June 16, 2005

At the May WWSCC meeting the WWSCC Council voted to disconnect the WWSCC telephone hotline because of lack of use. Although I don't know the exact date of birth of the hotline I do know that it was long ago enough that WWSCC still did rallies in addition to autocrosses! (if anyone knows more let me know)

According to Don Gill the hotline originally was located at "Auto Via" which was owned by Jim Bauman who was the original hotline voice (I just learned that it may have actually been Chuck Heleker). Later on the hotline moved to Ron and Karen Babb's house and Ron became the "voice" of WWSCC. Karen loved to tell about the odd times the answering machine would switch on, especially as events got closer and closer.

In 1995 this website debuted and the fate of the hotline was just a matter of time. From the beginning with all the computer geeks in the area the website quickly became popular and hotline use dropped. About the same time Ron retired from the hotline and passed the torch on to Bret Dodson who has served until present time. Eventually however the hotline was only being called 2-3 times an event and it became obvious that it's time had passed. Still all of us who one relied on it for timely event information in the days before email and the web will regret it's passing.

One more time: "This is the Western Washington Sports Car Council Hotline for the week of June 12th..." :-)