Items to note for this weekend’s Crows Landing Champ Tour

(Please share with others so they’re up on the news!)

  1. Ike Crow Road is in REALLY bad shape with potholes. Our winter rainy season did a number on the road. It’s 1.2 miles from CA-33 to the entrance of the site. There are some potholes in the first half mile from 33, but it gets a LOT worse the last 3/4 mile before you cross Bell Road.
    Figure on going 15 MPH with a trailer once you get to that “worse” part on Ike Crow Road. You WILL hit significant potholes with your vehicle/trailer, it is just minimizing issues at that point.
  2. Please approach the site ONLY from Ike Crow Road. Set your GPS to the “intersection of Ike Crow Road and CA-33, Crows Landing CA” and then go west on Ike Crow Road, approximately 1.25 miles west into the site. Do NOT use Bell Road!!!
  3. Our site and course layouts will deviate from those we’ve used at previous National events. (Those who attended the 2018 Larry Park Memorial event will find the layout somewhat familiar.)
    Immediately upon entering the site, you’ll sign the waiver. Directly ahead will be the Grid and Tech areas. Paddock will be to your right and continue about 150-200 yards. TnT can only be accessed by going through and past paddock, about a half mile. See the map for a better visual.
  4. Justin Tsang and Yongzhe Wen will chair our Practice/TnT on Friday, from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Runs will be $10 for 3, $4 for 1. You must work one 30-minute shift per 3 runs. Evo School is using the course before 11:00 AM.
  5. We have a WELCOME PARTY at 6:00 PM Friday. We are bringing in BBQ (brisket and smoked turkey) from Apricot Wood, and the Francavilla family is bringing pasta and salads. You don’t want to miss it! Bring a chair and yourself up to the front of paddock and join us Friday evening in the hospitality area!
  6. Due to some unfortunate circumstances (aka: “THIEVES SUCK!”), we will NOT have the ice trailer this weekend. If anyone can bring some extra LARGE coolers to help us store ice, we’d greatly appreciate it. Lisa and Eric Gnesa (thank you!!!) will be busy making ice/water runs all weekend.
  7. Don’t forget to use #funwithcars and #CrowsTour2019 in your social media posts! Both great hashtags to use if you want to see what our members are up to this weekend.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in a few days!

Youmna Zalzal, Event Chair

Great job, SFR!

The first ProSolos of the 2019 season have come and gone, and many SFR members have taken home some hardware as a result of their stellar driving. Many of our Crows Landing trophy winners made the trek down to Fontana, where the lower-grip surface and slight grade gave us a different sort of challenge than we usually have at home.

Crows Landing and Fontana results follow. Click the column headings to view the full results! (Class winners are italicized.)

Crows Landing Fontana
Bryan Heitkotter (AS)
Andrew Kessel (AS)

Justin Moore (BS)

Mark Scroggs (CS)
Maurice Velandia (CS)

Alex Kang (ES)

Jimmy Au-Yeung (STU)
Chris Mayfield (STU)
Matt Ales (STU)

Tony Rodriguez (STR)

Mack Tsang (STX)
Justin Tsang (STX)

Erika McKee (JA)

Alana McKee (JB)

Karlton Lew (CAM)

Tara Shapowal (L1-SSP)

Shelly Monfort (L2-AS)
Youmna Zalzal (L2-BS)

Teddie Alexandrova (L3-STX)

Steve Lau (S2-SSP)

Yongzhe Wen (S4-GS)

Jesus Villareal (R1-EM)

Andy McKee (R2 – XP)
Teresa Neidel-McKee (R2 – XP)

Alex Muresan (B-SSR)

Bryan Heitkotter (AS)

Chris Cox (BS)

Mark Scroggs (CS)

Alex Kang (ES)

Jimmy Au-Yeung (STU)
Matt Ales (STU)

Mack Tsang (STX)

Erika McKee (JA)

Alana McKee (JB)

Shelly Monfort (L2-AS)

Teddie Alexandrova (L3-STX)

Steve Lau (S2-SSP)

Andy McKee (R2 – XP)

Monty Pack (B-SSR)

Looking ahead, the Crows Landing Championship Tour is coming up in a couple of weeks. (Click here to register!) After the Tour, we’ll have a little bit of a breather before resuming our local points events with a double-header weekend in mid-May. Check out our calendar and keep up with events on our Facebook page (no Facebook account necessary)!

ProSolos and Time Trials and Tours, oh my!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Crows Landing ProSolo! The event was well-attended, ran smoothly and, most importantly, was a ton of fun. Many SFR members walked away with awards and class wins; check the official SCCA results for a full list.

The Fontana ProSolo is this weekend, and we’re looking forward to seeing SFR represent.


For those interested in having #funwithcars on a racetrack, SCCA is launching a new Time Trials program this year. Its first stop? Our very own Thunderhill Raceway 2-mile track (aka: Thunderhill West), on April 13th and 14th.

