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April 2005Darrell Covert reports on the recent drivers' school. Mark Johnson covers the third event of the spring series, and then details current series standings. The final event of the spring series is on Sunday, May 1, at Phoenix International Raceway. Mark Johnson, Lead Reporter Copyright 2005. Duplication allowed in whole or in part, provided full acknowledgment is given. |
ARIZONA REGION – D. N. Effer was born on 1 April 1974. He won't say where, but admits that it was "in a place that would be in the middle of nowhere if only it were more centrally located."
D. N. says he's been involved with cars and autocrossing "since before birth, literally," his mother having DNF'd an autocross course and headed for the hospital when her labor pains started at the exit from an 8-cone slalom. That may be parental folklore, but it explains his name, which, he laments, is not a pseudonym. He says that he could invent a better authorship pseudonym, if he actually had need of one; A. Cohnover, he says, would be good. Manny Cohns, he claims, would be better than the real pseudonym under which he maintains his low profile on the Forum and competes at local and other Solo 2 events.
D. N. says that his name has had a debilitating effect throughout his life. The lack of multi-character first and middle names – they should really be written D N rather than D. N., but his parents had given up on that battle by the time he entered third grade – led to lots of teasing in grade school, somewhat assuaged by the aura of coolness it gave him during high school. He suffers from a vague but unshakable affinity for the letter X, and has a tendency to accumulate unfinished projects around the house and office. His name has even presented difficulties on the professional side of his life. When he's down, he wonders whether he's understood better as a concept than as a person.
But, hey, back to manly stuff! D. N.'s mechanical skills are "almost congenital," since his parents encouraged and even financed his automotive hobbies from an early age, to keep him "at home, but out of the house." He followed that experience with 4 semesters at 5 different technical schools. And he's successfully self-employed now. In high school, he'd been elected Person Most Likely to Run a Garden Center, and he does have a green thumb, but the business he developed is a supply center for four-wheeler types. He really likes his work, and he likes most of his customers. But some, he says, wear heavy belt buckles with their names on them, "upside down, for easy readibility."
Away from work, D. N. continues his automotive hobbies, avidly building and rebuilding autocross rides, rides that have progressed from adequate through stimulating to "Sure, nobody really needs this, but ...." Asked to explain the XM Radio receiver in his latest trailer queen, D. N. countered that you sometimes have accept a functional hit for the sake of owning the coolest gear on the planet. I often have to pretend being interested when D. N. waxes philosophical like that, but this time I really was interested, so I asked him how long he's been involved with autocrossing. He responded with "Well, let's see, what time is it now?" Asked how many times he's trophied, he said "Almost twice." You can see that faking modesty is one of the things D. N. doesn't do well. (But he keeps trying, which is really starting to annoy some of his friends.) In actual fact, D. N. has autocrossed for years. And he always attacks an autocross course, much like a punk tornado out looking for a trailer park, an image he savors.
D. N. writes an article for the Pylon Press occasionally, but most of his work for our club has occurred behind the scenes. He's chaired the Braking Committee since it's inception. More recently, he's conducted lengthy and quiet searches for an alternate autocrossing site. Shortly after AMP was forced to close, D. N. began a thread in the Forum about this perfect location he'd found, with eager support from the local government bodies and even the nearby residents. Several club members, including some from the Steering Committee, posted replies that took matters well on the way to securing the site at very attractive rates. But then the absence of any posting in that thread by AsianPersuasion introduced a note of implausibility that was strong enough to wake D. N. from his dream.
Undaunted, he has continued the search. But Arizona State University's Parking and Transit office said that the students have been informally autocrossing the surface lots since forever, have even been doing multilevel autocrossing in the parking structures, and are not to be encouraged at either. A spokesman for the Phoenix Coyotes head office said that they had no interest in supporting a sport that lacked near-felony components. And the Arizona Cardinals said that they envisioned no method of handling security for semi-public gatherings of several hundred people.
