[sperry]

I think the general position of the board has already been expressed above but I just want to reitterate what's been said, just to make it absolutely clear:

SECCS is not a street racing club, or a "crew", or anything along those lines. We're an Enthusiasts club, which means we're into cars, not into driving like maniacs. Most of our member work very hard and donate enormous amounts of time, energy, and money into helping to provide a legal, safe, local motorsports scene. From autocross, to track trials, to rally... hell, we've even organized circle track driving days. So when someone associated with the club puts our hard work at risk, both physically by endangering others on the road, and/or by furthering the reputation that car clubs are full of street racers and asshats (a reputation that we work extremely hard to dispel), it makes the members of this club extremely upset.

Erik, what you do off the public streets is you're own deal. Feel free to take risks alone all you want. But if you insist on driving outside the envelope where it endangers others, or the club's reputation, then the members of this club aren't interested in your participation. Having ridden with you, I know you're a very capable driver. That is unfortunately never an excuse for grossly exceeding the rules of the road. Sure, we all speed on occation, and we all make mistakes on the street now and then... but as far as I know, no one in the club intentionally pushes it to the limit on the street... even a bone stock STI is too fast of a car for that. We take it to the track where there is proper safety equipment and a controlled environment. As one of the founders of this club, I have a responsibility to try to protect our reputation, and as someone that has to share the street with you, I have a right and responsibility to ask that you keep your driving within the limits of safety.

But more importantly, and more personally, you have the occation to drive with Lisa in your car. She is extremely important to me. If you are driving as you were driving last night with her in the car, then you and I will have a very big problem.

Feel free to consider me an asshole for saying these things, or call me a square or a pussy because I won't look the other way when people take unnecessary risks. But shit does happen, and sometimes it doesn't just happen to the other guy, sometimes you're the one that gets bit in the ass. I've lost friends on the road, and I guarentee most of the members on this board have lost friends or family on the road. Simply driving from point A to B is dangerous enough, why add to the risk? Especially when there are plenty of venues to drive at where the risks are calculated risks.

I have to say, I'm thankfull last night's situation was simply a cool cop pulling Cory over and letting him go when he realized the mistake. It could have very easily been a black STI piled into Nick's Legacy and Cory's RS... and all the associated mess that would have gone with that. Something like that in all likelyhood would destroy the club, and I intend to do what I can to prevent something like that from happening.