News and Events

November 2011	Notes from the President of the Foretravel Motorsports Chapter, John D. McKee A Thank You to our Hosts I wanted to send each of you a sincere Thank You for a wonderful day of time trials / racing at TMS; your support to bring in President of ML Motorsports (Ed Mullen), Crew Chief (Mark Gutekunst) and Tire Management (April Amburn) who shared several of the inner workings of their race team for #70 Nationwide car. Their discussion(s) were great and I know everyone enjoyed them by the lengthy Q&A. What a day. I must tell you we watched #70 car at TMS, cheering them to make it to the top 15, we fell a little short; we really cheered as if we were part of the team when they finished 11th at Phoenix; what a great run. Way to go! Lyle, our sincere thank you to Nell for giving her Friday to host the Foretravel MotorSports group outing at TMS, secure food and not to forget your great cooking effort to feed everyone. I truly enjoyed the food (as everyone else did) and ate too much as usual. I copied Robert & Terrie Howard who attended our outing from Country Coach; I was most enthralled when I learned of Terrie’s recent back surgery in Germany where she had 3 discs separated, with artificial discs replaced, gaining 2 inches in height from the surgery. To hear her story, see her walking, riding her motorcycle, learn of the surgery team in Germany and how soon she recovered, speaks volumes for how slow the FDA moves in the US. I think Dr. Dane Miller would have enjoyed meeting her to hear her story also. I hope they enjoyed their time with us and will consider joining us again in the future. My sincere thanks to everyone who attended; a special thank you to Nell, Lyle and Greg for your effort to make our Friday at Texas Motor Speedway very special for each and every one in Foretravel’s MotorSports Chapter. Job well done and greatly appreciated. Plans for 2012 I wanted to send a note to one and all about our recent Foretravel MotorSports Chapter event held at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, TX; if you weren’t with us during first week of November (10/31 – 11/7), you missed a great event! If you were there, please share the fun with those who could not make it and help them plan to attend our events in 2012. As we discussed plans for 2012 outings, it was suggested we arrange an outing for Monterey Classic Car Week; as I research it, the race / outing is typically in mid August time frame in one of the most beautiful parts of the country (Monterey, CA). I am seeking to secure information regards cost, camp sites, etc. How many would want to attend the outing? Please advise if interested so I can have an estimate of how many to plan for if we can secure places / events to participate in. I know we (Ellen and John) signed up for Highway 93 Motorcade which I am not certain that timing will work, but I can see what we can do. We discussed returning to Texas Motor Speedway for NASCAR week in early November, 2012 followed by moving south to Austin, TX to attend return of Formula 1 racing to the USA after a 10+ year hiatus. If you have never had the pleasure of watching a Formula 1 race, please check out attached video and mark your calendars for week of 11/11 – 18/2012. The video is slightly over 6 minutes in length, but vividly displays type of open wheel race cars used in Formula 1, it has pictures of the “Designed for Formula 1 race track in Austin, TX” that is rumored for use by NASCAR races similar to those held in NY and CA. Formula 1 I found it interesting that during last weekends Phoenix NASCAR race, won by Kasey Kahne in the Red Bull Team car; it was announced Red Bull is departing NASCAR. The current team is seeking a buyer, but as you will see in the video, the Formula 1 car is a Red Bull car. I viewed an earlier video in the past where a Formula 1 car generates so much down force when under power, it was driven thru a long European tunnel upside down. The attached video was provided by Bob Finney, it is worth the time to check it out, please do so and enjoy. Thanks Bob for sharing the video. Please let me know if you would be interested in attending the following events in 2012: 1) Monterey Classic Car Week in mid August, 2012 2) Texas Motor Speedway NASCAR races, first weekend of November, 2012 3) Formula 1 races in Austin, TX week of November 11 – 18, 2012 Please let me know if you have questions or thoughts regards tentative schedule dates for 2012. Thanks in advance for your comments. Lastly, I have not checked to determine if above dates interfere with other events that are planned / scheduled at this time. John D. McKee, President Foretravel MotorSports Chapter, jdmckee@flash.net

November 2010	Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) was the venue for our second rally. We had four coaches attend. The highlight of the week was a cookout on Burnout Alley during the Nationwide event, hosted by Lyle & Nell Reed and Greg & Sue Amys. Special guests were Dr. Dane Miller, Foretravel Partner, and Mary Louise Miller, owner of the Nationwide car #70 racing team. Everyone enjoyed the race, the great food and spending time with the Millers.

August 2010	Race tickets with camping packages have been arranged for Talladega, Oct. 29-31 2010, and Texas Motor Speedway, Nov. 4-7 2010. Grandstand or VIP Suite seating is available, your choice. Contact John McKee at jdmckee@flash.net for details.

November 2009	The first rally of the Foretravel Motorsports Chapter was held in Fort Worth at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS). John and Ellen McKee were the wagonmasters. We had four coaches attend this first rally. A package deal for race tickets and a week of dry camping was arranged with TMS; providing seats and camp sites together for the group. Each coach purchaced their own tickets and camp site directly from TMS at the package price. This will be the model we will try to use for future events. The Foretravel Motorsports Chapter will arrange a package deal with the event venue, but tickets and camping will be purchased by the member directly from the venue. The racing consisted of: Nov 5-6 7-Eleven Qualifying Days; NASCAR Camping World Truck, Nationwide & Sprint Cup Series Nov 6 Lone Star 350k; NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Nov 7 O'Reilly Challenge; NASCAR Nationwide Series Nov 8 Dickies 500; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series In addition to the racing, there was shopping at Cabela's, Camping World, .... We had a chapter dinner at Babe's and two dinners hosted by our wagonmasters, in addition to a couple of runs to CiCi's for pizza buffets. Besides the eating, we held a Chapter meeting to nominate and elect new officers for 2010.