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the pylon points to: Brian Weikert

by Mike Driscoll

ARIZONA REGION – Brian Weikert was born and raised here in Phoenix, so "ended up here by default." He was interested in cars early on, in time to take several auto-shop courses in high school.

He was a Mopar guy growing up, and owned several late-60's early-70's Mopar muscle cars – Chargers and Challengers with big-block V8 engines. But his current car is a Ford. Specifically, a 1999 Mustang Cobra that he bought in the summer of 1999. He was drag-racing that car, and "learning how to waste money to make it do that better," when he came across a web-site post about autocrossing.

When he finally found our web site, he discovered there was a drivers' school the very next weekend. At the last minute, Scott Meyers helped him claim a vacated slot at the school, where his instructor was Sue Eisenbrenner. He learned a lot, competed in the regular autocross event the next day, and hasn't been back to a drag-strip since.

Brian took first place in his Spring 2000 novice classes (both in Phoenix and Tucson) and won a number of trophies & plaques while spending the summer of 2000 in Montana. Locally, he's competed in ESP, where he has trophied several times, including first place in the Fall 2003 series, first again in Fall 2004, and second place last spring. But a month or so ago, he relegated the Mustang to duty as a tow vehicle, and began competing in F125 with a 2003 Trackmagic shifter kart (powered by a spec Honda engine).

Brian also competed in the rain-plagued National Tour held at Firebird a couple of years ago. And he co-drove Larry Petrucci's Firebird in the El Paso Tour last winter, where he placed first and "actually got some money for autocrossing" (from the Kumho contingency award program).

A habit of showing up early at our events to help set up and hanging around for time-only runs and tear down got Brian noticed. That and a general desire to assist led him into helping Steve Eymann with registration work. The end result is that Brian is now our club's Registrar, a task he shares with Geren Smith.

Brian's first response to a question about hobbies other than autocrossing was "There are other hobbies?" But he soon admitted to a now-dormant interest in target shooting, a continuing penchant for reading, and a growing addiction to computer games.

Brian used to manage a network for a hotel chain, but that responsibility got outsourced when IT industry imploded four years ago. Since then he's been doing engineering work of a different type, locating underground utilities, especially telephone and cable-TV lines.

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Of Stars, and Toys, and Cars
The Fall Series, Event 4 of 4

by Mark Johnson

4 December 2005, PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY – The day turned dark on the morning of Saturday, December 3, when a participant in the drivers' school was seriously injured. But key people responded, handling the emergency and pulling the Arizona Region SCCA Solo 2 Group together to host the Fall 2005 season finale the very next day. The 154 drivers who attended that competition event had been asked to bring gifts for the annual Toys for Tots drive. They ended up bringing something much more valuable – their support and a strong sense of community.

With four runs for each driver and a limited amount of daylight, co-chairs Dawn Maxwell and Darrell Covert had to run a tight ship. They claim the Marines were on site only to pick up the toys; but they may have been reinforcements for the co-chairs. The five Marines assisted with a raffle and each was spotted on several "reconnaissance" runs. The course (designed by Clint Child) did not require a navigator, but it was a dichotomy. Easy to read; hard to run prefectly. Open and fast on the way out; tight and technical on the way back.

The course began with an entrance-optional five-cone slalom: the kind that lures the driver in one way but might actually be faster the other way. The slalom terminated with a quick right-left sequence, which opened into a gently arcing straight. The arc twisted into a decreasing radius right-hand turn and dropped the driver off in front of a Chicago box. But the exit of the box was wide open, so the savvy driver bombed through it without lifting. Then, the course changed character. A small-radius right turn led to a tight three-cone slalom, requiring drivers to hit their marks or hit the cones. Just as the slalom eased into a short chute, another slalom appeared at a slightly different angle. Again, restraint was required to get through. The last slalom led to the final left-hand corner and the finish lights.

Jason Beatty found his way through the cones faster than anyone else did. His 34.454-second run in his F125 kart was the top time of the day. However, it was Steve Eymann who owned the course. He drove his Z06 into the 34’s and claimed top PAX, by a mile. The next fastest fendered car was roughly a second behind him. Complete results are available here.

There were some classic match ups through out the day. A Stock featured Rob Rockefeller’s S2000 scoring just a few tenths better than Jason Alger’s Boxster and not far ahead of Craig Meyer's (new to him) C4 Corvette. E Modified featured a couple of 240Zs squaring off. These cars snorted and whooshed with forced induction noises almost like living creatures as they went through the course. Clifton Ragland's 1973 Z finished just ahead of Andy Zimmerle’s 1971 Z. All the Street Mod 2 drivers finished in the same second, but it was Daniel Short and his brutal MR2 ahead of the Brian Jackson’s gutted RX2 and Brant Bauman’s turbo Miata. As always, the Street Touring X battle raged. The usual suspects were found at the top; Ron Huber and his 2.5 RS were just seven hundredths ahead of Chad Mizner, a.k.a. the bridesmaid, in his G35 sedan. These two had tied earlier in the series and have not slowed down a bit. Only a couple of tenths back was Dan Martin and his SE-R.

