This year’s local Sports Car Club of America region schedules are out, with chances for everyone to watch, help out, or join in as a driver.

Both the South Carolina Region of the SCCA and the Central Carolinas Region of the SCCA hold autocrossing, or “solo” events in South Carolina. Both regions run points series where drivers compete for a year-end championship.

The South Carolina Region is closest to the midlands, and holds both local events and South Carolina Autocross Championship points events.

Autocrossing is a low-speed competition where cars run through a small roadcourse made of cones one at a time against the clock. The lowest time in each class including penalties wins. Classes are divided up by modification levels, and knocking over cones or missing course features count against a driver’s time.

Autocrossing takes place at low speeds and the courses are bordered by cones to minimize the chance of incidents.

South Carolina Region SCCA
January 27 :: Autocross School :: Stratford High School :: Charleston, SC
January 28 :: Local Autocross :: Summerville High School :: Charleston, SC
February 24 :: SCAC Autocross :: Prince of Orange Mall :: Orangeburg, SC
March 17 :: SCAC Autocross :: Charleston Coliseum :: N. Charleston, SC
April 29 :: SCAC Autocross :: BMW Plant :: Greer, SC
May 19 :: SCAC Autocross :: Prince of Orange Mall :: Orangeburg, SC
June 9 :: SCAC Autocross :: SC State Fairgrounds :: Columbia, SC
July 14 :: SCAC Autocross :: SC State Fairgrounds :: Columbia, SC
August 11 :: SCAC Autocross :: Florence Civic Center :: Florence, SC
September 8 :: SCAC Autocross :: Florence Civic Center :: Florence, SC
October 21 :: SCAC Autocross :: BMW Plant :: Greer, SC
December 1 :: Local Autocross :: Summerville High School ::Summerville, SC

Drivers don’t need a traditional sports car to compete, you may go to an event and fine a 600 horsepower Dodge Viper, or a bone stock Toyota Yaris, above.

Central Carolinas Region SCCA
February 10 :: Test & Tune :: Knights Castle :: Rock Hill, SC
February 11 :: CCR Autocross #1 :: Knights Castle :: Rock Hill, SC
March ?? :: Autocross School :: TBA :: TBA
March ?? :: CCR Autocross #2 :: TBA :: TBA
April 15 :: CCR Autocross #3 :: Continental Tire Plant :: Charlotte, NC
May 13 :: CCR Autocross #4 :: Continental Tire Plant :: Charlotte, NC
June 16 :: CCR Autocross #5 :: Lowes Motor Speedway :: Concord, NC
July 8 :: CCR Autocross #6 :: NASCAR Technical Institute :: Mooresville, NC
August 12 :: CCR Autocross #7 :: Statesville Auto Auction :: Statesville, NC
September 1-2 :: CCR 24 Hour Autocross :: Continental Tire Plant :: Charlotte, NC
October 7 :: CCR Autocross #9 :: NASCAR Technical Institute :: Mooresville, NC
November 11 :: CCR Autocross #10 :: Statesville Auto Auction :: Statesville, NC

My picks - If you can’t make them all, here are the ones you don’t want to miss:

The March CCR Autocross School and Autocross event: usually done together and has a good price break for people that do both. You will get a good classroom session, time on the autocross course etc. Put your new-found knowledge to use the next day in a competition.

June 16 CCR Autocross at Lowes Motor Speedway An autocross done on the kart track in the infield of Lowes Motor Speedway while an SCCA Roadrace takes place on the oval/roadcourse. Pilot your car through an exciting autocross, then go watch GT cars, Formula cars and Touring cars battle it out on the high banks. Watch for a special event on Sunday the 17.

While autocrossing your car on the kart track, cars like these will be zooming around the high-banks.

October 21 BMW Plant Autocross Come up a day early For Eurofest and drive BMWs on an off-road course, on a skidpad/figure 8, and an autocross course. Look at Ferraris, Porsches and other European classics on the Concourse. The day after is the SCAC Event at the plant. There are usually a lot of interesting cars and people for this event.

The annual Eurofest event at the BMW Zentrum attracts enthusiasts and their cars to the upstate each fall.

For more information visit the regions on the web at www.scr-scca.com and www.ccrscca.com

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Modern motorsports is a cycle in a fight for attention. Good races bring higher TV ratings, better TV ratings bring, and keep, sponsors, and good sponsors make for more competitive teams, making more competitive races.

