Last Saturday, the New England Region hosted its annual business meeting and awards banquet. The morning started with each program – Road Racing, Autocross and Rally – hosting a town hall to discuss the issues specific to their programs and planning for the upcoming year. Highlights from each of those meetings are as follows:
Autocross
2026 will bring the return of the 4-day Brunswich ProSolo and National Tour. It will be held June 18-21. The 2026 points events schedule for Devens will be announced soon, so watch emails and socials for updates. Also coming back will be an Evo school, and the very popular Ron MacApline Interclub Challenge is slated to become, hopefully, an annual event. Lastly, all Solo participants are encouraged to take the new course designer online class and/or the safety steward class if they are interested in getting involved in either of those volunteer opportunities.
Rally
For the RallyCross and Road Rally programs, the participants reviewed the 2026 schedule, which also included the possibility of looking forward to new sites where 2-day events with camping and night events can occur. Also note there will be a Trek event in May. The Cape GTA is looking for a Rallymaster for its 52nd running in 2027. The Area 1 Director and Rally Liaison provided an updated from the national office. NER is excited to announce a new Rookie Mentor role, which will be headed by Stephanie Reeve. She is developing the program and plans to premiere it at the RX on Jan 17. There was a discussion on tech requirements and car numbering, using the texting features from MSR for event day communications, and an open floor for ideas to speed up the flow of RX events.
From a rules and regs standpoint – 2 new rule proposals were discussed and passed. 1) No smoking is allowed anywhere except in the paddock where it will not disturb non-smokers. This includes registration, grid, on-course, workers meeting, and awards. Organizers may ask people to move their paddock location if it is disturbing their neighbors. 2) Modifications to the Road Rally Championship will include Class L and allow the use of GTA points when there are not enough TSD events held in a season. The work requirement for the championship was also removed. Also, everyone was asked to make note of helmet certifications, as 2025 helmets are now available, and 2010’s will expire the end of this year. Finally, participants are encouraged to request reserved numbers by emailing rallyxreg@ner.org.
Road Racing
The club racing program agenda started with a review of it’s finances. More than 1000 entries for the 2025 season left the program in the positive making a profit for the year. The 2026 schedule will see a change with the Thompson Majors moving to the 4th of July weekend, instead of happening in August. They also covered it’s annual driver school and CRE program to certify new drivers. It went over changes in race groups and the need for additional volunteers to assist as Race Chair at events. Steve Introne and Sal Baisley gave a presentation on the Worker Recruiting Team and the plans for the Trackside Experience events planned for 2026. Anyone interested in joining the recruiting team can reach out to either of them. Each of the specialty chiefs in attendance gave a brief update as well.
NER Annual Meeting
After a break from the program town halls, attendees were served lunch, then everyone re-gathered for the Annual Business Meeting for the region. During this meeting, reports were presented and discussed from the following people: the treasurer, Area 1 Director, individual program heads, recruiting team, membership and merchandise, archives, Pit Talk and NER site manager, and the RE.
Following each of those reports, the results of the Board of Directors election was announced, and the region is pleased to welcome Chris Crotty, Krista Crotty, Hal Denham, Karen Petersen, and David White to the 2026 BOD. After breaking for an Executive session, the new BOD returned to announce that the new Regional Executive is David Gott and Assistant RE is Trevor Frey. Paul Omichinski will continue as Secretary.
Awards Banquet
The day ended with the Championship Awards Banquet. After a plated dinner was served, each of the 2026 RallyCross, Road Rally, Autocross and Road Racing Champions and trophy winners were announced and presented with their awards. Congratulations to each and everyone of them on a successful and hard raced season.
Rally Champions
Solo Champions
Road Racing Champions
Individual Awards
Each year, New England Region also presents individual awards to those members that go above and beyond, or make a significant impact or contribution to the region. Please take a moment to review those people that were selected to receive these honors this year.
Gold Pass Winners
Trevor Hermance / Phil Gott / Peter Villaume / Jennifer Ferreira / Kathy Barnes
Regional Executive Award
Abhi Ghatak
Asst. Regional Executive Award
Nate Simeon
Ma & Pa Philbrick Award
Paul & Kelly Messier
25 Year Anniversaries
These members celebrated their 25th SCCA Anniversary this year.
Grant Reeve
Laura Villaume
Ned Sparrow
Jordan and Samantha Lamkins
(John Lamkins accepting on their behalf)
