SCCA Announces Technical Services Department

TOPEKA, June 13, 2010: Sports Car Club of America, Inc., has announced the formation of a stand-alone Technical Services Department to better serve the participants, teams and crew members of all of the competition programs offered by the Club, including Club Racing, Rally, RallyCross, Solo and Time Trials.

The Club-wide department will provide cross training between national staff members, sharing knowledge through the department that will allow for better support to competitors and better coverage during each discipline’s National Championship events.

“At SCCA, we’ve been stressing customer and member service for a number of months,” SCCA President/CEO Jeff Dahnert said. “The new Technical Services Department is another example of us serving our members– in this case, the competitors and teams, more efficiently with a larger department to answer their calls for questions and assistance. Everyone in Club Racing, Rally and Solo should benefit from this extended expertise.”

Doug Gill, formerly the Solo Competition Manager, has been named General Manager of the Technical Services Department. Gill has background in all aspects of SCCA, Inc. competition programs, serving in roles at both the Tire Rack® SCCA Solo® National Championship and the SCCA National Championship Runoffs®, and will be responsible for managing the new department. Gill is also responsible for coordinating the cross training efforts for the national staff and SCCA field personnel, as well as managing the interaction between SCCA and technical certification programs and standards set by the FIA and SFI Foundation.

“We’re looking forward to ‘making it easy, making it fun’ as a Technical Services Department,” Gill said. “Our goal is to be able to help every member who contacts us with a technical question and help them participate in a safe and competitive manor, and we’re confident in our staff’s ability to do that.”

Working with Gill in the Technical Services Department are John Bauer, Brian Harmer and the recently-hired Ryan Miles.

Bauer, the Club Racing Technical Manager, has provided information and technical guidance to Club Racing members and support to national events, including the SCCA Runoffs, during his six years at SCCA.

In Harmer’s past two years as Solo Technical Specialist, he has assisted Solo competitors with many of these same activities, working both in the office and assisting on-site at National events.

Both Bauer and Harmer will continue to not only work within their specialties, but continue to train across all SCCA competitions.

Joining the Technical Services Department is Ryan Miles. Miles joins SCCA from Columbus, Ohio, where he worked as a construction planner and draftsman, and part-time at a specialty automotive repair shop dealing with Porsches and vintage Triumph machines. Already an SCCA member, Miles has participated in Solo events as a competitor, and in Club Racing as a crew member.

As Technical Services Assistant, Miles will handle homologations, initial member inquiries and be responsible for updating car data from manufacturers. Miles took the position vacated by Kevin Yaghoubi, who left SCCA May 28 to further his education.

The Technical Services department will continue to assist Club Racing and the Rally/Solo departments with vehicle inspections and compliance issues, and assist with trade shows including the annual Performance Racing Industry show in Orlando. The department may also work with the SCCA Pro Racing technical department on topics of mutual interest.