The next INR membership meeting will be on Thursday, November 20th at Sheffield’s 1515 E. 82nd Ave Merrillville (795-1005) at 6:30 PM. They are located behind the Tire Barn by Westfield Shopping Town (AKA South Lake Mall).

There will be no need for elections for the Board of Directors since we had 7 people submit their nominations for our 7 openings. Our BOD for 2008 is Stuart Laks, Jason Gast, Charlie Wheeler, Jeff Fogg, Dennis Wood, Jeff Jankiewicz and myself. I would like to thank leaving BOD members Jim Rose and Claude Jones for all their work this 2008 season.

The INR Christmas party will be on Saturday Dec 6th from 7pm – 10pm at Buddy’s & Pal’s 1206 Summit ST., Crown Point, IN, 46307. Back by popular demand there will be the bad Santa gift exchange. If you or you guest wish to participate in the gift exchange bring a gift wrapped item (around $20 limit). Please note that you must be 21 to enter Buddy’s & Pal’s. This will also be our December membership meeting.

Congratulations to our wining Turkey Rally team of Jason and April Gast. They were able to decipher the code directions of the rally route and come with in a few miles of the correct total. We had 8 teams and most of us made the complete rally, but there a few that missed a turn or two. I would like to thank our Rally Masters Don McCoin and Charlie Wheeler for all their hard work and their great job on the rally.

Did you see it? Did you?? In the October 15th 2008 edition of the Post Tribune, there were two articles about INR and our solo program. I have included a copy of the articles with the RE letter for your reading pleasure. There is nothing like a little PR for our club. I believe Dennis Wood had a hand in getting the reporter out to our events. Thank you!

In Road racing news we had three active INR road racers this year. I would like to congratulate Dean Todd on his 17th place finish at the run offs this year in his new D Sports Racer. I still don’t know how a big guy like Dean fits in such a little racecar. INR member Casba Szekelyhid was working on his national competition license this season and Keith Ux is no longer a novice regional racer after completing his 2nd official race this fall. Hopefully some current non active INR racers can make it out for next season plus yours truly can get his car together and work on my novice license for 2009.

Our 21 points keeper is updating her files. We need to know if you have worked any other SCCA regions races. This does not include their Solo’s, just road racing. Also for all INR road racers, if you want to be in the running for Road racer of the year we need to know where you raced and how you placed in each race. Please email this info to me at GJSHAFFER2002@yahoo.com.We need this info by December 2nd or sooner if possible.

On the financial side of the house, INR has $7,384.63 in the bank. So we are doing ok, we are not broke. We will see a dip in the final 2008 balance as the club buys our year end awards and door prize items. I would expect us to be around $6000 or a little more at the end of the year. So what does this mean for INR? Well, we will need to work on our solo program for 2009 to find more venues and hopefully host an Evolution Driving School and well as one or more Street Survival Schools for Teens. Maybe find a sponsor or two to help offset our operating costs for 2009. All of this will take work, not just from the BOD, but all members of INR.

Lastly, It is time to dust off your best dud’s and get ready for our 2008 awards banquet to be held on January 24th, 2009 at the Strongbow Inn in Valparaiso at 6pm. All INR members and guests are invited. Cost is $25 per person for SCCA members and $30 per person for non SCCA members. This includes dinner and drinks. We are requesting that you please RSVP before Jan 15th 2009 by calling Cindy Mann at 219-988-4637 or email me at GJSHAFFER2002@yahoo.com. Pre payment is always welcomed (and preferred) so please send your payment made out to INR-SCCA to our treasurer Jeff Jankiewicz 619 W. Division Rd Hebron IN 46419. We ask that all payments be received by Jeff no later than Jan 20th 2009. If you have any questions please call either Cindy or myself.

We will pass out awards for Road Racer of the Year, all our Solo awards, and 21 point club awards. Plus we will have door prize items and back by popular demand the aluminum jack raffle. So come on out and have some great food and a great time. Strongbow is located at 2405 E US 30 in Valparaiso and their number is 219-462-5121.

That’s all I have for now. Hope to see you at the membership meeting on November 20th