Four For Four

Fred Beck and Justin Hughes (photo by Aimee Reveno)

New this year, participants could register in either a novice or experienced class, allowing first timers a chance at a trophy. Thirty people showed up, split evenly between novice and experienced drivers.

The Boston Chapter took first, second, and third place in both the experienced and novice classes. The top three drivers from the Boston Chapter bested the top three drivers from the White Mountain Chapter, putting the Boston Chapter in the winner's circle for the fourth year in a row by a margin of 1.16 seconds. The class trophies and the Chapter Challenge trophy, a beautiful silver bowl mounted on a wooden pedestal, will be awarded at the Fourth Quarter General Meeting at BMW of Peabody. Congratulations to Kevin Camire, the top Boston Chapter driver, who will hold the Chapter Challenge trophy for the next year.

In an attempt to make the event as fair as possible, we placed traffic cones at the apex of every corner. This was to prevent people from driving on the curbs to cut corners, ensuring that everyone drove the same course. While this idea was good in concept, in practice it was difficult to administer because we were not allowed to reset cones ourselves. Because NEGP runs 3 to 4 cars at a time, when a cone got hit a number of cars had to avoid the fallen cone. Unfortunately, reruns due to downed cones were not provided by the ownership of NEGP.

Also in the interest of fairness, we set aside what we thought were the two fastest cars, one 2-stroke and one 4-stroke, to be used for the official timed runs of the advanced group. Practice runs were taking in any cars but these two, and all official timed runs were taken in any combination of the two designated cars. The intent was to level the playing field, but the reality was that some of the cars used for practice were faster than the designated cars. It was sometimes difficult to adjust to the different handling characteristics of the official cars, and therefore times were not as good as they could have been.

While many of the participants had a great time taking their runs, the timekeeping was an exercise in frenzied dementia, as a car was coming across the finish line about every 15 seconds. This is not an exercise that the NEGPC chair wants to repeat.

Given the problems associated with using cones on a course that we did not control, the lack of no-cost reruns when the course had been blocked by another car's actions, the inequality between cars, and the required pace of timekeeping, it is unlikely that this event will be held at the New England Grand Prix in the future.

However, since so many people enjoy the competition of the go carts, and because we have inside information that a world quality indoor go carting track will be opening just south of Boston sometime early next year, we hope to be able to hold the next generation of the Chapter Go Cart Challenge at this new facility. The benefits are that the cars will be identically prepared, equipped with transponders, and a computerized system will automatically keep track of timing and scoring. The event should be very exciting because it will be wheel-to-wheel racing instead of simply racing against the clock. Stay tuned for details.

We'd like to thank everyone who joined us from both the Boston and White Mountain Chapters and made this a fun event despite the difficulties we encountered. A special thanks to Phil Brown, who coordinated the White Mountain Chapter's involvement this year. There seems to be quite an interest in carting among club members, and we'd like to hear from you what kind of events you'd like to attend. Please contact Fred Beck with your interests, comments and/or suggestions.

November/December 1999 BIMMER

Behind the Wheel: Kudos All Around by Fred Beck

Under the Hood: Aught Aught? by Greg Scott

Crushing The Cones: Autocross 7 runs at 110% efficiency! by Fred Beck and Justin Hughes

November/December 1999 New Members by Barry Tarr

Turns To Take: Watch The Sign by Maria Anggraeni

1999 Boston Chapter Concours: Fit To Be Tied by Dan Mull

1999 Boston Chapter Concours: Fit To Be Tied Photo Gallery by Dan Mull and Kathy Mull

Dinan Tech Session at BMW Gallery Norwood: Performance Without Sacrifice by John Sullivan

1999 New England Grand Prix Chapter Challenge: Four For Four by Fred Beck

BMW CCA 30th Anniversary Model Cars by Wynne Smith

2000 Boston Chapter Elections by Greg Scott

October 1999 Board Meeting Minutes: Special Voting Board Only Meeting by Will Farnsworth

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