January 2018 REmarks

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! Some of you know me but many of you do not so I will give you a little background on myself. I started my racing life back in 1996. My wife Chris and I had our first child in May of ’96 and we were looking for daycare. We ended up meeting Cheryl; what a fantastic lady. She treated our daughter like her own. In passing conversation she heard I liked cars and she said her husband Paul raced. Paul convinced me to bring out my sports car to an autocross.

October 1996, me and my 1970 Corvette, approx. 400hp and P225/75R15 tires, headed out to Route 66 Raceway. After spending most of the day with slow times, having great fun, and meeting some great people, my day was over and my race life began.

I bought a 1991 Civic Si for the next year and with the help of Paul, Mark and Jim I attended the learning curve and raced most of the season and continued to learn to drive better. Several years later Paul and I co-drove and his son and my daughter co-drove a kart. This was a lot of fun and developed into both of my kids kart racing, me with a tow rig and an enclosed trailer.

I became the Youth Kart Stewart, served on the board for our sister autocross club, TSSCC for several years and helped the Solo board.  I was asked to join the Chicago SCCA board.  I believe it was in 2012. I have been solo, rally and competition liaisons as well as assistant RE last year.  I plan to attend as many events as possible in 2018.

I would like to ask you, if you are making 2018 resolutions please make one to become more involved in SCCA. We have an awesome region and would love to tap into great ideas from our members. Please attend meetings and share your ideas. Even better, volunteer and make things happen. The region has a lot of resources so even if it seems difficult or impossible we can make it happen. If it doesn’t work out, oh well, because “Up from the ashes grow the roses of success”. J

Even though it may be cold today, we will be racing again before you can blink. Watch the website, emails, newsletters and facebook for updates. If you don’t see any updates you can tell we need more help and the people that do it are overworked. Remember we are volunteers so please try your best to be helpful, understanding and patient.

I am looking forward to a great 2018, I love the smell of Hoosiers in the morning.

Chris Gregor

Regional Executive – Chicago SCCA