Racing Against Leukemia Recap -

- by Doug Fisher

RAL/NER Charities Weekend as a huge success and was a great example of the generosity and enthusiasm of many NER members for our annual fundraising endeavor. The accounting of all monies raised is not totally finished, but it is clear that the combined (Solo, Club Racing, Rally/RallyX) funds raised will be over $17K this year, which trounces the $14K figure from last year.

Many thanks goes out to the NER Charities Committee, that started planning for this event back in May, and to team of members who did a superb job selling raffle tickets at the event. The committee members were Linda Kogan (co-chair), Jody Fisher (co-chair), Danielle Moehring, Wiley Cox, Kathy Moody, Dave Maynard and Peter Perrault. This year, in addition to our core charity, UMass Medical Center, the committee decided to expand our mission and devote a portion of the fund raising dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Thanks also go out to the following companies who sponsored items and supported the event:

• Flatout Motorsports

• Veloz Media

• Team LTD

• Graffitti Works

• ITS Inc.

• Aggressive Graphics

• Berkshire Brewery

• Wachusett Brewing.

For the raffle(s) there were many firms (eg. In Control, Team O’Neil, SCDA) and club members (eg Tom Kelly, Deb Maynard) who contributed pricey items and gift certificates that put smiles on the faces of a lot of raffle winners. New this year, we had arranged for specific gift baskets from Solo, RallyX, and Club Racing.

Surely, the most unique raffle item and the high point of the raffle, was Jerry Rigoli’s “silver” goatee, which was offered-up by those clever folks from Flynn-Casaro Racing. Obviously this was not Jerry’s idea, but the bounty price was jacked-up by auctioneers Nick Leverone and Andy Bettencourt to a loaftee $1160, so how could Jerry refuse with a 100+ on-lookers cheering.

After the raffle we had a little more delicious lasagna, a cannoli and headed over to the movie (World’s Fastest Indian) presented by our film expert, Dudley Foster. Simultaneously folks participating in the Rally started arriving for their final leg around NHMS, in the dark. They finished up back at the garage, had a nice pizza party and helped finish off the keg and snacks.

Sunday was another fine day of road racing and Solo, with the addition of Rally-X activities. It was special to have Danielle and Manfred Moehring with us throughout the weekend. As most know, it was Danielle’s battle with leukemia, which started some 24 years ago, that inspired NER to devote a weekend of racing each year to raise money for cancer research.

For members who could not attend, you should put this event on your calendar for next year. On Sunday, following the party Saturday night, it was heard that “if they could only do one race a year, “RAL Weekend” would be the one”. Fortunately, the weather was in our favor throughout the weekend, until the last two race groups on Sunday afternoon when the skies opened up and we all got a soaking whether we wanted it or not.