PYLON PRESS

May 2002

Mike Driscoll & Garry Swanner , Co-Editors

Summer also brings a special opportunity: the Cactus Corvair Club Open Solo 2 at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff on Sunday, June 30. There will be a number of PAX'd run classes, but fewer than is the case for multi-event series. Entry is only $10 per driver.

Jodie does a variety of things (water & ice, goody store, teardown), but you're most like to see her checking registrations that have completed tech and adding those registrants' names to the scoreboard.

Jodie isn't an Arizona native (she was born in Lincoln, Nebraska), but she moved to Arizona in 1968 and has parents, a sister, and a nephew who also live in the Valley of the Sun. Close enough.

Jodie says that when she met Tom in late 1999, he was soon explaining autocrossing to her, and telling her how much fun it is. Sometime early in 2000, Tom overcame her nervousness about participating by telling her that he'd signed her up to run in a Solo 2 event, and that he'd already paid the $250 entry fee for her. Since she would have felt too guilty saying no, she said yes. Once on site, of course, she found out that the entry cost only $20. But on site she was, so she drove, and liked it, enough to continue with it and to get quite involved in club activities.

Jodie works in Ahwatukee in a pain management clinic, and is still looking for an appropriate way to get even with Tom.

Little did we know before arriving that "this" would happen. Yes, a return to the more open, flowing courses from the days long ago! Any of you who missed this event missed a good one. The fastest "mortals" (i.e., SS, CM, DM) were all around 50 seconds. The "immortals" (i.e., Mark Huffman, Ted Lewis, aka: Team Lotus) were in the 47’s. Victor Malchesky has "arrived" in his role as course designer.

Stock Classes

In Super Stock Steve Eymann’s Z06 Vette and the A Stock 96 Corvette of Jim Rohn are the Top Dogs. They each dominated the events and Series. Anyone looking for a challenge, here’s two places needing some competition. Anyone got a Viper for rent? In B Stock Aaron Taylor trophied alone, but last event found him checking the mirrors closely as Abraham Jones’ ’00 Camaro was less than half a second behind! What can we say that hasn’t been said about C Stock? Miata heaven or hell, depending on which end of the trophy hunt you are on, I guess. Until someone locally buys a new MR-2 Spyder (the only other car Nationally to beat the Miatas in C Stock) I guess these guys will have their way. Carol Anderson consistently handled the field this Series with his 99 model, but Don Sattler’s 94 Miata bested the rest of the newer models for second this Series. In third, Tom Dukerich is experiencing a steady growth curve as he is moving on up in the Miata standings each Series.

Ron Mercer won the Series solo in D Stock this time, and another similar model running street tires is less than a second behind some fast R-tired E and G stockers. Keep your eyes on the Nissan SE-R Spec-V models. This may prove to be the car to have in the "new" D Stock. Well, it helps if you can drive like Ron, too. The E Stock battle was early Miata vs. 944 Porsche, and this round the Germans (Paul Bloomberg) beat the Japs (Garry Swanner) handily. In F Stock the ’00 Z-28 Camaro of Don Hyland eked out a 41 point victory over Brandon LaBorde’s ’98 Z-28. G Stock was an interesting battle as Pat Fisher’s ’95 Probe held on the a slim 18 point victory over "which class shall I run next Series" Meyers’ Neon ACR. Perhaps Scott’s license plate should read "CLASSMAN" instead of "PAXMAN"? Great drive Pat! In H Stock David Crusoe’s ’95 Honda Civic rattled his way to a narrow 6 point Series victory unchallenged this final event as Eric Evan’s ’92 Ford Taurus broke on his way to Atwater; Eric lost a transmission (it was there when I left…..) and had to sleep in his car out on the highway. No bull! David better fix his rattle, and Eric his transmission as Mark Shaw might bring his H Stock legal Beetle back to H Stock next Series. Mark ran as FSP this Series, but would have scored a total of 2816 had he used the right Pax factor.