The last 10 years has been rough for open-wheel racing with a vicious fight for attention going on between the top two open wheel series in the US - Champ Car and the Indy Racing League.

Today’s Indy 500 not only ranks among the top of the IRL races, but of the all-time motorsports events -something that should bring more attention and the benefits that follow.

The last five laps of the 2006 Indy 500 saw Michael Andretti, a crowd favorite who had come out of retirement only a month before being passed by Marco Andretti, his 19-year-old rookie son for first place, and the second closest finish in Indy history when 26-year-old small town native Sam Hornish Jr. fought his way through both of them to take the lead, and his first Indy win on the final straight.

Michael, right, and Marco Andretti battle for the lead of the Indy 500.

Hornish had fought his way back from being nearly a lap down after a pit road violation got him a drive-through penalty, but in the end he and the team got a break from a late-race caution, and put themselves in position to take the win.

2006 Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr.

“Not everything went our way as we saw today, but we stuck together as a team,” Hornish said.

In the world of motorsports, you can’t buy that kind of feel-good ending. That feel-good ending will buy a series a lot though.

Like Danica-mania last year when the world saw a woman fight for an Indy 500 win, the birth of a star in Marco Andretti will continue to keep the series on top of the attention ladder.

One of the largest hurdles to overcome for the US open wheel series has been the lack of US drivers fighting for wins. Today’s finish at Indy was an American 1-2-3, with Danica Patrick and Scott Sharp filling out five of the top 10 for Americans.

Recently rumors have persisted that in 2007 there will be only one open wheel series, those rumors fueled by talks and meetings between series officials.

Today, it’s the Indy 500’s day. A full, safe race, great stories throughout and a finish that is sure to make the list of favorite moments for some time to come.

Tomorrow - next year - lets hope for one series, with focused media, focused teams, and all of the same great storylines and characters focused on one goal.

Let’s hope we are sticking together as a team.

Team Penske runs out to greet their winning driver Sam Hornish Jr.

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There are many traditions during the month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The 33 fastest cars start the race. They line up in 11 rows of three. The winner drinks milk in victory lane.

There are many traditions outside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well.

(Jesse Crow and his Ford F-150 in his traditional race-weekend spot near the speedway.)

Of those traditions, one of the most special is Jesse Crow, who will be 80 years old on June 11, and his pre-race tradition of camping on a residential street just a half-mile from the speedway.

For 31 years Crow has come to the Indy 500, bringing along one or both of his sons to enjoy the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

For 29 of those years, he has parked in the same spot on the same street even though the house he parks in front of has had two owners.

“I have more seniority than many of the people living on the street,” jokes Crow.

For most of the year, the quiet little street southeast of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway fits the movie-perfect image of a Midwestern neighborhood. Sprinklers water the lawns, children play on swings and couples take evening walks.

For race and qualifying weekends, the small-town street gets swept up in the hustle of traffic, the fans and the sounds of helicopters flying above.

When Crow comes to town each year, he still tries to bring a local flavor to the street.

“When I get here, I like to go to anyone that moved in over the past year and welcome them to the neighborhood,” Crow says.

Crow, a WWII veteran who made 17 jumps in the European theater as part of the 101^st airborne, shares the 500 with his sons.

His son Mike, who does PA announcing for small tracks across the Midwest and his son Scott, who is an over the road truck driver join him each year for the family tradition.

The first year only Mike and Jesse came to the race. They drove to the track in a Mustang II, and one slept in the back seat, and the other on the hood. Since then there have been seven other vehicles including two Hondas, a Pinto and an RX-7. Crow now drives his 2002 Ford F-150 with a custom bed cover that turns into a sleeping area.

Once they park, the three use bicycles to get around town because it is easier than fighting the race-weekend traffic.

When asked why he doesn’t book a hotel room since he knows he will be coming each year, Crow sites the tradition of being in the same spot.

“After a few years, it becomes a reunion.”

After leaving the military, Crow worked screen printing street signs in Illinois. He retired in 1991, and since then comes to his traditional parking spot on the Thursday before the race.

Crows favorite memories include AJ Foyt’s record-setting fourth win in 1977, Michael Andretti’s heartbreak in 1992 when he led most of the race and broke just a few laps from the end, Stan Fox’s horrifying crash in 1995, and the electricity in the crowd when Danica Patrick took the lead in 2005.

