December 16th, 2007
Event 4 of 4 for the Fall 2007 Series
by Dave Lahey
"Million Dollar Babies"
There was probably more money represented in grid today than any event in recent history. With cars like a Lamborghini Gallardo (first car out), Ferrari 430, Mercedes V12, 2 shiny Vipers, a Porsche 997T, 911T, a brand new Z06 and others, along with the usual suspects, there was AT LEAST $1 Million parked around for folks to gawk at, inspect, and enjoy on course! Our event was posted on the Scottsdale Exotic Car Club web site, and quite a few showed up and ran. It was great to see some more driving enthusiasts come out and enjoy their cars and enjoy the day. It is really a shame that no one showed up with a camera today, as the photo ops were literally at a high dollar premium! However, Pat Ernzen of the SECC took some photos and is nice enough to allow them to be posted in this report. Thanks, Pat! Say, is this you or your brother in the MX-5?
Oh yeah, and it was cold - REAL cold. Temps in the high 30s and low 40s greeted stalwart autocrossers, some of whom had to scrape the ice off car windows in the morning before making the jaunt down to Firebird. Many folks wore many layers to keep the chill off, though midday it warmed up enough to take off jackets and sweatshirts (upper 60s), even though they went back on later in the day. Spotted on the way home at 5:20pm: 47 degrees, sun setting cloudily in the Western sky.
The Toys for Tots toy drive was another complete success, with two wide-eyed Marines making off with SIX BIG Boxes full of toys, while donors were rewarded with the many raffle giveaways from local businesses and the club. Thanks to Darrell Covert for organizing this, and thanks to all those whose generosity will make Christmas a little better for needy children.
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This course was designed by Britt Dollmeyer, and was called "On Again, Off Again." That's pretty much how it drove. Starting out with a 4 cone slalom, it was pedal to the metal a lot of the way with some hard braking areas, a nice loop, a couple of mild offsets, and a potential "drifto" turnback just before the finish. Many were seen braving the extreme DNF possibility to try and get there that tenth or two quicker, and a couple backwards-through-the-lights maneuvers were performed, but only one extreme DNF. Everyone seemed to enjoy the course, despite the seeming lack of grip from the cooler ambient temperature, and many happy faces filled the day with Joy and Good Tidings.
Fast Time of the Day went to Mark "Mini-Chopper" Huffman, posting a 32.636 in the DM Cosworth Lotus Elan, followed by Fast Freddie Zust in the Frankenlotus at 33.045, Tage Evanson in Frank Miller's BSP EVO at 33.476, Dougie Rowse and then Dangerous Diane Deanovic both driving Mister Fred's Wild Ride. Breaking up the usual top of the heap was newcomer Emmanuel Crouvisier, who ran an astounding 34.756 in his ST1 (Street Tires?) 2007 Porsche Boxster S, followed by Steve Eymann, Elliot Speidell in Fred's car, Dave Young, and with Jay Balducci rounding off the top 10. Mark and Fred went head-to-head in Time Only runs later in the day with back-to-back-to-back-to-back 32 second times; Huffman finally taking it with an .055 to Fred's .071. Ah, but Fred takes the nod on PAX in TO runs, so he was seen grinning out from under his helmet, and saying that it was good enough ... for now!
On the PAX side of things, Tage ended up taking the 1000 points today with "Right Said Fred" second on 989 points, Jay "STi guy" Balducci with 988, Mark "I wanna paint the chopper yellow" Huffman at 984, Neal Tovsen with an outstanding 975 in his newly acquired'04 Mazda Rx8 (Elliot's sold car?), then Mr. Crouvisier, Steve Eymann, Ivan Austin in the same '04 Rx8, followed by Doug "Beamer" Rowse and Clint "I ain't no" Child in his Integra R.
In the Open classes, Dan "sorry, can't take photos, gotta run" Hawrylkiw took SS over Darrell Covert's C5 Z06, but only by .06 seconds and one PAX point. Co-drivers Neal Tovsen and Ivan Austin fought it out in BS with Tovsen taking about .4 of a second for the win. FS saw the Steve Burger driving his 1998 Camaro Z/28 to the victory over Jim Barks, admittedly on worn out Falken Azenis vs. Steve's R tires. Mike Rogers ran alone in HS Open in his Acura RSX at 40 seconds, and good enough for a 904 PAX score. In ASP Open, Shawn Holden drove his Viper to take the win over Luis Fragado in his 911 Turbo.
Mark Johnson rose to the occassion today in CSP Open, taking the win over Kevin Gleaton (who "lost 15 lbs." with a new turndown exhaust pipe), followed by Dawn Maxwell and then Dave Lahey and Derrick "Zoom Zoom" Disharoom sharing Derrick's car. The top three were in the 35 second range with the two D's only separated by .03 of a second! John Jordre drove his BMW 325 to the DSP win, ESP went to the classic '69 Chevelle of Lincoln Holden, FSP with Charles Carson in an '04 Lancer, and Sean Powers taking the DP win in an '85 Mr2.
