ARIZONA REGION – Jeff writes: "I grew up in El Cajon, California and attended the same school K-8. During my freshman year at EC High we moved to Escondido where I attended Orange Glen High School. My parents grew up in San Diego and so I had a LOT of family and friends there. I bounced around San Diego in my 20's, got married and had kids. My wife's name is Celina and my kids are Kirsten (12) and Carly (8). We have a dog too, a Manchester Terrier. Her name is Pixie. As the kids got bigger we needed a bigger house. Rather than fork over every penny for a mortgage in San Diego, we moved to Gilbert in 2004. Then we watched Gilbert explode right before our eyes. We live in the community of Seville, which is on literally the southeast corner of Gilbert."
"I spent a lot of Saturday nights at Cajon Speedway when I was a kid. My dad raced there a couple times in the 60s and my uncle ran the #60 Ted Whitt Plumbing team. I didn’t learn anything about cars until I was in high school and my step-dad bought me a 1959 Volkswagen bug. I had no choice but to learn how to fix it because the damn thing needed work pretty much all the time. It was stock with 6-volt electric and a 1200cc motor (if memory serves), which barely got me up the hill we lived on. We converted to 12-volt and put an 1835 with dual Webers in it. Much better. That got me up the hill fine but caused problems with the doors at the higher cornering speeds. The problem being that the old car’s doors would fly open as I rounded the corners. My girlfriend did not appreciate that feature. We spent a lot of time going to VW events like the Bug-in. Good times, good people, and good memories there. I didn’t know anything about autocross until someone online told me about it. Even then I thought it was something you needed a super fast “race” car to do. Once I found out you could take your 'daily driver' out, I searched for a good car, bought it, and here I am."
"When I showed up for my first event, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t even know where to park my car when I got there. I just showed up (and, no, I did not park in grid). I paid my registration then wandered over to my car and stood there watching what was going on. Brian Peters came over and asked if my car had been 'teched.' I said 'I don’t know.' He kinda chuckled and said, 'Is this your first event?' I told him it was. He dropped to the ground and looked around at I don’t know what, then jumped up and asked me to pop the hood and the trunk. He finished checking out the car and said, 'Welcome to autocross, Have fun!' At the end of the day he told me I was in the wrong 'class' because I had 17” wheels on a car that came stock with 15s. Since then I’ve picked his brain for way more information than should be allowed and it’s made a huge difference in my progress and enjoyment of the sport. So I would like to point out that Brian is a great ambassador for SCCA and Solo and I would like to say 'thanks' to him for helping me get started."
"I’ve entered 8 events as of this interview. I’m still a Novice, but I suspect that by the time this Pylon Press is released, I’ll have a trophy for the 2007 Fall Series. I’m most proud of setting goals for my time as a Novice and reaching them before 'trophying out.' I wanted to get a 900+ PAX at least once and I’ve done it three times so I’m pretty stoked about that."
"My involvement with the club so far has been to help out at events however I can and to update the web site. I think it was at my second or third event when Brian Peters came up to me and said “do you know HTML?” The rest is history. I try to help out at events whenever and however I can. I usually hang out at the fence and invariably a few people will come up to me and ask a question about what’s going on on-track. Sometimes drivers will ask between laps if I know where they’re DNF-ing. I usually know the answer or let them know after their next run, if they haven’t figured it out already."
"I gave up a serious golf habit for autocross but I still like to play when I can. My handicap was a 12 the last time it mattered to me but I’m sure it’s back to a reasonable 20+ by now. I’ve been in the computer business for 20+ years so computers are sort of a hobby, although it’s all about web sites and software now than anything else. My first computer was an Atari that I bought at Sears, the kind that used tapes to load software. After that I got a Macintosh. I owned a Mac Plus, Mac IIci (one of the great computers of all time), and a Mac Cube (one of the least great computers of all time). Now I’m a Windows convert with a dozen or so computers around the house. As a hobby, I suppose, I help friends and family with their web sites and computer problems. I also like snow skiing, water skiing, going to the gym, and hiking. I plan to do a rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon some day if I can find someone else who wants to do it." (Talk to Don Sattler!)
"My employer is in San Diego so I travel back there every few weeks or so. I’m the Director of Operations for the San Diego Futures Foundation (www.sdfutures.org), a nonprofit that provides computers and services to other nonprofits, low-income families, schools, and people with disabilities. Each year we give away about 3,000 computers, provided to us by the County of San Diego. I develop and implement new programs, most of which are focused on helping kids. I told a buddy of mine what I do once and he goes “that sounds kinda sketchy, dude”. It’s not sketchy. It’s a very unique and valuable organization to San Diego, and a model that many governments and foundations throughout the U.S. are looking at to help them improve how they provide services to residents in low-income communities. I became involved in 2000 when my employer at the time, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), 'loaned' me to them to help them get set up. I haven’t stopped doing it since."
As he noted, Jeff has taken over the AZSolo website, and detests the title "Webmaster." He much prefers the more humble designation of 'AZSolo.com Updaterer.' He currently has a brand new design and format in the works, and having seen it, I can only say that it is fantastic! A lot more information in one compact, yet simple front page, with live links to Results, Schedule, the Forum, etc., and no more dropdown menus! Not sure just when this will debut, but certainly something to look forward to!
I also found out that Jeff is a bit of a musician, having played with electronic keyboards (he still has a Roland DX-7 "in the garage) and plays the guitar as a hobby. He also revealed that he "once was in a bar in Pacific Beach, CA and heard the song "Midnight At The Oasis" from the bandstand." He turned around to see none other than Maria Muldaur (the Original Artist whose #1 single this was) singing with the house band! Times like those are rare and unusual, and stand out in one's Personal History. Jeff is also one hellofa nice guy and friendly and easy to talk to. Just the sort of bloke we like around here!