2024 Upcoming Summer Events
By Bonnie Mueller

August 23rd - Course setup at VRC. Friday at 5:30 pm. Come by to help get ready for the weekend's auto-x.

August 24th & 25th - Event 5 & 6 "Redo" and IROC competition. at Valley River. This will be our last autocross of the season.  We looked into adding on another weekend, but all available dates conflicted with previously scheduled events.  So…we are finishing up with 6 events only.  This means that it takes only 4 events to qualify for a year-end trophy.  The IROC competition will take place throughout the day on Sunday, so we are not allowing NFT runs on Sunday.  Last day to use any NFT certs is on Saturday. READ FLYER FOR COMPLETE DETAILS

Sept. 4th   Wed - Monthly meeting at Sizzler on Gateway, in Springfield. Meeting starts at 6:30 pm.  Come early to eat.  EEMSP (our Foundation) will meet following conclusion of the EESCC business meeting.

Sept 14th Saturday - TSD Rally! 1:00 pm Come join the fun on what has now become an annual event for EESCC.  Rally begins at 1 pm at Sizzler in Springfield, and who know where you’ll end up.  TSD Rally’s are a blast.  No race car needed -just a car, navigator, a smartphone or android phone with the correct App installed, and a sense of adventure!  Simon Levear is the Rally master again and he seems to find the most interesting roads.  READ FLYER FOR COMPLETE DETAILS.

Sept 25th, Wed - A club get together hosted by Scott and Sue Minder. You’re invited!
What: Fall dinner hosted by Scott and Sue Minder.
When: September 25, 2024 at 5:00PM.
Where: 5936 Belknap Springs St SE, Salem, OR 97306.
What to bring: A dish to share.
Why: Because we like you.
Please send questions and RSVPs to: sue.minder@portlandoregon.gov

Oct 2 & Nov 6 - Monthly Club Meetings at Sizzler

November 9th - Year End Banquet Saturday, at Shadow Hills Country Club. Fun abounds at our banquets!  Registration will open very soon– I just wanted you folks to SAVE THE DATE.

Larison Rock 2024 Recap
By Bonnie Mueller

Well, it started out with many questions, but ended with a resounding success!! Are we going to get insurance? (the NHA previous insurer got out of the motorsports business). Are we going to have enough entrants to cover our increased costs? Are we going to get the road prepped in time? (Storm damage from the early year ice storm brought down many trees onto the road area)

Mike Glass, President of NHA and current chair (along with Paula Loftin) of Larison Rock just wouldn’t give up. Mike saved NHA for this year, PERIOD. He would not give up in his pursuit of obtaining insurance not only for our hill, but all of them.

Because we still didn’t have any insurance confirmed in early May we were so unsure about cleaning the mess that was the hill at that time. This was all a result of the ice storms we had had earlier in the year. But our Safety crew, bless their hearts, decided to gamble and go up there and get the hill clear of the logs and branches, etc. They knew that there was a chance that the hill wouldn’t be a go, but they worked all day with a tractor, chainsaws, and old fashioned sweat.. Mike & Paula, and others also helped Rose & Mark Reinertson and their friends to get it cleared off. Still no confirmation of insurance at this time!

Mike kept at it, and finally felt comfortable enough with his conversations with our insurer to convince us that “it is coming, yes we will have a policy” so we rolled out registration on May 24th. Paula, Mike, Bonnie & Ted headed up to the hill on June 10th, with Paula towing the rented sweeper behind. What a dirty, dusty job that was – Mike mostly manned the driving of the sweeper. We ran out of water 3 times as Paula drove back & forth to Oakridge with multiple 5-gallon bottles to fill. It was finished around 2:30 but we had to spend another half hour to cut all the vines off of the sweeper roller. What a mess.

One more trip up there on the 22nd (did I say this is a VERY prep intensive hill) to cut road edges, clear out checkpoints, do some road blowing…and it was pretty much ready to go.

Meanwhile, registration was happening, we were rolling. Our stipulation when we opened was that we needed at least 35 entrants to pay the bills, as the increased insurance cost was substantial. And guess what- we almost reached our stated maximum of 50. What a wonderful response we had from the hillclimb community! It did take some PR to make it happen, but we did it.

Thank you is in order to many, many folks. Steven was our registrar and Motorsportreg guru. Dana, Alan, and Lorin were invaluable! They helped at hill cleanup, with Tech & Check-in, with Drivers School, with helping Novices learn the hill, and did I say they set up and did the Timing all day both days and didn’t even compete. Did you like this year’s design on the shirts? Lorin is our artist. That trio comes to help out! And, they loaded the trailer with some help from a scant few others for the trip home afterward.

