Danny will be celebrating his 40^th birthday at the end of this month. He likes to enjoy his time with his girlfriend Dee Le. Danny was born in Kissimmee, FL and he is a Self-Employed General Contractor and he is the owner of Distinctive Builders of Florida, LLC 

Danny is enjoying his first and current BMW which is a beautiful 2018 Mineral Gray BMW M2 which has been very tastefully modified. 

He likes to enjoy his M2 at Autocross events with Martin Sports Car Club and he has also participated in the BMW M track days hosted at Homestead. 

He has been a Sunshine Bimmers Member since February 2018. In addition to enjoying the BMW, some of Danny’s other hobbies are traveling and visiting unique restaurants. 

His personal motto is “Stay humble, keep an open mind, and continuously learn.”

High All, 
I’m reaching out to you to ask for your help again. For whatever reason despite a few months of advertising, we still have 8 open seats for our upcoming PC day on March 16. Would you please help us by doing 2 things – 1) email your chapter members with the info and 2) put the details out on your social media channels? If you use Mailchimp, I will gladly share our PC template with you or export it to HTML.
The details are below from our MSR registration page as well as the link. Thanks again for the help!
https://www.motorsportreg.com/events/bmw-cca-hod-m-club-day-performance-center-greer-sc-heart-of-dixie-256639

The Heart of Dixie Chapter is headed to the BMW Performance Center in Greer, South Carolina on March 16, 2019 for our ///M Club Day driving event. As always, the Performance Center provides current model ///M cars, instructors, gas, tires, lunch and a first-class facility for a fun-filled day at the track. Just show up ready to drive!

The focus of this event is on improving your driving skills and having fun through a combination of driving exercises, classroom instruction and competitive events. No helmets or previous driving school experience is required. All skill levels are welcome and encouraged to attend.

This school is a special program designed by the Performance Center staff specifically for the Heart of Dixie chapter. It will be similar to previous ///M Club Day events, which have included instruction on proper driving position, vehicle dynamics, car-control skills, weight-transfer, oversteer/understeer and improved vision. The day is divided into morning and afternoon sessions which mix skill exercises and competitive events, including skid pad wet/dry courses, braking and handling practice, autocross and more.

We will be driving current model BMW ///M Cars for this event. Please note that the Performance Center staff continually makes changes to this program, so session contents and the ///M cars available may vary from one school to the next.

Our event hotel is the Greenville Marriott. The special BMW rate includes the breakfast buffet for up to two people plus Internet service. Register at:www.marriott.com/GSPAP and enter BMW as the Corporate code. The Marriott has a great lobby bar for getting together after the driving and dinner events. Remember, no food service is available for breakfast Saturday morning at the Performance Center.

All times are Eastern Daylight time.

Tentative Schedule:
Friday March 15, 2019

• Travel to Greer, SC
• Late Afternoon  (TBD)  – BMW Zentrum Museum Tour (optional)
• 6:00 PM EDT – Meet in Greenville Marriott to Depart for Dinner
• 6:30 PM EDT – Group Dinner @ Barley’s in Greenville

Saturday, March 16, 2019

• 7:30 AM EDT – Meet in the Lobby of the Greenville Marriott
• 7:45 AM EDT – Depart the Greenville Marriott
• 8:00 AM EDT – Check in at the Performance Center
• 8:15 AM EDT – Drive Day begins
• 5:00 PM EDT – Drive Day ends

The Fine Print. Please read carefully!!!

• All drivers must be at least 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license.
• The cost of $765.00 per day per driver and includes driving Performance Center ///M cars, tires, gas, instructors and lunch at the Performance Center.
• Travel expenses, meals and lodging costs are the responsibility of the attendees and not included in the $765.00 event registration fee.
• The Heart of Dixie event coordinators will accept applicants into the event through the MotorsportReg.com registration site.
• Each BMW CCA member can bring one or more non-member(s) under their membership/registration/payment.
• Successful registration does not constitute acceptance into this event. It places you in the registration queue and on the wait list.
• Acceptance into this event will be made on or about February 1, 2019 by the event coordinators.
• A BMW CCA member of any chapter is welcome to register to participate.
• Heart of Dixie chapter members have priority until January 19, 2019 after which registration will be accepted based on registration date.
• You do not have to own a BMW to attend this event. (However, be prepared to purchase one when you return home after the event.)
• NO CANCELLATIONS OR REFUNDS AFTER FEBRUARY 9, 2019.

