PYLON PRESS (Oct 05)

ARIZONA REGION – Clint Child grew up in Santa Barbara and Merced, so he was right away immersed in car culture, California style. He says he was able to name cars driving by when he was just five years old. He started driving at age 15 and drag racing at 17.

Clint moved to Phoenix in 1996, to attend a technical school for industrial drafting. He met Tage Evanson at a drag race and through that friendship was led to try autocrossing in the fall of 2002. Hooked, he ended up following in Tage's footsteps and pretty much abandoned drag racing.

One of his autocrossing rides is rather distinctive, a 1988 Honda Civic Wagovan. He'd thought that if he ran it on race tires (borrowed from Ben Clement), he'd be competing in FSP. But instead he found himself in CSP, competing against Brian Peters and his highly prepped Miata. This struck him as a laughable situation, so he shared the fun by painting a challenge on the Wagovan's rear window. Still, it wasn't entirely a joke: he drove the Wagovan to first place in STS Open during last spring's series.

He had been practicing for that win. Spring 2003, he took third running STX in Novice 3, driving his 2000 Acura Integra R. That fall, he drove it to fourth in SM Street Tire 1 (and also took third in the Arizona State Championship street tire class). Spring 2004, first place in CSP Street Tire 3; summer 2004, second place in STS Open; and fall 2004, second in SM Street Tire 1. He's started our current series by running his Integra in DSP Open.

Clint has competed in three National Tour events and in this year's Nationals at Topeka. For three of those (including the Nationals), he co-drove the Peters Miata. At the other, he and Dave Webb co-drove the Mindi Cross Focus. The Tour events and "just trying to keep up with Brian" have helped him improve his driving a lot. He appreciates this help, saying that "the autocross community is a much friendlier venue than other motorsports I've experienced."

As for hobbies, Clint likes to play pool, often playing in tournaments. He just recently got his own pool table. But his other hobbies are car related: working on cars, talking about cars, playing video games about cars.

Clint works as an Assistant Course Designer for our club, a job that requires effort both prior to event day and early that morning. Professionally, Clint does engineering drafting for Southwest Gas. He and his wife live in north Phoenix.

1 October 2005, SURGE STREET SHOP, Tempe, Arizona – Some 29 cars and 40+ people made the trip to Surge Street Shop in Tempe on October 1st, to participate in the weigh day. Unlike previous weigh days, this event did not cater to those wishing to do suspension tuning, since many people had asked just to get baseline weights on their cars.

The overall atmosphere of the event was a good one, with people estimating what their car would weigh – overall, in diagonal totals, or corner by corner – or guessing who has the most ultra-lightweight cheater car within the Arizona Region!

Of all the entrants, a Mazda Miata took the honor of the lightest car, weighing in at 1970 lbs. Clint Child's famed Civic Wagovan was a close second, just over 2000 lbs. The heaviest car of the day was a Pontiac Firebird, tipping the scales at 3595 lbs, followed by a Nissan 350Z at 3220 lbs. The most popular cars during the day were the Subaru WRXs and Nissan 240SXs, each appearing in groups of five or more. Other cars weighing in included a Mini S, a couple of Ford Mustangs, a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO, and a Suzuki Forenza.

As usual, the charge per vehicle weigh was five dollars, with proceeds going to our club. Special thanks go out to Marion at Surge Speed Shop for loaning space for the day, not to mention the great hospitality! Additional thanks go out to all of those who helped during the day. Overall the event was a huge success.

8 and 9 October 2005, PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY – A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same forward as backward. For instance, race car is a palindrome. The term originates from the Greek words palin (back or again) and dromos (a running or a racecourse). On October 8th and 9th, the Arizona Region SCCA hosted an autocrossing palindrome, as it spent the weekend running the same course forward and then backward. On Saturday, 127 drivers took part, while 138 came out on Sunday. Results have been posted for both Saturday and Sunday.

Steve Eymann and Kevin Gleaton covered the event chair responsibilities and each faced similar challenges as gusty conditions tested workers and equipment. The wind periodically sandblasted workers all weekend, like a 150-grit zephyr. At one point on Saturday, an errant canopy danced across the course, driven by a lively dust devil. Even the reader board took a wind-fall late on Sunday. The lesson learned, in palindromic terms: tie it! In spite of the wind, and even in the face of additional timing light issues on Sunday, dedicated equipment chief Kevin Venisnik and assistant Brad Owen kept the event moving forward, allowing all drivers four runs on each day. On duty all weekend was Bev Sattler, our chief Solo Safety Steward. Although she may disagree with the particular wording of the phrase, she made it possible to race fast safe car.

Saturday's course offered a blend of elements that required patience to stay out of trouble. Many of the corners pinched down unless the driver set up early and stayed on line. There were several opportunities for full-throttle fun between the bends, but not a ton of them. The finish went over a transition that worked fine as long as the car was going straight. If a driver was still recovering from the final slalom, the finish was an exciting one. Richard Vela actually cleared the finish in reverse on one run. To compliment Saturday's pinched corners, Sunday's course tended to open up. The corners supported lots of exit speed and produced many satisfied grins. Sunday's finish was a fast wallom that got many thumbs up from the drivers.