D. N. laughs – now – about the spring-operated rubber scorpion that his competitors hid under his helmet during the recent drivers' school. But he is "so not taking a plate of brownies" to May's event. I said he probably would anyway, and he asked "Have I ever lied to you?" I answered and he said "Okay, but have I ever lied to you when you didn't know I was lying to you?"
D. N. is a complicated guy.
Then the students and instructors got familiar with each other, doing course walks, discussing proper lines and other tips. Many students learned at this time that they had big shoes to fill.
handle a Corvette Z06, especially in slaloms.
3 April 2005, PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY –
The first Sunday in April generally brings about Daylight Saving Time, but not in Arizona. It seems folks in Arizona are not interested in extending the length of the day during the summer, preferring instead that the sun to set as soon as possible. However, many Arizona autocrossers were saving as much time as they could during this, the third round of the Spring 2005 series, held at Phoenix International Raceway on April 3, 2005. In spite of the light breeze and cloud cover, the day proved to be a harbinger of impending summer, with the high temperature near 90 degrees F. The penultimate event of the series solidified the championship races, as competitors are locked into their classes and the points spreads take shape. The event results can be found
here.
Event chair Brad Owen arranged for a special time feature. In a nod to April Fools Day, he awarded a prize after each competition heat to the driver who recorded the fastest time, read backwards. HOTT, if you will, top time of heat (read it backwards).
So, a time of 72.510 seconds was pretty hard to beat, as it translated to a 01.527 second run. Arizona may not have formally adopted Daylight Saving Time, but it is HOTT and this form of reckoning saves all kinds of time!
Each of the 153 drivers was eligible for this contest, needing only to record a time. Most did, and most crossed the finish line in the traditional forward direction.
A handwritten note was seen on the back of the fabled Civic Wagovan that read Zoom Zoom This, Peters. Presumably the car owner, one Clint Child, knew it was there. The sign was appropriate because Brian Peters (who denied having written the message himself as a sort of reflexive April Fool's Joke) took the ‘spring ahead in spring’ philosophy to heart, by setting the Top Time of Day in his CSP Miata with a preposterously fast 53.203 run. Top PAX honors belong to Joshua Sortor, however, in spite of, or possibly because of, his new tire selection for his STX Subaru WRX.
In keeping with the April Fool's spirit, course designer Dawn Maxwell and her excellent crew set up a tricky course. It was generally easy to follow, but squeezing time out of it took some judicious driving. The course started in the grippy East lot with a small slalom and a couple of medium-radius circle turns. Then, it was across the transition onto the South lot and a big right hand sweeper leading to an offset slalom running the whole length of the lot. A right-hander at the end of the slalom led to a short chute and a tight box-like left turn. This square left turn was defined by many cones as it defined the transition to the gravelly West lot, and then opened up to an awesome wallom feature (a slalom made of walls) that supported all kinds of speed. Then the course dove downhill into an off-camber right-hander that exited right on top of a slalom. This medium-spaced slalom guided drivers to a final left-hand corner, though the finish lights and to a safe stop.
Most drivers preferred taking the beginning slalom with the first cone on the driver’s side, as doing that optimized the initial start-light turn and allowed a more open approach to the first U-turn. The key to the circle-like U-turns was to stay tight and away from the dust that built up on the outside. A small straight could be created by accelerating out of the last circle toward the first transition, but great care was required to stay on-line as the car got light over the hump and wanted to move sidewise about a car width or so.
Once onto the South lot, drivers had to determine how fast they could go around the big right-hand sweeper, keeping in mind that the they had to enter the offset slalom on the inside of the first cone to keep it favorable across the width of the lot. Occasionally an unobservant driver, who may not have noticed the intentional offset in the slalom, tried to work it the hard way. The wise ones made an effort to get to the inside. After accelerating up to slalom speed and maintaining the rhythm for a few beats, drivers had to carefully slow for the right turn into the short chute. Optimizing the exit at the end of chute was absolutely critical for a fast time, and the chute did not suffer fools kindly.
