ARIZONA REGION –
David Webb was born in Michigan and so, he says, he spent some time there.
But the family had moved to Washington state by the time he was in high school.
While attending WSU in the mid 1990's, he pursued the typical collegiate
recreations, but he also spent time "driving fast on gravel logging roads,
wrecking cars, fixing cars, and driving fast on gravel logging roads."
David admits to having some early doubts about pursuing a bachelor's degree
in anthropology, but he did.
After graduation, his doubts "transitioned through mild fear & deep concern
into outright panic."
But answering an Internet ad led to gainful employment as an archaeologist in
Phoenix, "like Indiana Jones, but without the action filling or the excitement,
and with more heat."
He now makes his living as an environmental planner for a local civil
engineering firm, doing a variety of studies for highways, urban streets,
and civil works projects.
His studies describe measures needed to minimize or mitigate any environmental
impacts.
The aspects studied are diverse: archaeological (excavating Hohokam artifacts,
for example), wildlife biology (like bird-watching at dawn), even some public
relations work.
People ask him how he can be an "environmentalist" and yet "race" cars, David
tells them that he runs slow cars that are fuel efficient and meet rigorous
emission standards. When SCCA members ask him the same question, he tells
them "I'm in H stock."
He can't attribute his interest in automobiles to any particular life-changing
event, but David discovered racing at an early age:
Winston Cup, CART, F1, FIA Rally, whatever.
If it was racing, he was interested.
But without cable TV or the Internet, and relatively few races available on
broadcast TV, he was forced to feed his preoccupation by reading about it.
So instead of the literary classics studied by so many auto buffs, David was
reading everything from obscure English auto magazines to back issues of
Hot Rod.
He learned as much as he could about racing, because he dreamed of racing cars
himself.
But his genome had other ideas, taking him to nearly 6'6" by the time he was
14 years old, on the way to his current 6'8" plus.
He salved his frustration by "beating up on smaller kids and playing football."
And by buying a 1972 Honda coupe with a two-cylinder 600cc air-cooled engine,
for $50. He was able to get it running just one time, so his frustration level
was not much improved.
Since then, he's been pretty much a Ford guy, "maybe because Ford sponsored so
many race programs during my formative years."
He's owned
a 1979 Ford Fiesta (great street-prepared car except no money go there),
a 1980 Ford Pinto (a freebie death trap with bad brakes, junked to prove
he's not totally a Ford guy),
a 1988 Ford Escort GT (bone stock),
a 1988.5 Ford Escort GT (slow & noisy, but lots of XR3i parts made it handle
well),
a 1988 Merkur Scorpio (kept for its sentimental value),
a 1991 Ford Escort GT (also stock),
and his current red 2002 Ford Focus SVT (the yellow Focus that many people
associate with him actually belonging to Mindi Cross).
His early interest in racing gave David an early awareness of autocrossing.
He competed fairly infrequently throughout the 1990's, being busy at school
or broke or a combination thereof.
Graduation from college and employment removed those obstacles, so he got
serious about autocrossing when he moved to Phoenix.
He completes three times a month, usually, in the SCCA Arizona Border Region,
with the Sierra Sports Car Club, and of course in our SCCA Arizona Region,
where he is the current Worker Chief.
17 October 2004, FIREBIRD INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
–
The endless summer in the desert Southwest allowed the Arizona Region SCCA to host the second round in the 2004 Fall Series on October 17, 2004.
The 169 drivers were asked to estimate their lowest run time, without ever seeing a car run the course as part, of a Run Time Lotto contest.
You can surf to the event results
here; the winners of the lotto contest are noted below.
As the clouds cleared, the morning’s low 70's temperatures gave way to the afternoon's mid 80’s – another perfect Arizona day. And the course laid out across Skid Pad 4 was epic, offering a wide variety of elements. The take-off point led directly to a four-cone slalom followed by the Bottom Turn, a sweeping left-hander that offered lots of drive across the skid pad. The Momboosa straight terminated in Burning House corner - a rip curl decreasing radius turn with a 9-out-of-10 sphincter factor that stuffed many drivers as the tube closed and trapped them inside. It was followed by an offset to left that led to a split. On the first lap, drivers rejoined the course after the first slalom, for another spin cycle around the monstrous straight and decreasing radius turn. On the second lap, the drivers headed into a 180-degree cutback right-hander, signaling a frequency upshift of sorts in the course. The corners kept getting tighter and closer together until past the finish lights. Course shaper Mark Shaw utilized nearly every square inch of the pavement and set the cones up as if they were a challenging set of waves. The drivers would either sink or swim.
The event chairs, Scott and Glenda Meyers, got the event started on time: the first car to test the waters was out at 9 AM. Since the course doubled back a long ways, there was a considerable interval before the next driver could safely drop in.