Mary Richardson helped at hill cleanup, and did all the trophy’s – what wonderful pictures we all received. A lot of time went into that for sure. John Schmidt helped at hill prep, and contributed wonderful posters. Scott and Sue came to help us with clean-up and we had Scott tow the trailer. Ted Legard helped out all weekend, starting with tech, and ending up as one of our work truck drivers ferrying folks all weekend up and down the hill. Cari Hinesly came from the Medford area to watch and help. We put her to work helping Karen in Rosie and also up on the hill at a checkpoint. Cari was the first Queen of Larison in 1988, a wonderful driver and an even better person. You all will wish you still have the passion and love of motorsports that she has after her many years of competing. Cari still is very active in SSCC autocross events.

Mike always seems to bring friends along to help. This year it was Luisa. What a kick! She was a great help. Ryan Rink made an appearance to just help out, to work with Steven all weekend. They set up (and helped tear down) the hill, and manned the top pits all weekend. Thanks! And, lastly our hill is only complete with the help of our Safety Crew. This year we had Karen & Ray, Mark & Rose, Jamie & Bill, Rob, and Scott & Rita. They started in May by cutting trees, worked at cleanup in June, and ended up working all weekend of the hill to make sure we had a fun safe weekend. We love all of them!

It was a wonderful event for 2024. We gotta be careful folks of our volunteer help (club members & non-club members alike) – as burnout is always a possibility. Everyone please think of what you can do to help next year, as many folks wear multiple hats and would love to share some of them.

Till then…. Bonnie

1968 –SCCA, Bob Tullius and Group 44
By Ted Ledgard

I became involved in car racing events in 1964, starting with Autocross, then Solo I, and later Regional SCCA events in the Mid-Atlantic Region. While going to these races I met many of the local and regional drivers. This was at a time when SCCA regional racing was still fairly low dollar compared to national class events. At that time, it was not unusual to have a well-known driver and team parked in the next pit area to you. Paul Newman was just starting to drive in North East Regional races. He was easy to talk to and became an outstanding driver over a short period of time. Having a good bankroll also helped buy good cars and crew as he progressed.

One of the top SCCA Mid-Atlantic drivers was Bob Tullius, based in Fairfax, Va. Bob was a talented and very competitive driver and prepared his cars so that they seldom, if ever, broke down during a race, campaigning a 1961 Triumph TR-3 successfully the very first year, placing first and second in every race. In 1962 he persuaded Triumph to provide him with a TR-4 to race. He started winning regional and then national events competing with other “sponsored” drivers. In 1965 he formed Group 44 Racing Team and made agreements with Quaker State Oil Co. as sponsor. Bob and Group 44 continued to win races and Triumph continued to provide new cars each new model change. Bob and I became friends and one day at his immaculately clean workshop, over coffee, Bob told me he was about to ask Quaker State to replace his old tractor-trailer with a new rig to haul his race cars around the country. At this time, I was working in sales with International Harvester, selling large commercial trucks. Bob asked if I could get him a good deal on an International TransStar truck for Group 44 to pull a new semi-trailer. It would also get some good PR for International Harvester.

I contacted my District Manager and within a few weeks a special deal was worked out with Quaker State to buy the truck through me as the local salesman.

Aside from looking great, the truck was set up to be fast. The most powerful diesel engine available was spec’d, with gear ratios, oversize wheels and tires to allow the lightly loaded truck combination to travel at very high speeds. The trailer was very light as well, but strong enough to manage the elevator inside which helped stack 4 race cars in the rear and contain a very useable workshop in the front with storage for spare parts and tires. As with everything else Group 44 did, it was always neat as a pin.

They were stopped one night by a local Sherriff outside Atlanta while coming home from a race at Daytona and clocked by radar at 110mph. I was very proud of that truck and it got me a few perks with Group 44 as I was always admitted into their pit area at the races. I was also presented with a Group 44 hat which I wore proudly when at the races.

In 1984, British Leyland, who produced Triumph, MG and Jaguar, provided Group 44 with a XJR Jaguar car with a 12 cylinder, 500HP engine to race at the famous 12hour race at Le Mans, France. After 291 laps, the transmission failed and they had to drop out of the race.

Bob and went on to win international races for several more years until he retired from racing. He moved from Virginia to Sebring Florida, living at the famous racecourse there. Over a period of years, he bought several old US Air Force airplanes and also a P-51 Mustang airplane which he flew in various airshows for several years.

Bob was a true competitor never giving an inch but always a gentleman. He loved speed, competing early in his life on motorcycles, then sports cars and finally airplanes. Bob passed away in 2023 at age 93.