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June 2004Darrell Covert contributes a report on the Cactus Corvair Club event in Flagstaff. Adam Stern joins our staff, filing his first report on the June 13 event at CAC LETA. The second event of the Signal Peak summer series is on Sunday, July 18. Mark Johnson, Lead Reporter Adam Stern, Reporter Copyright 2004. Duplication allowed in whole or in part, provided full acknowledgment is given. |
ARIZONA REGION – Kevin's father was in the Air Force, so Kevin grew up all over the world, including seven years in Okinawa and three in Panama. The family spent ten years in Pennsylvania (just outside Philadelphia) after his father retired in 1989. Kevin earned a bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Engineering from Penn State in 1996, and also did some work there toward a master's in Engineering Science. He moved to Phoenix in 1999.
One way or another, Kevin has always been into motor vehicles. He was "the king of bench racing" throughout high school, studying every issue of such magazines as Autoweek and Car & Driver. By the end of high school and throughout college, Kevin was a car stereo guru. After college, he got into motorcycles in a big way, going out with friends on weekends to tear up the twisty back roads of southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware.
But by the time he moved to Arizona, Kevin was finding it difficult to trust the car driving public when he was on motorcycle. Smart. So he gave up motorcycles and not long thereafter consoled himself with a 2002 Nissan Sentra Spec V. Very smart. The car was so much fun on the street that he decided to pursue opportunities for competition.
Time for a "small world" connection. Kevin's wife and Tage Evanson's wife have known each other for about a decade, having once worked together. So a little social interaction later, Kevin is running his Spec V in NV2 at the 2002 Cactus Corvair Club autocross in Flagstaff. The results were that Kevin placed second of five and – surely we all remember this part from previous profiles? – he was hooked.
Time now for the ironic sidebar. While at that Flagstaff event, Kevin took note of a certain red 1995 Dodge Neon ACR, mainly because it "was being used to kick my ass." He's since learned some of the reasons for that, then owner Scott Meyers not least among them, and he recently bought that very car from an interim owner.
Kevin has become a regular competitor at Arizona Region autocrosses. He took fourth in NV2 in our Summer 2002 series, and second in GS Open in Fall 2003. He was eighth of 10 in GS at the National Tour held here in January. And 17th of 21 in SM at the San Diego National Tour in March. It's telling that his was the third fastest non-BMW time in that class.
Kevin fills a major volunteer position in our region, namely, Chief of Timing and Scoring. It was perhaps inevitable that he hold this position, given his career in computer work and his friendship with Tage. He continues to meet the challenging precedent, set by Tage, of having an event's results posted by the time most of the competitors and their cars are at home and cleaned up.
Professionally, Kevin is "an IT guy," experienced in requirements gathering and project management. He's worked in medical billing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, transportation, and finance, which he enjoys the most. He's currently a Lead Business Systems Programmer for Metris Companies, where his team is responsible for the ongoing design and implementation of an underwriting software system that processes several thousand credit card applications per hour.
6 June 2004, FLAGSTAFF –
Cool temperatures lured many autocrossers to Flagstaff for the Cactus Corvair Club’s annual north-country autocross event on Sunday, June 6, at which Arizona Region autocrossers posted the top four fastest times. The event progressed as a cool 65-degree morning turned into a beautiful 87-degree day, under partly cloudy skies. The surface at NAU’s Skydome was smooth but its sharp stones were hard on tires. (The lot is scheduled for repaving later this month.) Arizona Region drivers were hot, posting the top four best times of the day.
Darrell Covert took a win in Stock class with the third fastest time of the day, 43.067 seconds in his Corvette Z-06. The nearest of his 13 competitors in that class was behind by more than 2.5 seconds raw, but only about a quarter second behind in PAX time.
The top five posisions in this class were taken by drivers from the Arizona Region SCCA:
Covert, Ryan Sotak in his Subaru WRX, and Scott Meyers, Kevin Gleaton, & George Capito in a gaggle of Nissans all beat out a Mustang Mach I.
