BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK
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Eligibility Forms - Get 'em In!
The Eligibility Form system is working really well, and thank you to everybody who filled in the forms last year.
For those new members here, we fill in an Initial Eligibility Form and return it to Joe Lightfoot - Joe and his Eligibility Committee then check you car against that Form throughout the year. If you haven't already filled in an Inital Eligibility Form, you can get them here:
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2011 Schedule
In case you haven't seen it, our 2011 Schedule is available by following the following link. There are 8 events on the schedule - we count your best 6 events for the Club Championship.
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Club Championship 2011
As you know, we've revised the rules for the Club Championship to switch the Vintage/Historic Cars onto a displacement based system.
The G70+ championship is still based on the "break out" system of earlier years with a slight "tweak" that Class H now has a breakout time of 1:32 to bring it into line with the GT classes (this makes Mosport's timekeeping easier for them).
This means that all the V/H cars will need new class stickers, and these will be available at Test and Tune on 22 April. I've also ordered new Class stickers for the G70+ cars (even though your class will probably not change) and a load of new VARAC decals in black and white - some of the ones I saw on cars last year looked a bit "tatty" so we're smartening ourselves up! Again, they will all be available at Test and Tune.
You can get the 2011 Championship Rules here:
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Tires/Tyres/Round black things!
I think most members know that our Vintage/Historic Cars can select one of 3 Rule Sets - VARAC, SVRA or FIA.
While many members stick with the VARAC rules, we have approximately 20 cars using the SVRA rules. One of the reasons is that there are very slight differences in tires and the SVRA rules do allow 55 series 14 inch tires in certain circumstances - several members prefer these as the tires are cheaper, and more available, than 60 series 14 inch tires.
Now this is all understood - we knew of these slight differences when we all approved the SVRA rules. However, it is important that members understand that, if you are using the SVRA rules, you must comply with their wheel size requirements.
Please, don't switch around your wheels in order to use a 55 series tire if that wheel size is not allowed by SVRA - our Eligibility guys will be checking!
Remember, you can't "Pick and Mix" between the various rule sets - if you choose one rule set, prepare your car to that set, and only that set, of rules.
Finally, a clarification on tires. The VARAC Tire rules allow V/H to have any 60 Series tire, and SVRA specifies particular tires. Several members have asked about asymmetrical tires - please be aware that these are modern tire designs and are NOT ALLOWED IN VARAC, WHICHEVER RULE SET YOU ARE USING. We have tried to allow as wide a range of tires as possible - but please, don't turn up with asymmetrical tires! |
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Helmets
Say goodbye to that old SA2000 helmet - it's no longer accepted - give it a good sendoff!
For this season, approved helmets are either SA2005 or the new SA2010 helmets.
The SA2010 helmets come in 2 flavours - the basic SA2010 will be pre-drilled drilled for Hans device fitments and you can fit the Hans clips yourself.
Alternatively, the new SA2010H helmets actually have the Hans clip nuts moulded into the helmet, so all you need to do is to screw the clips in from the outside of the helmet.
After initial delivery problems with the SA2010 helmets, most suppliers seem to have an ample supply available. The SA2010H helmets are a bit more scarce - but if you can screw a Hans clip into a pre-drilled hole, you can easily get by with the cheaper SA 2010 helmets.
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Welcome more new members
I reported in the February Newsletter that we'd had a load of new members join - we're still keeping up the trend and I'm sure all members would like me to extend a very warm welcome to our latest new members: Terry Watson Jon Nichols Edward Delong Anthony Svedas (Vytas' dad) George Murray Daniel Rebhan Frank Fusillo Among the new cars we can look forward to seeing with these new members are a Elva Courier Mk. 1, '68 MGB, '65 MGB, Alfa, Mallock Mk. 20B, '67 911, '69 Corvette. Several of our new members are still on the lookout for cars, so I think we might have some even more interesting grids this year.
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Finally...
If you have any questions about anything in this Newsletter, please don't hesitate to contact me. See you on the 22nd April Cheers Walter |
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