Hello everyone,

Here's an update on whats been happening at the track.

The #1 issue at our facility at this time is the condition of our tire bundles.  Most of them around the track need to be rebuilt/replaced.  For those of you who have never been involved in the building of a tire bundle, it's not an easy job.  It's very labour intensive and very dirty.  Many of the tires from the old bundles will be sent for recycling.  I was able to have nearly 2000 tires delivered this week, FREE OF CHARGE.  This will give us a good start on the building of replacement bundles.  Every bundle we build from now on will be drilled for drainage and the tires will be bolted together.  In the past these two very important steps have not always been done, resulting in bundles that fall apart, and hold water thus breeding the dreaded mosquito.  On Saturday we built a large new bundle for the face of the turn 2 flag station.  The side bundles have been adjusted using some previous bundles, but will be replaced with new bundles in the coming weeks.  I will post the date of the next tire building party.  Please assist if you can, as we have dozens of bundles to build.

The green forklift is no longer suitable for the demand we place on it.  The amount of blocks we move on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis when changing the track over for our various rental customers and of course for drag races is extensive.  Because our blocks are getting on in years, they have become very brittle and are breaking too easily when we try and move them with the green forklift.  The green forklift does not have side-shift and therefore causes unnecessary damage to the blocks when we move them.  It's also very tired and starting to leak in too many places to count.  As a result we have purchased a new forklift, also yellow in colour, to replace the green one.  This is going greatly help the track managers and track operations people with track setups, and help preserve our very expensive blocks.  It's in excellent condition and will be very reliable, unlike the green one, where there is a 50/50 chance of it starting.  We are most likely going to offer the green forklift to our landlord, Custom Car in exchange for them, on an ongoing basis, clearing much of our blackberry bushes around the track using their new dangle mower.  The blackberry's are a huge problem and having Custom Car take care of this for us will be a huge help and much needed improvement to our facility's condition.

The SCCBC pickup truck has been an eyesore for many years.  It had some mechanical issues that were extremely dangerous.   As a result it has been sent away for scrap.  You'll be happy to know that I was able to get us $200 cash for it.  I have spent the last 2 weeks trying to find an inexpensive replacement.  I visited approximately 12 used vehicle dealerships and private sellers.  I must say that there are some really scary vehicles out there and looks can be deceiving.  I had thought that $5000-$6000 would have yielded us a decent truck, but that was proving to not the case.  However, I used my contacts at the City of Vancouver and was able to acquire a white 2000 Ford F150 crew cab, with 153,000 km's, for $3500!!!  Other than some scratches from 11 years of use, this truck is in very good condition.  Sarah will be outfitting it with a very sharp looking SCCBC graphics package that when complete, will represent us very nicely when it's out in the community.  Roland will also be re-installing the light bar from the old truck this week as well.  I know you will be very pleased with the new truck when you see it this weekend.

The above doesn't even begin to scratch the surface on the amount of work, repairs and replacement that needs to be done.  But with good organization and lots of help, we will be able to accomplish much and start to drastically improve the look, safety and functionality of our precious facility.

Thats all for now, see you all this weekend!

Cheers,

Steve

Can your city contacts find me a good cheap van too? :D

Thanks for the update, this is awesome!

Steve, you are a man of many talents, and we are blessed to have you. Thank you!