The local indexed classes kept the calculators busy through the day. Dawn Maxwell’s 983 PAX score put her just one point ahead of Josh Sortor’s 982, to claim the PRO win. Street Tire 1 was the largest class with 21 drivers and it was Aytinc Akad in his ESP Lancer winning with a 914 PAX. Right on his tail was Justin Markiewicz ESP WRX STi at a 904 PAX and Olin Tweed in third. Mark Mares and his 318Ti took the win in Street Tire 2. His 894 PAX put him just ahead of Scott Meyers and Jim Rohn, 891 and 890 respectively. Novice 1 saw its share of action as well, as Michael Richardson drove his Evo IX to an 883 PAX while Scott Krogh battled with Mike Golden for second. Krogh put his Evo VIII one point in front of Golden, 873 to 872. Fred Zust piloted his Elise to an 868 PAX and fourth place. Not to be outdone, Novice 3 driver Jeff Campbell put his R32 into the top spot ahead of Eric Splinter and Eli Concepcion. Splinter managed an 863 PAX score with his Mazda 3 and Concepcion pulled down an 858 in his Civic.

The final event of 2005 was a success. The last runs were completed just as the sun was setting. The Marines left with a full-sized pick filled with toys for needy kids. Most importantly, our friend Richard Vela was on the road to recovery.

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Tight Competition
Fall 2005 Series Summary

by Mark Johnson

PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY – At the heart of any Arizona Region Solo 2 series is the competition among drivers, but there were a few new twists in Fall 2005. Most obvious was the unique schedule, with back-to-back events in October and no event in November, due to site availability. But this series also featured a new timing trailer, F125 shifter karts, and a refinement of operations at PIR that occasionally allowed fun runs at the end of the day, sometimes even when there had been four runs per heat.

In order to qualify for the series competition, drivers are required to participate in three out of the four series events. That meant drivers had to commit to at least one of the events on the October doubleheader weekend in order to make a run for series points. This series, 92 drivers were able to earn championship points. Although Novice and Street Tire classes generally have the most drivers at any given event, the Sportsman class had 13 drivers qualify for the series, more than any other class.

The standings in each class can be found here. Some classes featured especially close competition, even if it was not necessarily for first place. For instance, in Street Modified 2, Brant Bauman chased Daniel Short for second place, the final trophy position, only to come up one point short, while Victor Malchesky took a strong first place. Likewise, Joel Flint was just 11 points away from Jeremy Renshaw for second place in Street Modified, as Brady Dorhmann walked away with first place. However, it was a race for first place in Street Tire S. Richard Vela was the fastest, just 13 points in front of Thomas Winchester. Just outside the trophies by only 19 points was Travis Gianelli. Chad Mizner put together a solid series, never actually winning a single event in Street Tire X, but scoring enough points to claim the series win. His 2849 PAX points accumulated over the season were just enough to put him ahead of Ron Huber’s 2842 points. Dan Martin took third with 2828 points.

Several of the local indexed classes also came down to the last event. In PRO, where the points accumulate quickly, Dawn Maxwell finished just ahead of Josh Sortor, 2988 to 2976 points. Steve Ryan finished in third place with 2964 points. Across the field, only Steve Eymann scored more points than any of these trophy winners in PRO, showing that the Sportsman class is no stranger to high totals either. Since Eymann was the overall PAX leader at 2995 points, he was the clear winner in Sportsman; but Brian Peters racked up 2964 points, putting him ahead of Tage Evanson at 2951. Other trophy winners in Sportsman were Mark Johnson, Larry Petrucci and Jeff Schultz.

Tight competition was also found in the Street Tire 1 class, as Justin Markiewicz trailed James Frink by only four points for the lead. Also earning trohies were Aytinc Akad, Olin Tweed, Shawn Laverty and Richard Duran. Frink scored the highest points total, 2773, in the two local street tire classes, despite no lack of competition in Street Tire 2. There, Mark Mares won most of the events, but consistently good performances by Jim Rohn earned him the first place trophy by only five points. George Capito trailed Mares by only nine points for third place and Aric Trust pulled in the final trophy position.

Mike Golden dominated the Novice 1 class, but it was a dramatic race for second place. Greg Varela came in with 2618 points, three points ahead of Fred Zust and only eight points ahead of Paul Lemke. In Novice 2, Britt Dollmeyer was the clear winner, with Jonathon Rosenfeld claiming the second place trophy. Just out of the trophies, but charging hard was Mark McCarthy. McCarthy was clearly on a steep learning curve throughout the whole series and continues to improve with each run. Eric Splinter took first place in Novice 3, with Eli Concepcion taking second.

Taking trophies in other contested classes were David Rock & Kim Kemper (SS Open), Kevin Gleaton (AS Open), Ryan Sotak (ASP Open), David Lahey & Don Sattler (CSP Open), and Clint Child (DSP Open).

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Fall 2005 events. Special thanks to the event chairs and co-chairs: Geren Smith (September), Steve Eymann (first October event), Kevin Gleaton (second October event), and Dawn Maxwell & Darrell Covert (December).

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