Arizona
Who’s in 1st?
Spring 2007, Event 2 of 4
By Doug Rowse
Firebird International
Raceway – April 7, 2007
Early
morning Saturday dawned clear and cool with lots of anticipation after nearly
an entire month without a
It
began with a little left hand kink that led into a nearly 180 degree tight
right-hand turnaround which was the inspiration for the course’s name. A little long for some cars but for others it
promised a grip challenge of first gear sensitivity on the throttle. For most, it meant second gear understeer
that put the car off the fast line for the next series, a quick 90 degree left
then a little offset wiggle, and cost a ton of speed at the end of the upcoming
straight and into the left-hand sweeper.
The favored line looked like running the inside of the option slalom on
the north side of the course, so the entry of the sweeper meant looking out of
the side window to pick up the second cone of the slalom. This turned a small
sweeper into one that lasted more than half the loop and rewarded you with a
very fast wiggle as the last two cones of the slalom became a very quick
offset.
Now
came the challenge for many as Elliot strategically left
the next left-hand sweeper than led back to the main course naked of
line-finding cones. Some took the wider
line to maximize the speed of entry past the three cone clump and reduce the
pinch of the next gate. Others drive a
much tighter line to reduce the distance and were rewarded with a tightly
pinching decreasing radius turn. Some
folks started with the former, but those that changed to the later were
rewarded with almost 0.5 second reduction.
Exit
that turn correctly and the driver was rewarded with a big sweeping
right-hander the decreased hard into a
Was
it a Miata course or a Corvette course?
You can only really tell by looking at the results and letting the clock
tell the tale. The bigger question of course, was who’s in 1st? We can’t really tell anything about the
course when our region always has a Miata and an Elan at the top. Brian Peters took the crown of top PAX with
his CSP car with a time of 31.147 while Mark Huffman took Top Time of Day with
a 29.690 in his D Mod beast. If you
really want to know how you’ll do at the National level, just compare yourself
to these two. They were far and away the
class of the field this Saturday.
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Photo by Rob Rockefeller |
Photo by by Rob
Rockefeller |
Maybe
the top rankings in the Pro classes and Sportsman categories can shed a
little more light onto the question: was it speed maintenance or point and
shoot? In Pro, Huffman got the win closely
followed by Ted Lewis who was one of five drivers than dipped below the 32
second mark. Dave Webb, fresh off of
“breaking-in” the Mini and burning off a few sets of Hoosiers at the El Toro
ProSolo, captured the third spot of the typical suspects but he’s still getting
used to the wheel spin with more horsepower and that Torsen “limited slip?”
differential. New to the class were the
Fletcher’s, Rich and Marchell running their B Stock BMW M3. These two were new to the class but not to the
game; Rich posted 912 PAX and Marchell less than .4 seconds behind with a 902
PAX on their 225 /45R17 Avons. So Pro
went Elan 997 PAX, Elan 968 PAX, Mini 938 PAX so it looks like a narrow car,
speed maintenance course? Those PAX
numbers are pretty typical, it doesn’t seem like you can really tell what kind
of course it is from them.
Maybe
Sportsman
will be more telling…Peters way out in front, then Doug Rowse, Larry Petrucci,
Elliot Spiedell, Jay Balducci, and Rob Rockefeller grouped tightly
together. So it went CSP Miata then BS
RX-8, ESP Firechicken, BS RX-8, STU STI and AS S2000. Larry’s been a madman lately driving the sway
bars off the
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Photo by Rob Rockefeller |
A
rude welcome back waited for Fred Zust in the new and improved though wingless
XP Elise with a 32.264 second best run for a 933 PAX. Ben Clement also brought out the new STU
overdog the 2005 Evo RS, though it appears that Jay’s crafty phone messages to
Ben’s go-fast parts supplier paid off with a week delay in shipment. Under-preparation got the best of Ben with a
901 PAX, but I’ll bet Jay will be extra jeepers nervous next month.
The
PAX Ladies
class was one of the strongest showings in recent memory with six of the faster
R-Compound women in the region vying for bragging rights. Mindy Cross took it this round, PAXing 937,
with a nice 34.976 second performance in the GS Mini, only .052 seconds behind
her soul mate/teammate Dave Webb. Look
out D.Webb she’s gunning for you! Deb
Eymann was 36 points behind in second place, slightly off her game because the
course wasn’t confusing enough for her tastes.
