Another RAL has come and gone, and the excellent members of the region have once again pulled together to raise a PILE of money to help fight Leukemia! The total raised (as of August 13th) is over $20,500! That is almost identical to last year, and is due to the hard work of many folks within our group who worked hard to make sure everything ran smoothly and happened on time this past weekend!

The weekend actually started one week earlier, with some members holding a “Karting against Leukemia” fundraiser at On-Track Karting in Wallingford, CT. They solicited donations for the RAL cause, and were able to raised $561 to donate to the fund at RAL! Thanks go to the Kennedy family/Team Swift Racing for kicking us off early and strongly!

The biggest challenge of all for the weekend may have been for our RallyCross group, who up until a week before the RAL event, had NO SITE for the RallyCross Against Leukemia event! The RallyX folks worked tirelessly to secure a completely new site in Caanan, NH, and which yielded an excellent event on Sunday, with a combination of tarmac, dirt and gravel! Congratulations to that group for that achievement.

Club Racing held a Triple Points event this weekend, in addition to holding two special events this year: This was the second year of the “Really RAL” race, with all proceeds of the entry fees for the race going directly to RAL, and the Club Racing Experience, which was a resounding success. This was the first time NER had run this event, which was designed to get people with HDPE or track-day appropriate cars, which could meet an amended set of safety rules, running on the road course of NHMS with real wheel-to-wheel and passing experiences. The event is meant to garner interest from folks as to why we have one of the best racing experiences available in the entire country, and why they should become part of the Club Racing Group with NER.

The Rally Against Leukemia road rally went quite well again this year, starting at the gates of NHMS on Saturday afternoon, and returning to hold their final stage on the road course around NHMS in the DARK. There were some close battles amongst experienced and novice competitors, and even participation by an antique vehicle from 1931!

Solo held their annual Racing against Leukemia charity runs on Saturday morning, and then their Jeff Gordon and Bill Goodale challenge events in the afternoon for fastest open-class and novice-class participants. Kim-Soo Gopnik, daughter of Chang-Ho Kim and Melissa Gopnik, schooled all the big-car drivers during the afternoon runs, and was the last girl standing at the end of the challenge runs, taking the overall win in the open class for the Jeff Gordon trophy! Kathy Barnes presented Kim-Soo with her trophy on the official NHMS winner’s circle podium along with all the Club Racing winners at the end of Saturday’s racing!

Track tours were held on the road course of NHMS again this year, and proved to be a great success yet again, with 24 vehicles of various kinds taking to the track for the “guided tour.” This 15-20 minute event is always a great way to get onto the road course in a comfortable vehicle with air conditioning and just enjoy the view usually seen at 100mph and with other folks trying to beat you into the next corner or passing zone!

Of course, half of the reason to come for RAL is for the party and socializing, and the spectacle this year reinforced that you NEED to attend next year just to see what happens next. The party this year included excellent pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, Cole Slaw, beer custom-brewed for our event, and plenty of snacks on hand. The raffle went off well thanks to the special announcing duty of Nick Leverone, who was there representing both himself and the “Chief planner of RAL,” Jody Leverone, who is eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child. Danielle Moehring and her father, Manfred, who are the reason RAL was started in the first place, came back to speak to us again and to remind us why this event is important. Danielle was diagnosed with Leukemia when she was very young, and her father first organized this event to benefit the (then very small) foundation that was helping young children deal with Leukemia. It’s great to have faces to put to the names of the founders of this event, and it’s always great to have them with us at this event!

I’m sure people were wondering who was getting shaved this year after the raffle, as it was expected that the tradition started 2 years ago of shaving a member with a long full beard/mustache would get shaved if the party attendees were able to raise enough money. Last year, our Emeritus Club Racing Chair Jerry Rigoli lost his beard and mustache for around $1500. This year, our Area Director and IT7 particpiant, Dick Patullo, upped the stakes considerably, with a promise that if we could raise $4000 in honor of his friend “SuperMax”, he would let us shave him bald. His smug look turned serious when the amount raised reached $3000, and with people running back to their cars and trailers for checkbooks and money, we raised $4120. A man of his word, with drinks firmly in both hands, he let anyone in the garage take their turn shaving off beard, mustache and head hair. I personally got to complete the smooth look on his head and cheeks with my straight-razor, and I have to thank Dick for his trust in me to not butcher him. I promise I hadn’t had more than three beers. Who knows what we’ll have to dream up next year to beat this excellent fund-raising prowess!

Saturday night ended with a showing of the movie “1”, about Formula One racing, and various folks wandered back to “Dino City” or “Solo/Rally City” to bench race and pass the comfortable night away with more beverages and laughter. Sunday was back to racing for everyone, and then the clean-up and tow-out for those with long trips home.

Thank you to everyone who made RAL possible this year. You are all the reason we are able to give back like we do to charity, and to have our most social and fun event of the year. See you all in 2015!

-Wiley Cox
NER Regional Executive

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