Organizers determined that the event would go on past nightfall at that rate
so, after all the Heat A drivers had completed their first runs, the loop was
the loop was eliminated, the previous runs were thrown out, and the event was
restarted.
It is not often that drivers drop 20 seconds on their second runs! But even with the modification, the course retained nearly all of its flavor, challenging everyone to excel. Since all drivers were affected in the same way by the course modifications, the Run Time Lotto continued with no changes allowed in the time estimates drivers had given.
For many competition classes, times in the 42 second range would be worthy of trophy consideration. The fastest cars achieved sub-40-second times. The big Kahuna was Ted Lewis in his 1965 Lotus Élan, ripping a 36.820 second run, good for both fast time of day and top PAX score.
There were many women drivers, competing in nearly all categories. Four were in
Novice Ladies, all driving serious hot rods. Victoria Grone went first in Heat B, driving an A Street Prepared MR2 Turbo to establish the benchmark. She took off nearly 10 seconds between her first and third runs, ending with a PAXed time of 45.124. Vanessa Dashiell and Sue Willis ran Heat D, Dashiell in a Street Touring S Civic and Willis in a G Stock “Union Jack” Mini. Dashiell and Willis traded the lead throughout the heat. Dashiell hit cones on her first run, but her PAX time of 42.154 showed good speed. Willis responded with a 39.972 clean run. Second runs saw Dashiell put down a 39.596 PAX time. Willis responded with a 37.595. Dashiell ran into trouble on her third run, but Willis continued to cut time, ending with a 36.701, good for an 850 PAX score and first place in Novice Ladies. Jennifer Lewis had to wait to until Heat F before making her runs. By her third run, she had taken off over 18 seconds from her first run in her FP RX7, but it was not quite enough to catch Dashiell or Willis.
There were several notable drivers in
Novice 1, namely Olin Tweed in his Street Mod Civic with an 882 PAX score to claim first place over Jorge Figueroa’s E Street Prepared Mustang, in a 24-car field. Third place went to Kyle Kemper in a familiar Corvette and fourth was Chet Willis in another Corvette.
Novice 2 winner, Dave Rowse in his BMW claimed fastest novice with an 897 PAX score, in a decisive lead over second place Ryan Locke’s 240 SX. Ryburn Ross drove his Toyota Matrix to third place just ahead of Siho Lee in an MR2 Spyder.
Novice 3 had 19 drivers and Thomas Winchester picked up first place with a strong 878 PAX score in his Infiniti G20T. Dave Reuss and Travis Gianelli followed.
Four wahines came to the line in
Street Tire Ladies. Kendra Albers and Glenda Meyers ran in Heat C. Albers, in a D Stock BMW 330Ci started with a fantastic 36.573 PAX time, but hit one cone along the way. Meyers, driving a G Stock Acura RSX Type S, started with a 37.529 PAX time clean. Albers did not improve on second runs, slowing and hitting another cone, while Meyers got faster with a 36.857 to retain the lead. On third runs, Albers managed a clean run at 37.219. Meyers continued to shave time, settling with a 36.464 PAX time. Jessica Jackson ran in Heat E and went in knowing what she had to do. She had to overcome not only a tough D Street Prepared PAX factor, but some mechanical demons as well. She stopped on course during her first run for an extended time. Her second run was clean and fast at 37.950, enough for third place. With one more run, she needed to find just over a second to win. She managed a 36.880, but also found a cone, leaving her stuck behind Meyers and Albers. The final heat brought Sarah Peters to the line in her G Stock Volkswagen Golf 337. She found her way around the course with a 37.698 PAX time, putting her just ahead of Jackson after the first run. The next time out, Peters was throwing some heat with a 36.207 run, enough to claim first place. She showed even more speed on her third runs, getting to a 35.676 PAX time, good for an 875 PAX score and solid first place.
The bruddahs in
Street Tire 1 may be ready to pool some dead presidents in order to present Dave Young with some sticky tires, just to get him out of their class. Greg Rubenstein managed a reasonable challenge to Young’s 939 PAX, but his WRX STi could only get to a 918. James Frink, in another STi, pulled down third place with a 907 PAX. He was only one point ahead of Jeff Williams in a racy BMW M Roadster. Jim Rohn borrowed yet another car, a Lincoln LS this time, and managed a 902 PAX. What a battle in
Street Tire 2, with Jason Miller driving his Volkswagen Golf to a 931 PAX and first place, only one PAX point ahead of Jay Balducci in the WRX. Ryan Yantzer and Scott Meyers were also only one point apart at 921 and 920 respectively, for third and fourth place. Not to be outdone, Will Esker and Chad Mizner tied at 917, with fifth place going to Esker by only .019 seconds on PAX time – cowabunga! Matt Francis, Frank Bertola and Mike Rogers all managed to break the 900 PAX barrier on street tires. Just because there were only two cars in
Street Tire 3 does not mean John Fleming and Dave Branson were not driving hard. Fleming came out on top with a PAX score of 884 in his MR2 Spyder.
