PYLON PRESS

June 2002

Mike Driscoll & Garry Swanner , Co-Editors

Next local event is Saturday evening, July 13.

Beverly Joy Sattler prefers to be called, simply, Bev. After completing college, she taught elementary school for a number of years, and then served as student services office manager for the Bismarck High School in (North) Dakota. She and Don, her husband of 31 years, escaped the cold of the northerm plains by moving from Minnesota to Arizona a few years ago. Bev has been an active SCCA member since 1978. She was a charter member, secretary, and regional executive for the Badlands Region; she took Solo Safety Steward training at the 1982 SCCA Nationals and became an SSS instructor in 1984; she served as regional SSS for the Land o' Lakes Region (and was a board member of the Minnesota Autosports Club) from 1994 through 1999; and she has been SSS for our Arizona Region since 2001. Despite her enthusiasm for the sport and her husband's continued participation in it, Bev is not herself an autocrosser! She did drive a fun run one day, and she has ridden as a passenger for a total of one and a half runs. (She was reticent about explaining that half.) Professionally, Bev is CEO of the Sattler residence.

Anyway, in the SCCA Open Categories there were a number of single car classes so far, but also some interesting results in the classes with competitions. In B Stock the Camaro SS of Abraham Jones handed the BMW M3 of Aaron Taylor his "parking papers" by a good margin, and Don Sattler in C Stock spanked the other "Miatae" for the win. Interesting to note that Brian Peters finished a strong second, his best finish yet in that hotly contested class. Carol Anderson in an unaccustomed 3rd spot swears he will bring night vision goggles next month. G Stock finds a Probe GT driven by a lonely Pat Fisher in front by a good margin, so maybe he needs that "Neon Competition" next series to keep him sharp? Maybe.

In E Street Prepared the "truck vs car" battle continues as Dave Mingus in his Dakota pickup looks for additional bits of speed to get past the well-driven 99 Mustang Cobra of Brian Weikert. I guess the previous "German Car Club" (aka: F street Prepared) has been crashed by Honda, as the 96 Accord of Mike Shapiro has caused some discord in their ranks with a rather close .033 second victory over Joe Murray’s ‘00 Golf. I guess Joe was "sub-par" this round? :-) The "other Probe GT driven by Steve Brannigan also leads E Prepared comfortably. E modified was 260Z territory this time with Brian Berlemann finishing well in the lead.

The SCCA "Other" Categories are always the source of good competition as these mostly street-driven hot rods usually have all the latest "good stuff" installed. Street Mod finds Steve Steele’s ‘65 Mustang avoiding the dreaded "cone monster" and finishing in a well-deserved first place, well ahead of the second place Integra GSR of Ben Clement. Four different marques in this class. Street Mod 2 locally is a Miata battlefield where the supercharged 93 Miata of Brant Bauman is finally taking the measure of Harry Berzes’ 94 normally aspirated one. The local STS class has evolved from BMW, to Neon, to Subaru, but Dave Rock’s ‘00 Celica seems to have found the measure of the Eddy’s Subaru 2.5 RS for the last few events. Oops, he did it again (Brittany just performed here, sorry....) finishing just 2 tenths ahead of Jonathan Eddy. In STX Subaru’s are also finding things tough as Mark Goerner’s ‘01 Integra Type R is well ahead of two Subarus. Rumor has it that the Subaru camp will be coming early to our July event to smear mud and water around the corners before the staff arrives :-).

Arizona Region has some Local Indexed Categories that are scored using the PAX index, and typically 50% of our entrants choose these classes. For the evening events of the 138 entrants it was 39 in the SCCA Open classes, and 99 in the indexed local classes, or 28% to 72%. Who wants to change tires in the dark, eh?

The hotshoe PRO class was lead by Chuck Voboril in his F modified Zink (the car, not the element), setting top Pax and FTD too. He was the only car to sneak into the 33’s with a 33.997. Ted Lewis’ ASP ‘65 Elan was second with a 36.898, a virtual green speck in Chuck’s mirrors. Sportsman class found perennial class champ Dave Young and his ‘02 M3 relegated to second by a super drive by Steve Eymann and his ‘01 Vette. In third, the Integra of Tage Evanson is narrowing the gap as he develops his car in this new-to-him class.

Street Tire 1 class is a well attended and highly competitive group, and this event was no exception. Dan Maloney brought out his ‘02 BMW M3 SMG toy (909 Pax), and ‘handled’ 2nd place Jim Rohn’s ‘97 M3 by one Pax point. Ok....’handled’ might not be the best word here, but he won, all right! :-). Dan’s wife Nancy finished fourth. The Street Tire 2 group is just as entertaining, and it was Ford-VW-Honda 1-2-3 here. Dwight Smith has been quietly leaning his ‘00 Focus (922 Pax), and Mark Shaw’s second place ‘99 Beetle experienced the effect. Greg Lauzon’s ‘94 VTEC Del Sol is also improving, and was right behind in third.

Get a load of the Pax numbers for the Novice 1 class - 855-836-835-835-832-830-822-822.....pretty darn close, wouldn’t you say? The 855 was Neil Sugal with his ‘00 Honda S2000, and second was another S2000 but David Heinitz was at the wheel. Next was Formula Ford, Corvette, Mustang V-6, and Subaru WRX. Great variety, huh? Lots of fun, too. Novice 2 first place was the ‘89 Supra of Steve McKenzie with an 832 Pax, second was Brian Kozan’s ‘00 Nissan Altima with 830, and third was Dave Ruess’ ‘99 Cavalier at 825. In Novice 3 the Subaru 2.5 RS of Kris Castner scored a winning 843 Pax, with the Integra of Antonio Dominguez in second with 817. Two Novice ladies had fun, and the 86 MR-2 of Collen Fadgen finished ahead of Susan Smith this time.

Round Two of the "02 AZ Region Summer Series will again be on the Bondurant skidpad, Saturday night July 13. Be sure to bring your "moonscreen" ... :-)

If you're skeptical of this claim, the details will show you that nearly two-fifths of those eligible for trophies in the spring series won't be receiving any. These losers (who, incidentally, don't much like that label) want it known that, if they hadn't filled the lower ranks in the standings, then some of those now in the upper ranks wouldn't be there. In other words, some of the current winners would have been losers instead.

This is not a threat (really!), just a request for some recognition. The Braking Committee thinks the request has some merit, noting that losers amongst the general populace are getting their recognition. Through several daytime talk shows, for example.

Couldn't the next awards banquet feature just one trophy for the losers? It wouldn't have to be claimed by anyone, just having it there would be sufficient.