Street Prepared, Prepared, Modified Classes

In A Street Prepared the party might be over for the Soukups as Jason Boles’ ’99 BMW Coupe is looking good! Patrick Soukup was first in the Series and Elaine second in their ’01 Vette, but they have major BMW in their mirrors. Actually, Jason is in their front windshield as he was almost two seconds faster this event. Uh oh. The C Street Prepared battle may become just that as Jan Shank dominated this Series, but in Jan’s absence a very fast Audi TT is running Pax scores of around 916. Jan previously ran in the high 890’s. Nothing like competition to spice things up. In E Street Prepared Brian Weiner’s’ ’99 Mustang Cobra became ill (well, actually it was Brian) and missed this fourth event, but his points carried him to a solid victory over the Mingus ’00 Dakota pickup. The "German Car Club", actually known better as F Street Prepared, found Robert Pepper’s ’84 Rabbit GTI finishing ahead of Mark Shaw’s ’(actually legal H Stock) 99 Beetle. If Mark decides to rejoin the HS crew, Joe Murray’s ’00 Golf was only two points ahead of Roberts’ time at the May event. Looks like a good battle brewing here. E Prepared was a two car contest with the Brannigan Probe finishing well ahead of the Datsun 510 of Dick Lowell, BUT Dick was within two points this last event. Could Dick "pull out" a victory next Series? Stay tuned.

Other Classes

Yes, the newer SCCA classes enjoy the distinction of being classed as "Other". What imagination. Street Mod is becoming popular, and enjoys a wide variety of different cars. The ’95 Integra GSR of Ben Clement had a comfortable victory this Series, but the 2nd place Subaru WRX of Geren Smith and the 3rd place ’65 Mustang of Steve Steele have him firmly in their sights. Steve’s Mustang really enjoyed the open course design and showed it with the only "900" score of the class the entire Series. Uh oh, guys. Better "pump up" before the next Series begins! Street Mod 2 is SM with only two seats, and finds Corvettes battling Miatas. Huh? Yep, horsepower vs. handling. Guess what? Horsepower won…..this time. The ’96 Vette of Paul Hamersly was too much for Brant Bauman’s supercharged Miata. By the way, Brant finished one point ahead of Harry Berzes! Brant’s car also liked the more open course design I guess. On to the very popular Street Touring "S" class. Mark Eddy’s Subaru was 20 points stronger than Dave Rock’s ’00 Celica, and Dave missed this wide open course. Wrong one to miss, Dave. Of course, Mark pulled a 976 Pax score which was about the third place Pax score of the day against "Mutant Huffmans’" unbelievable time, so maybe it would have made no difference. We’ll never know, huh? The newer Street Touring "X" class (which even SCCA is still trying to define), had Andre Harapot’s ’02 Subaru WRX besting Mark Goerner’s ’01 Integra by only four points! Four points across four events — that’s about a tenth of a second! Mark actually won three of the four events, but Andre’s first event points were enough to carry the day.

Local Indexed Classes

These are not officially ‘recognized’ classes Nationally, but special ones the Arizona Region SCCA Solo 2 group provides to encourage more participation. Must be working well, as more than half of the entrants can be found here each event. In Pax Ladies Class we find four friendly competitors who enjoy both the competition as well as each other’s company. Deb Eymann’s Z-06 Vette will carry home the trophy this Series, and Glenda Meyers’s Neon took second place…….by one point over Jody Warren’s Miata. Glenda’s strong first event carried enough points to outlast Jody’s final charge. Another example of it being an advantage to attend all four events. It should be noted that some of this "crew" suffered from "PADD" for the first run or two. That stands for "Pylon Attention Deficit Disorder". Sadly, there is no known cure. The PRO Class runs for money, not trophies, and the competition here is very tough. The Lotus Elan of Ted Lewis held off a hard-charging Victor Malchesky CRX by only five points, and Jeff Bandes’ Vette was only another 19 points back in third. All of these guys run consistent 950+ Pax numbers; a tough playground. Sportsman is for folks who could run Open classes, but need run group flexibility so they can fit more into one day. Another tough place to "play", as Dave Young’s new ’02 BMW M3 (properly broken in we might add) eked a 30 point victory out, besting Tage Evanson’s ’95 Integra. Interestingly enough, each ran two cars this Series; Dave transitioned from his venerable Firebird with well over 100,000 miles to his new M3, and Tage jilted his Integra one event to try his wife’s BMW (really hers, Tage?). I wonder if that was the difference? Judging from the last event scores, not really, as Dave handled the "new to SM class" Integra by nine points. Look for this class battle to heat up.

