 The 2000 SPC Rally |
| The 2000 SPC Rally |
The 2000 Saturn Performance Club Rally The Saturn Performance Club is a group of die-hard Saturn enthusiasts dedicated to taking their cars and their driving ability to the next level. The annual SPC Rally is held each summer in Chicago IL and brings many enthusiastic owners with custom and performance-modified Saturns from the U.S. and Canada. You can take a look at my pictures from the 1998 Rally HERE, and the 1999 Rally HERE. The 2000 Rally (the club's third, which was held from June 13 - June 18, 2000) brought some great fun and excitement!! Club members attended from Illinois, Ohio, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Manitoba (Canada). A description of the week's events follows. NOTE: The following pages contain lots of photos and may take some time to load - but they're worth it.
Gingerman Road Course - Tech Day |
Tuesday (June 13), many of us met in Chicago to caravan to Gingerman Raceway in South Haven Michigan. Gingerman is an 11-turn 1.88 mile road course. With lots of grass and no concrete barriers or metal guard rails next to the track, it was safe and enjoyable for the first-time driver. You can read more details about Gingerman Raceway HERE. Most of us had picked up Motorola 2-way radios prior to the trip, and they sure proved to be useful (and a whole lot of fun) during all the time spent on the road.
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Tech inspection in the tower.
| Tuesday was tech
day at the track. Each car was put on jackstands, the wheels removed, and then
thoroughly inspected for safety and wear. Many areas were checked very closely -
wheel bearings, brakes, tires, fluids, helmets, suspension, etc. Deebs & Tapp
had their power bleeder available for those who wanted to flush their brake fluid, and it
sure made the job quick & easy.
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The thorough inspections proved to be worthwhile. Problems that were found included Wally's & Bryce's bad rear wheel bearings, Bill H's front brake caliper in need of some attention, and Brian & Carl W's tire dry-rot.
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It was nice to have the entire day to go over the vehicles because there was plenty of time to run around looking for replacement parts if you needed them, or to just take your time changing to your race tires & brake pads.
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We were joined later in the day back at the hotel in South Haven by the Saturn One Lap of America Team (take a look at my One Lap pictures HERE) who would be driving with us the next day.
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Deebs & Tapp going over a course map, and
James giving his presentation.
| A classroom
session was conducted by Deebs & Tapp on Wednesday evening. It covered the
basics of how to get around a road course safely, what flags meant, the course layout,
track rules, and so on. James Walker (of Team scR)
also gave an excellent presentation on how vehicle braking systems work. Later we had an opportunity to ask a lot of questions of the Saturn One Lap guys, discuss the performance aspects of our cars, and give them suggestions and feedback. I enjoyed hearing everyone's reasons behind owning a Saturn and what made them personally begin participating in racing/driving events.
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As the evening continued, we made sure we had enough liquid refreshments and rolled out the hotel's big-screen projection TV to watch in-car racing footage that James had brought. It is always great to see racing action from the driver's unique perspective. Check out the Team scR website for video clips of in-car racing footage.
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