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May 2003Series, a report from D.N. Effer, and a notice about activities and inactivities over the coming summer. Our next regular event is on Sunday, September 14, at Arizona Motorsports Park. Duplication allowed in whole or in part, provided full acknowledgment is given. Mike Driscoll & Scott Meyers , Co-Editors |
How about this?
Someone who doesn't remember how he first became aware of autocrossing!
Kevin Venisnik thinks it was through a mention of autocrossing in a Car & Driver article, shortly after the third generation Mazda RX-7 came out in late 1992. He does remember buying a 1993 RX-7 some years later, and taking it to an autocross driver's school in Sierra Vista in August 2000. And he remembers his regret at not getting into autocrossing sooner.
He made it to our regional events in September and October 2000, at Exponent Failure Analysis. But then "a little mishap" in the rain redesigned important parts of his RX-7. Kevin claims that nobody ever warned him that he should drive more slowly in the rain than in the sun. (This is believable, since he moved from Illinois to Arizona before learning to drive.) Anyway, he stayed away from autocrossing for the better part of a year, while relying on his '52 Ford pickup for transportation.
Then he bought his current ride, a 1993 Mazda Miata, and took it to our June 2001 event. While he misses the smooth power of the RX-7's rotary engine (but not its repair bills), he loves the Miata: rear-wheel drive, lightweight, agile, inexpensive to operate.
Kevin has remembered to attend every one of our events since June 2001. He also did Evolution Phase 1 in Tucson and our local autocross school in 2001. Last fall, he did Evolution Phases 1 & 2 in Tucson. Since graduating from Novice 2 class, Kevin competes in Street Tire 2, a friendly but tough neighborhood. He took 6th place there in Spring 2002, and 5th Place Fall 2002, but is thinking about moving on to race tires. He hasn't done much to his car, believing that his money is better spent on driver instruction than on vehicle modifications.
Kevin is currently an assistant equipment manager for our club, working (with Brian Peters) to take over from Tom Dukerich. Like so many others, he wants to put in his share of the hours that are needed to make our events happen.
Kevin graduated from ASU in 1998. He's an engineer at Boeing, in Mesa, working on the Apache helicopter program.
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Let's begin by congratulating all the newly graduated Novice drivers, those who've won a trophy or completed their novice year (or both). Welcome to the Street Tire or Open divisions for the next series.
NV3 saw a WRX versus Mini Cooper battle, with Josh Sortor’s Subaru (2739 Series points) holding off Todd Houser's ’s hard-charging ’03 Mini. Todd actually won the final event, but not by enough to overcome the earlier deficit. In NV2, Chris Vasilakos and his Pontiac Sunfire (2717 points) handled the ’02 Mini of Chris Bunch, but it appears that the Mini likes AMP a lot, as Chris won both events at the new site. Somewhat the same in NV1, as the Corvette of Derrick Disharoom (2670 points) won the Series but lost the last event to Todd Holzwarth’s Camaro SS.
Twenty nine Street Tire warriors battled this Series in the four Street categories, producing seventeen trophies. ST3 was a Miata/Spec V contest, with Robert Rose’s Miata taking first spot (2622 points). The “Chad Mizner Personal Playground” (aka: ST2) was again his (2774 points), but not by much! Jay Balducci’s WRX was only two PAX points behind him last event, and the Dwight Smith Focus is also creeping into the low 900’s. Frank Bertola’s new Mini scored a 911 last event, and the Webb Focus is also right there. Want a good, tight, competitive class to run in? Here you go. The ST1 boys are really punching it out. Perennial champ Jim Rohn has been knocked off his perch by the Lou Young S2000, running on his factory tires (2745 points). Mind you, these S-02’s are very good factory tires…. Jessica Jackson has decided in STL to take matters into her own hands. Tired of having no competition, she’s actually helped recruit new ladies to train for future STL competition. Well done.
Our SPM class is intensely competitive. Steve Eymann and his SS Z06 scored 2924 points (only five below the winning PRO Class score) in a very strong last event, to topple previous Champ Dave Young. Dave’s SM BMW is enjoying the new AMP surface and improving each event. The Mark Shaw HS Beetle and Greg Duncan AP Fiero are, conversely, struggling with the new site’s demands. So our summer hiatus will likely see some secret wrenching in search of more speed or more grip (or both). Mark is allegedly thinking about reversing the direction of his rotating key in hopes that rotation inertia will help his cornering grip…. The PRO group provided some of the most intense excitement of the entire Series. In this final event, Ted Lewis bested Dave Rock by eight points and wrested the overall Championship from Dave by only four points. PAXL put on a good show too, with the field slowly nibbling away at the Deb Eymann advantage. Deb still took the win (2750), but Mariette Aberegg and Mindy Cross are gaining ground. One has to wonder how Mindi with her ASP Lotus experience might score now, what with the softer HS Focus PAX factor in PAXL. Only the Shadow knows…. Jodie Warren and Glenda Meyers are both improving in their Miatas, promising closer competitions to come.