Her raw time was the fastest of the ladies with a 34.431. Diane
Deanovic’s long-awaited and triumphant return to the smiles and giggles of
autocross dropped her into third place with an 858 PAX and a 35.095 time. No doubt that Mindi and Deb will be watching
closely over their shoulders at the next event looking for Diane in the
(Franken) Lotus. Glenda Meyers stepped up to R-Compounds this month to join the
ladies of PAX and was greeted with fourth just 8 PAX points behind Diane. Kat Morril and Debi Hamersly rounded out the
field.
Moving
on to the R-Compound Open Categories, Dan Hawrylkiw reassumed the role of #1 in
SS
with a time of 33.264, 0.071 ahead of Kim Kemper in second place. Dan’s no noob to the podium though, he took 1st
place honors for much of the fall series in Novice 1. Kim still leads the series by only 1 PAX
point with two events still to go.
Steve
Ryan dropped back into AS Open after getting chased out of PRO last
fall, but showed Pat Riley who the class of the league is. Steve led Pat by 1.6 seconds. Next up was hotly contested CS Open
which is the stomping ground for the very popular ‘99 Miata. Scott Meyers showed Brad Owen the rear bumper
in this one by 0.37 seconds posting a 34.038 raw time. Scott’s our resident PAX expert so I’m sure
he knew that equated to an 11 point PAX difference and a 941 overall. Brad in the GoDaddy.com Miata sorted out his
“horrendous under steer issues” with a bunch more rear rebound damping and led
Bill Lapworth by 0.5 seconds in his MR2.
Next up, DS Open where Randal Smith chased away all the
other DS competition by bringing the new gun, a ’07 WRX, in with a 40.223
second run.
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Photo by Kevin Venisnik |
Tom
Tkacik also ran off the rest of his class in ES with
a reputation for very tidy driving. If
the pictures from Rob Rockefeller can be believed, Tom showed true to form just
inches off the cones and came in with a 34.663 raw time, good enough for a 935
PAX.
Now
for CSP,
our largest R-Tired Open class and one of our more closely contested with the
top four drivers within 0.4 seconds.
This month, Dave Lahey came back from his schoolin’ in the Sandy Ego
Tour and put a whoopin’ down on the rest of the folks by dropping a 32.539
run. Nice work Dave, keep driving it
like you stole it, oh wait, that’s not your car anyway. Steve Ashcraft was nipping at his heels, but
couldn’t quite match Lahey’s time. Steve
came in at 32.862 seconds followed by Mark Johnson only 0.016 seconds behind
and then Dawn Maxwell only 0.052 seconds behind Mark. It must not have been a Miata course since
most of this crew is routinely in the 970+ PAX range where this month they were
in the 950 range. In other notables, it
was good to see Sean Morrill back in the seat of his Miata in its debut in
CSP. I’m sure we’ll be seeing Sean
climbing up the ranks as he and Kat begin tuning that car. First up…stronger lug studs since they broke
one the next day. It must have been the
stress of all that grip.
Clint
Child ran all alone in DSP this month since he threw some smack down in
San Diego and PAX’ed 961 with a 32.771 second run. Daniel Short was seen this weekend but didn’t
run so he gave the win over to Mr. Wittkopf in his ’86 Vette with a 923 PAX and
a 32.628 second time in XP. In E Mod, Bill and Kirby duked
it out again with the Bradley-driven Brunton out in front with a 33.659 over
the Goodman RX-7 by 0.52 seconds.
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Photo by Rob Rockefeller |
Photo by by Rob
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In
Street Mod,
where the PAX is bad but the mods are good, James Frink ran away with this one
cleaning up the field with a 32.255, just a shade off of Dave Young’s 31.996 SM
time in Sportsman. So it was almost as
much an STI course as it was an M3 course.
Victor Malchesky returned to SM2 in good form and took the win from Paul
Hamersly. Victor’s CRX is tough to miss
and fun to watch.
Next
up were our two national street tire classes represented. STS and STS2 are both dominated by the big dogs of their
classes, Britt Dollmeyer and Kevin Venisnik, but are looking much more
competitive in the future with some key upstarts. Manfred Reysser’s on the move in STS after
competing in the San Diego Tour and learning what competitive really looks like
and has started developing the potential of the driver and the car. Travis Gianelli likely isn’t too pleased that
Manfred’s taken the second spot, where Travis usually lives. The gap between the two was just 0.45
seconds.