Drivers are grouped by experience level, and most autocross cars have a competitive place to play within the car preparation categories: Sport, Tuner, Max, and Unlimited. Everyone from brand-new drivers in new cars to seasoned veterans in built racecars are welcome! Many familiar West Coast autocrossers have already registered; Registration closes in one week, so don’t wait to sign up!

There will be practice sessions for all and two timed competition sessions. SCCA is also doing something new, called “Tracksprint”: point-to-point sector timing on the track, from a standing start, in configurations not typically seen in normal track driving. Similar to an autocross, you will get three attempts at the Tracksprint for your best time.

The fun doesn’t stop once on-track sessions are done! There will be welcome parties with food and beverages Friday and Saturday night; breakfast and lunch will be available during the day. Camping is available and encouraged, with RV hookups available.

Check out the schedule and sign up here.
Nervous for your ride? Hagerty offers on-track insurance for a low price, so your car AND your mods will be covered.
Questions? Visit the Time Trials webpage for more information.

We hope to see some of you out there!


After all that, there’s the Crows Landing Championship Tour to think about! As of the time of this writing, we’re at 123 drivers registered, and hope to see that number jump in the next few weeks.

This season has started off with a bang. Let’s keep that energy going over the next few weeks!

A Note from Our Solo Chief After Round 3

THANKS!

Thank you for coming out for SFR Round 3 at Marina on March 9th. It was an excellent opportunity for some practice in “challenging” conditions! Special thanks to Course Designer Brian Duddy, and Event Chairs Don Lew and Ed Runnion. Also thank you to everyone who helped set up, tear down, and pitch in with extra work as needed.

RESULTS

Round results can be found on the Results Page of the SFR website.

SURVEY

If you haven’t already, please fill out our post-event survey. It’ll take just a few minutes of your time, and your feedback helps us make events better!

COMING UP

Up next are a pair of National-level SCCA events.

First up is the Crows Landing ProSolo on March 29-31. Registration closes in just about two weeks, but don’t wait: register now!

A few weeks after the Pro, on April 26-28, is the Crows Landing Championship Tour and CAM Challenge. Note this will also count as Round 4 for SFR Solo series points, so make sure to register!

Thanks!

Ed Runnion, SFR Solo Chair

A Note From Our Solo Chief after Round 2

THANKS!!!

Thanks for coming out to SFR Round 2, at Crows Landing, for both the Saturday Test-n-Tune / Starting Line as well as the Sunday points event. I’d like to especially thank the Sports Car Club of America – Fresno Chapter folks who came out to run at Crows Landing! Thanks to course designer Matt Ales for wonderful courses both days. And as always, thanks for our event chairs both Saturday TnT (Justin Tsang and Mack Tsang) and Sunday (Jimmy Au-Yeung and Megan Francavilla Anderson).

NEXT EVENTS

Up next is SFR Round 3 at Marina on Saturday March 9th. Click here to register!

Later in March, SFR is hosting the Crows Landing ProSolo with the SCCA National Office on March 29-31. Find out more about the ProSolo and register here.

THANKS and see you out at our next events!

Ed Runnion, SFR Solo Chair

New SFR videos!

We are proud to present our collaboration with videographer Ben Beames, SFR SCAA member and racer, in making two videos about our events.

If you want to know more about autocross, check out our intro video:

To prepare for your first event, watch our orientation video, then e-mail us with any questions:

A Post-Event Note From the Solo Chair

THANK YOU

First off, THANK YOU to our attendees for coming out and running SFR Round 1 at Marina this past Saturday! Despite the pre-event threat of bad weather, we ended up with a mostly sunny day and a quickly drying course. The 4 run groups setup with “on the fly” worker changeover allowed us to complete 5 runs per competitor AND offer fun runs at the end of the day while still finishing up before 3pm! Great job by all involved to pull it off, and a special thanks to our Trailer Chief Troy Jennings for getting everything onsite early and in great shape. I would also like to thank our Round 1 Co-Chairs Youmna Zalzal and Justin Moore (Justin also designed the course) for a well run event.

NEXT EVENTS

We have a pair of events coming up at Crows Landing on Feb 23rd and 24th.

On the 23rd, we have a Test-n-Tune / Practice Course event. This will be set up so that you work a 1 hour shift and have 2 hours worth of running in the morning, a lunch hour, then repeat in the afternoon. There are plenty of runs to be had! Cost is $65, and you MUST pre-register through MSR. We will not offer on-site registration!

On the 24th, we are holding Round 2 of our 2019 Championship Series. Cost is $55 if you pre-register through MSR.

STARTING LINE

If you have any friends who are looking to get involved with driving in motorsports, the SCCA Starting Line school will also be held on Feb 23rd at Crows Landing (on a separate part of the site from the Test-n-Tune). Amongst the items you get with a Starting Line entry is a free entry to an SFR Solo Event, which can conveniently be used the next day at Round 2. Check out this link for details on the Starting Line program, and click here to register!

THANKS and see you out at our next events!

Ed Runnion, SFR Solo Chair

Pardon Our Mess!

