There's a saying in auto racing: "A spin is just a crash without the noise at the end." No one knows that better than James MeVay, managing director for Chase Bank's risk management advisory group. MeVay believes that saying applies equally to risk management: neither activity can rely on luck alone for success. On weekdays MeVay oversees risk management services and the business side of CHARISMA/VAR, Chase's new client risk management system, profiled on page 9 of this issue. On weekends MeVay enjoys real-time risk management as an amateur car racer. He's driven at speeds up to 130 miles per hour over twisting, turning road-racing circuits at Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca.

MeVay's interest in racing dates back to his father, an aeronautical engineer who also had a strong interest in automotive technology and design. He started racing 10 years ago, and has participated in 175 races, gathering trophies along the way.

MeVay treats driving as a technical challenge in applied physics and vehicle dynamics. "Any car touches the road through the tires at only four points, so how it behaves is a function of how you load each tire at any point in time with the steering wheel, brakes and throttle," he explains. "I am constantly monitoring changes in pressure coming back through the steering wheel, as well as by the seat-of-the-pants. I'm watching for that fine point when the tires begin to slide and lose traction, and make minute corrections to keep the car balanced." Vroom, vroom!

Most busy people don't have a lot of time or a taste for reading pension fund prospectuses. Peter Wolf and other former members of the J. Geils Band are apparently no exception. The band, famous for "Love Stinks," "Centerfold" and other 1970s hits, apparently found itself on the wrong side of a bad bond swap.

The J. Geils Band Employee Benefit Plan recently asked the Supreme Court to review a case that it has brought-and lost in lower courts-against former stockbroker Smith Barney Shearson. The suit alleges fraud and breach of fiduciary duty on the part of Shearson in steering the pension plan into inappropriate investments like mortgage funds and a complicated bond swap, which ultimately lost the plan money.

But the real problem with the suit-and the reason lower courts have sided with Smith Barney Shearson-has nothing to do with the merits of the case, but all to do with the statute of limitations. It seems the band really spaced out and neglected to file its case, which concerns events in 1985, 1986 and 1987 until after six years had elapsed. That's a no-go under ERISA law, the statute which they have cited.

In the decision, Chief Judge Torruella of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit takes the band to task for not bringing the action sooner, mentioning that at least one of the band members' accountants had noticed problems in 1990. He dismisses their claims that they were misled about the nature of the investments, pointing out that they did receive prospectuses detailing the risks.

So, like, what was the problem? As Wolf sings in an early hit, "Must have got lost somewhere down the line."

Derivatives bankers in London, who for years have thrown an industry charity event, have long urged their New York counterparts to do the same. In 1993 Teri Herman Hawk, a derivatives salesperson at Chase, took up the challenge and helped launch the first "Off-Balance Ball." The event, held in October of that year, raised close to $250,000 for charity.

Now Hawk is working on her third Off-Balance Ball-although her role is necessarily smaller. Last year Hawk left Chase and moved to North Carolina when her husband Steve took a job at First Union. When she's not mothering Samuel, her one-year-old, she's been working the phones for this year's fundraiser, scheduled for October 25.

The ball raises money by selling tickets at $400 a pop, and auctioning off donated gifts like skyboxes at sporting events and golf trips to Ireland. "The first 400 tickets are easy, but you have to work so hard to get the last 200," laments Hawk. This year's event benefits the Heroes Foundation and The Point, two New York social service organizations. For more information, contact Sara Lee, this year's event chairperson, at (212) 856-6684.

Derivatives salespeople always boast about helping their clients climb the learning curve. Joyce Frost's educational efforts go quite a bit further afield.

Frost, a vice president at Sumitomo Capital Markets, volunteers at the Student/Sponsor Partnership (S/SP), where she sponsors Bethania Pena, a 16-year-old from the Dominican Republic who moved to the South Bronx with her family four years ago. The organization recruits kids from the New York City public schools and enrolls them in parochial high school for four years. Sponsors help underwrite the $2,000 to $3,500 cost for private school, and support the child's educational development by attending school events and keeping track of grades and schoolwork. "I get so much more satisfaction seeing tangible results," says Frost. "You know your money is really benefiting someone."

The agency targets borderline students and gives them a chance to excel. Frost talks to Bethania on the phone regularly and advises her on all sorts of academic matters. "Bethania failed a biology exam in her freshman year because English is her second language, but I gave her some study tips like using flash cards, and her grades improved," Frost says. She also helped Bethania get a summer intern job in Sumitomo's documentation department.

When Frost isn't volunteering, she's selling derivative products to corporate end-users. "I've recruited a number of my derivatives colleagues into the program but would love to get more involved," she says. For more information, call her at (212) 224-5105 or the S/SP offices at (212) 986-9575.