The first of a 4-event season began on a very cold and windy note. Those that remained for the day were greeted in the afternoon with the weather that made Arizona famous.
Despite the late day sunshine the course still was slick. We will all be grateful as the new surface wears down. Steve Eymann set the PAX time for the day in his 2001 Z06 corvette. His PAX Time of 29.563 set the bar for everyone. Victor Malchesky grabbed fast time for the day in his 1984 Honda CRX with a time of 35.185.
Steve Eymann and Dan Maloney filled the SS class. Dan followed Steve by 1.7 seconds. In the AS class Jeff Bandes led Jim Rohn 1.531 seconds.
There were lone competitors in the BS (Aaron Taylor 38.496), DS (Ron Mercer 39.009), FS (Scott Kalna 39.670) EP (Steve Brannigan 43.073), CM (Ken Edney 36.793), DM (Joe Curry 37.442), EM (Jim Collen 43.343), HS (Mindy Cross 43.790) and the loan novice lady (Debbi Cox 41.984).
The CS class the new home for the late model Miatas had six experienced competitors with just over a second between first place Carol Anderson (37.008) and last place Frank Schwab (38.189). This group promises to be entertaining again this year. ES class competitors are separated by 1.628 seconds. GS competitors are separated by 2.339 seconds with 2nd (Brady Dohrmann) and 3rd (Larry Dues) battling with a mere .005 difference. The HS class is being led by Eric Evans 92 Ford Taurus, which is almost a full second ahead of David Crusoe’s 95 Honda Civic SI.
David Lahey’s 94 Miata R leads the CSP class a head of Jan Shank’s Porsche 944. Brian Weikert set the pace in his 99 Mustang Cobra (37.433) for the ESP class with 37.433 followed by David Mingus in his 2000 Dodge Dakota at (39.005). Again it appears the real competition may be for 2nd place with Cecil Walker's 99 Mustang Cobra chasing the Dodge with a time of 39.245. FSP class appears to be the home for Volkswagen products. Robert Pepper takes the early leas with 38.340, followed by Joe Murray with 39.045 and Mark Shaw with 39.659.
STS class led by Jason Boles, 2000 Subaru (37.819), is being followed by David Rock, 2000 Celica GT-S (38.912), and Bud Caldwell, 2000 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS (40.772). Richard Diefenderfer leads the STX class (40.173) followed closely by Andre Harapot (40.281) and Geren Smith (41.560). SM class has Ben Clement’s 95 Acura in the lead with 39.176, followed closely by Gabe Hansen in a 90 Eclipse with 39.692. The SM2 class wraps up the open category classes with Harry Berze leading with 37.683 followed closely by Brant Bauman at 38.678.
The PRO’s led by Victor Malchesky who set the fast time of 38.185 is followed by Ted Lewis, Steve Ryan, Jeff Lepper and Nick Riley. PAXL is lead by Deb Eymann with 38.374 followed by Glenda Meyers and Jodie Warren. Tage Evanson set the pace for the SPM category with 35.927 with Dave Young’s Trans AM close behind with 36.387.
The street tire categories attract the largest number of entrants with ST1 having 12 competitors being led by Dan Sniezek’s 94 Corvette 38.792. Drew Maloney if right behind with 38.980 followed by the always-entertaining Sheng-Wen Seow with 39.625. ST2 has 19 competitors with Dwight Smith in a 2000 Ford Focus leading with 40.040 being chased very closely by Bill Kersbergen in a 99 VW GTI with 40.433.
The Novice categories have the same number of competitors as the 31 over all (NV1 9, NV2 11, NV3 10 and NVL 1). Pontiac Firebirds’ lead the NV1 category with Larry Petruccis’ 99 coming in with 41.130 followed by Brian Klinkers’ 94 at 41.766. Rounding out third is Gopi Chervkur in a 99 Mercedes SLK230 with 41.826. This may be the tightest group for the event. The NV2 category is being led by Jay Balducci in a 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX (41.087) followed by Eric Heaton in 99 VW GTI (42.062) and Rob Bittner in a 86 Toyota MR2 (42.143). The NV3 category wraps up with Jeff Thresher leading (40.846) with Bobby Oeser (41.945) and Matt Mccomb (42.119) following.
This is just a short note to clarify a few things about registration procedures in the Arizona Region.
7 Work/run group assignments are posted on the website by 8 pm on the night before the event. To see yours, just go to http://www.azsolo2.com, select Event Registration, and then select Event Assignments.
7 You can e-mail the registrar, Steve Eymann, prior to 7 pm on the night before the event to cancel a preregistration.
7 If you preregister for an event, do not cancel your preregistration, and do not show up for the event, then you will be recorded as a No-Show.
7 There is no penalty for a first No-Show; in fact, if you prepaid the entry fee, it will be credited to a future event. But, if you incur a second No-Show, you will no longer be eligible for preregistration, and must then register on-site, paying the higher on-site rate.
Everyone started with a clean slate before the 10 Feb 02 event. Let's keep it that way!
PHOENIX, Arizona -- The Steering Committee made a sudden reversal before starting the Spring 2002 autocross series, by announcing that the course for the first event of the series -- a course already laid out on Firebird's Skidpad #4 and on at least a hundred course maps -- would be run in the reverse of the direction indicated. Investigations by the Braking Committee have revealed the reason for this sudden change.
As initially planned, the course began with a long 4-cone slalom leading away from the spectator area. Well, shortly before the drivers' meeting was to begin, a vocal group of Corvette owners protested that such fade-away slaloms make their cars' butts look big. And these protesters carried the day. One of them, recently graduated (if that's the right word) out of an Audi, was particularly persuasive as he searched his infamous book for further reasons.
Virtually everyone else was surprised by the sudden reversal. One attendee was so stunned at this concern about vehicular appearances that he left hurriedly, driving his Pontiac Aztec -- as far as anyone could tell or much cared -- forward.
(Posted 30Mar02, Reformatted 23Sep03)