Saturday was the first time a kart has run at an AZ Region event. Mark Huffman brought out a Biral F125 shifter kart and promptly set Fast Time of Day with a 47.173 seconds pass. Most appropriate, since top spot is a palindrome. Top PAX score went to Josh Sortor, fresh from his National Championship winning week in Topeka. Huffman set FTD on Sunday as well, with a 42.369 second run. Steve Eymann claimed top PAX on Sunday.

The weekend comprised fully half of the 2005 Fall Series. With many classes in the balance, drivers had to concentrate and be on their game all weekend long. Dave Rock turned in a couple of excellent drives in SS, recording a 961 PAX on Saturday and 987 PAX on Sunday. Kim Kemper ran to second place each day with a 935 and 957 PAX. Jim Young showed up for Sunday to claim third place with a 955 PAX – imagine that, PAXing 950+ and getting third! – in front of Darrell Covert. However, Darrell really caught the spirit of the weekend by running a 46.164 second run on Sunday and PAXing 929 in the process. Elliot Speidell drove his BS rotary gyrator RX-8 to 928 on Saturday and then to a breakthrough 949 PAX on Sunday. One of the most inspirational moments of the weekend came on Sunday in NV2. Britt Dollmeyer was doing his part for the symmetry by driving his Civic to the wins on both days, leading Jonathon Rosenfield and his RSX Type S. But it's things like Mark McCarthy's joy on Sunday, at the end of a final and finally-clean run, that make Solo so much fun.

The solo gigolos (smiles and frowns both appropriate here!) in STX put on a good show. Dan Martin set the bar high after first runs with a 54.622 second run – over a one and half seconds in front of the field – in his Spec V. Ron Huber was a distant second in the low 56-second range in his Impreza 2.5 RS while the rest languished in the 57s or DNFed. Chad Mizner responded to the call on second runs to take the lead with a 54.173 second run in his G35 sedan. Martin actually improved his raw time after hitting the very first cone on the course. Huber improved to a 55.5, but Jeremy Galo recorded a 55.4 in his Prelude SH to put himself in third place. The rest of the field dropped to the 56-second range. On third runs, Galo tagged a cone, Mizner got to a 53.6 and Craig Meyer got a clean 56.2 run in his Mustang, a.k.a. the best sounding car in STX. Martin was red-flagged as a worker made his way to pick up a cone while Kris Castner dropped to the 56.3-second range in his Impreza 2.5 RS. Jason Smith slowed slightly, standing on his second run in his 240SX. Ron Huber cranked out a 54.2, putting him just behind Mizner.

Martin took full advantage of his rerun, recording an awesome 53.467 time to take over first place. With a bonus fourth run, Galo dropped into the 54s, but tagged a cone again. Mizner fell just short of Martin with a 53.549 second run. Meyer slowed by a few tenths. Even Martin could not repeat, crossing the line with a 53.6 run. Castner put it together to get into the 55s. Smith stopped for the flying canopy on course which also red-flagged Huber. Smith's rerun proved to be his best in the low 56s, but all eyes were on Huber. He was the last car of the heat, on the last run of the heat and he had shown good speed all day. He put down his best run of the day, 54.078 seconds, good for third place, behind Martin and Mizner and just in front of Galo. On Sunday Huber reigned, Mizner played bridesmaid again and Martin dropped to third. As a result, the STX series points chase is a tight one with the top three drivers within 10 points of the lead. Mizner leads overall with 1904 points, trailed by Huber at 1901 and Martin at 1894.

Speaking of close point competitions, current series standings have been posted (and will, of course, be changed after the fourth event of the series). There are several tight points races. For instance, ASP is tied as Joe Moritz and Ryan Sotak are locked at 1810 points each after the October events. David Lahey leads CSP by only three points over Don Sattler, who may be thinking evade me, Dave. Over in STS, Thomas Winchester is only five points out of the lead at 1816 points and he is in third place, trailing Travis Gianelli at 1819 and Richard Vela at 1821 points. And what is this, a woman leading the PRO class where there are so many dynamos. Dawn Maxwell checks in with a near perfect 1998 points, leading Josh Sortor. Likewise, Steve Eymann has been on fire lately, racking up 1995 points over the weekend. Tage Evanson trails by five points in SPM. Even in ST1, James Frink holds a tenacious grasp on his three point lead over Justin Markiewicz, 1857 to 1854 points. While both are still in contention to win, the second and third place drivers in ST2 will be watching each PAX point carefully. Jim Rohn leads George Capito by just four points and both are within striking distance of that championship.

While the weekend double-header offered lots of track time, it represented many challenges for the organizers, especially the registration folks, who had never attempted anything like it in the past. Brian Weikert put in the extra effort required to make it happen.

Champions in the Fall 2005 Series will be determined during the next competition event, to be held December 4 at Phoenix International Raceway. In the meantime, forget that a Toyota's a Toyota, remember that even a one-way Solo's still a lot fun, and repeatedly chant the autocrosser's mantra about final standings: never ever even.