Todd LattanziPresident | Heart of Dixie BMW CCA
E: todd@albmwcca.orgM: 256.457.8367
http://albmwcca.org

Jayson is 33 years old and was born in West Plains Missouri. He is a Performance Specialist and Lead Technician at Auto Tuning House. He has been a Sunshine Bimmers member since April 2018.

His first BMW ever was a 2013 Jet Black 128i, he has had a total of 3 BMWs (in addition to his first and last he also owned a Space Gray 135i). He currently drives a beautiful and very loud 2008 Black E90 M3, the last of the Naturally Aspirated V8. 

He is an avid track enthusiast and he has raced in local tracks like PBIR for Track Nights, Florida International Rally and Motorsports Park (A Lot), Sebring and also Roebling Road. 

Jayson served our country very proudly in the Army for over 6 years and while in Germany he was able to race his 128i and 135i at the Hockenheimring and Nurburgring, something many enthusiasts only dream about.

Other than BMW’s he enjoys Long Range Shooting, Gun Smithing, Photography, Track Day driving and Instructing, Reading 

Jayson’s motto is “On the path to success, embrace failure. You don’t learn from getting it right every time. Don’t fear failure.”

As we leave behind our year of GIVING, we would challenge you to keep that generosity in your hearts as we move forward into 2019.

There are no words to describe the overwhelming feeling of joy when we presented our $1000 donation to The Covenant House Orlando. To be honest, it was just a small drop in the bucket for their obvious needs, but they acted as if they had “won the lottery”. It was truly a humbling experience.

We have several fun events coming up this month and will continue to look for opportunities to share with those less fortunate throughout the year ahead. Your input is appreciated. 

We hope to see you at an upcoming event or activity and as always, your ideas and help to coordinate and/or plan are welcomed! Thank you to all of you who continue to step up and to those have provided so much positive feedback. You are appreciated!
– Robin Butler

“Thank you all for your recent donation of $1,000 to help the kids at Covenant House Florida! We are very appreciative of your gift!”
– Amy Lee Director of Development

What a fantastic, GIVING November!

Our November Food Drive for Second Harvest Food Bank yielded 211 POUNDS of non-perishable items!

 Show n’ Shine Car Show at Fields BMW was a tremendous success with Jim Shoemaker taking “Best in Show”, congratulations Jim and to each of the participants. A big shout out to Bob Zeigler for his hard work and efforts to pul this event together, great job Bob!

I could not have been happier with the support for our first ever, Holiday Charity Drive event! Together, through several raffles and ticket sales, you raised $1000 for our 2018 charity, The Covenant House Orlando and over flowed the toy bins for Toys for Tots. Well done!

Our ccatering crew from Uncommon Catering surpassed expectations, and I personally know them to be first class, so going above that is spectacular. Dom Carbonaro entertained us with his crowd pleasing vocals and guitar and our check in volunteers,Rhonda Schmoyer and Elise Snedeker kept everything running smoothly. Our gratitude to Fields BMW Winter Park allowing us to use their showroom and to Orlando Bimmer Club for sharing the festivities.

Our November Member Spotlight is Sunshine Bimmers Club Member, Michael Calkins who is 72 years young. Mike has been married to his partner of almost 20 years, Keith Proud since July 2014, when same sex marriage finally became legal. He has 2 children, 6 grandchildren and is soon to have his first great granddaughter.

Mike retired in 2011, but he has been quite the Entrepreneur. He owned a chimney sweep business, 2 restaurants & a catering business. Most of his career was in the trucking industry as Director of Transportation for two different food service distributors. His last position was at the Council of Aging running the Meals on Wheels in Daytona Beach & Ormond Beach.

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and moved to Florida 1982.

His first BMW was a 1999 Z3 Roadster, but he has owned ten in total. He currently has a 2007 M Roadster with 23K miles (shown below) as well as a 2014 535d with the M Sport Package. Vroom! Vroom!

Mike joined Sunshine Bimmers in 1999 and attended M driving school at the BMW Performance Driving School in Greer, South Carolina and is an avid clock collector with over over 80 total in his vast collection which includes a pre-Civil War, 30 hour OG.