Autobahn will be well represented in this prestigious race by members Graham Rahal, Cooper MacNeil, Doug Grunnet and Tony Kester. Kester, Chief Instructor at Autobahn, will be driving the #55 Accumen Motorsports Porsche 997 along with Frank Del Vecchio and team owner Grunnet. Rahal, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing in the # 01 TELMEX/Target Dinan-Prepared BMW Riley will team up with Scott Pruet, Mimo Rojas and Joey Hand. MacNeil will be driving the #23 Alex Job Racing Porsche 997 with co-drivers Emmanuel Collard, Marco Holzer and Butch Leitzinger.

I would like to invite all Ladies to a complimentary Brunch on Saturday February 18th at 11:00 am to discuss events for the upcoming season. Last year the Ladies had a wonderful time getting together monthly for driving instruction with Tony Kester. This season they would like to continue coming out monthly but also would like to add a few more events. For example Peggy Gerdes would love to schedule some cooking classes. Also, if anyone knows someone that would like to put on demonstration during the festival weekends, such as flower arrangements, gardening, yoga, pilates, dancing…. Please bring your ideas on Saturday Feb 18th The more the merrier. Please RSVP to Terri Weber at TerriWeber@Autobahncc.com by Wednesday February 15th.

Continental Motors Group of Naperville, Chicago Indoor Racing and DuPage PADS have teamed up for the 2nd annual 6-hour karting enduro for charity, entitled “Drive for 55 - The Race to End Homelessness in DuPage County”. Our goal is to raise a minimum of $55,000 for DuPage PADS to assist individuals and families who are homeless! The Drive for 55 will be held on Sunday, February 26th from 10am to 4pm at Chicago Indoor Racing in Addison. Eighteen teams will compete in raising money for DuPage PADS before race day, and the official starting grid will be determined by the fundraising success of each team. 

Several Autobahn members are participating in this event including Steve Jenkins, Dave Gronke, Jim Bacus, Peter Jankovskis, Collin O'Brien, Fred Maringer, Fall-Line Motorsports, Mark Boden, Jim Hamman, Tom Herb, Jay Patel, McGrath Auto Group, Shawn Young and Joel Weinberger. If you haven’t done so already, please consider supporting one of the member's teams by donating at this link: https://ww2.dupagepads.org/donationsFundRaising.asp?id=1087 

In addition, there will be an exposition for B-Spec racecars with Mazda, Honda, and others participating and showing their B-Spec cars. Charles Espenlaub is also scheduled to give a race safety seminar. 

There are also a limited number of karts still available for the event if anyone wants to form their own team and help raise funds to help PADS. Please contact Joel Weinberger (jkw@continentalmotors.com) or Shawn Young (laps10inc@gmail.com) for details.

A survey has been sent to all Autobahn  Members who have participated in the wheel to wheel classes of the Autobahn Member Racing Series. If you have received this your participation is appreciated. If you compete, or plan to compete, in the Autobahn Member Racing Series and have not received this survey please send an email to mikegritter@autobahncc.com for the link.

We try our best to include stories about our members achievements in racing at other venues in this weekly newsletter when we are aware of them.  The problem is that we are not always aware of what our members are accomplishing out there.  In an effort to capture all of the stories, we need your help.  If you or other members you know have a story to tell, please feel free to send them into us for inclusion.  You can send them into either Mike Gritter at mikegritter@autobahncc.com or Terri Weber at terriweber@autobahncc.com .  Thank you for helping us out!

In preparation for the upcoming season we want to remind members of our guest driver policy. This policy does require that the member host be present in order to have guest drivers. We also need to make it very clear that the guest drivers are the responsibility of the host member at all times, not Autobahn instructors, as our instructors have many other responsibilities and duties. When this policy is not followed, not only is safety compromised, but also the overall experience of our Club for all present that day. Click Here for Complete Guest Driver Policy.

We are having an event on Saturday February 25th from noon to 4 pm at Northstar Motorsports in Barrington. Autobahn members will receive discounted pricing on most items in the store. Please come on out and feel free to bring some potential members as Northstar will also be inviting customers who are not current Autobahn members in an effort to help us recruit new members. You will be treated to complimentary food and beverage. We hope you can make it. Click Here for Directions.

For the 2012 season all Autobahn Members and guest drivers helmets will be required to meet Snell 2005 standards. You can check for this by looking inside the helmet. There is typically an orange label with a year written on it, if that year is older than 2005 it will be time for a new helmet. All helmets will be inspected prior to the first time on track and given an updated inspection sticker.

We are now offering the option to have your engine inspected and sealed during the off season. This is a voluntary program that may help you avoid inconvenient inspections during the season.

Click Here for Complete Details