By blasting out of the square left-hand turn just before the transition to the West lot, drivers could build silly speed through the walloms. However, they had to be cognizant that they had just entered the sand box-like West lot and so adjust their grip expectations accordingly. Prudent drivers made an effort to tighten their line in all the elements in the West lot, because the gravel build up just off-line created dramatic changes in grip levels. Many drivers had gloriously long drifts and great saves, not to mention slightly slower times, when they ventured away from the tight line. Juggling the crazy grip with desire to go fast became an exercise in good judgment and patience, especially in the final finish-light corner. Only fools would rush in, but they often tallied up high cone counts because of their folly. During time-only runs, the final slalom became non-optional, as there was a slight pavement breakup at its entrance. The change did not seem to affect times dramatically; in fact, several drivers recorded their best times with this configuration.
This course contained sections that, if unlocked correctly, generated fast times. There were a few novice drivers who found the key and did not look back. In Novice 1, Justin Markiewicz put the pieces together faster than one else. His 906 PAX score made the Subaru STi look good. The dueling RX-8's of David Moy and Elliot Speidell put on a good show too, with 886 and 873 PAX scores, respectively. A tight grouping showed Jayme Black in his WRX at 863, just ahead of Eric Ware’s 861 in his GTO. Eric Boyko pedaled his S2000 to a point just barely ahead of Jared Kohlman, 860 to 859. The course workers were not going mad when the saw Kohlman’s X-Runner fly by, but they had to do double-takes to be sure. Joel Flint in his WRX beat out Jason Alger in the classic Corvette, 856 to 851.
The highest novice score belongs to Novice 2 driver Mark Mares. He steered his BMW 318 Ti to a 913 PAX score, ahead of Nick Maxfield’s 875 in a Miata. Chad Sherman led the way in Novice 3, which was a battle of 240SX's. Sherman recorded an 899 PAX score and fellow Nissan driver Dave Green came in at 896. Richard Mazur and his M3 beat out Steve Roberts and his 325E, 893 to 862. In another Nissan, a 300ZX, Paul Lemke ran an 860 PAX. The Novice Ladies class has been fun to report throughout the Spring series, and the April round was no exception. Newcomer to the class, Melissa Rex-Flint wheeled her Impreza 2.5 RS around the course to an Imprezive 841 PAX score. Was there a The Dead Milkmen reunion in grid? Elizabeth Young’s 814 PAX with her bitchin’ Camaro SS suggested it might be so. Cherrie Windfeldt was looking fine as she turned it on, wound it up and blew it out in her GTO.
While not official yet, word is that the Street Tire 1 name is being change to STi. This time, it was James Frink’s STi leading the boxer rebellion with a 939 PAX score. Right on his wing was Jay Balducci at 937; Greg Rubenstein came in at 919. Mark Halliday guided his S2000 to the top non-Subaru spot with an 896 PAX score.
Bryan Wofford and Roger Brendecke were right behind at 890 and 883.
Brad Owen continues to rule Street Tire 2 in his Sentra, but Christopher Lachlan moved ever closer in his WRX. In spite of putting as much daylight under his tires as possible, Owen's 932 PAX score just topped Lachlan’s 927 PAX. Jim Rohn brought in a ringer to co-drive the Mustang, and Dennis Bay showed Rohn where the speed was. Bay’s 921 put him ahead of Rohn’s 908. John Fleming’s 905 PAX score was good enough to earn him the Street Tire 3 series championship in April. Likewise, Roseann Tavarozzi’s 852 PAX score likely wrapped up her series title in Street Tire Ladies.
Nothing is settled in Sportsman, as Josh Sortor has jumped classes. His 1000 PAX crowned some excellent driving. Even with his TTOD, Brian Peters claimed second in class with a 996 PAX. In the same ballpark was Tage Evanson with a 993. Dawn Maxwell collected the top PAX Ladies time with a 949 PAX score in her Miata. Steve Ryan claimed the top PRO spot in a borrowed Miata. Ryan proved, again and once and for all, that he is faster the first time he drives a car than he ever will be again.
