Randy Everson kicked off the evening with an overview of '97. It was a very busy year consisting of an autocross school followed by six events, three drivers schools, the club race, four membership meetings, the picnic/concours, an evening at Ravinia, the fall tour and a large presence at O'Fest. Whew!

Most of our events were helped tremendously by support from area businesses. Albert Velasco presented appreciation awards to:

• Jan Bloom - Blackhawk Farms Raceway
• Fields BMW - Winnetka, IL
• Tim Leicht - Leicht Automotive
• Ron Markoya - Shirts Our Business (Isn't this the greatest name ever?)
• Dave Mason
• Midwest Motorsport
• Howard Rauch - Rauch Performance
• The Tire Rack
• Yokohama Tire

• Randy (Scandal free!) Everson - President
• Larry (I'm in charge if there's a major accident) Schaal - Vice President
• Albert (that's Administrative Assistant to you) Velasco - Secretary
• Jim (I've found funding for Moroso 1999) Waldman - Treasurer

Jack Tippens presented the special awards.

The Big Wheel is given to a non-elected board member who has done the most for the club in the year. Webmeister Roger Ness was giddy about receiving this year's honor.

The Shifter is presented to an elected board member who best kept the club in gear. President Randy Everson received this award for his tireless efforts and special focus on driver education and safety.

The Clutch was initiated by Larry Kanouse and is given to a non-board member who has done the most for the club. Gregg Heineman helped out at nearly all of this years events.

The Overachiever "Toilet Seat" Award was created by Alex Christensen. Last year's winner, Chris Simon, made the presentation to Ben Thongsai. Ben was present at nearly all events, dominated his class in autocross and helped countless drivers keep their cars running smoothly. As an example of Ben's genius, Chris told of a scenario at the Oktoberfest Autocross. A New Yorker competing in his five series suddenly found his car with no electrical power. Within a few minutes Ben had discovered a wiring problem in the car's computer and ran a wire from the glovebox light to the computer. The car fired up and was able to compete in the event and make it back to New York.

Linda Bremner, representing Love Letters, was present again this year to accept a check from the raffle proceeds and to pick this year's lucky winner. Tim Corcoran's name was drawn and, after accepting the check, turned around and gave it back to Linda! Hats off to Tim!

This summary would not be complete without giving a special thanks to all of the individuals & businesses who donated the door prizes.

Thank you to these donors!

Autoguard Motoring Accessories (Bob Smith) Automotive Racing Lithographs (John Cleveland) Avanti Motorsports (Artist Thom Montanari) B&B Fabrication, Inc BMW North America (Eric Wensberg) Bacin Group Restaurants (Dan & Linda Bacin) Bavarian Autosport (Gordon Arnold) Blue Ribbon Motoring Accessories (David Klein) Borla Performance Industries (Rose Figueroa) Robert Bosch Corporation (Ben Bendixen) Cam Distributors (Debra Traub) Creative Showcase (Eric Friedman) Dent Wizard (Michael Babiarz) Dinan Engineering (Scott Leandres) DRE Inc./WREP Industries (Aaron Deer) Electodyne, Inc Emmons Coachworks (Larry Emmons) European Racing Technologies (John Lengyel & Alfred duPont) Fairfield Inn of Beloit, WI (Debbie Fingerhut) Field's BMW (Bruce Steinberg) GingerMan Raceway (Daniel Schnitta) Grant Products Great Sheep Company (Martin Slater) HMS Motorsport (Joe Narko)

Hemmings Motor News (Terry Ehrich) HiSport Communications (Bob Roemer) Holiday Inn of South Beloit, IL (Shawn Kennedy) La Jolla Independent/CNPR (Carl Nelson) Carter Lee Midwest Performance Headquarters (Rodney Ramos) Mini Bimmers (Michael Lenhardt) Mothers Polish Barbara Neuerman Partsource International (Harold Roehrich) Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies (K Bryan) Pennzoil Products Company (Lee Erbach) Performance Automotive (John Bisset) Presidential Mortgage (Larry Schaal) Roadworks Motoring Accessories (Fred Menschel) Schroth Restraint Systems (Travis K Robinson) Shirts Our Business (Ron Markoya) Stahl Headers, Inc (Judy E Stahl) Sumitomo Tire (Kathleen Hynes) 303 Products, Inc (Roger Dyer) Tire Rack (Matt Edmonds) Tire Zone (Gus Haramaras) Warsteiner Importers (Bob Roemer) Warsteiner Importers Agency (Greg Hardman) ZF Industries, Inc (Tim Corcoran)