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September 2004Mark Johnson recounts the Solo 2 Nationals. Adam Stern covers the first event of our Fall Series. The second event of the Fall Series is on Sunday, October 17, 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 – Chad Mizner belongs to a rather exclusive club: native Arizonas. He was born in Yuma (an even more exclusive club), but grew up in Globe. He came to Phoenix in 1987 after completing high school, and has been here ever since.
Chad was "on the five and half year plan" at ASU, where his studies and a semester-long internship at Intel earned him his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He's worked at Intel since early 1994, except for a two-year gap during which he supported himself as a professional blackjack player. He's been back at Intel since 2000, working as a software engineer in internal web application development.
In addition to blackjack, Chad likes poker, billiards, chess, mountain biking, some video games, some board games, and – he claims standing as a freak, here – the Dave Matthews Band. As for autos, Chad describes himself as "just an average car buff." His dad taught him to drive at age 12, going around in circles in empty parking lots. His dad also got him hooked on Road and Track magazine, which has developed into a 30-year collection of back issues.
Chad's daily drivers have included a 1986 CRX Si, a 1991 Prelude, a girlfriend's BMW 318ti, a 1995 BMW 325is, a 1995 del Sol, his current 2003 Infiniti G35, and a few trucks. His first autocross was in the BMW 325. A friend from his billiards team and his friend's wife were both autocrossers (Kevin Geiss in the Mustang he owned then and Chelby in her del Sol), and convinced Chad to give it a try. He did, and wasn't deterred by an announcer commenting on that first day that Chad "needed to find the accelerator."
Shortly thereafter, Chad bought the 1995 del Sol, which came with modifications that put him in C Street Prepared, where he felt it was PAX disadvantaged. Since he also felt he was a decent driver, he stripped off the mods and ran it as G Stock in Street Tire 2. His feelings were vindicated, since he has placed in most of the series during the last five years, with at least two series wins. During the spring 2004 series, Chad and Kevin Gleaton co-drove the MGGC 1995 Neon – you know, the one that's been owned by (at least) Scott Meyers, Wiggy Graecen, Gleaton, and the Clements. Chad then co-drove Jeff Wiliams' 2002 M Roadster for the summer series. He has run his G35 in some time only's, and will be competing in it during the fall series that's just getting started.
Chad spends all of his autocrossing time at local events, except for doing Tucson and Sierra Vista for the Arizona State Championship series. Chad recently took over as web master for our web site. That's a technical and sometimes fussy task that's pretty much always there on the desktop, wanting attention.
ARIZONA REGION – Wow, what a fun Summer Series! The LETA track at CAC turned out to be a great site, if you didn't mind being up really early to get there and then putting with up some heat at the event. Special thanks go out to Mark Shaw for finding this site and working out the logistics for the series.
Extra special thanks go out to our equipment managers, Brian Peters and Kevin Venisnik, who made the biggest sacrifices to ensure that these events happened. Not only are Brian and Kevin the first ones there the morning of the event and the last to leave, but they also had to make separate trips to CAC to get the equipment truck there and then back. No air conditioning, vinyl seats, and a top speed of about 55 mph during the middle of summer does not sound like fun to me!
For the first three events of our Fall Series we'll be back on FIR's grippy surface. Ben Clement, Scott & Glenda Meyers, and Brandon Smith will be event Chairs for those events. Ben's head will be spinning for the September event, what with nearly half of the Steering Committee in Topeka, KS for the Solo 2 Nationals, so there won't be any special feature then. But Scott & Glenda will add a special feature to the October event, as Brandon will for the November event.
On Saturday December 4th we'll have our annual Drivers' School. The exciting news is that it will be at PIR this year! PIR is special since it has two lots, contiguous ones that are each about the same size as the lot we use at FIR. Dawn Maxwell will be the Chair for the school this year, and I have a feeling she might have something up her sleeve to make this event special. Dawn will most certainly be busy that weekend, as the following day will be the final event of the Fall Series (being held at PIR, since the equipment will already be there).
In response to various welcome requests, our Supplemental Rules have been updated. Effectively immediately, the new SCCA classes STS2 and STU are available for competition. Those with older helmets can now rest easy, as our helmet rule now complies with the SCCA National rulebook and allows Snell ratings all the way back to 1990. Be sure to read through the entire Supplemental Rules, as several other modifications have been made to increase clarity, safety, and accountability.
At the beginning of the year I spoke about upgrading much of our tired equipment. I most certainly haven't forgotten those words but much of that purchasing has been put on hold, since there's simply no room left in the truck for more stuff. The Steering Committee has been discussing plans to first replace our current equipment vehicle. We've come to an agreeable common ground and will be actively looking to making a purchase. What we envision is a vehicle that is large enough to stand up, with room for two people to move around, that also holds the timing & scoring equipment (and work positions) and the PA system in permanent locations. Setup and teardown will also be eased by the addition of side canopies to replace our current EZ-Up's. Once the truck purchase is completed I think you'll be happy to see the upgrades that will follow.
The Steering Committee and I want your input! So feel free to drop me an email or chat with me anytime. See you out on course!
14-17 September 2004, FORBES FIELD, Topeka, Kansas –
Over 30 folks who frequent Solo 2 events in the Arizona Region also participated in the National Championships in Topeka this year.
They they brought home lots of hardware for their efforts: four National Championships and ten other trophies. Congratulations to our champions!
Event results are posted
here.
The fastest raw and PAX time of this event fell in a Street Prepared class, Richard Rippy in E Street Prepared with a 32.002/1000 in his Camaro. Larry Petrucci was hot on his heels in that class though, running a 32.582/982. There was only a single competitor in the other Street Prepared classes; Joe Moritz, 35.217/883, in A Street Prepared, and Ben Clement, 35.328/911, in D Street Prepared.
Heavy competition in the Street Touring classes! In Street Touring S, Scott Meyers, 35.898/929, ran eleven-thousands of a second faster than Kris Castner, 35.909/928, to take first place. Adam Moore took third with 36.550/912. Street Touring Extreme had the top three finishers only 11 PAX points apart, but Kevin Cote, 36.061/920, ended up on top. Not far behind was Dan Martin in second with a 36.451/910, and in third, Jeremy Galo, 36.503/909.
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(Prelimary version posted 10 & 29 September 2004. Reposted 11 October 2004.) |