It is common practice to change the batteries in the smoke detector when the clocks are changed. The batteries in Jeremy Galo’s smoke detector must be worn out because he was on fire. His winning STX 976 PAX score was inspiring, as he worked the Prelude through the course. Next best was Dan Martin in his Spec V, just barely edging Kevin Cote in the G35 coupe, 959 to 958. Likewise, Clint Child’s 967 PAX score in the legendary STS Wagovan was awesome. Richard Vela could only wait for the sonic boom to happen as chased after in his 240SX. Vela’s 932 PAX score put him ahead of Thomas Winchester’s 921 in the G20T. In other open classes, Jim Young took advantage of a long mechanical pause and a benevolent steward. After he got his RX-7 going he put down a 962 PAX score to grab first place in Super Stock, away from Kim Kemper’s 918 PAX score.
Rob Rockefeller rocked the A Stock world as he put the hurt on Kevin Gleaton and John Sawyer. Rockefeller’s 957 PAX score was well ahead of Gleaton’s 912. The burgeoning Isley family paid a visit to the Valley to show off newborn Jessica. Naturally, they picked an autocross weekend to make the trek and it paid off. Jason Isley showed B Stock how it is done with smooth 981 PAX run for the win. Jennifer Isley nearly caught Brady Dohrmann, but Dohrmann’s 959 PAX score held Jennifer’s 951 at bay. Greg Hodgdon was a happy camper as he beat out the seemingly omnipotent Tom Tkacik in E Stock. Hodgdon’s 939 PAX score was only three points in front of Tkacik, but it still counts! Over in A Street Prepared, Ryan Sotak is getting the Viper figured out, much to the chagrin of Corvette drivers Paul Hamersly and Joe Moritz. Sotak finished up with an 878 PAX score; ahead of Hamersly’s 868 and Mortiz’ 865 scores. With no rally cars in sight, the boys in E Street Prepared put on a good show. This time, it was Larry Petrucci in his Firebird ahead of co driver Brian Weikert, 943 to 937. Steve Steele brought the Cobra in with a 903 PAX score.
The HOTT time of the day was an incredible run of 00.536 seconds in by Dave Reuss in Heat A. Other individual heat winners were Eli Concepcion in Heat B with a 01.756 second run and Stephen Provost in Heat C with 02.806. Chanda Child posted a 01.496 second run in Heat D. Heat E saw Tom Walling post a 07.147 second run, and Daniel Short recorded a 02.246. Each was awarded a free event entry coupon for his efforts.
Even though we did not adjust our clocks, everyone still had a good time. In spite of foolishly squandering the daylight, there was plenty of time to pick up cones and pack the truck before the sun went down.
3 April 2005, PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY –
The Spring 2005 series will be the first series with all its events held on the big lots at Phoenix International Raceway. Drivers have faced a number of challenges as the series has unfolded, from rain, oil coming up from the pavement, bigger unlined courses, gravel developing during the day, and heat rotation mix-ups.
These factors have shaped the series into what it is today without diluting the intrinsic competition. There is a rally term, force majeure (greater force), which might apply to the Spring Series, as drivers have had deal with changing conditions over which they had no control.
Despite all that, the competition is top notch, and the scoreboard is closely watched. Clearly, the series champions are going to have to work for every PAX point they want. Many of the series competitions will come down to the last run of the last event of the year. So, who will win?
Before getting into a review of class, a quick review of the series scoring may be in order. The Spring 2005 series consists of four events. The best three PAX scores are summed to determine a driver’s points total. Trophies are generally awarded to the top half of the class, rounding that fraction down if needed. For instance, in a class with seven drivers, three trophies are awarded; in a class with nine drivers, there are four trophies at stake. A maximum of six trophies are awarded for any class with 12 or more drivers. The exception is a three-driver class, which grants trophies to both the first and second place drivers. Single-car classes are bumped into a combined class. Stock and Street Tire classes might be combined, for example, as might Street Prepared or Street Mod classes. The winner of the combined Stock/Street Tire class claims first place in Stock Combined. Prepared and Modified classes are not combined with each other, so single car classes are possible in these categories.