13 June 2004, CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE (Signal Peak Campus, Coolidge)
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Competition heated up with the weather at the first event of the Arizona Region SCCA Solo 2 Summer Series. The series is being held entirely on the Central Arizona College Law Enforcement Training Area track near Casa Grande, a site that has previously been used only once for autocross.
With fewer than a hundred drivers taking four runs each, the entire event ended before 11 a.m., less than four hours after the first car ran.
This saved everyone from enduring the harsh summer heat for too long, which was the plan.
The fastest raw time of the day ended up going to Tage Evanson in the Sportsman class. He ran a 55.829 and set a 987 PAX score in his Street Modified Integra. Right behind him in the Sportsman class were Larry Petrucci, Steve Eymann, and Brian Peters with times of 57.054/983, 56.437/979, and 60.123/968 respectively.
Competition was also extremely tight in the PRO class, where only 27 points separated all five drivers. Single PAX points separated fifth from fourth and fourth from third, and only nine points separated third from second! Joshua Sortor, in his Impreza WRX, took first place in the class, also turning the fastest PAX time of the day with a raw time of 58.106. Marc McComb and his AS S2000 came in second with 56.818/982. Behind him was David Rock who turned a 59.899/975 in his Celica.
Three drivers ran in street prepared classes. Richard Rippy and his Camaro finished first in E Street Prepared with 58.404/960, above Travis Berry with 62.110/903. Ross Meyer ran unchallenged in F Street Prepared in his VW Scirocco with a 60.064/946.
Four D Modified drivers fought it out, but Don Sattler finished first in the Miata R with a 56.584/921. David Lahey’s 57.050/914 earned him a second place finish. Joe Curry and Gabe Ortega ended with 57.561/906 and 63.209/825 respectively.
Ron Mercer took first place in S Modified in his Camaro SS with a 59.220/931, ahead of Tommy Felix’s 60.861/906 and Richard Vela’s 62.030/889.
Some of the toughest competition of the day was in the largest class, Street Tire 1, where 16 drivers struggled for the fastest times. Dave Young took first place in his Street Modified M3 that ran 58.024/950. Only 17 PAX points behind was James Frink in his E Street Prepared WRX STi with a 60.086/933. Greg Rubenstein was not far off either with 61.253/915, and neither was Brady Dohrmann with 61.395/911.
Street Tire 2 has the top five drivers within 20 PAX points of each other. Will Esker and his D Stock Protege’s 62.450/932 taking first place. Mark Shaw was one point behind in a D Stock Audi TT Quattro that ran a 62.481/931. Third place went to Ryan Yantzer with 64.094/923, and fourth to Jason Miller’s 64.432/918.
John Fleming was the only driver in Street Tire 3. He ran a 63.202/873 in his MR2 Spyder.
For trophies, those who placed in our Spring Series received functional
minature aluminum floor jacks (about ten inches long).
Mark Shaw had noticed these jacks at a VW swap meet in Portland, and found a
source for buying them in bulk;
Jodie Warren arranged their actual purchase and engraving.
The trophy pictured here happens to be the one awarded to Dave Lahey. He immediately began practicing with it, after several demonstrations by Don Sattler. With help from other table mates, Dave soon felt ready to graduate to a real floor jack. To, for example, one of the three floor jacks that he and his parents selected as their prizes in the drawing (for which each attendee had received one free ticket).
The drawing had a large variety of prizes: air pumps, air tanks, a calendar, an ice chest, auto sunshades, collapsible sports chairs, wine, small Bell helmets, Meguiar's car care products, T-shirts, hats, a bucket of goldfish crackers, and a jar of red vines (whose winner passed them around in lieu of dessert). And floor jacks!
Every person in attendance won something. As Dave stated on the Forum: "A great time, good food, good people, good prizes, good golly!"
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(Posted 25 June 2004; reposted 6 July 2004.) |