Fubar, continued from page 6
Skogmo Memorial Award to J.B. Niday. J.B. drove in a dozen rally events scattered all around the country in his aging G-2 VW Golf, which is said to need some serious work. He placed 2nd in class in both Pro Rally Nationals and the CenDiv Championship. In a Pennsylvania pro event he drove over 4 miles after losing one front wheel! Mechanic/Crew award was presented by last year’s winner Judy Nelson to a very deserving Mary Utecht, without whom Mark says he would not be driving.
Driver of the Year for three competition categories was next on the agenda. Dick Dickinson and Tom Fisk awarded the Solo II plaque to Chris Holter. Todd Jarvey presented the Rally Navigator/Co-Driver award to Brenda Corneliusen, who did a fabulous job navigating/co-driving with Mark Utecht in the winning G5 entry. Thus it was no surprise that former RE Utecht walked away with Rally Driver of the Year honors to go along with the two other trophies won by his teammates. Mark also was champion in the open division of Rallycross. Racing Driver of the Year was won by Bruce Drenth. Bruce won both the LOL and CenDiv Regional Championships this past year in CFF, and scored a perfect 5 wins in 5 starts at CBIR. Leighton Reese was nominated for both Skogmo and Driver of the Year, but did not go away empty-handed, as Al Murray presented a special recognition from the Comp Board for his accomplishments in the TransAm series, with a strong season including a win in Texas.
The Sportsmanship Award is infrequently given, but this year Kerry Freund presented it to Rally drivers Micah
Cliff Lawrence - recipient of the Shelby Hockert Award.Witala and Josh Prusi, who took time off during a stage to hook up a fellow competitor and tow him all the way to the next checkpoint, which caused them no small loss in time. Last year’s Brooke Kinnard awardee Doug Sherwood wasn’t at the show, so another previous winner, Alan Murray, was again called to the podium. I was most honored to receive the Kinnard plaque, especially since I was up against very tough competition. Jimmy Griggs was almost solely responsible for setting up the very successful High Performance Car Control Clinic at CBIR, Mark LaBarre has been active on the Board and many LOL activities in addition to dominating the tough ITC class, and REs Mark Utecht and Greg Youngdahl have been working for the Region for years, while fielding highly successful driving programs. A trio of worker awards named in honor of deceased LOL members closed out the agenda. Shannon Murphy presented the Judy Krause Outstanding Worker award to Dan MacDonald, Cliff Lawrence received the Shelby Hockert Award from Bruce Weinman, and Greg Youngdahl presented the Ron Mann Award to a most deserving Kathy Goettsch. Kathy claims she is giving up her spot in Registration this year, but did a great job with Chad setting up this year’s banquet, along with many other LOL projects. Congratulations to all Series winners and awardees and thanks for those members taking the time to send in nominations in all categories. If you have a preference for when the banquet should be held, let the Board know. If you have some ideas on location and format, please feel free to volunteer for next year’s program!
Bruce Drenth - Racing Driver of the Year
Tonneau On-Line March 2001
Page 7
Copyright 2001, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