In many cases, the series outcome lies in the balance after 3 of four events. Many champions will be determined in May. Such is the case for Super Stock, where Kim Kemper’s narrow victory over Darrell Covert in April earns him a 25-point lead in the series. With only two qualified drivers and one trophy on the line, both Kemper and Covert must bring their A game to May's event. Kevin Gleaton holds the series the lead in A Stock over Mike Selland. With Gleaton and John Sawyer already qualified for the series by virtue of having run three events, Selland holds the cards. If Selland shows up in May, he may claim the second trophy spot. He if does not show up in May, there will only be two qualified drivers and one trophy. Brady Dohrmann is the only eligible driver in B Stock.
Should he qualify for the series in May, he will be bumped to the Stock Combined class, where he stands a good chance of winning with his accumulated 1923 points. Likewise, Garry Swanner is the only eligible driver for C Stock and will be bumped to the Stock 150; Combined class. Swanner has three events credited toward the series and is only one of two drivers currently qualified for the series in the Stock Combined class.
Another potential bumpee is Mike Rogers in D Stock. He has three events and is qualified for the series, but for which class depends on Mike Esker. Esker is only 33 points behind Rogers in the D Stock race. If Esker participates in May, he will be chasing Rogers. If Esker stays home, Rogers is bumped to Stock Combined, where there is a good chance he may trophy as well. E Stock is a real horse race, with three qualified drivers. The current leader, Tom Tkacik, has the edge on Greg Hodgdon by 38 points and on Lee Imler by 70 points. Since there are three qualified drivers, there are two trophies at stake. Chris Noyes is hoping that Ray Coombes makes it in May, because Noyes is the presently the only qualified driver in F Stock. Coombes is eligible, with two events so far, but must show to make the class. Otherwise, Noyes is bumped to Stock Combined. As it stands now, Noyes is the top points earner of the qualified drivers in the Stock Combined class, but he faces a potential uphill battle if Dorhmann qualifies and Rogers gets bumped. Whew!
The street touring classes are sporting some good competition in Street Touring Supreme (STS) and Street Touring Extreme (STX). But STS2 and STU have not seen the same numbers yet. There are six eligible drivers in STS, meaning potentially three trophy positions. But so far, only three of the drivers have qualified for the series. Jason Smith is the top qualified driver with 1867 points. He is chasing Clint Child with 1889 points, but Child has not yet qualified for the series. Richard Vela has qualified for the series and with 1845 points he stands a good chance of trophying. Kris Castner had some car trouble and had to drop out of the April event, but he generally scores well and, with 1824 points, is a threat. Thomas Winchester has qualified as has Travis Gianelli, Winchester with 1822 points and Gianelli with 1805 points. Depending on who shows up, these two may be fighting for the last trophy spot.
Similarly, there are two drivers qualified in STX, but seven drivers eligible – meaning a potential of three trophy spots. In the top spot is Jeremy Galo with an impressive 1933-point total. That is only one percent more than Dan Martin, who has also qualified for the series and has a running total of 1912 points. The dark horse at 1902 points is Kevin Cote, who stands to claim the third spot if he shows up in May. However, he will have to beat Chad Mizner, should he show up, who trails at 1888 points. If neither of them makes it in May, Olin Tweed is qualified and on the bubble at 1857 points, just seven points in front of Craig Meyer. Surprisingly, only Kevin Venisnik has chosen to participate in the attractive STS2 class, so he will be bumped to the Stock Combined class.
