Written by: Carl Couric

As some of you may or may not know, the SCCA board has decided to cut all ties with Equipe Rapide and not honor the contract they agreed to at the beginning of the year. My first reaction was to think of how this affects all SCCA members, especially the Florida Region autocrossers, and it made me angry. All I could see was SCCA Florida Region’s board was being short sighted again. I then looked at it from a simple business standpoint, and from an ER perspective, I said “Thank you! More money and freedom for ER”. Let me explain what has happened and why.

A little history first, SCCA Florida region was very popular back in the late 80s to early 90s. We actually had three clubs, SFSCA [South Florida Sports Car Association] headed up by Bob Rabatie, SCCA Florida Region, and Equipe Rapide. All three clubs worked in harmony towards providing the best events to the South Florida Autocrosser. Around 1993 to 1994, SCCA Florida Region hit a bump when Christy Whitte became the Solo Director. At an event, she lost the money. Many people believe she may have kept the money, but nothing was proved either way. This left SCCA Florida Region stagnant. The board at the time decided to drop all autocrossing, even with many others willing to come in and help. This was abandonment at its greatest.

Around 1998, Equipe Rapide led the autocross charge for South Florida. Al Wicht, then President of Equipe Rapide, working with Bob Rabatie, held a “Combined Autocross Series” which featured races from all 3 groups. The SCCA Florida Region events were put on under Bob’s management, while there were only 2 SCCA events, at least Florida Region of SCCA was doing what the SCCA charter asks for.

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