So, it has been a while since we have had a nice drive together, as Bexgar pointed out. I, on a very personal level, have missed these outings and have been feverishly trying to put one together. Unfortunately, the rainy season is upon us in full swing. I’m looking out my window at gray clouds and failing rain; all of which is supposed to last through this weekend thus spoiling any chance of a scenic tour. Seeing as our machines mostly have summer tires on them (and in Brian’s case slicks), we are finicky about driving 50 miles away from home when rain is possible. So alas, we wait.

In the mean time, I’d like to announce the first club contest. As the Formula 1 season is almost upon us, I have purchased and scrounged up some giveaway items to the most predictive person amongst our ranks. That is to say, the person who can tell me the first, second, and third place drivers in the opening Grand Prix at Bahrain will win a wonderful Waterblade from California Car Cover (you know, the same one I said would be an excellent gift in our Christmas time Gift Guide). If you feel up to the challenge of telling me the first, second, and third place drivers at the conclusion of the World Championship, you will take home Meguiar’s Clay Bar kit! Just the thing you need to finally de-grime your car. The fine print: to be eligible for these awe inspiring prizes you must follow some simple rules:

• First, you must be registered with our club through this site. You can do that here.
• Second, you must post your prediction as a comment to this article and only this article. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the big white text box. That’s for comments. Put your prediction in the text box in a legible way. If I can’t understand your prediction you are disqualified. Hit “Leave Comment”. Good work!
• Third, all of your predictions must be in the right finishing order. Something your predictions don’t need to be is: correctly spelled. You may spell Jarno Trulli as Yarno Truely and we will accept that. Seriously, though, Jarno isn’t going to win anything this year so don’t pick him for either or we will consider you pretty daft.
• Fourth, submissions will be closed on Thursday, March 11th at Noon exactly. If your prediction is submitted later than that it is disqualified.
• Fifth, one prediction per person. If you choose to submit more than one, I will only consider your first prediction.
• Lastly, if no one guesses Bahrain’s finishers correctly, the prize will be given to the winner of the Championship prediction. If those aren’t predicted correctly the prizes will be put up for grabs in another, less difficult contest.

Good luck to everyone!

In other news, Brian and I are still trying to come up with a better location for our meet ups. Paul has an unhampered fervor to be seen at the Valencia Town Center right on Town Center drive. Brian and I love that idea but it has been proving to be a nightmare to organize. We would appreciate any suggestions for alternate locations to get together. Ideally, somewhere with good food or snacks nearby in addition to nice exposure.

I’ve also had autocross on the brain. I personally would love to hold an autocross competition here in Santa Clarita. I’m still gauging interest as well as seeing if it would actually be possible to organize. If you are interested in helping out with getting this going as a monthly or bi-monthly (the once every 2 months variety) please let me know and we can work out some details.