chumpy36

Tim,

I wanted to address your comments above about the article in the steering wheel as I think there may be some misconceptions based on Mr. Vanderford’s article. I can speak directly to the incidents described in the article by Mr. Vanderford as I was there and primary to the discussions/incident.

You see, I am the evil series director of which he speaks, the very same one who attempted to steal all his points and dq him in order to move up a position.

Without writing a novel, I can say that almost NOTHING in Vanderford's article is completely true. It is laced with half-truths, outright lies and fabrications of the highest magnitude.

Just to touch on a few of the highlights:

1. Vanderford was almost 40 lbs underweight. Not 1, not 5 (NASA allows a 5 lb leeway the first time you are weighed over the weekend) but almost 40 lbs.

2. He was NOT immediately dq'd. I reweighed him personally at least three times before I turned everything over to the race director and chief of tech. I do not have the authority to DQ anyone. I can only recommend. They in turn, weighed him repeatedly. Only about 45 minutes after this all started was Bill DQ'd. Even then, we tried to work out a compromise with Bill but he wanted nothing less than to keep his finishing position, his points and his contingency money. No other scenario would do. And after repeated threats against me, the NASA organization and anyone else he thought had slighted him, he left the event (abandoning a student by the way) and it was entirely his decision. We told him we were willing to work something out if he wanted to but he would not bend an inch and I, as series director felt it would have been a breach of my responsibilities to the other competitors if I were to let him keep prizes that he earned with a non compliant car. There are many witnesses to these facts as well as to his childish temper tantrums that he threw throughout this whole ordeal.

3. There is a protest procedure in NASA. Bill Vanderford did not lodge a protest even though it was his right. He was more interested in threatening and bullying to try to get his way.

4. Bill was invited to leave the NASA organization only AFTER he returned to a later event and created a scene and caused an unsafe situation by harassing the race director during the race while emergency situations needed tending to.

As always, there is always the other side of the story. However, in the article we were not allowed to give our side of the story for obvious reasons.

Bill Vanderford has an ax to grind against NASA and that's clear from his article. I could go on and on about Bill's behavior dating back from way before this incident, but to be truthful I don't think it matters. What I did want to address were some of the inaccuracies that the article wants to spread about.

NASA is a growing organization with all the associated growing pains, but for the most part, I have more fun at NASA events than any other organization and that's why I race there. It's just that simple.

Thanks for giving me a chance to address some of the misconceptions that the article appears to be perpetuating.

I hope to see you out there next time!

Jason Holland
NASA SE Series Director for Spec Miata
(And former 944 Turbo PCA racer!)

944Cup

Hey Bill:

Just some more info relating to your original question about where the 944's are racing. The info I have of course relates to the 944 Cup series, and in particular the MidAtlantic Chapter.

In 2005 the MA Chapter had 35 different drivers race in the series at least one race. From what I know of the 35, 18 drivers came to the series as new racers with no PCA or SCCA racing experience. 10 racers in the chapter had prior PCA racing experience, and 7 racers had SCCA racing experience.

5 of the 7 SCCA racers still do some scca races (i understand in part at least to keep their scca license current),

4 of the 10 PCA racers still do some PCA races. Not all of these 10 racers competed in 944's in PCA.

Dave Derecola

Bill L Seifert

Dave,

Thanks for the info. I will race some 944 Cup races this year.

Bill

timo944

Hey Jason,

Thanks for clearing that up. I did not know that there is a procedure for protesting -I thought it was like PCA where there is none.

Tim

Austin

Come race GTS Challenge with us this year. www.gtschallenge.com