October 21st, 2007
Event 2 of 4 for the Fall 2007 Series
by Dave Lahey
"Well blow me down!"
Man, it was windy! You didn't need to set the alarm Sunday morning because your windows were probably shaking, and any hanging plants or other such dangling things were most likely banging off the walls at a VERY early hour! Cones were flying all over the place! Ah, but it was not THAT windy, dear friends, so those cone killers in the crowd had no one but themselves to blame!
Your intrepid reporter was lucky enough to attend the ALMS race at Laguna Seca the Saturday night before, and it was windy there as well, and a COLD wind. Dave Maxfield, friend and I looked like Islamic women, we were so bundled up! Our day at Firebird was warmer. A LOT warmer! And except for the sandstorm face-blasting of near epic proportions, it was a nice automotive celebration of the cooler weather that has FINALLY come our way!
Your event chair (and rap superstar?), Kevin Gleaton. Go, Kebmo!
Another fine course with a couple of decisions to make.
This one started out with a tight 5-cone slalom, and either way looked feasible, but too much aggression, and the 2nd and 3rd cones took a walloping! A 90 degree right and into a Looooooong sweeping right, and you were into "the tater" loop. This was your chance to let it hang out a little, and some bravery was rewarded, IF you had a smooth line. Into the bottom of the tater and around to the left and into the treacherous "drunken slalom," as it was called. This was a slalom that continued the curve to the left, and you could either go right or left, depending mostly on where you wanted to "give it up" in hopes of carrying more speed in, or more out. There was a split decision as to which was the better line, but most preferred the left entry, as that straightened out the first three, and only made for a switchback near the end to round off the top of the tater.
Now, this is where the BIG HP guys and those with "los cojones grandes" got to USE all that stuff. You could arc the return loop nicely and sight down the run to the twin 180's if you had the guts. Of course that meant some gnarly entrance speed into the first 180 to the right, and as your humble reporter and some others proved, too much speed made for a smokey roundabout. The excuse generator in this case points to the burned out tires we mistakenly tried to run one last time, but over-exuberance also contributed. A short burst to the second 180 and around to the left in what was called the "Showoff corner" into the finish. There was a lot of tail wagging there as well, but the smarter and faster people gave it just enough "wellie" to maintain forward momentum.
Say, isn't this supposed to be a NO-SMOKING course?
Top Time of Day went to our returning National Champion DM driver Mark Huffman, who showed everyone his tail as his 34.176 put nearly a half second hurt on Fred Zust in the Frankenlotus, which was really screaming this day, and is coming along quite nicely, thank you! His 34.611 bested Director Brian Peters, who ran his former CSP Miata who clocked a 35.123 and took PAX honors. Ted Lewis, Dave Young, Dawn Maxwell and the return of Jim Witkowski in Ted's Elan followed up in runs right around 36 seconds flat.
On the PAX side of things, Flyin' Brian P ruled the day with FrankenZust, Huffman, Dawn, Steve Eymann and Mark Johnson giving chase. Doug Rowse, Rob Rockefeller, David Webb, and Kevin Gleaton all scored 965 PAX scores with Elliot Speidell and Steve Ashcraft at 964. With the variety of cars all scoring well on this course, it proves how well our course designers are doing as far as making things fair for every class and driver. No excuses, folks, time to step up!
In the Open classes, Dan Hawrylkiw took SS with Jim Young returning in his yellow Rx7. It was good to see those returning smiling faces! And yes, Jim, it HAD been a long time. AS went to Patrick Riley, Jim Barks took FS and Mike Rogers took HS over John Speidell in the brave little red Toyota Yaris. ASP Open was Jim Witkowski's.
Dawn Maxwell continued to put the hurt on the guys in CSP, followed by Mark Johnson, Kevin Gleaton (Nice job, Kevin!), and Steve Ashcraft, who is also in need of tires. Dave "Spinner" Lahey edged out Steve Steele, who was getting driving lessons from Mr. Peters, and should be making a strong move VERY soon. Daniel Short made the jump into Gleaton's car and was heard to say, "I LIKE this!" Mr. Sattler found himself at the bottom of the barrel, as cones and absolute junk tires were not only frustrating, but nearly impossible to drive with any confidence.
