Prez Sezz

Hello Fellow Autocrossers,

2011 was a great year for Equipe Rapide and for autocrossing in the metroplex. We conducted our regular 10 event schedule and had a total of 223 unique competitors who took around 1400 runs on the course. During those runs they hit 490 cones, most of which were hit by Jeremy Foley. On top of our regular series we hosted five private events. The 2011 season could not have been such a success without the hard work and dedication of the board of directors John Garcia, Kim Whitener, Katelyn Johnson, David Whitener, Damon Bottorff, Danny Mehl, Mike McShane, Jim Bunch, and me.

The annual awards ceremony was held on Saturday December 5th at the Grapevine ELKS Lodge. The food was good and the party was fun. Katelyn Johnson won the balloon car race and the basket of chocolate. Screaming slingshot monkeys made a cameo and were flying across the room all evening long. They got more vigorous when certain people picked up their trophies. Thanks to Steve Eberlein, Carroll Trego, Greg Piper, and Todd Eaddy for donating door prizes.

We have our membership pre-pay set up online through AXWare club store. https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/loginuser.php
After you login select from the drop down menu My Controls > Club Store

We are offering a pre-pay discount of 10 events for the price of 7 which includes Rapide PAX. Membership is required for the pre-pay and it is only available till the first event on February 26th. For those less committed, registration is available for individual events. The individual events are not open for registration yet but will be available a couple of weeks before the first event.

2011 presented us with a situation at the HEB ISD. They were debating on whether they should rent Pennington Field for motorsports activities in the future. Due to the hard work of autocross groups including Equipe Rapide, SCCA, NTAX, and the BMW club we were able to retain Pennington field for autocross use. Our three conditions were that we limit noise, not start before 10 AM, and obtain a permit from the city of Bedford. All of these conditions were met with ease. Our 100 dBa sound policy and other local autocross clubs policies were enforced throughout the year and there were few if any instances where competitors were over the limit

For 2012 we are excited to have a new venue. Equipe Rapide opened the door to autocrossing at Resistol Arena in Mesquite. We will be hosting Challenge Cup #1 on February 26th and Challenge Cup #2 on March 25th. Resistol Arena is concrete and similar in size to Pennington. We have set the remainder of our schedule for 2012 which includes autocrosses at Pennington Field and Mineral Wells. The calendar can be seen at www.autocross.com/er

I am looking forwards to my second year as president of Equipe Rapide. I appreciate all those who offered words of encouragement and helped me in the past. The positive energy and enthusiasm that you all bring to the events makes this sport stand out among motorsports. You are a great bunch of guys and gals and I am eager to see you all again.

Sincerely,


Andy Cost
President – Equipe Rapide