Mike Driscoll and myself have taken over the responsibility for the Pylon Press articles. Scott Meyers is leaving some awfully big shoes to fill and we hope to be able to fill them as we enter into the spring season.
Special thanks to Scott Meyers for capturing some the data below. I second his statement we had a "Great Practice Day - 50s early, warming to 70+ later." There were 79 paid entrants (some shared rides) who tried Vic Malchesky's simple yet challenging course.
Vic failed to tell everyone about all that black ice. Everyone seemed to have some difficulty navigating the course without spinning. Mark Shaw gave us an excellent demonstration of a VW Beetle doing a complete 360 early in the day. There were a number of 360 and 720-degree spins to excite the onlooker, drivers and oh yes the odd passenger.
In Sheng-Wen Seow in his Honda S2000 deserves special recognition for having a 720 degree spin and still completing the course in a little more than 29 seconds. Yes, the Honda is fast. If memory serves me correctly Sheng-Wen had only 3 clean runs with a best time in the low 26 seconds.
This is a sampling of some of the best class times scored today.
|
Class |
Driver |
Raw |
PAX Time |
%PAX |
|
SS/Vette |
Eymann |
24.319 |
20.331 |
972 |
|
CS/Miata |
Sattler |
26.196 |
21.271 |
929 |
|
HS |
Shaw |
27.374 |
21.324 |
927 |
|
ASP |
Huffman |
23.376 |
19.776 |
1000 |
|
CSP |
Malchesky |
24.18 |
20.36 |
971 |
|
ESP |
D. Young |
24.911 |
20.576 |
961 |
|
FSP |
Unknown |
27.65 |
22.59 |
875 |
|
SM |
Evanson |
25.128 |
20.957 |
944 |
|
STS |
Rock |
27.287 |
21.393 |
924 |
To get your puny (thanks to Huffman) Pax Score multiply your best raw time by your 2002 factor, and divide that INTO 19.776.
Since this was practice day we did not capture the scores for all of the drivers making it impossible to provide any insight for the coming season by class. The spring season will begin in earnest on February 10. Hopefully some of that black ice will melt between now and then, but do not bank on it. The new surface is going to be quite slippery for a little while. Hey it will make for some interesting driving demonstrations at least.
PHOENIX, Arizona -- At a sparsely attended press conference this morning, individuals self-identifying only as members of the Arizona Region of the Sports Car Club of America announced that they were appointing themselves as a Braking Committee for the Region, citing the need for a counter-balance to the Region's long standing Steering Committee. When asked whether the bylaws of the national SCCA gave them the right to unilaterally establish themselves as a watchdog group, these members tersely cited Footnote IV.6.M.iv.[q] of Robert's Rules of Order (283rd printing, revised). Their explanation of the pressing need for a Braking Committee was, however, more detailed based on events at the recent Practice Day.
The need for braking was painfully obvious during the Solo II practice day held January 13th on Firebird's Skidpad #4. Many participants drove the course too fast, and so inserted rotational embellishments of as much as 467.2 degrees into the long mid-course sweep or the sharp turn at the finish. Several seasoned autocrossers did this, even though they were driving cars in which they had considerable amounts of prior seat time. For example, the driver of a silver New Beetle did so, being distracted perhaps by the enhanced sound of its recently revamped exhaust system.
The spinout by a driver of another silver car -- one that looks like it might have been a New Beetle in its childhood, only with a more memorable license plate -- could perhaps be excused by reason of his recent graduation from novice class, except for the fact that this car has full-time all-wheel drive. (Well, nearly full-time.) No names, though! Names might cause censorship of this carefully composed account. And it wasn't just the German cars, anyway. Japan was well represented by Miata pirouettes and the United States, less nimbly, by Corvette eddies.
The Awards Fiesta -- the awards were for the fall autocross season, not for spinout style at practice day-- was held January 19 at Aunt Chilada's in Phoenix. A great time was had by all. (If you want the Rohn family to organize another one, be sure to thank them for their superb planning of those they've already done.) Our new Director's inaugural address was succinct but informative, and only slightly marred by an incomplete and nervously delivered explanation of the role that recent chip-sealing of Skidpad #4 played in the rotational events of Practice Day.
There was a plethora of door prizes, most of which were claimed by a limited group of people who were both grateful and gracious about the largess. Again, no names! Far be it from the Braking Committee to embarrass anyone over an fortunate increase of riches. But it is interesting that two of these multi-winners somehow knew to arrive in an SUV with a large cargo area, an SUV whose name is a curious amalgam of the words escalate and escapade. And another multi-winner had the foresight to purchase (some time ago, to be sure) an enclosed trailer which, it has been alleged, he also uses for hauling vehicles.
Practice makes perfect (although not right away) and there will be more door prizes (although not right away). The Steering Committee has announced a full slate of events for 2002. The Braking Committee will be reporting on those events and on other matters of choice. Till then...
(Posted 18Feb02, Reformatted 23Sep03)