Many of you have noticed that the site’s menu options have changed, and have asked where the information has gone. It’s all still there, just under a different heading or menu branch!

We’re in the process of consolidating pages and reorganizing so that, hopefully, the information will be easy to find in places that make sense.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to e-mail us or to message us via the Facebook Page.

A Note from Our Solo Chair

Hello and Welcome to SFR SCCA Solo 2019!

For this year, we have a few changes coming up. Questions? E-mail us at sfr_solo@sfrscca.org!

CLASSES

For 2019, we are combining some of our classes into “PAX” classes to help increase competition. We have also removed a few index classes (X, N, NS) and renamed one class (T2 becomes “STM” or “Street Tire Modified”). As a reminder, 2019 PAX values are published here: http://solotime.info/pax/rtp2019.html.

  • PAX Street Category Classes:
    • SS, AS, SSR grouped to Street 1 (S1)
    • BS, DS, FS to Street 2 (S2)
    • CS, ES to Street 3 (S3)
    • GS, HS to Street 4 (S4)
  • PAX Street Touring Category Classes:
    • STR, STU to Street Touring 1 (ST1)
    • STS, STH to Street Touring 2 (ST2)
  • PAX Street Prepared/Street Mod Category Classes:
    • SP-/SM-/BSPV (on race tires) in the Indexed “SP/SM” class (only change is BSPV gets added)
    • STM (formerly T2) is SP/SM category cars, restricted to 200+ TW tires
  • Carryover PAX Classes:
    • CAM-
    • P-
    • M-
  • Leave the following classes as standalone classes:
    • STX
    • SSC
    • STP, with PAX = (CAM-C PAX) – 0.002 = 0.818 for 2019

Note that there will likely be some permanent number conflicts (from 2018 numbers); for that we apologize. We’ll work through the conflicts on a case-by-case basis.

COST

Unfortunately as site expenses increase, we do have to increase event entry fees from time to time to make sure we stay solvent. We have been hit with a 20% (!) increase in daily rent for 2019 from one of our sites. As such, we are raising the single-day entry fee for a regular region event by $5/day (both pre-reg and walk-up rates). We are also working on being able to offer a discount if you enter BOTH days on a given weekend (i.e. 2 regular events, or a Test-n-Tune plus a regular event).

EVENT OPERATIONS

This year, we plan to generally run all run groups in the morning. When we have enough expected participants we will have 4 run groups, changing workers on the fly to minimize downtime between groups. This format makes it so participants never have to run then immediately work, or vice versa, and limiting downtime gets us more runs during the day.
For 4 run groups to work, we must have a minimum of 100 participants to a maximum of about 140 to have enough workers to staff the event but not so many runs that everyone is still on site until 4:00 PM. Please note that for events where we anticipate over 140 entrants, we will plan to have morning and afternoon run groups, like in previous years. If we have less than 100 expected entrants, we will have only 3 groups in the morning. A decision will be made by the Solo Chair when pre-reg closes, and participants will be notified of final run groups by email and via social media.

ANNUAL TECH

If you qualify, fill in the Annual Tech form here; keep the e-mail on hand to show when getting your sticker. Alternatively, you could download the Annual Tech form here, fill it out, and bring it to your next event.

With Annual Tech, you won’t have to worry about getting your car checked every event, and we’ll know at a glance that you’re good for the year.

ROUND 1 REGISTRATION

With all the above said, it’s time to register for our first event of 2019! It will be at Marina Municipal Airport (3200 Imjin Rd, Marina CA) on Saturday February 9th.

Click here to register!

See you in less than two weeks!

— Ed Runnion, Solo Chair

2019 SFR SCCA Autocross Schedule (TENTATIVE)

This is being released with a pretty big caveat: namely, the Marina dates are NOT FAA approved yet. Note this is true for EVERY club who runs at Marina this year after Feb 1st, not just SCCA.

These dates are tentative, with the understanding that if we do not receive FAA approval, we will have to change things.

  • Sat Feb 9th : Marina (Boondoggle / Season Opener)
  • Sat Feb 23rd : Crows Landing (Practice / Starting Line)
  • Sun Feb 24th : Crows Landing
  • Sat Mar 9th : Marina
  • Mar 29-31 : Crows Landing ProSolo (practice/setup on Friday, competition on Sat/Sun)
  • Apr 26-28 : Crows Landing Champ Tour / Northern Pacific CAM Challenge (practice/setup on Friday, competition on Sat/Sun)
  • Sat May 18th : Crows Landing
  • Sun May 19th : Crows Landing
  • Sun June 9th : Marina
  • Sat Aug 3rd : Marina
  • Sun Oct 6th : Marina
  • Sat Nov 2nd : Crows Landing Street Survival (not an event, will need a few volunteers to help out, being run by Teresa and Erika McKee)
  • Sun Nov 3rd : Crows Landing
  • Sat Nov 16th : Crows Landing (Practice / Starting Line)
  • Sun Nov 17th : Crows Landing

We hope to see our veterans and many new faces this season!