E Mod went to Clifton Ragland in his mighty '73 Datsun 240Z, followed by Bill Bradley's Brunton Stalker and Kirby Goodman in the V8 powered Rx7. Street Mod went to Dave Young in his '02 BMW M3 followed closely by Frank Miller's 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Viii Rs, Tim Bergstrom's '03 M3, "Dr. Evo" Miskovic in his '06 Evo MR,and Kris Castner in the Impresa 2.5 Rs. Jason Siebels ran alone in SM2, but racked up a respectable 36.856 in his 2000 Corvette.
Speaking of getting used to a new car, Diane Deanovic is really adapting to the Frankenlotus with the win in PAX Ladies' class over Deb Eymann in the family Z06. A few of the PAX Ladies must have been Christmas shopping, but the ST Ladies were out in force, with Sharon Roberts taking the win over Glenda Meyers and Suzanne Lipke. The Novice Ladies' class went to Lisa Folb in her '05 Mini Cooper S, out-driving the Lotus Elises (Elisi?) of Sharon Graves and Gwen Hanigan-Baily. Looks like Lisa will be jumping into the PAXL battle come 2008?
In the PRO class, Mark Huffman smoked Dave Webb's GS Cooper S and Ted Lewis, who was driving Steve Steele's ex-Peters CSP Miata. (Ted "don't like it," he says) The Sportsmen (and woman!) were all chasing Tage's wicked fast time, and feature most of the fastest folks not running in other classes. Names like Zust, Balducci, Eymann, Rowse, Clint Child and Mindi Cross, followed by Flyin' Steve Ryan driving the trusty C4 Vette on ancient R tires, Larry Petrucci trying to use up some old rubber on the ESP Firebird, and Elliot in the Wild and Wacky XP Zustmachine. Oh, and who's this Tom Tkacik guy? Hey, we know him! Get the trusty old ES '96 Miata R out there and do what you can, mate!
In the ever-popular and well-attended Street Tire classes, Manfred Reysser drove his Celica GT to the win over Clinton Campbell's Mini Cooper and Aric Trust in the BMW 325i. STS2 was once again Kevin Venisnik over Dave Branson in the battle of the 1.6 liter Mazda Miatas. While it still may seem odd to see Kevin Cote peering out the window of his new white 2007 Subaru Sti, and strange NOT to see the Yellow C5 Z06 of recent events, he is really catching on to the AWD Turbo action, and took the STU honors with a 931 PAX score.
With the previously mentioned and outstanding drive in his Boxter S, Emmanuel Crouvisier put a HUGE hurt on the ST1 folks, leaving them all shaking their heads and wondering, "who was that masked man?" Greg Rubenstein, Gil Harari, Fred Szepe and George Sklyarevsky, Jason Miller and Britt Dollmeyer, and a host of others rounding out the 20-car field were just smoked by this guy. In ST2, Matt Jensen (from South Carolina, passing through on his way to San Diego for the holidays) was co-driving Todd Houser's 07 Mini Cooper S and took the win, followed by Todd, Scott Meyers and Klayton Albers.
Justin Davenport brought out his Viper to put the whoop on the usual NV1 crowd. Corey Ehrler in his '98 Camaro Z/28, Mark Osier in the 535Is BMW and John Rodhouse gave noble chase though, with Bill Hunter driving his '06 Lancer Evo and tying Brad Boxberger in a Porsche 993 on PAX, Scott Moore in the pretty blue 2004 Gallardo, and Jeff Dare in his 2003 Porsche Boxster S doing their best. NV2 went to Kevin O'Neill in his 2008 Audi TT 3.2 6V, outpacing Jeff Hancock's '99 Miata Sport and Josh Szepe in an '07 Scion Tc. NV3 went to Brad Lundahl in his 1995 Mazda Miata again, followed by James Tobias in an Imprezza 2.5Rs and Jason Lifgren in a Nissan Se-R Spec V.
Other notables in Time Only runs were Kevin Gleaton and Brad Owen, who could have given Mark Johnson a good scare in CSP had they done these earlier, then Kevin Cote making more time and picking up 20 PAX points on his earlier runs, Mindi Cross and Frank Miller and many others going increasingly quicker. Today's D&D Show had to change cars when The Red Rocket (CSP Miata) failed to start, so they ran Dave Lahey's street car (CSP, Jr.) on Derrick's wheels and tires. Times were pretty much the same as the morning, despite the "softer" suspension on The Blue Meanie. Ah, but those are not the official runs, kiddies. If you want THOSE scores, you have to do them a lot earlier in the day and make them stick! Still, "woulda, shoulda, coulda" and all that. Next time, bring your 'A' game sooner and make those runs count! Besides, a lot of people had to leave early, so did not even take Time Only runs, so they may have improved as well.
Suffice it to say that if you missed the event today, you missed a good one, and we missed you! All in all, though, a fantastic event and a nice way to close out the 2007 Fall Series and the year. Who will be going where in 2008 remains to be seen, and who will have what new parts installed, and to whom Santa will bring new toys and tires and said parts will all unfold as the new calendar flips over. See you out there!