My thoughts on the first RTTS

[Bill Howell]

Guys,
Thanks to everyone that came out. I know there were some that couldn't attend due to weather and I truely hate that for you. As it turned out, the weather, other than being windy and cold was fine, but from what I can gather 40 miles north was a different story so we certainly dodged a bullet.
A special thanks to Carbon Kustoms for being our event sponsor, without Albert the show would have been hard for me to pull off. Mike Manning and American Autowire for all you did getting the leg work done before the event, and for sponsoring the dinner. That was probably the best dinner and venue we have ever had at any event, certainly top notch food, service and setting. Bruce, thanks for your contribution about your track experience and sharing the video and slides with us.
Thanks to Sean for a great logo, I had so many people commenting on it all weekend, you did good my friend. Great to see you beating on the chevelle too. Great weekend for sure.
Thanks to my long time sponsor, Richard Winchester and BF Goodrich for always being there supporting and for sending us Matt so we could pick on him on his "birthday" and he could help with tire questions and issues. He also helped out on scoring which turned out to be a huge help on the big track.
NJMP staff, Joe especially, thanks for all you did to make this event a success. Chris and crew at the autocross, we really appreciate how smooth you made that portion of the event and look forward to next year.
For those that stayed over on Sunday, I am sure you guys will comment on how good the Karting track guys were to work with. Thanks guys for shifting the venue there as we did not have as many show up as we had originally planned on.

And, especially to the participants, thanks for coming and supporting. I can assure you it is alot of pressure to sign your name to a contract to do an event then hope enough people sign up and pay so you don't have to come out of your pocket with a bunch of money to cover the cost. This first year was a break even deal and I am great with that. I just hate it for those that could not come after they had registered due to car issues or weather issues.

We absolutely will do this again next year, maybe just move it to a later date so it will be a bit warmer. I would like to think we can get enough interest to do TWO days on the track. It is such a great venue and I loved the track. I think it is a great venue for the protouring crowd.

I had plenty of time to go over the event in my head on the 11 hour ride home yesterday and I have made this comment to several that have asked. I saw about 35 new and different cars at this event that have not been to any other event so in my mind that proved we picked the right area to host another winning event. It was refreshing to see so many new cars and meet so many of my fellow board members. Now that you guys have had a taste of the RTT? events, I hope you will spread the word and know that next year will only get better.

Finally, congratulations to Vinnie! He certainly deserved the King of the Shore trophy and OUSCI invite as he won both the road course and autocross events. Vinnie came really close to winning a couple years back at RTTHs so it was good to see him win at the first RTTS. I look forward to seeing him at other events this year and then to see that beautiful Camaro at SEMA and OUSCI in November. He is certainly a fine example of what these events are all about and will represent the hobby well at OUSCI.