With three eligible drivers, two of which have already qualified, A Street Prepared has reemerged as a viable place for high-horsepower sports cars to play. Ryan Sotak leads with 1794 points, but still has to qualify for the series. Top qualified driver Paul Hamersly trails Sotak by 38 points at 1756. Joe Moritz is on the bubble. Ryan Johnson is the only driver eligible for B Street Prepared, so if he shows up in May, it is off to Street Prepared Combined for him. Likewise, if Ben Clement runs in D Street Prepared in May, he could be leading the Street Prepared Combined class with 1902 points. Davis Kofron, from F Street Prepared, may join them if there are no road racing opportunities nearby. If all three drivers participate in May in their respective classes, there will be a second trophy spot available in the Street Prepared Combined class. E Street Prepared is one of the tightest competitions going in the whole series. There are two qualified drivers so far, but four eligible drivers mean a second trophy is possible. The competition is as fierce as the cars. Brian Weikert is only two points behind Larry Petrucci, 1878 to 1880 respectively. Richard Rippy is a close third with an 1858 total. If both Rippy and Steve Steele show in May, it will be a dogfight for those two trophies.
There are two eligible and qualified drivers in Street Modified, Geren Smith and Travis Barnes. While Barnes trails Smith by 151 points, he has been steadily improving every time out. Smith is likely to take the medal for this series, but the real story is what happens during the next series as Barnes gets faster.
David Lahey and Don Sattler have been trading wins in A Prepared all season long, while driving the same machine, the Beastie. Unfortunately for Sattler, Lahey has been winning the high traction events where the PAX scores are higher, so Lahey’s PAX total is slightly higher. Sattler wins when the traction is low, and he wins by more, but the overall PAX scores are lower. So, Sattler trails Lahey by 10 points and it will likely come down the final run to determine the winner. Brian Jackson has not missed an event throughout the series in F Prepared and, since he is the only eligible driver, Jackson is the Spring 2005 F Prepared champion going into May.
Amazingly, there are no eligible drivers for the series in the Modified ranks. There have been a handful of the modified cars, from the C Mod Van Dieman of Alan Wagstaffe to the Short’s MR2 monster, but none has run in a sufficient number of events to qualify for the series.
Some of the best competition can be found in the local indexed classes. For instance, PAX Ladies has three drivers qualified and five drivers eligible. The clear leader is Dawn Maxwell at 1918 points, who has already qualified for the series. Trailing Maxwell is Mindi Cross at 1784 points, but she has not qualified for the series yet. Cross has traded her regular ride for a series of different Miatas. Cross is followed closely by Deb Eymann at 1764 points, who probably wishes she could trade her Corvette for something as narrow as a Miata on the gravely PIR courses. Jodie Warren will be fighting it out with Teresa Clement to see who is on the bubble should Eymann or Cross fail to show. The PRO class is a little different, because they do not run for trophies. These folks drive for cash prizes. David Webb has tenuous hold on the top spot; his 1961 points are only nine ahead of Steve Ryan at 1952. Ryan has driven a different car at each event but it works for him, perhaps even better than if he were driving his own car. With five drivers eligible and qualified, there will be two awards given out. At only 18 points out of first, Dave McCombs is poised to grab the cash away from Ryan or Webb should one of them slip up.
The Sportsman class should be renamed the Gladiator class because the battles there are epic. Consider, if you will, that at the April event each individual PAX point represented about .04 seconds in PAX time. A difference of twenty PAX points covered about one second in PAX time. For most classes, a PAX second translates to roughly 1.2 seconds in real time. Then, consider that Brain Peters and Tage Evanson, the top two points-earners at 1987 and 1985 points respectively, are separated by just two PAX points for the whole series so far. In real time, that is just over a tenth of a second apart, after all those runs. Then, consider there are at least three other battles like that in Sportsman.
Steve Eymann and Dave Rock have a classic battle for third, with Eymann three PAX points ahead, 1943 points to 1940 points. Mark Johnson and Ron Huber are in lock step with 1933 and 1932 respectively, only one PAX point separating them.
