To the prod peeps and my email “Gang of Chris:”
First I want to thank everybody for some great ideas and suggestions for a Chris Fox Memorial, and to let you know that I have $620 in pledges, plus 10 people (so far) who have said they will throw money at this but have not named a specific amount. And we have not yet “gone public” with this.
Naming this year’s National at Summit Point in Chris’s honor is simply not going to fly. More than anything, that’s because of the late date. The DC Region leadership thinks it would just look slapdash to try to do something for this year, and they don’t want to make hash of it. If we’d had a “group” a month earlier, before the supps went out, it would likely have made a difference.
However, that still leaves open the possibility of future naming rights, as well as consideration of some kind of region perpetual end-of-year award. And Jack Burrows (RE) would fully support both of those ideas.
It also leaves open the possibility of a small bore Memorial Race for this year. Because the small bore group can just decide on their own to do that. (At the moment, however, there are only 8 cars registered for that race, though ‘tis early days yet.)
Most of the feedback I have gotten has been in favor of some kind of “Spirit of the Sport” award, which would mean a single trophy. I’m copying the info supplied by CBB for the MG Collier cup as a guide. We don’t have to do it this way, of course.
The only people who can vote are the MG racers who are entered in the vintage race weekend at The Glen. They are given a form that lists the MG entrants and are asked to select who they would like to receive this year's Collier Cup award. A person is only supposed to win once (the form lists who won in previous years), but there have been a couple of incidents where someone has won twice. The voting form is handed out at the beginning of the race weekend or during the morning of the Collier Cup race. Usually someone just walks around to the MG racers to hand out the form. It must be returned before the Collier Cup race to whoever is organizing the voting, so that the winner can be determined in advance of the race because the award is made immediately after the race. Theoretically, the voters are supposed to select who they feel is an MG Vintage Racer who is worthy of the award, but there have been some occasions when some MGVR staff have encouraged voters to select a particular person for some reason. One example might be a long time vintage racer who is retiring from vintage racing that year, or someone who they feel deserves the award for some reason.
Randy has told me he wants to be considered ineligible for any such award.
Now the organizational glitch: In about 30 hours I will be on a plane to Ireland, and will not be back until late Tues, May 17. [Note that Chris and Randy were supposed to be on this trip with us, along with Ray and Gay Stone. Here’s to those who have gone before us.] Which means I am essentially out of the loop for anything that might happen this year, other than being there.
So for anything to happen in 3 weeks, someone else is going to have to take charge of it. Any takers? Whoever steps up, I’ll send the pledge list and other resources for “The Inaugural Chris Fox Memorial Small Bore Race 2011” and other future projects TBD.
There will be a participation memento, already taken care of.
AND for the region to do the right thing, we’re going to have to have a committee of some kind to pull it together for the future. Any volunteers for that as well? Besides me?
I owe a few people some emails/PMs, and am trying to get to those. Sorry if I haven’t been able to pull it all off, but this is a resourceful bunch and we still have time …
Anne