Next
up, the local Street Tire classes. This
is where the largest classes of the region compete for PAX standings in the
battle for which car is fastest without having to bring a jack to the skidpad. ST1 has been dominated lately by another of the
regions’ big dogs, Aytinc Akad in his Evo.
It’s not the car folks, this guy can drive, just check out his 974 PAX
in time only. This month he rewarded with another #1 in class with a 926 PAX, though it was a
close one and I’m sure everyone was working the calculators to determine the
victor. Wil Evans, who’s been steadily
improving for a while now driving both track days and autocrosses, came in with
a 917 PAX in his ASP Lotus. Right behind him, coming out of nowhere, was the
’07 Mustang of Matt Davis with a 912 PAX, just barely 0.1 second slower on PAX
time. Wil brought his brother to bolster
the numbers in the field and Tom got a 4th place with a 900
PAX. Next was Chad Mizner in 5th
driving the wheels off the Geiss RX-8, but coming up a little short with an 885
PAX less than 0.1 second in front of
The
hotly contested, mostly because of all the hot air blown on the forum before
the events, ST2
class resulted in a different outcome. Klayton
Albers, driving the German-born ’06 BMW 330i, took the win in the closest class
of the month. Five cars finished within
just 10 PAX points of each other. Matt
Soeffner was just 0.07 out of first in PAX time in his CS Miata with Houser,
Rogers, Rohn and Miller right behind. In
other notables in the class, John Spiedell made a return to motorsports in one
of the least-likely vehicles, a ’07 Toyota Yaris. Many were worried about a rollover, but the
red box navigated the course just fine and even added speed each run on
factory-spec tires while gingerly sipping 87 octane. I’m sure we’ll see more of John as he works
back into form.
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Photo by Kevin Venisnik |
Photo by by Rob
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In
Street Tire
Ladies, Sharon Roberts took the win from last month’s winner Kendra
Albers (863 PAX) and her husband Don (848 PAX) with an 879 PAX. Nice work
Last
up are the Novices, many of whom took advantage of the novice course walks held
by Dawn Maxwell and the Time Only novice instruction program, which made its
debut at this month’s event. Many
novices drop 2-3 seconds off their times and some as much as 10 seconds with
just a few tips from the experienced people, and those willing to learn really
increase their chances of success sooner.
One
such student is Goran Novakovic, who grabbed first place in NV1. Goran’s really coming along as a driver and
if we can convince him to buy some real tires and decide what car he wants to
drive, could be a real competitor as he graduates into the “big pond”. In second place, Chris Nuszloch with his ’99
Boxster moved up nicely from last month’s 5th place finish. What out for Chris in May’s event as he may
be competing for the overall season win in NV1.
NV2 is hosting a slew of undeveloped talent as well as
some fun cars. The win went to John
Holbrook in the new ’07 Mini. Just a
couple of tenths behind him was Chris Blair in the 2006 G35 that I’m sure Amro
Habib would have been eyeing if he was there.
Eric Salvino rounded out the top three with an 867 PAX in his new NC
Miata which could be the hot ticket for CS when he moves out of NV2. Other notables were Max Gallivan’s drive in
his 325i. Max stayed in 6th
from last month but improved 40 PAX points.
We’re looking forward to good things from Max. We also some great hardware in NV2 with a new
530i driven by Lann Vannoy and Audi S4 from Matthew Kulka, Jared Sawyer’s new
DS WRX.
NV3 is the home of the street tire prepped folks and
Daniel Green took home the win for April in his STX WRX with an 874 PAX. He was followed by John Gianelli in Travis’
Jetta by less than 1 second.
In
the Novice
Ladies category, the better halves of a several couples battled it
out. The winner was Mitzi Burrow driving
a 325i followed closely by Michelle Holbrook in the new Mini.
Full
results for all classes can be seen here.
With
the April “Who’s in 1st?” course bringing smiles and competition for
all, it can be said that
Note: There was a non-Spring Series counting event
held on Sunday, April 8th.
This was a limited entry event and details of the results can be seen here.