Of course lots of things change over three decades.

“It used to be a guy thing,” Crow said about the throngs of people that come to the race.

Since the coming of NASCAR the fans have been younger and there have been more women and children.”

One thing that doesn’t change is Crow’s spot on the street, and the atmosphere he encounters when he comes into town each May.

“When I worked making the road signs, I wanted to make a sign that said ‘Friendly Street’ for them to put up.”

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Everyone knows that April showers bring May flowers, but what do May showers bring?

A lack of qualifying attempts at the Indy 500.

Despite a split in the major open wheel series a decade ago that continues to hurt both series car counts, IndyCar teams brought 37 cars to Indianapolis that could have attempted to qualify for the 33 spots open for the Indy 500 on May 28.

For a while it looked like the traditional “bump day” activities would be exciting, with four drivers being sent home because they were not one of the fastest 33.

Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, Vision Racing, and AJ Foyt Enterprises all had extra cars that were up for grabs to the usual group of drivers walking around Gasoline Alley with helmets - but no rides.

Target Chip Ganassi Racing had a third car, but rain forced them to focus what little time they had on their two cars, including defending 500 winner Dan Wheldon, above.

Indy 500 veterans Jimmy Kite, Davey Hamilton, Ryan Briscoe and a smattering of other drivers were the main hot-shoes looking for a chance to play the match game with the open seats and get a chance to put a car in the show, but Mother Nature had other ideas.

Leading up to the 500, seven of the 12 days the speedway was open for on-track activities were hurt by rain. Three of them, including both of the first two days of qualifying, were total wash outs.

Qualifying wash outs kept anyone from being “safe” in the field, so when teams would normally shop out the extra cars and give drivers a chance to get up to speed, they couldn’t afford to divert attention to an extra car.

“When you go to teams asking about driving an extra car they always say ‘wait till we get the main car in the field,’ now that qualifying is washed out, it will hurt the drivers looking for rides,” said driver Stephan Gregoire on the washed-out second qualifying day.

Stefan Gregiore gets fitted for his seat in the Beck Motorsports entry. This year Stefan didn’t have to go looking for a ride like other drivers.

Gregiore has been on that side of the fence before, but this year he has a solid ride with the Beck Motorsports/Effen Vodka entry.

So while Stephan was safe in his seat, the drivers without rides watched their hopes for a shot being washed down the storm drains.

Target/Chip Ganassi Racing had to worry about putting two cars in the show with Scott Dixon and defending 500 winner Dan Wheldon, so they had no extra time for a third driver. Vision Racing was busy with Tomas Scheckter, Ed Carpenter, and Townsend Bell, so their plate was plenty full.

With so many “main” cars to get in the field it is easy to see why seven days of rain would hurt the chances of other drivers.

Shadows fall over the track and Larry Foyt on Sunday as “bump day” neared its end. Foyt was one of two drivers on his team, which almost gained a third driver late Sunday.

AJ Foyt Enterprises gave a look at putting a third car in the field, going as far as wheeling the car to pit road on Sunday and putting driver Ryan Briscoe in a suit, but a late practice crash by Marty Roth ended the chances of that car making the race, and any chances of bumping since Roth Racing was the only team left that could “bump” its way into the field.

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In Charlotte, the NASCAR drivers were running the Nextel All Star Challenge, beating and banging their way around the 1.5-mile Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

In Indianapolis, the TV set in the PDM garage was on the NASCAR race Saturday night, but no one was watching. The next day, the half-dozen or so guys that worked all night in garage 31 couldn’t even tell you who won - their attention was focused on the crashed car they had to rebuild, or more accurately, build, since everything was either new or hand-me-down from other teams.

On Thursday May 18 PDM driver Thiago Medeiros crashed his car hard in turn one shortly after turning laps in the 216 mph range. The car was virtually destroyed and there wasn’t much that could be fixed.

“The spotter told me there was a car low and I thought he was closer than he was, I gave room and got off-line,” Medeiros said after the crash.

PDM driver Thiago Medeiros shows the stress of waiting for his car to be fixed.

72 hours and 11 teams worth of parts later, there was a patchwork-quilt car rolling out of the PDM garage.

Fernandez Racing provided the tub, (cockpit and survival-cell part of the car) Sam Schmidt Motorsports provided the gearbox, and nine other teams pulled together in a stone-soup effort to make sure Thiago would have a shot at putting the PDM entry into the field for the ninetieth running of the 500 next Sunday.