DSP Open saw the return of Dan Martin in is Sentra, taking the win over Jerry Carter in his '75 914 Porsche. Sean Powers drove the '85 MR2 to the DP win in Open, and Clifton Ragland in his 1973 Datsun 240Z was quicker than Kirby Goodman in his V8 powered Rx7 and Bill Bradley in the mighty Brunton Stalker. Once Bill gets those ex-Huffman Hoosier slicks on, this is all up for grabs! Dave Young took the win in SM, putting the hurt on Frank Miller's EVO, Tim Bergstrom's white M3, Kris Castners Subie non-turbo, and "Dr. Evo" Bill Miskovic. The Doctor was putting down some tire scorching launches during TO runs, and has the bit between his teeth.
In the ST classes, Aric Trust in his trusty BMW scored the win over Clinton Campbell in a Mini Cooper and Manfred "it's an automatic" Reysser giving chase. STS2 saw Jim Rohn getting the hang of the Miata and taking the win over car owner Kevin Venisnik. Dave Branson needs to step it up in this class, or get some tires, or some Red Bull? ST1 a virtual tie between Greg Rubenstein and perennial favorite Britt Dollmeyer, who has switched to RWD in a Honda S2000. George Sklyarevsky, Ron Huber and Geren Smith gave chase. In ST2, Scott Meyers took the win, spanking the likes of Klayton Albers, Matt Soeffner, Josh Dellinger, and Mike Driscoll. Scott was seen driving a Mustang in TO, so proves he is adept at jumping from car to car and making it work for him! Perhaps this sets the stage for a Challenge event one day, where each driver takes a RWD, FWD, and AWD car, gets 3 runs, and fastest combined time gets the Fastest Car Slut Trophy? Hmmm.
Don't let Sharon Roberts in on this, though, as she mopped the course in the STL class, and like Dawn Maxwell, could likely whoop all the guys as well!
Mark Huffman took the PRO class over David Webb, Ted Lewis and Brian Blake in a Datsun 280Z. Brian Peters took the SPM class with Fredenstein chasing, Steve Eymann, and Team Zip Tie split by Rob Rockefeller. Watch out, though, with Ben Clement getting accustomed to the EVO, Mini Mindi Cross on the prowl, and Tage Evanson jumping into Brad Owen's CS Miata, there are no sure things in this class either! And now, for the PAX Ladies, Dr. Teresa Clement is loving the EVO and putting it down lately. She bested Deb Eymann, Diane "Frankenbabe" Deanovic, Kat Morrill, and Daisy Huffman, who I assume didn't need her new jacket either this day. Oh, and let's not forget Victor Malchesky, who ran Solo in SM2 and kept the lil red Honda humming right along, tires ablaze!
Novices, novices, we got Novices! Lots of new faces and cars got their first taste of high performance driving, and the cream rose to the top! Eric Ware tossed the Flying Purple GTO around like a Banshee and took NV1 honors over John Rodhouse in an Rx8, Matthew Holecko in a Z4, and Daniel James in a Mini Cooper S. In NV2, Brian Kozan took the win in his Sentra, followed closely by Kevin O'Neill in an Audi TT, Webmaster Jeff Hancock in his '99 Miata, and Pete Pedersen in his VW RS32. In NV3, Brad Lundahl took the win in his Miata, followed by John Gianelli in a Jetta, James Tobias in a Subie 2.5Rs, and Jason Lifgren in his Nissan Sentra Se-R Spec V. In NVLadies, Cherrie Windfeldt in the Purple GTO got the best of Smiling Laura Sposi in her Lotus Elise, and Gwendolyn Hanigan-Baily and Sharon Graves, also in Elisi gave chase. Welcome to the fray, folks, and hope to see you all out there in a couple more weeks. Now isn't that better than watching football or golf all day? You bet!
At the start line: Say, does that passenger look scared?
All in all, a superb day, and lots of great comraderie. And though it seemed there weren't too many people assigned to Teardown, the wave of helpers heading out to the course to stack cones and help out was a true testament to the fine people we have involved in this sport. Even though things ran a little late, I think that was the quickest pick-up and get-out I have seen in a long time! Absolutely GREAT day, and a good time for all.