New England Grand Prix Challenge
by Fred Beck1998 New England Grand Prix Challenge Photo Gallery
Click on any image for a larger version.
Fred Beck's 38.81 was the fastest Boston Chapter time. (all photos by Tom Goltz)
The Third Annual New England Grand Prix Chapter Challenge (NEGPC) turned out extremely well. We had 36 attendees, 21 from the Boston Chapter and 15 from the White Mountain Chapter participating on a sunny and hot (96F) day. This is the largest NEGPC so far.
The strong turnout from the White Mountain Chapter really increased the fun factor at this year's event! In addition, help in registration and timing from a number of on-the-spot volunteers really made things run smoothly.
Competition between the two chapters was extremely tight, with the fate of the Chapter Challenge trophy being decided by the last few drivers at the very end of the day.
The first three runners-up overall had best times separated by only 0.01 seconds (38.74, 38.73, and 38.72 seconds). The top three Boston Chapter drivers averaged 38.95 seconds, beating the 39.08 second average of the top three White Mountain Chapter drivers by a margin of only 0.13 seconds overall! Thus, the Boston Chapter won the NEGP Chapter Challenge title for the third year in a row, but only by a hare's breath.
The winners from the Boston Chapter are Fred Beck, Fedja Jeleskovic, and Chris Friot. The winners from the White Mountain Chapter are Phil Brown, Dave Foote, and Mario Langston. Phil Brown of the White Mountain Chapter had the FTD with a run of 38.35 seconds. Jim Stephen and Mark Khoury tied for most consistent timed runs of the day, each with a standard deviation of 0.03 seconds. The next most consistent was Chris Friot with a standard deviation of 0.07 seconds. Shelley Lynch came in 1st in Women's Class and 24th overall.
With such a large turnout we ran into problems with everyone being able to drive and qualify in the car of their choice. NEGP offers both 2-stroke and 4-stroke go-karts, and one of the 4-strokes in particular appeared to be the fastest. So, unfortunately many people had to wait so that they could take their turn in what seemed to be the "fast" car for the day. We will work to address this problem next year, possibly by testing all of the 4-strokes the day before and implementing a handicapping scheme to level the field across cars.
Another issue was cutting of corners. NEGP has yellow lines on the berms, and the cars are not supposed to ride over the berms above these lines. If the NEGP officials see this happen they will disqualify the driver, but they cannot be expected to be on the lookout at all times. We will approach NEGP next year to see if we can provide corner workers with walkie talkies to ensure that such transgressions do not occur.
All in all the event was a great success, and now that the White Mountain has come so close to victory we can be sure they will come back in force next year. Given the above issues that need to be dealt with, I welcome both suggestions and hands-on help to make next year's event even better than this year's event. Please contact me at fbeck@boston-bmwcca.org with your comments and suggestions. Until next year, keep the hammer down and the shiny side up!
- October 1998 BIMMER
- Behind the Wheel: A Spartanburg Weekend
- Under the Hood: The 5000 Mile Month
- Crushing The Cones: Driver Satisfaction Quotient
- October 1998 New Members
- New England Grand Prix Challenge
- New England Grand Prix Challenge Photo Gallery
- 1998 Autocross 5 Photo Gallery
- Third Quarter General Meeting
- Third Quarter General Meeting Photo Gallery
- Election Time!
- Boston Chapter Board Meeting Minutes: August 1998
- More Boston Bimmer articles by Fred Beck
- President's Page: Mr. Beck Goes To Washington November/December 2000 Bimmer
- President's Page: Calling All Members October 2000 Bimmer
- President's Page: Bonjour, Chapitre de Boston! September 2000 Bimmer
- President's Page July/August 2000 Bimmer
- President's Page June 2000 Bimmer
- There are 51 more Boston Bimmer articles by Fred Beck
