The next INR membership meeting will be on Thursday, April 17th at Sheffield’s 1515 E. 82nd Ave Merrillville (795-1005) at 6:30 PM. They are located behind the Tire Barn by Westfield Shopping Town (AKA South Lake Mall). This will also serve as a solo planning meeting.

There is some major concern about the 2008 INR national race to be held April 25 – 27 at Gingerman raceway in South Haven, Michigan. As of this writing we currently only have 37 entered drivers. Past history has shown that we should be at 70+ by now. In order to break even we need 100 drivers and at this rate we won’t come close. I’m not saying that our national race will be cancelled, but if doesn’t make good financial sense to continue then that is an option that the BOD will have to address in the next week. We have seen over the last 5 yrs the constant decline in driver counts not just for our National, but almost all regions in our division and across the SCCA. Our new higher fuel costs is not helping the amateur racer on a budget at all and that seems to be at least one of the key reasons for lower driver turn out. Keep and eye on the INR website for more details. By our membership meeting the BOD will know for sure what direction we will take.

The Great Lakes Division Double driver school is schedule for April 19th and 20th at Nelson Legend in Ohio. More information can be found on the Great Lakes website at http://www.greatlakes-scca.org/ or go to the INR website and click on the link. I know one INR member is going there to get his competition license. While I have great plans to do so also, I will have to wait a while until I get my car done.

To continue with our racing news I received an email from Verne Wandell. Who is Verne Wandell? Well, he is the DA of F& C (Flagging & communications) for the Great Lakes Division. If you worked one of the last few INR nationals then you probably have met Verne. There will be some F& C (worker) schools going on this year in our division. Please check the INR website’s main page and click the link training opportunities.

On the Solo front we finally have all our dates. It took awhile, but here are the dates:
May 3rd Lake County Government Center – Crown Point IN
May 25th Portage High school - Portage IN
June 14th Lake County Government Center – Crown Point IN
June 29th Portage High school - Portage IN
July 20th Portage High school - Portage IN
Aug 10th Lake County Government Center – Crown Point IN
Sep 27th Lake County Government Center – Crown Point IN
Oct 5th Lake County Government Center – Crown Point IN

All these dates are posted on our website under Solo II. The costs for SCCA members will stay the same at $20, but non members will be $35. There will be online registration available for all events. This should be in place within the next week.

We currently DON’T have an Evolution school planned for 2008, but this could change now that we have firm solo dates. We were just a few students shy of filling up the two day school in 2007, so if we do one this year we will need all of your help to get the word out so we can fill up the school.

Well that is all for now. See you on the 17th.