Northeast Formula Vee

[Mark Filip]

Northeast Formula Vee http://nefv.org


I would like to take a moment to introduce the Northeast Formula Vee web site. In the Northeast US, we have been working on promoting the class more heavily over the past few years to help interested racers to learn about and hopefully join Formula Vee.

We have created NEFV, which is NorthEast Formula Vee drivers association of USA and our charter is to promote FV racing in the greater Northeast US. We have begun promoting the class by building this web site, having booths at car shows where we bring a Vee, hand out pamphlets and business cards, show promotional videos and slideshows, and talk with people. It has been a lot of fun.

This web site is the central focus, where prospective racers can come to learn more about the car and the class, what FV racing is like and is all about, what it’s like to be part of FV, but primarily how to get started and who prospective racers can contact and talk with.

Although the list of Contacts folks and web site concentration is for racing FV in the northeast, there is a lot of information relevant for potential racers in any part of the US. We hope this site will benefit FV racing across the country.

The site provides some key contact people located in different places of the northeast in case a prospective racer has questions, wants meet someone and possibly see a car in person, or hang out and go see a race to see what FV racing is about.

The site not only is for promotion, but is also intended to help new drivers and the Northeast drivers to stay connected with a Calendar and by posting Events. It’s also a great and hopefully entertaining place to visit for any FV racer.

We have a great Drivers page with many of the northeast drivers listed. (If you’re not on there and are a driver in the greater northeast, no matter what region you’re in, please contact me. We would love to add you to the driver page. We really don’t have boundaries.)

We have a calendar page so people can see what is going on, like the upcoming annual Racer Expo that NEFV is attending to promote FV. We also have pictures from past events and shows, like our annual VeeFest celebration that each year attracts many FVs to come race together at an SCCA event. This has been a great success for us each year.

We would also like to say that the promotional activities we have started in the NE have been working. After one year of NEFV attending two shows we have several new drivers in the NE as a direct result. We urge other FV regions to try the same, and we’d be happy to help out by telling you what we’ve done.

Lastly, if anyone has any content they would like us to add (or change), please let us know. We want the site to be informative and helpful to the FV class in general.

Please come visit the site, enjoy it, and spread the word.

Thank you
Northeast Formula Vee

[jpetillo]

[I posted this on the Formula Vee forum forum at http://www.formulavee.org/interchange as well...]

Mark was concerned that people were thinking he was solely to blame for the NEFV organization. I'd like to mention how the NEFV group came about and how it grew into what it is today, in case it will help other regions do something similar.

As in all areas, there is an interest in increasing FV car counts.* As it turns out, we had several people doing different things at the same time. It was all purely coincidental.* *

Mark Filip and a few of the guys were corresponding and Mark put together the first draft of this web site. * They also had some NEFV "business" cards printed and passed them out to for us to give to people who might be interested.* Paul Faford and I had been talking about having a booth at some auto or racing shows for some time, and decided to try to have a booth at last January's Racers Expo. *

Andy Pastore had the idea of a pamphlet, gathered ideas, and the pamphlet was born with the help and expertise of his wife. *The Pastores also made our NEFV logo.

All this would contribute to what we would have at the Racers Expo booth. The local NER SCCA has had a booth for some number of years, had no car, but had entertaining movies. It was important for us to bring a car.* A lot of karting people go to this show.* The organizer gave us a spot that was bigger than we paid for, so we could fit the car.

So, we had the pamphlets, the business cards, made a few large NEFV signs, a backdrop, and it all came together and we manned a booth at the show.* The SCCA guys were diagonally across from us, so they could point over to Tom Pape's snazzy FV - a beautiful red BRD - and they gave us a bunch of SCCA "Wanna Race" bumper stickers that we plastered to our backdrop.* Nick Galuardi made a fantastic slideshow that just kept playing.* We had the NEFV Promotional video running on another monitor.* People would stop and watch the slideshow and video, so it was well worth the effort to put them together. We had a lot of the FV racers in the area drop by to man the booth and we scheduled roughly who would be there when.* Aside from the blizzard that shut down three states for a few days, it went off great. *

We then repeated the show at the annual Race-A-Rama the following month in Springfield, MA, in early February.* Our biggest problem was getting a car for the show, since everyone car's apart at that time of the year. Anthony Parker brought his black Womer - another beautiful car - and Craig Swinehart offered up his enclosed trailer, since the weather might be messy.* All these guys contributed, with Bruce Rodman coming down from sunny VT, Tom Galuardi coming up from sunnier CT, and Nick G with Tyler and Dave Reynolds coming from NY state to man the booth. *

Another benefit to all of this is it gives us a reason to get together offseason.* Although we rarely get the chance, the FV guys enjoy each getting together here in the NE - so much so that we were kidding about neglecting interested parties when they came by the booth because we were having too much fun just gabbing with each other.* *

That was last winter. Once the season started, Bruce Rodman took the lead to organize and arrange the Northeast's 2013 VeeFest at NHMP, with help from many of those already mentioned, but it is a family affair. In all, the event was pulled off by Bruce Rodman, Paul and Elaine Faford, Mark Filip and Jess, Colin Lawrence, Tom Pape, Craig and Wendy Swinehart, Anthony Parker, Bruce Rodman, Tom and Donna Galuardi, Nick and Kristen Galuardi, Tyler Reynolds, Dave and Becky Reynolds. Many hands make small work. I'm always amazed at how easy they make it look. *There are a lot of giveaways donated from vendors, and no one goes home unhappy. You can read about that at the web site. It attracts a lot of racers from further away than normal, and most "regular" racers pencil in that date to make it one of the "must go to" races of the year. Other parts of the country should try to do something like this. Please don't hesitate to call and ask. We'd be happy to help.

This past Fall we re-engaged to get the NEFV web site to a stage that we could "go public" with it, and Mark and Nick spent a lot of time with the final arranging and editing - http://www.nefv.org***I think it came out great. *Mark also arranged for our own NEFV Organization forum site at ApexSpeed...*http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=190.

We just had a mini meeting last week to make arrangements for the Racers Expo that's just a few weeks from now.* The beauty of having done the two shows last year is that it's almost nothing to pull it all off again this year - and it will be better!

We have also been tossing around the idea this year to find a way to give our crew, family members, friends, etc., potential racers the chance to take some laps in the race cars.* We're really excited about this idea, and we're working with the local region to see what we can do. We find the regions very eager to work with us when the goal is to generate more members.

Different people have different talents and interests, and, with a little organization added in, NEFV is the result. The best thing is that our efforts last year has brought us a few new racers already. So, it's been a success.

I wanted to tell you folks all this because, although it takes effort, we enjoyed it enough to do the shows again.* Please don't hesitate to contact any one of us in case you might want to do the same in your region.* Our pamphlet can easily conform to other regions as well. *

John

[G.B.]

Is there a Veefest planned for 2014, if so, when?

[Mark Filip]

Yes there will be we are still working out the details but as of right now we are planning to have it the opening weekend of Thompson Speedway. This would be July 12th and 13th. This is still tentative until official announcement, and that will be posted on the site and forums as soon as it's made official.