STX is one of the newer, evolving SCCA classes. Locally we have a few who are testing those waters. Mark Goerner’s Type R is the top of the field so far (2809) with strong scores, but Ryan Cook’s WRX is slowly creeping up on him. Ryan had his best event in May, and seems determined to be a challenge in next Series. The STS class is quite popular locally. It's is led by the Eddy boys and their Impreza 2.5 RS, ever since the Subaru clan kicked Dave Rock’s Celica out…. Tops this Series was Mark Eddy with 2859 points. It will be interesting to watch the effect of the AMP surface and the handling characteristics of the 4WD Subaru’s on competition against FWD and RWD cars in this class. The SM drivers all thought that the older Mustang of Steve Steel would suffer on the new site, and how wrong they were. He’s even faster! With 2729 points, he throttled the WRX of Geren Smith and Anthony Ohmer’s Accord. But both of those drivers are also liking the new site, and I expect adjustments will be forthcoming. If you want tight, nasty, tooth and nail bar room brawls, then SM2 is the class for you. Top dog has switched back and forth from Corvette to Miata, Paul Hamersly to Brant Bauman. And the winner is … Brant Bauman’s Turbo Miata, with 2729 points to Paul’s 2709, Brant winning three of the four events. September should be interesting.
Our region has some very good National-level drivers, who compete against each other in many classes: Mark Huffman, Steve Eymann, David Rock, Jim Rohn, Dave Young, Dave Schotz, the McCombs, and Jason Isley. In AS nationally (as well as locally), Jason is a force to be reckoned with. With a 2926 score in this Series, he was only three points off the PRO top score. Jeff Bandes is no slouch, but will need his “A” game to stay close. He can do it, and did in fact best Jason once in this Series. Let’s see what September brings. BS is a place for the McCombs to play, and son Marc with 2858 points grabbed the top spot. Perhaps the Robert’s new S2000 will run Open and add some flavor here, Perhaps not. What can I say about CS that has not already been said? These Miata Mania guys go at it tooth and nail every event, and no one, I repeat, no one can predict the winner. Last event the top four drivers (Brian Peters, Tom Tkacik, Mark Johnson, and Tom Dukerich) were all within fifteen thousandths of a second of each other. The Series was almost as close. The champion is Tom Tkacik (2810), by one point over Brian Peters! Tom Dukerich was sixteen points behind Brian. Whew. Should I mention that Tom T. has an older Miata on older tires? No? Well,ok. GS has lost a great competitor. Wiggy Greacen is moving to New Mexico, and will be missed by many. But, in the meantime, The Larry Dues GSR Integra is healthy, well, and fast. With 2806 series points he will be tough to beat. But rumor has it that some new blood will move into GS for the next Series.
ASP Open is like a Corvette reunion, and Rolf Aberegg’s ‘99 with 2741 points took the gold. Dan Sniezek and Patrick Soukup have not adapted to AMP as quickly, but should be ready when September comes. Well, Ben Clement and his GSR wanted competition in DSP, and now he has it. Although he won with 2737 points, Joe Murray’s and Aaron Taylor’s GTI’s are right on his heels. The ESP muscle cars finished the season with four drivers within 34 points of each other. While King Richard (Rippy) ended up on top, it was by a very slim four points (2787 to 2783) over Larry Petrucci. Tom Billson was only thirteen more points back. The Lahey Miata in DP was the only car in the class, but it had two drivers. Don Sattler won two of the three scored events and finished with 2827 points and the trophy. Alan Wagstaffe’s CM Formula Ford eked a slender victory over the Zink FF of Ken Edney, by only two points! Ken made up a lot of ground event at the last event, but fell a tad short. The EM contest was not as close. Tom Hill dominated with 2635 points and took the win.
So, what classes were the fastest across the Series? Gauging by top Series totals, the top five were: ASP 2929, AS 2926, STS 2925, SS 2924, SM 2884. Note that totals like these imply event scores averaging about 975!
We had 118 drivers who qualified for the Series trophies (by competing in three or more events). Our individual events used to be smaller than that. These higher attendance numbers are good because more seat time and practice will reward drivers with improvements. The more you practice, the better you get, period. And lots of informal help and coaching are available from many sources, at every event.
Series trophies will be awarded at the annual Spring Awards party. Although date, time, and place are yet to be determined, you should anticipate that this party will be in early to mid July. So keep a watch on the Forum, where you'll also find requests for suggestions about improving event, invitations to volunteer your time and skills to club activities, and various discussions.
That’s all for now. Enjoy your summer. Tweak your ride a little, so that September gets off to a great start.
PHOENIX, Arizona -- News flash, at least for those of you who only read
full-size newspapers.
Mark Shaw is becoming a celebrity.
This spy photo appeared on the front page of the April 2003 issue of North American Pylon, above the caption "Mark Shaw, Chandler, AZ, winds his '99 VW Beetle (53) down towards the finish of the San Diego Tour, held at QualCom Stadium, San Diego, March 15-16. Shaw ended up sixth in H Stock."
Cool graphics on the car, no? Especially the one you can't see, a graphic across the top of the rear window that advertises windupkey.com.
This reporter spoke with Mark recently, during his grid time at a local autocross event, asking for this reaction to the press coverage and why he had the back of the passenger seat fully reclined. His comment about the press coverage was that there is just nothing as satisfying as being noticed for the first time ever.
Then he said that reclining the seat back transferred a little weight to the rear of the car. But he was cool to the suggestion that he could transfer even more weight to the rear if he'd let his competitors tie one of his arms behind his back. All of which proves, once again, that the line between hobby and obsession is neither broadly nor sharply drawn.
Someone should tell our regional director to watch it with this celebrity stuff, or he'll end up with a case of increased responsibilities.
The Pylon Press expects to give brief coverage of the practice day in its September issue, in conjunction with a report on local entrants to the Nationals at Topeka. And it will cover the Arizona State Championship in the November issue, after the third and final event of that statewide series has been held, here. In the meantime, watch the Forum for news. And seek shade and moisture: summer is upon us!
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(Posted 16 May 2003.) |