Auto Cross Season
Summary
AutoSports Northwest 2009 Auto Cross Season
started in April with a BMW/Mini Novice
Driving School with over 35 drivers
registered. nwBMwclub was granted this
day as a thank you by AutoSports Northwest
for donating an electronic reader board and
becoming their Title Sponsor for 2009.
nwBMWclub carried this day right over to the
actual season kick off on April 25th and
26th with Rodd taking first place both days,
Adam finishing 2nd and 1st, Doug smoking the
novice class and Michon taking 2nd place on
Saturday. The rest of the year
finished much like the first weekend.
Rodd ended up winning class, Adam finished
2nd overall in a very tough Street Mod Class
and was within mere points of taking home
first.
Rodd and Adam were not the only drivers in
nwBMWclub to step it up however. David
finished 3rd for the season in NS2 (also
took home Most Improved Male Driver Award),
James took 3rd in NS1, and Chris finished
3rd in NS3. Overall 5 total season
trophies for nwBMWclub. Saleem,
Preston, Patrick and Michon were all very
close to finishing the season with a trophy.
Preston had car troubles towards the end of
the season and Saleem, Patrick and Michon
were just a couple of events short to
qualify.
The 2009 Season put on by ASNW far and
exceeded any expectations I had going into
this season. I CANNOT thank the
officers of ASNW (Especially Logr Mike)
enough for the work they put in this season.
I also want to thank Rodd Tidd for helping
all of nwBMWclub with their driving, car
setups and more. And a final thank you
to Kevin Johnston. If it was not for
Kevin getting this club turned on to Auto
Cross I don't know where our club would be.
Thank you everyone who helped and competed
this year!
I don't know about anyone else but I cannot
wait for 2010!
Who is already planning for next year?
2009 Events Summary
The 2009 Events Calendar started off with
the Annual Spokane Euro Cruise around Lake
CDA in April. The turnout this year
was excellent with over 80 cars and a blast
had by all. I expect this event to be
on again in April 2010.
Picture Gallery
We once again had our annual Montana Run in
September. We changed the route up
this year and without a doubt, this was the
best drive any of us have been on.
Incredible road with close to 20 BMWs
tearing it up. We lunched in Thompson
Falls, Montana and headed back the same way,
where we again had a blast and took some
amazing pictures on the top of the pass.
The 5th year of the Montana Run will be
happening in September 2010.
Picture Gallery
Another annual event, Fall Colors III drive
featured a completely new route going
through Chewelah Peak and into Metaline
Falls where we had lunch. Incredible
road with great scenery right along the
water. The return trip had a bit of a
snag as the group got a bit turned around up
North and probably made 5 U-Turns.
Overall though, great fun had by all.
We will be doing the Fall Colors Drive in
October of 2010 but look for a different
route this time.
Picture Gallery
Gary Stenzel and James Haile attended the
annual Hot Wheels Car Show in Millwood Park
this last July. This is a very well
run car show and Gary took home a 3rd Place
Honorable Mention with his beautiful E30 M3.
Not bad for the only German car at an
American Car Show. A big thank you to
Jeff and Tracy for putting up with Gary and
James the whole day.
Picture Gallery
In July many of nwBMWClub Members attended a
Show & Shine Car Show and Pizza Feed hosted
by Inland Empire BMW and Chris Brown.
The show featured some very original cars
(including an original Mini!) and great
people. A good time was had by all and
David took home an award for cleanest BMW.
We all think it was rigged as he's the local
club detailer but we'll let it slide this
time. Thank you IEBMW and Chris Brown
for inviting us.
Picture Gallery
In-between all of the Drives, Auto Crossing
and Car Shows, nwBMWclub instituted a
bi-weekly "Meet & Eat" Get-Together on
Friday evenings. We had dinner at
random places from Jack In The Box, to
Flamin' Joes to Taste of India (Thanks
Viktor for hosting!). We plan to do
this again next year but probably on a
Monthly Basis or plan it more around major
club events and Auto Cross.
A big thank you goes out to everyone who
made these events possible. We can
plan events all day long but without the
people of nwBMWclub showing up, we would be
nothing. Thank You - James and Jake.
Club Business
Northwest BMW Club has grown leaps and
bounds over the last year. Our
"membership" has tripled and we expect 2010
to be just as productive. With that
said Jake and James have worked very hard
keeping up on the website, maintaining the
forum, advertising, and overall just
improving the club experience for our
members. nwBMWclub will NEVER be a
club in which there are yearly dues. This
is a club for BMW Drivers by BMW Drivers.
The donations we received this year went
directly to paying for our hosting fees
($120/year) which we just paid and other
expense like the Sponsoring Scott Norton,
the reader board we donated to ASNW and
those neat little stickers you see on our
windows. So a BIG thank you to those
who have donated in this tough economy.
As mentioned above, nwBMWclub donated an
Electronic Reader Board to Autosports
Northwest. This made nwBMWclub the
Title Sponsor and entitled all members of
nwBMWclub a discount at all ASNW events for
2009. The result of this along with
the BMW/Mini Novice School was a great
season featuring over 20 of our club members
racing this year with Autosports Northwest
and 5 members taking home season trophies
for their efforts.
My favorite moment of 2009 came when we
decided to sponsor Scott Norton and his
budget SCCA race team. Scott was
making his way from Seattle when him and his
brother stopped in Ritzville to fill up.
They noticed a ton of transmission fluid
leaking from their tow truck. Thinking
their transmission was gone, Scott called up
Jake. At the time, we had planned a
small BBQ at Jake's home in preparation for
Scott and his brother's arrival.
Without hesitating, Doug, Jake, Saleem and
James packed up and took off for Ritzville
to "rescue" Scott and his brother Cameron -
at 10PM, on a Thursday. Scott
not only raced in all of the available races
at the Spokane Grand Prix but he also put on
the race of the weekend narrowly coming in
2nd place. Thank you Scott and Cameron
for allowing us to be a part of your
weekend. We look forward to sponsoring
you next year.
2010 will bring much of the same as 2009.
More members, Auto Cross, Montana Run, Meet
& Eats, Sponsoring ASNW and Scott Norton.
One change will be the entrance of nwBMWclub
Members into the Chump Car race series.
Rodd, Kevin J, Adam, James and David Harding
not only plan to enter the Chump Car race in
Spokane, but we fully expect to finish the
24-Hour Endurance Race. With the help
of Brendan, Kevin D and others, I think we
can make this happen. Keep an eye on
the forum for more information of this event
as it gets closer.
Final Note
Thank you everyone for an incredible
2009! See you all in 2010 and don't
forget to sign up on the
Forums!