The fastest divas in Arizona were carving the course in
PAX Ladies. Lynn Ashcroft ran first in Heat A with her C Street Prepared Miata, working down to a 40.462 PAX time, showing more confidence with each run. Sharon Kruyper, scheduled to run in Heat B, had to call it a day before even one run due to some electrical troubles in her D Prepared Spitfire. Heat C brought lots more action. Jodie Warren put the smack down on first runs with a 36.923 run in a C Stock Miata, hitting a cone in the process. Lindsey Maxfield, in an E Stock Miata had all kinds of trouble on her first run. Kat Kemper got a solid 37.450 out of the Super Stock Corvette to lead the class. In the process, she bettered Dawn Maxwell’s 38.422 run time. Maxwell drove hard for the re-entry to the loop, realized it was closed, stopped, re-oriented herself and motored on; using up considerable time in the process. Second runs saw Warren put down a wicked good 35.663 clean run. Maxfield cleaned up her act got a decent 39.373 in the books. Kemper responded with a 35.602 to retain first place by just .062 seconds over Warren. Maxwell was looking ahead to the detour and missed the offset just in front of it, so no improvement for her as she DNF'd. During final runs in Heat C, Maxfield and Kemper improved slightly, but Maxwell put it all together for a smoking 32.853 run.
Sharon Roberts ran in Heat D in her B Stock S2000. Her second run time of 34.432 was good enough for second place right out of the box. Her third run improved slightly, but not enough to get by Maxwell.
Heat E saw Deb Eymann and Teresa Clement in the line up. Clement, fresh off an Evolution autocross school the day before, was fast and smooth. She was regularly lifting the inside rear wheel on her G Stock Neon. Although she coned on her first run, the time was respectable. Deb Eymann got a gift on her first run when a car stopped on course ahead of her. The rest of the PAX Ladies competitors know it is never a good idea to give Deb another look at the course. She took advantage of it and laid down a 33.264 clean run, enough to claim second place from Roberts. On second runs, Clement improved incrementally on her time, but was clean, moving her up several spots. Eymann lit up a 32.762 run to vault into first place over Maxwell. Clement improved again on her third run to 34.564. Eymann did not improve, but with a second run good for a 953 PAX, she did not need to. Maxwell was second with a 950 PAX and Roberts was third at 915. Clement’s 903 PAX score was one better than her husband’s score!
In
PRO class after first runs, Ted Lewis was leading the way with a 31.748 PAX time. Marc McCombs was second with 32.236 in his A Stock S2000, just a few tenths in front of Dave McCombs, followed by Steve Ashcroft and David Webb. Although neither knew it at the time, both Marc McCombs and Webb would have to stand on their first runs. On second runs, Lewis made his 1000 PAX score, top time of day run. Dave McCombs moved to within hundredths of Marc, but not enough to claim second place. Ashcroft improved a tenth, not enough to pick up any spots and Webb coned. Lewis slowed on third his run, Dave McCombs found over two tenths to claim second place with a 32.088 PAX time and a 973 PAX score. Ashcroft improved over nearly seven tenths to claim third place with a 32.210 PAX time, just barely enough to get past Marc McCombs 32.236 PAX time. Their times were so close that they both had a 969 PAX score!
There were 13 drivers in the
Sportsman class, and the 900+ PAX scores there go 10 deep! Mark Johnson was driving a borrowed Lotus Élan and could barely get the car around grid, stuttering and stalling several times, as he came to line. But he managed to stay in the throttle while on the course, turning a 991 PAX score. Steve Eymann drove his Z06 to a 977, just edging Tage Evanson in a borrowed Lexus IS300. Joel Schotz was probably more concerned with how his son Dave was doing across the way, in the T2 race on the Firebird race course (where Dave was setting lap records), than he was about getting his Z06 around the cones, yet he still managed a 964 PAX score.
In
Super Stock, Jim Young went out and set fast time on his first run with a 39.973 raw time, but hit the apex cones of the last two corners with his RX7. Kim Kemper ran a clean 40.141 on his first look at the course behind the wheel of his Corvette. Jim Barks and Elvis Presley were on street tires (yes, you can run street tires in Open classes). Barks ran a clean 42.986, good for second spot and Presley a 44.454, good for fourth behind Kemper. Young managed to hit only one apex cone on his second run, but slowed to a 40.292 raw time. Kemper ran a 39.951 raw time but tagged a slalom cone. Barks improved to 42.265 and Presley DNF'd. After second runs, Kemper was still leading, Barks in second, Young was in third trailing by 0.027 seconds, and Presley was way back. Young managed a clean run on his third try with a 40.662. Kemper ran in the 39's again, but also coned again as well. Barks hit a cone and slowed. Presley turned a smoking 41.226 and nudged a cone on the way by. Standing on his first run, Kemper took top spot with a 930 PAX score. Young grabbed second place with a 927 PAX score. Presley put it all together on his last run and got third and 906 PAX, just ahead of Barks.
