2017 Minutes

We send our best wishes for a safe and very HAPPY THANKSGIVING! May we all be grateful for this day and enjoy your time with your family and friends.

As Always Keep Racing!

Bill Barnhart
MARFC President

Willis Flokstra has graciously donated some items back to the club that he & his late wife Marion collected over the years. One item is as autographed helmet signed by all the drivers of the 1968 Indy 500. This helmet will be auctioned off as a stand-alone item at our annual banquet going to the highest bitter that evening. Thanks so much to Willis for the donation!

On October 26th MARFC attended the annual fall meeting of the MSPA (Michigan Speedways Promoters Association). This origination works hard to ensure we as fans & racers have a facility to enjoy our sport of auto racing across our state. We are glad to be able to add to the input of information what fans would like to see at the tracks and we also learn what it takes to keep these track open with their overall cost of doing business like: local government & non-racing neighbors, Insurance, finding sponsorships, upgrades to the facility, how to get the racers and fans to increase attendance and how to get the next generation of racers and fans to drop the phones and come to see the races in person. All this and hoping the Mother Nature doesn’t come a calling on race day. So, my suggestion is to take the time when you see them and tell all these promoters Thank You for keeping their gates open and assure them you will support them anyway we can as fans & racers! (Photo Top: MSPA Board)(Photo Bottom: MARFC Members with other MSPA Members)(Photo’s by Rand Thompson)

OCTOBER MEETING REPORT: On the 14th of October was our first fall general meeting and our cheer raffle drawing held at Papio’s Food & Spirits, Reese, Mi. Very lousy weather on hand for this afternoon event. Our first guest speaker was Big Ed Inloes and Ed gave us a little bit of his history on how he became a track announcer and what his season was like at both the Spartan & Owosso Speedways. Our next speaker was a young rookie go-kart racer Calvin Fitzpatrick he informed us of how is first year went as a rookie in the go kart and plans on returning again next season. Then his cousin Kamille Fitzpatrick talked about all the different kinds of racing she has done over the past few years and she also plans to keep racing in 2018 also. Then Chuck Darling gave us an update on our February Bowling Tournament Event and how he got his start at announcing for the MCR Dwarf Car series. Chuck is also the founder of the Michigan Short Track Racing Club which just returned to active duty last week at mstrc.net. Our in-house winner for our fundraiser raffle was won by Susan Fitzpatrick mother of both Chris & Eric Fitzpatrick who by the way celebrated their birthday that afternoon with us providing cake for all who attended! Susan Kretschmer won our 50/50 raffle.Many thanks to Calvin & Kamille for drawing all of the winning tickets for the afternoon and to the Fitzpatrick’s for extra door prizes too! (Photos by: Barb Gullett)