Joel Schotz and Dave Young have five PAX points between them at 1927 and 1922 points respectively. With 10 qualified drivers and the possibility of 12 by the end of the series, this will go at least five trophies deep, maybe six. Every one of these drivers, plus Jeff Schultz, Jeff Williams, and Tom Dukerich, is a contender to take home some hardware.
Street Tire 1 has 10 qualified drivers and 12 eligible drivers, making it another big class, with the potential for six trophies. The Subaru STi contingent, consisting of Jay Balducci, James Frink, and Greg Rubenstein, is leading the charge with only 30 points of separation. The next grouping consists of Bryan Wofford, Roger Brendecke, and Stephen Provost, with 26 points between them. However, none of them is out of reach of the next grouping, consisting of Steve Mott, Todd Houser, and Dolf Strom. Brad Owen has a good lead on the Street Tire 2 group, with a 34-point lead over Christopher Lachlan. With four qualified drivers, there are a guaranteed two trophies, but there are seven eligible drivers, so it could bump to three trophies. The real race appears to be for third, between Jim Rohn at 1803 points and Mike Driscoll at 1797 points. If Bill Kersbergen puts together a good run in May, he may be in the mix. Street Tire 3 has one driver eligible and qualified: John Fleming can claim the ST3 honors for the 2005 Spring Series. Likewise, Street Tire Ladies has one eligible and qualified driver: Roseann Tavarozzi is the Spring 2005 STL Champion. Congratulations!
Novice classes can see many drivers over the course of a season. Those that stick with it for a whole series often stand a good chance of trophying. In Novice 1, there are seven qualified drivers and up to 14 eligible drivers, meaning at least three trophies and possibly six. If Kelly Olohan finds his way back in May, he may qualify for a trophy. He is the current leader with 1846 points. Chasing Olahan are several series-qualified drivers, including Eliot Speidell at 1758 and David Moy at 1745 points. Justin Markiewicz has come on strong in the last two events, scoring 1741 points so far, to put him fourth spot.
Richard Duran had a good streak going, but may have jumped classes recently. Duran sits in fifth with 1705 points, just ahead of Jayme Black at 1702 points. Eric Ware’s Ware 1679 points bracket him neatly between Jason Alger with 1692 and Mark Alger at 1676 points.
While both Algers have qualified for the series, Ware must run in May if he is to have a chance at a trophy.
Novice 2, on the other hand, has only one qualified driver and a chance for three drivers total, meaning up to two trophy spots possible. Mark Mares leads the points total at 1831, but he is not yet qualified for the series. Rick Paradis is qualified and sits in second at 1690 points. Rick Oldani is on the bubble with 1662 points, should he choose to run in NV2 in May.
Novice 3 has had an incredible number of drivers try their hand but, so far, there are only three qualified drivers and two trophies on the line. With up to ten drivers eligible, the trophy count is likely to go higher. The top two points-leaders are qualified drivers, Dave Green at 1829 points and Chad Sherman at 1789 points. Richard Mazur is close behind with 1780 points, but he has not completed three events in the class yet. Also not qualified yet is Ryan Hayles, whose 1766-point total puts him in fourth spot. Eli Concepcion is likely to pick up a trophy if all the eligible drivers show up, with his 1693 points. Tim Bergstrom and Steven Roberts have a good battle going. Both have already qualified for the series and Bergstrom leads Roberts by six points, 1667 to 1663. The Novice Ladies class has three qualified drivers, guaranteeing at least two trophy spots. Theresa Dorsey leads the show with 1684 points, but she must show up in May to qualify for the series. Elizabeth Young and Chanda Child are both eligible and in a close battle for the second trophy. Young has 1590 points and Child has 1575 points, so it will come down to the best runs in May. Cherrie Winfeldt is making dramatic strides in this series; look for her to keep getting faster in the future. If she continues to improve at the current rate, she is likely to be in trophy mix in spite of a slow start.
The final event of the Spring 2005 series is scheduled for Sunday, May 1, at PIR. The results from this last event will determine the champions and trophy winners in many of the classes. Stay tuned.
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(Posted 14 April 2005.) |