Steve Ryan ran solo in
A Stock. Even with no direct competition, he managed a 971 PAX score. Brady Dohrmann’s 350Z outgunned Kevin Gleaton’s S2000 in
B Stock. The once thriving C Stock has evaporated, as one time winner Tom Tkacik has moved over to
D Stock in his BMW 330i. He led George Capito and Mike Esker to take top spot with a 938 PAX score. Lee Imler shows no signs of slowing, driving his Miata to a 919 PAX score over Dave Maxfield in
E Stock.
F Stock was a barnburner! Evan Brom in a Camaro prevails over Roy Combes in a Mustang by one PAX point, 920 to 919. In
G Stock, Mark Shaw scored an impressive 951 PAX in the process of triumphing over Larry Dues’ Integra.
Joe Moritz has been running in
A Street Prepared all by himself for some time. He may have wished for some competition, but Mark Huffman probably was not what he had in mind. Huffman had been away doing some development work on the Lotus and came out for a shake down run, if you can call a 988 PAX score a shake down! He will get faster as he dials in the new set up. Ben Clement welcomed Eric Schleicher to
D Street Prepared with a 902 PAX score victory. I know Ben is happy to have someone, anyone, in his class.
E Street Prepared has been the site for some awesome battles this year, but many of the top contenders were not able to make it to this round. Brian Weikert knows he needs PAX points for the series and drove hard to a 934 PAX score. Ross Meyer soldiers on in
F Street Prepared with a 923 PAX.
There were some old cars with new parts in
D Modified. David Lahey’s 1994 Miata was sporting a 1999 engine, making big power and psyching out the competition with its lopey idle. Joe Curry was already making more power than he could put down, so he installed a new rear suspension. Both these cars are works-in-progress, so they should get faster as the season progresses. For this round, Lahey claimed top spot with a 920 PAX and, for style points, a little spin out after the finish lights. Power is good!
The
Street Modified competition is intense. These beasts come in all sorts of flavors, from classic pony cars to boosted rally cars. After first runs, Geren Smith was in the top spot with a 41.196 in his WRX. Ron Mercer was second with 41.847 in a newer Camaro. Steve Steele showed good speed with a 40.811 raw time in his 1965 Mustang, but two cones relegated him to third. Frank (Camaro SS) Miller trailed with a 43.450. After second runs, Mercer moved into the lead with a 40.934 run in which he wiggled a cone (it remained in the box). Steele moved up to second with a clean 41.038, politely signaling all his right turns along the way. Smith ran a 40.333, enough to maintain the lead, if only he had not hit a cone. Miller improved nearly 0.7 seconds but not enough to make up any ground in the field. After third runs, Smith cleaned it up with a class leading 39.761 run, good for first place and a 937 PAX. Mercer was knocking on the door with a 40.341 and a 924 PAX. Steele moved into the 39s on his third run, but tagged the last apex cone, which bumped him back to third place. Miller had a big moment catching a tank slapper and had stand on his second run. In
Street Touring S, Kris Castner drove his Impreza 2.5 RS to the win over Dave Montgomery’s SVO Mustang. Jeremy Galo hit the lip just right, leading
Street Touring Extreme with a 919 PAX score in his factory hot rod Prelude. Zaron Welch blasted to a second place finish ahead of TG Watkins.
In addition to all the class winners, a few lucky individuals won the Run Time Lotto! Janine Pester picked 3, 4, 7, 5, and 9. She ran a 42.957. Kendra Albers picked 5, 6, 7, 8, and 3. She ran a 46.875. Brian Weikert picked a 4, 1, 0, 1 and 5. He ran a 40.561. Since all three picked four out of five numbers correctly, the first tiebreaker was invoked. The first tie breaker looked at how many numbers were in the right place. For instance, Weikert picked a 4 as his first number and ran a 40.xxx time, so the four was good for extra credit. Amazingly, all three had one number in the correct spot for another tie. So a second tiebreaker was used: names were drawn from a hat. Pester was the lucky one, winning a night for two at the Metrocenter Four Points Sheraton resort, while Albers and Weikert each take home a $25 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse. Thanks go to event co-chair Glenda Meyers for arranging great prizes!
After the closing set of runs, a ground swell of volunteers help with tear down and packing the equipment truck. Everyone was out well before dark, thanks to good organization and a great crew. No matter how good the next event is, someone will mention that you should have been here in October, because the cones were raging. The next surfari is planned for Sunday, November 7, at Firebird. Plan to be there and go big as the Fall 2004 Series continues.
