2008 FBCC President:  Hap Waldrop

  First off I would like to let all the FBCC members know how honored I am to serve you as your 2008 president.  Most of you know me, but for you all that do not, I'll share with you all a little background on myself about my passion for British cars.

  I owned my first British car at an early age:  my father was a car dealer, and we had a deal to let me drive and fix up any car on his car lot with the understanding that it was for sale at anytime.  My first LBC (little British car) was a TR7, I only had it for few short months.  The most memorable thing I can remember about the TR7 was that the windshield wiper motors kept breaking compelling me to learn about the water shedding properties of RainX in a hurry.

  Throughout my dad's car dealership days, I got to sample more than a few British cars:  Jaguar XKE, Jaguar XJS V12, MGBs, Spitfires, TR6, TR7 and even a Bristol.

   In my early 20s I discovered SCCA road racing.  In 1984 I wanted to get into driver's seat at SCCA road racing events, and so I bought an F-Production Triumph Spitfire from a local racer, and attended and passed my competition drivers schools.  In 1985 I embarked on my first season as race driver competing in 11 regional races that year.  I won my first race ever at Rockingham Speedway beating a field of 14 other F production cars in my class - I was on cloud nine!

  The following year I decided to upgrade race cars, and had the chance to purchase an E Production Huffaker MGB (an ex- factory race car).  That year with the Huffaker MGB, I began competing in a higher level of SCCA road racing national competition. In SCCA national racing, within each division in the country, 4 drivers in each class earned an invitation to the SCCA runoffs national championships, which at the time were thought by many to be one of the top 10 racing events in the country.

  Since the runoffs were held at Road Atlanta in those days, many national champions resided in my home division, the Southeast division, giving me little hope of actually getting a invitation to the runoffs my first season as a national driver.  My season went a lot better than I thought as I was able to win my first national event at Daytona Speedway.  By setting an E production track record, and finishing third in the season's point in the SE division, I earned an invitation to the runoffs on my first attempt – which was quite a honor at the time – especially since all the other qualifying drivers from the SE division were past national champions.   At the runoffs, I did ok, finishing 14th in a 40 car field, but quickly learned how high the skill level was at this level of racing.

  In 1987, I again returned to the runoffs in the Huffaker MGB, running as high as 8th place - until I and a Porsche 356 try to occupy the same section of track …   We both spun, dropping to the back of the field.  Fortunately I was able to continue but only managed an 18th place finish that year.

  In the following few years I started another past interest of motorcycle racing.  I had only raced the MGB a few times a year, mostly in regional competition, where I won 80% of the races I competed in.  In 1990 I sold the Huffaker MG to a private collector and started racing stock cars for a few years.

  In the mid 90s I returned to road racing as a crew chief for a close friend, and we came very close to winning the runoffs in G production in 1994 at Mid Ohio.  By 1996 I was getting the itch to get back in the driver seat again, so I started looking around for another race car.  I found a 1972 F Production Sprite and rebuilt it.  In 1999 I manage to finish the Sprite and get it back on track, going back to competition drivers school and racing some.

  In 2000 I did a full season of the SCCA SARRC series racing.  I won 7 races (including the SIC invitational in a grueling race with a Porsche 914, no one thought I could beat) capturing the 2000 SAARC Championship.

  The following year, 2001, I took the FP Sprite to the national championship runoffs and finished 13^th.   I returned again with this car in 2002 and competed again in runoffs.  For the next few years I served as crew chief to several drivers, including a past national champion, with finishes as high as 3rd place.  In 2005 I returned to the runoff in an H production as a driver in a MG Midget, and was running 10th place in the rain; unfortunately I spun the car and ended up finishing 15th.  In 2006 I ran one race weekend in which I won the race. 

    In 2001 after working in the family businesses for all my adult life, I opened up my own business, Acme Speed Shop.  My new business was to build British race engines, race cars, and build street engines, SU carbs for British cars.  I’m still doing today.  

  I had met a few FBCC members at the racetrack, including Mike Barefield, Tom Buto, and Rich Hall, after a Spridget race weekend I had organized at Charlotte motor Speedway in 2003.  Rich Hall invited me to come to a FBCC meeting.  I attended that meeting and Mary Jane and I had a ball.  The FBCC people were so nice.  The then president, Steve Poteet invited Mary Jane and myself to a tech session at Ed Seagrave's  the following weekend.   

  Ed Seagrave was another FBCC member I had known for awhile from a lot of the places I’d gone to for car related stuff ( fastner shops, machine shops, welding shop, etc).  I always heard about  “the other MG guy".  After years of hearing about this character, I finally met him in around 2001; of course that was Ed Seagrave.   Ed would stop by my shop and use my lathe, and he would let me come use his distributor tester and big bead blast cabinet at his shop. After the FBCC tech session at Ed's shop, we told Steve Poteet we wanted to join the FBCC. So there you go, that's a little background about my British car related past, and the path that brought me to become a member of the FBCC. 

    When Mary Jane and I became members of the FBCC in 2003, we didn't own a street British car, only a LBC race car.  So a lot of the time we missed out on FBBC car related trips and driving events.    In 2005 I traded my MG Midget race car for a fully restored low mileage 1967 MG MGB GT street car. The GT allowed us now to become more involved in the FBCC, and we started enjoying more car related events with FBCC.

   We began getting hints form FBCC around 2005 to run for vice president of the FBCC, but that year I knew I was still racing and it would be hard to be a good officer for the FBCC. Again in 2006 I was nominated for vice president, this time I accepted, and was elected to that position, which now leads me to being the 2008 FBCC president.   I think FBCC member John Sharpe and 2006 FBCC president once told me, be careful with this group, you'll go a long way in a short amount of time, LOL..

    So as we enter 2008 and I am to be the FBCC president, I want everyone to think about why they joined the FBCC to begin with, and I'm sure the common answer is to enjoy themselves with people who share their same passion, the love of British cars.

  With that being said, I'm sure  we will have to deal with some matters this year of a serious nature, we always do,  but I want to try to make this year, the reason we all became FBCC members to begin with, to have fun.  I would like to schedule FBCC event this year that will get FBCC members to get our cars out of their garages and on the road where they deserve to be, with us owners enjoying them, doing with them, what they were built for, driving.  I also want to continue our tech sessions helping our members be better able to enjoy their cars by learning how to maintain them.   I will depend on the vast knowledge of our fellow members to help me accomplish these goals.

    In closing, thank you again for this opportunity.  I plan on trying my very best to be a good and passionate FBCC president for you all.  Let’s make this year one we can all remember for some time to come.  After all, this is your car club, and you are the FBCC ! 

Thank you,

Hap Waldrop

Your 2008 FBCC President.