Tidewater Sports Car Club

Tidewater Sports Car Club
The premier autocross club of SE Virginia

Welcome to the TSCC Website

Founded in Norfolk Virginia in 1953, Tidewater Sports Car Club (TSCC) has a strong foundation within the local Hampton Roads autocross community and surrounding areas (140+ club members in 2009).

Our autocross season runs from March through November with events taking place on the 2nd or 3rd Sunday of the month. We usually host a novice autocross school early in the season on the Saturday before our Sunday event. This is a great opportunity for new participants to get involved with autocross.

Our club is not solely structured around autocross. TSCC is, as the name implies, a car club, supporting the enthusiast. Car shows, social gatherings, and community involvement are just a few of the extracurricular activities in which TSCC participates.

We host a charity event at least once a year where all the proceeds from the event are donated to a designated charity. Since 2005, we have donated over $20,000.00 to various local and national charities.

Letter from the President

As the 32 of you who voted know, a new board has been put into place for the 2012 season. First, we should all thank the members of the 2011 board for their hard work and the success of the season despite some incredibly daunting hurdles including the loss of our beloved ACU-4 venue. The board members took a bad situation and made it work through creativity and hard decisions. I do not envy the position they were in at this time last year.
My thanks go to Mike Schnesker for leading the charge into the storm last year as President and for offering to help out in so many ways for this year.

Thanks to Jeff Schmidt who is leaving his position as VP of Competition after doing a great job last year. I believe Jeff is going to be focussing on bringing his girls into the sport via a cart this year which should be fun to watch in the least.

Thanks to Neal Davis who is returning to continue as VP of Competition for yet another year. What does this make? Three years in a row? I have to say I would have reluctant to consider accepting the nomination to President if Neal were not returning this year. And his challenges are just beginning as Andria graduates from the cart into a real car, both at our events and on the street.

Thanks to Russ Parham who is moving from VP of Membership to VP of Competition. I have heard that Russ has been hard at work already plotting his work as VP of Competition and has the same challenge as Neal with Kali moving into a fendered vehicle this year.

Thanks to Angela Wood who is returning as our Treasurer and despite our best efforts managed to keep the club from going bankrupt this past year AND managed to fund the banquet as well. Angela has performed tasks well above and beyond her post as Treasurer routinely ever since joining the board, something I do not anticipate will stop any time soon. On top of all of that she too gets the joy of seeing Andria move off into a real car both in competition and on the street.

Thanks to John Settle as well for his service as VP of Public Relations. We did not get to see much of John toward the end of the year due to personal business which kept him away. We hope that there is some positive resolution in these matters and that he will be back with us in full force this year as a competitor.

Thanks to Steve Fehr who is returning as our Webmaster for another year. Steve has been instrumental in keeping all of you informed via our web site and already has plans for how to leverage or extend it to provide an even better flow of information.

As you see above, a number of our stalwart officers are returning in the same or new positions. For that, I am truly thankful. As the saying goes "It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom." Without the efforts of our 2011 Board members this past year could have been the year Tidewater Sports Car Club could have experienced that sudden stop.

And the board members are just the tip of the iceberg as far as those who worked so hard to make the club work. I am not even going to try and name them all here because I will invariably forget someone who was extremely important. So just remember, this is a Volunteer organization. Every bit of help by everyone is greatly appreciated. This is one of those instances where the sum of the efforts input is truly greater than the whole.

Speaking of Volunteers, I wanted to thank those that accepted their nominations for board positions this year. Many have stayed from last year or shuffled around a bit but others have stepped up to fill the shoes of those who needed to move on.

As mentioned, Neal Davis is returning as VP of Competition while Russ Parham has moved up to work in tandem with Neal as VP of Competition as well. Angela Wood is squeezing the pennies to within an inch of their life again on our behalf while Steve Fehr will continue to be the master of our web.

Peter Florance, who has continually contributed his genius of electronics to our sound, broadcast and timing systems over the years, is taking on the role of VP of Public Relations. It will not be a totally new task for him as he has been heading up the club's site acquisition team for some time now. Peter's primary is not one I would wish on my worst enemy and one I have participated in myself. I will speak later on the process of site acquisition and call for your help.

Jenny Anderson has stepped up to assume the role of VP of Membership. Among her tasks will be coordinating both the board and membership meetings each month as well as the grand celebration that is our annual banquet. On that later task she will have very large shoes to fill as Angela has done a stellar job for the past couple of years.

Augmenting these folks will be our Chiefs. A relatively new member has accepted the job as Chief of Timing and Scoring, Brian Wells. Brian has been autocrossing for a bit over a year and I think if we can manage not to burn him out this year, we might be able to coax him to move into one of the elected positions next year to give a break to some of the people who have been carrying the load for awhile. Donna Marx is assuming the role of Chief of Security to ensure we get everyones signature on the waiver and to make sure the gate stays manned for the duration of our events.

Currently there are a couple of slots as of yet unmanned, Chief of Tech and Chief of Workers. I know the outgoing board mentioned one or both of these positions to individuals but I have honestly not yet had a chance to see whom and if they accepted. Cameron McCormick ran for VP of Competition but didn't win his bid. I am hoping he will be willing to perhaps pick of one of these Chief spots while plotting his campaign for next year.

As you may have noticed on the TSCC website we have scheduled our first event for Pungo this year. The Navy declined our request again for access back out to ACU-4. We are still looking at some partnerships and other avenues but there is nothing in the pipeline to give us more than a glimmer of hope. But do not dispair for all is not lost. As mentioned previously, Peter Florance is charging ahead with the task of helping us secure other locations, if not to replace Pungo then to at least add some variety.

