2017 PRESIDENTS ANNOUNCEMENT – OCTOBER

This letter’s lead in was going to be “here we go!”.  The month of October is upon us and the summer trials break is over.  But I am slow in getting this to print, so now the lead is, “What a fun start!”  Jamie Gourley and Sean Parker put on a great event at Cornelia on October 7th and 8th.  It was Sean’s maiden venture as a trials master for the Henry Hills event, setting up the sections for Sunday’s riding.  I don’t know if he planned for hurricane Nate to add running water through most of his sections or not, but he did a great job.  It was a fun weekend and memories made for the 64 riders.  We also used the weekend to recognize Gary Hoover’s 65th and Alex Niederer’s 24th birthdays.

Sunday morning we took advantage of the group to judge interest in changing the timing of the the STRA business meeting where rule changes are proposed, state of affairs is presented and officers voted in. The idea is to hold the meeting after the Saturday Mark Moon Ride event in Ringgold, Georgia on November 11th.  The thought is that this would allow more people to attend rather than holding it just before the annual January banquet .  The group was in favor of this proposal so mark your calendars and we will work out the location and post details.  The 2017 awards banquet will still be held early next year to coincide with a Chattanooga Trials Club event at the TTC.

The group also deliberated interest in hosting a NATC/AMA National Event at the TTC in May of next year.  Again, the group was in favor of this proposal.   Lastly, a preliminary 2018 schedule was finalized and is now posted on the website.    We tried to structure it so we did not have any back-to-back event weekends, but couldn’t overcome the hurdle between Trackrock and Fun in the Sun events being back-to-back as the availability of their venues dictates dates.  This year consideration was made for Trials Training Days at the TTC in March as well as Vintage Days at Barber Motorsports Park the first weekend in October.   Breezy Hill Farm will host another event early in the year because of the loss of the Spring Splash at the TTC due to the national event being held there.  If another promotor speaks up and offers a venue in North Carolina or Alabama (hint, hint), we would love to add it the schedule.

In closing, I would like to publicly thank Francois Saint Laurent for tenaciously working through computer language to institute another update to the website.  He was able to eliminate the pop up menus and newsletter solicitation.  Both advertised an obligation that was not being and could not be fulfilled.   He also added a link to the old STRA website in the History tab.  This link makes some great history available such as 2011 rider rankings where Alan Shirley won Sportsman and Maddie Hoover was second best in the Intermediate class.  Boy, have things changed!  The website update was done to further our commitment to the members of the STRA for better communication, consistency and comradery.

We can’t wait to see you at the next event at the Trials Training Center on October 28 and 29.  It is to be a big celebration weekend due to the 58K’s 25th anniversary.  As part of the celebration a free meal is being provided Saturday night, but you really need to sign up before noon Central on Wednesday the 25th if you would like to be there for the meal!  We have to be able to tell the cook how much food to get!  Help us out and register early.

Please see the flyer posted on Facebook and on the website for more information.

Keep riding and we will see you at the 25th Anniversary of the 58K!

Douglas