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August 2004the third event and the final standings of the Signal Peak summer series. The first event of the Fall Series is on Sunday, September 12, at Firebird International Raceway. Mark Johnson, Lead Reporter Adam Stern, Reporter Copyright 2004. Duplication allowed in whole or in part, provided full acknowledgment is given. |
ARIZONA REGION – Steve Ryan grew up in multiple places – California, Colorado, Florida, Germany, Michigan, Newfoundland, Texas, Wisconsin – some of them multiple times. His dad flew fighters in the Air Force, so the family moved around a lot.
His dad retired from the service when Steve was a senior in high school, in Wisconsin. Steve attended UW Madison then, where he earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. He moved to Arizona in 1984 to begin work at Failure Analysis Associates.
Steve claims to have been interested in cars "since before I could talk." And he admits that he's always had a need for speed. He first encountered autocrossing during his freshman year at UW, at an event sponsored by the local student section of the SAE. Within a year, he and a friend "somehow ended up running one of these events," securing a parking lot, arranging for cones & stopwatches, and designing a course that he remembers as a "veritable sea of cones."
Competing too, of course, in his Corvair Monza, even though it was running on just one of its two carbs. He placed second out of three in his class, but still posted better times than some buddies whose Corvairs had turbos. In his class, he was beat by the driver of a VW Rabbit "that no one watched because he wasn't exciting (that is, because he was smooth)." That Rabbit would have had fast time of day except for a slightly faster Formula V. A few years later, Steve came across an book on autocrossing that was authored by that Rabbit driver.
So Steve was doing well on course, after less than a year's experience. And he's continued to do well, autocrossing a variety of cars in a wide variety of classes: HS, GS, FS, CS, AS, SS, ESP, DSP, CSP, BSP, along with one or two modified classes. He says he has "way too many trophies," but without supplying any details, beyond saying that a few of them were for first places. He admits that it's getting harder and harder to trophy.
Steve actually owned some of the cars he autocrossed. He was one of our club's earliest car whores, and became so adept at it that he was soon responsible for keeping the equipment truck at his house. Partly because he had space for it there, of course, but also because he'd be competing in someone else's car anyway, so could drive the truck to events. During his first years in our club, he helped Jim Madsen with the posting of results, and he was an assistant director one year. He has regularly served as an instructor in our annual drivers' schools.
Steve's current ride is a 1991 Corvette Z07 (yes, Z07) that Jim Rohn put him onto in 1995. He's put some 110,000 miles on it since then, bringing the total mileage up to 186,000. He estimates the number of autocross runs on his Vette as something upwards of 3000, an accomplishment attributable to his having campaigned the car around Arizona, California, and Utah, doing regional events, National Tours, Divisionals, and Pro Solos (in which he trophied one season). He's been to the Nationals in Topeka a few times, where he often found himself in the trophies after the first day but in the first non-trophy position when all was said and done.
The tall black antenna centrally mounted on the rear bumper of this car is for a CB radio that Steve uses during group drives with local Corvette clubs and for polling truckers about road and traffic conditions. The claim that its purpose is "to allow remote control of the car by a good autocrosser" is, Steve insists, just a vicious rumor started by an unhappy competitor.
One of Steve's other hobbies is brewing beer. He says that cooking up a good brew is no more difficult or time consuming than preparing a gourmet meal, but that more patience is required, since the fermentation process takes a week or two, and aging after bottling can add a few months. He brews five gallons at a time, mostly ales (reds, honey wheats, and stouts) but also some lagers, whose fermenting is more demanding. He says that Larry Petrucci, Tom Dukerich, and Jim Rohn can attest to his skill as a brewer.
Steve is currently between jobs.
The event
results
show that Tage Evanson was able to secure fastest raw time as well as fastest PAX, winning the Sportsman class with a 52.723 in his S Modified Integra. Just behind him was Steve Eymann, who ran a 53.007/997 in his Super Stock Corvette Z06, and Dave McCombs, 54.278/983 in his A Stock S2000. The PRO class featured some intense rivalries as well, but Josh Sortor edged out the competition again, running a 55.586, which rounded up to a perfect 1000 PAX score. Marc McCombs and Steve Ashcraft were right on Josh’s tail, earning 54.046/987 and 53.789/981, respectively.
Of the Street Prepared classes, only E Street Prepared had multiple entrants. Of the group, Richard Rippy won his third consecutive event of the series with a 55.362/969, with Geren Smith and his STi not far behind, 56.377/951. David Lahey defeated Don Sattler by a few hundredths of a second in D Modified, with David earning a 54.390/917 and Don a 54.473/915. S Modified featured some intense competition as well with Ron Mercer, 55.389/952, coming in just ahead of Steve Steele, 55.964/942, and Patrick Fisher, 57.197/922.
More women competed in this event than any other in the summer series. In PAX Ladies, Deb Eymann ran for first with a 54.691/966, but Kat Kemper earned second with a respectable 57.867/913. Mindi Cross, 57.112/912, placed third, a single point behind Kat. Novice Ladies has been a popular class this summer, and Meghan Dorsey took first this Sunday with a 63.736/872. Just behind her was Chelsea McConnell, 64.106/867, and Vanessa Dashiell, 68.390/817.
8 August 2004, CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE (Signal Peak Campus, Coolidge)
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With only three events in the summer series, competitors had to run in at least two events to be eligible for a trophy, and the lowest score would only be dropped when competing in all three events. And these events began early in the morning! Because of these limitations, every run had the potential of making or breaking a person’s trophy dreams.
Detailed series results are available
here.
The unstoppable Joshua Sortor earned the best score of the series, a perfect 2000, which earned him a first place trophy in the PRO class. Coming in second and third were Marc McCombs and Steve Ashcraft, who scored 1969 and 1954, respectively. Tage Evanson was not far behind Joshua though, winning the Sportsman class with a desirable finish of 1995. Also earning trophies in Sportsman are Steve Eymann, 1982, Dave McCombs, 1970, and Larry Petrucci, 1962.
In the large Street Tire 1 class, Dave Young earned a first place finish with an 1898, while Brady Dohrmann, 1853, earned second. Also placing in this competitive class are James Frink, Greg Rubenstein, Steve Mott, and Jon Roesch, who ran 1850, 1849, 1775, and 1754, respectively. In one of the closest classes of the series, Mark Shaw, 1861, won first place in Street Tire 2, a single PAX point ahead of Will Esker, 1860. Ryan Yantzer, 1858, took a third place finish, while Brad Owen, 1845, took fourth. John Fleming won Street Tire 3, uncontested, with a 1742.
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(Prelimary version posted 24 & 27 August 2004. Reposted 11 October 2004.) |