Putting the car together is only part of the battle at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, qualifying is often referred to as “the race to get into the race” and is a large part of the ride that is the month of May in Indianapolis.

The PDM IndyCar 21 hours before it would go out on its qualifying run.

The Field for the Indy 500 is made up of the fastest 33 cars, so no matter how hard you work, if you are not one of those 33, you get to watch the race from home.

The final day of qualifying is known as “Bump Day” because once the field is full, the slowest car in the field gets “bumped” from the line-up. Most of the time the big name teams are safe with speeds fast enough to keep them out of reach of the smaller teams, so bump day gets to be a battle of the underdogs.

We know who to root for when it is David vs. Goliath, but what about when it is David vs. David? On Sunday, the other “David” was Marty Roth.

Marty Roth practicing for Indy 500 qualifications.

Roth, a Canadian businessman and off and on racecar driver, was trying to make his third Indy 500 start. A graduate of the Indy Pro Series, the minor league for the IndyCars, Roth moved his team up for 2006, and had been struggling with his car all week. By Sunday, he had managed to spin his car three different times without hitting anything - a type of luck usually reserved for lottery winners.

“Thiago, go put your suit on.”

While Marty was struggling to find speed safe enough to keep him from getting bumped, The PDM team had put their car through tech and it was ready to go out on track. Team owner Paul Diatlovich’s command for Thiago to get dressed was a happy moment for the crew and the group of people watching the drama unfold in Gasoline Alley.

Thiago Medeiros on track.

As the day would unfold, the speeds for both Roth and Medeiros would creep up. Roth would find trouble getting over 200mph at first, then worked into the 209 mph to 211 mph range. Medeiros found 214 quickly, but then seemed to drop back as the team tweaked on the car looking for more speed.

Both the Roth and PDM teams bounced back and forth from the track to the garage, working on the cars, trying to find those precious adjustments that would mean making the field.

Meanwhile, in the Foyt garage, rumblings started that the four-time winner would bring out a third team car and have driver Ryan Briscoe try to qualify. If Briscoe would try to run the car it would be a story in itself. The driver who was walking around the garage area all month looking for a ride hadn’t driven an IndyCar since a high-flying crash last year left him with a few broken bones.

With time winding down to the 6 pm deadline, the tensions in the garages and pit road could be felt, and after a few adjustments, Medeiros was ready to make an attempt in the multi-colored No. 18.

Thiago Medeiros, left, gets instruction from IndyCar driver Max Papis, who will start the 500 in 18th place.

Of the 32 cars so far qualified, P.J. Jones was the slowest so far. Medeiros would need a 215.8 mph average to keep from being the slowest, and in danger of being bumped.

His first three laps were fast enough, but a slow fourth lap would put his average speed at 215.7mph. Now the slowest car in the field, Medeiros and the PDM team would have to sit and wait to see what speeds Roth or Briscoe could bring to the table.

Shortly after Medeiros run, Roth found some speed, running a practice lap of 215.9 mph, fast enough to bump the PDM car from the field if he could string together four laps in a row at that speed.

Knowing he would need a little more for insurance, Roth went out for a run with a little less downforce before he would try to qualify.

Downforce is adjusted by ride-height and wings, and helps a driver by using the air to help the car stick to the track. The trade-off is that it also slows the car down. The trick to finding speed in an IndyCar is finding that spot where you have enough downforce to stick to the track, but not so much that your car is slow on the straights.

Marty Roth found he didn’t have enough downforce to stick to the track, and this time without spinning, his car slid into the turn one wall. Marty climbed from the car unhurt, but his chances for a third consecutive Indy 500 start were destroyed.

“The car was pushing for the whole month. It was still pushing today. We did some changes, and it just didn’t work out,” Roth said.

Marty Roth does an interview after his crash on Sunday.

The resulting clean-up would stop Briscoe from getting a chance to get the AJ Foyt entry to speed, and Thiago Medeiros and the PDM crew breathed a sigh of relief knowing they were safe in the field.

Of course, that is just the race to get into the race, so though it is over for the day, everyone knows there is a much bigger battle in a week.

“It was the best 10 miles in my whole life,” Medeiros said after his qualifying run, “Now I am just looking forward to my best 500 miles next Sunday.”

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