There will be a new thread opened up on the forum where people can suggest sites to be reviewed for suitability and consideration. We do ask, that unless you have a personnal relationship with the owner/manager of potential site that you not approach them initially about its use. Some venues may have already been approached and we don't want anyone getting annoyed or skitish because they think multiple clubs want to use the site and deny our proposal. Also, there are sites still around that TSCC held events at in the past but it turns out time and evolved concepts of safety may have made their use untenable now.

What we would like, is for you to send your recommendations to Peter Florance directly or via the thread on the forum that will appear very soon. This can allow Peter to provide feedback on if he has already investigated the site. Once he has identified a site as a potential candidate, some of the board and his team would visit the site, if possible, to do a physical survey. They will of course be looking at size, obstructions, surface condition, accessibility and a number of other factors including trying to determine what of value we as a club will bring the partnership. Because that is exactly what we will need to establish. A partnership with the site ownership and management. Few businesses will be willing to let us use their facilities out of the kindness of their hearts. We need to show that we can provide some sort of mutual benefit be that in the form of monetary compensation, physical labor perhaps to clean up a site that is run down or some sort of charitable partnership. So please, keep your eyes open for locations and feed that data to Peter.

We anticipate doing some sort of event out at the US Training Center again during the season. What and when has yet to be determined. We are also considering other venues, some of which are not 'in' the Tidewater area but which we think will provide enough value to you, our members, to justify the cost and travel. We are additionally considering perhaps a few alternative events such as perhaps a Poker Run or Road Rally type event if there is enough interest. While the clubs focus in the past has been autocross, we ARE the Tidewater Sports Car Club, not the Tidewater Autocross Club. Keep your ears and eyes open for more on those items in the near future.

I also have a few goals for the club and board to achieve this year outside of the really fun stuff. Our Bylaws and competition regulations are in dire need of updating to come in line with how we really operate in this new day and age. So I am putting a stake in the ground that we will update one or both by the end of the season. Having a good, valid set of Bylaws to direct the board on how to act as well as to inform our membership what they should expect from the board is extremely important. Having a good set of rules for competition that clearly provide guidance to our members as to what, when, where, how and so forth is also highly important. Without these rules in writing (or do we say 'in typing' in this digital age?) then the competitors do not know how to best prepare and compete. We will address this issue.

In recent years, I have noticed a change of tone in the publications coming from the SCCA. They have begun to focus more on the membership as customers which is truly what they are in an organization like that. TSCC may not be a for profit entity, but we do provide a service. A number of services to more to the point. I want to ensure that we as a board, as Chiefs of our respective areas and as a club put this as the first priority on our list of to-do. Please do not take this as my saying this has not been done in the past. On the contrary, a lot of discussions last year at this time discussed what 'value' was being provided to members and participants alike. No, I do not feel the clubs has forgotten this, but I also want to ensure we continue to value this fact.

-We provide a service by hosting, sanctioning, insuring and running a safe, fun and challenging autocross event eight or nine times are year.

- We provide a service by giving our competitors, member and non-member, a venue to get that 'Red Mist' out of their right foot and hopefully helping them stay on the right side of the law.

- We provide the service of giving a place for younger competitors whether in a cart or in their first car to come out, safely compete and learn the skills and values provided not only by our sport but through participation in competition itself.

- We provide the service of acting as a hub to allow like minded individuals from all walks of life who would likely never meet, to gather together and enjoy each other.

- We provide the service of acting as a charitable organization to help others in this world who perhaps for awhile cannot help themselves.

- We provide a service of helping our members and competitors to improve their own level of skill through our driving schools.

All of these services are extremely important. Some members partake of them all. Others may only utilize one or two. That, too, is a service we provide. The means by which our member and competitors can chose how involved they become. Ours is the only autocross club I know of that provides for non-members to participate in, and win, in the season class and overall competitions.

My e-mail box and phone are always open to each and everyone of you whether member or not. I hope that you will consider upping your game in competition and in your participating in the club.

Keath Marx,
President, Tidewater Sports Car Club
Feb 15, 2012

TSCC Cafe Press Store: Grand Opening

Tidewater Sports Car Club's Cafe Press Store is now open for business! Rather than doing batch-runs once a year, TSCC has opened a Cafe Press store so that everyone can order the shirts they want on-demand. A wide variety of high-quality TSCC-branded merchandise is available, including shirts, hoodies, jackets, mugs, water bottles, keychains, tote bags, iphone cases, and more. Prices for t-shirts and sweatshirts are comparable to what we've paid in the past, but a wider variety of styles is available, including golf shirts and moisture-wicking tees.

TSCC Mug ($12.99)

2012 Club Officers

President: Keath Marx
VP Competition: Neal Davis
VP Competition: Russ Parham
VP Membership: Jenny Anderson
Treasurer: Angela Wood
Public Relations: Peter Florance
Webmaster: Steve Fehr

Contact the Club Board

2012 Schedule

2012 Autocross Series Dates Subject to Change!
Date	Status
Mar 17 - T&T
Mar 18 - Pungo
Apr 15 - Pungo
May 19 - School*
May 20 - Pungo
Jun 17 - TBD**
Jul 15 - TBD**
Aug 19 - TBD**
Sep 16 - TBD**
Oct 21 - TBD**
Nov 18 - TBD**

Year End Points

Results
Archive

* TSCC Novice School ("Cone Clinic") willl be held at Pungo Airfield in VA Beach, and will be oriented towards true-novices.
** Site selection committee is exploring use of several autocross sites in the greater Hampton Roads area. Specific sites will be announced later in the season. TSCC will make use of multiple sites for this year's championship autocross series.