Lane's SCA - '99 SPC Rally (1)

Logo courtesy Craig, Thanks!

The Saturn Performance Club is a group of die-hard Saturn enthusiasts dedicated to taking their cars to the next level. The first annual SPC Rally was held in July of ’98 in Spring Hill, TN, and brought more than 30 enthusiastic owners with custom and performance-modified Saturns from 15 states. You can take a look at my pictures from the 1998 Rally HERE.

The 1999 Rally (held on June 2 - June 6, 1999) was a blast!! Club members attended from Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, and Montreal (Canada). A description of the week's events follows.

NOTE: The following pages are graphics-intensive and may take some time to load - but they're worth it.

Gingerman Road Course

Tuesday (June 1), many of us met in Chicago to caravan to Gingerman Raceway in Southhaven 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. Our day on the course was considered a 'Driver's School' - a learning event where we were able to push the limits of our cars and improve our driving ability. We were fortunate to have had a few great SCCA race drivers joining us and instructing - James Walker and Mark Rushbrook of Team scR, and John Teague. Even though we weren't really racing against each other, many of us still reached speeds of more than 70 mph on the straights and scrubbed off a lot of rubber in the corners. The day was equally hard on brake pads as well.

Deebs, Tapp, and Wally had built and prepared race trailers to make it easier to haul the essentials to and from track events - tools, jack, jackstands, spare parts, and tires. The rest of us had to try and fit all this stuff in our cars, along with all our luggage and the necessary audio gear (of course).

Trailer (22k)
Tapp (IL) & Jamin (NY)

The Deebs car undergoing tire and brake pad changes at the track, and his road race-ready roll cage (window net is not shown in this pic).

Track rubber on and ready for the first session. Wally, Deebs, and I all got some great footage from our in-car camera setups. Special thanks to Wild Bill Park (IL) for the use of the camera.