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride Gone Wild
By Rob Rockefeller
I have been autocrossing
for almost three years and continue to have new experiences that leave a huge
smile. It's a persistent expression that
usually lasts about five minutes externally and days on the inside. At the April 7th event this happened three
times, a new record. One was when I
drove a yellow RX-8 (thanks Elliot), another after driving a 31.4 sec run in a
white CSP Miata on new tires (thanks Brian) and the most intense was after
riding along in the bright yellow Elan (thanks
Mark)...
I was the second to ride as a passenger with Mark Huffman in his 1965 DM Lotus Elan. You know, the one that usually gets fast time of day? It was going to be Fred Zust,
but Mark was being summoned to proceed to the start. I got the look and the wave then I ran
over. Minutes before I got the wave
Mindy Cross was explaining her experience. She was sore from trying to stay in
place and avoid hitting the kill switch on the left and pushing on the thin
flexible fiberglass door on her right.
Mark managed to turn the ignition back on after each push to off by
Mindy’s leg. This occurred when taking
intense right hand turns. I asked Mindy
where I should hold on before running over to get in, the edge of the seat bottom
was the advice.
After getting buckled in and finding a place on the seat edge to hold on to my
main focus was to keep my legs to the right.
I wanted to avoid hitting the kill switch. The fire wall is relatively close causing
your knees to be bent fairly high which makes it
harder to hold them in place. Pushing on
the fire wall was not an option because it is made of thin sheet metal. In the
end my leg hit the kill switch once when taking the sweeper at the end of the
first slalom. By that point, about 20
seconds into the roughly 30 second run, it was getting harder to hold my legs
to the right. When taking left turns my
body was pushed into the thin fiberglass door.
I managed to not put too much pressure on it. Imagine yourself sitting
on top of a single legged bar stool mounted in a roller coaster car and trying
to control your body movement by just holding onto the stool edge. That’s about what it was like.
So, the actual ride was very intense and loud. The exhaust is right there
outside the door. I did not have the visor on my full face helmet whereas the
other passengers did. My ears were exposed. The acceleration off the line was
amazing and the forces in turns incredible.
Someone with a MaxQData GPS/accelerometer
needs to record some data to see how large the forces really are. When you watch Mark drive
this car you can see that quick reactions are required to get the car turned
and to recover from mistakes. Driving along with Mark provided a better
appreciation of what it takes to drive this high power to weight ratio
machine. Getting back in my car (S2000)
after this experience made it feel like a mushy luxury sedan!
Passenger Summary
Mindy Cross - shut of ignition multiple times, pain in legs
Rob Rockefeller - shut off ignition once, pain in legs, huge permanent smile
Kevin Gleaton - shut off ignition twice, muscles in
knots, long time to straighten up after getting out
Fred Zust - shut off ignition zero times, no pain in
legs, stary eyed and dreaming of getting one
As you can see Fred’s summary above is different than the other three. Fred was the last one to ride along and
figured out a better way to make himself stable. First Mark pulled out the seat back insert to
provide some lateral support. Fred also
pushed his toes into the corners of the floor which provided more leg support.
Finally he wrapped his left arm around the drivers
seat and grabbed on. Fred described this as the “Clock Work Orange” drive up
lover’s lane! Fred’s not proud, but he managed to get some stability while
riding the wild beast. He did not hit the kill switch or push into the door,
but he did feel Mark’s seat bending as he held on. Unfortunately Fred’s
finger’s got smashed into the roll bar.
Fred’s summary, “Freaking Surreal! It made my Elise feel like an HS car
on bald street tires! I don't know how he drives that thing!”
Mark solicited input from us regarding how he could make this crazy passenger
ride more manageable. There were lots of
handle discussions, but the one that sounded best was a real racing seat with
very large shoulder and hip bolsters comparable to those on the driver seat.
If you’re not familiar with the expression “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” in reference
to autocross, this is how Ted Lewis describes riding in his green Lotus Elan. And, if you
have seen him drive you know why, plus the car itself is interesting in that
British quirky kind of way. His is an
ASP car that appears quite tame after riding in Mark’s DM car. So in contrast, the yellow DM Elan is “Mr Toad’s Wild Ride”
gone wild. I’m looking forward to another ride in the crazy yellow car after an
improved passenger seat is installed.
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Editor Note: Rob Rockefeller (photo left) is our event
photographer. Although he calls