Street Tire 1 Class has all the excitement and intrigue of the Open classes, just on Street Tires. These guys can be seen smirking at all of the tire changing activity prevalent in the Open classes. Dan Sniezek’s ’94 Vette finished at the top of the heap by 9 points over the Yantzer ’96 Vette. At this May event they finished five points apart. Sheng-Wen Seow (3rd in the Series by 17 points)) parked his S2000 this final event for a new project, a Honda Civic with a VTEC engine and major suspension mods. His Pax score was down, but he has a lot of sorting to do. Another 18 points back was Bob Yantzer in 4th. Very tightly packed scores, very competitive group. No wonder it’s a popular place to play! Street Tire 2 Class is just as much fun, and just as competitive. The Dwight Smith ’00 Focus fought his way to the top by 25 points (about a tenth of a second or two per event across four events), just ahead of Ross Meyer’s 2nd place ’85 VW Scirocco. 15 points back in 3rd was the ’95 Del Sol VTEC of Chad Mizner, with another ’94 VTEC Del Sol of Greg Lauzon right on his back bumper. Street Tire Ladies actually had two contestants! Mindi Cross put her high speed experience (California and driving the Lewis’ Lotus upon occasion) and bested Melinda by 19 points to snag the victory. Melinda had beaten Mindy the last two events, and had her firmly in her sights, when oops….there she went. Talk about performing under pressure! We hope Melinda lands a job here in Phoenix (we heard she may be moving) as this would be a great back and forth battle in the future.

Novice 1 Class — Larry Petrucci in his ’99 Firebird finished first, well in the lead ahead of Brian Kilnker’s ’94 Firebird. In 3rd place , only 23 points back, was Pete Holcomp with his ’01 Mustang. Novice 2 Class finds another Subaru at the top with Jay Balducci leading comfortably. Hey — what’s up here? Do you have to have "ucci" in your name to win, or what? In 2nd was Rob Bittner’s’86 MR-2, nine points ahead of Kevin Hongo’s ’99 Prelude. Novice 3 was a much tighter battle for the lead with Anthony Ohmer’s ’97 Accord finishing only 8 points better than Mike Shapiro and his’96 Accord. Matt McComb’s ’99 Integra GS-R was only15 points back of 2nd.

In Closing...

We had 105 drivers who entered three or more events and qualified for a chance at Series Trophies. Our average number of drivers at each of the four events had to be around 130 to 140. Once the results are published, look for a "T" next to your name. That would mean you indeed won a trophy. We award trophies to 33% of the field +1. So if your class had 7 entries, that would be 33% times 7 = 2.3, and adding one would be 3 trophies for that class.

Next up is the Summer Evening Series (June, July, August), and typically our numbers do not decrease. The courses are simpler, and around 35 seconds so usually all is packed and done by 12 midnight or so. The temperatures while not "chilly", are quite a bit cooler. We are renting two extra lights to go with the five we usually rent to insure better visibility this summer. Come on out and give it a try. Wear light colored clothing, bring water.

Don’t forget the special Cactus Corvair Club Open Solo 2 in Flagstaff Sunday June 30. Entry fees are only $10, and it is open to all Solo 2 enthusiasts. We will be having abbreviated classes (Paxed Groups) and that will be a much cooler experience. It will be held in the College parking lot.

Thanks for your participation and support. I’ll leave you with these six simple words……