December 14th, 2008
Event 4 of 4 for the 2008 Fall Series
by Dave Lahey
Colder than a witch's ...
Man, it was cold. Okay, not like Minnesota or somesuch snowy place, but for Arizona, even in December, it was flippin' cold! With morning temps in the 40s and a high of maybe 60-something, there were lots of longjohns hiding under jeans, sweaters and sweatshirts over long sleeves and under jackets, knit caps, gloves, and other attire we are just not used to wearing here! Oh, and there were a few brave folks in shorts, but they must have some polar bear in their family tree somewhere.
Doug Rowse came up with a great design for the Bondurant lot, as our usual Skidpad 4 is being repaved (and man, does it look nice!). The longer narrower lot requires some different thinking when it comes to design, but Doug came up with a good one, although with stretched launch times due to the lollipop feature in the first half, the day ran a little longer. No worries, though, it was a great challenge, and fun for all.
Drive down to the south end of the lot and across to the Start line. Take off to the left and into a pinched down hard right, then through some pretty serious switchbacks, where patience was rewarded, and overdriving was not, and into the lollipop. Around to the left and back through the switchbacks and to the left just inside the starting turn, then into what seemed like an endless slalom, hard left to the finish, and shut 'er down.
A lot of cones took a lot of abuse, and course workers got plenty of exercise chasing and resetting them. Probably the most entertaining was a Camaro that wacked quite a few, then pushed two of them all the way around the course out in front of the car and pointed forward, looking like two orange fangs pointing out! Good stuff. Other cones were caught under cars and dragged the rest of the way or spat out along the way somewhere. Not exactly sure who killed the most on this day, but cone counts of 5, 7, 9 or more were not uncommon.
Oh, and before I forget, the Murphy's KidZ gift certificate drive was a HUGE SUCCESS! Bev was hoping to collect a thousand dollars or so in donations, but with employer matches and the tremendous generosity of our great people, the total for the weekend is going to be WAY over three grand! Yes, even in economically challenging times, this just shows how people are always willing to give during the Holidays, and what fine FINE people we have at our events! Truly Outstanding.
So, how did everyone do on this cold wintry day? The early groups were a bit cold, with even a few puddles, but they were soon gone. Slippery? You bet! The fastest runs were probably midday, when there was even a bit of sunshine, but only for about 20 minutes. Other than that, it was overcast and a bit windy, but no raindrops fell to dampen anyone's spirits.
Mark Huffman put the smack down AGAIN this event. He not only took Fast Time, but Overall PAX. His 53.615 second raw time stood up to the DM PAX factor. Second fastest was Tage Evanson in Alan Wagstaffe's 2000 Legrand Dragon Sr1 at 54.057. Just to show how really fast those two were, the next few cars were in the high 56 second range, with Steve Eymann at 56.625 and Fred Zust at 56.885. Alan Wagstaffe was next at 57.048, followed by a few cars in the 58 second range, including Brian Peters in Dan Hawrylkiw's Lotus Elise, Diane Deanovic in the Frankenlotus, Dave Young in his M3, David Lahey in the CSP Miata and Rob Rockefeller rounding out the top ten in his Honda S2000.
Switch over to the PAX side of the results and Mark "Chopper" Huffman was leading the pack once again, barely needing to look back. Steve Eymann was second with 978 points, followed by Ben Clement in his Mitsubishi Evo, then Doug Rowse in a BMW 325i, Clint Child driving Jeff Williams' HS Civic, Rob Rockefeller, Wiggy Graecen making an appearance from New Mexico, Kevin Gleaton in Brad Owen's C Stock Miata, and then Elliot Speidell co-driving the BMW, Kevin Cote, continuing to improve in the '07 Sti, tied with Jim Rohn in the O'Neill family Audi TT at 955.
Kim Kemper is still looking for someone to join him in SS Open and took the win in that class. Kevin Gleaton showed up to drive Brad Owens' '99 Miata Sport and make it a 1-2 in C Stock, with Matt Soeffner and Kevin Venisnik co-driving, Larry Burrow probably wishing he had a tire warmer too? Steve Burger returns in FS Open and took the win over Evan Brom in the battle of Z/28 Camaros. Yarko Thomas ran in GS and took that win.
Sean Morrill jumped from Sportsman over into ES Open and took the win over regulars Sean Powers and Joe Sandoval. In CSP Open, Dave Lahey broke the Ashcraft sweep of the series with a last run win. Steve had one more run, but clipped a cone, and that was that. Dawn Maxwell was third, with Mark Johnson in fourth and Derrick Disharoom running the only Kumho shod car. In BM Open, Alan Wagstaffe ran alone. Dave Young once again took the SM win, with Francis Miller in second, Tim Bergstrom in third.
Manfred "Slushbox" Reysser showed his tail to the other STS runners, with Chris Largent and Josh Johnston giving chase. Jeff Israel drove up from Tucson to take the STX win with his only clean run besting Ryan Bernholtz and Sergio Perez in tow. Dave Branson ran alone in STS2 and took that class.
Diane Deanovic brought her 'A' game, driving the XP Lotus into first place in PAX Ladies class. Teresa Clement was a close second, with Kat Morrill third, Mitzi Burrow in fourth, and Morgan Whaley fifth. In the PRO class, Mark Huffman was the only runner.
Twenty-five competitors participated in the Sportsman class. Top of the heap was Steve Eymann in his screaming yellow Porsche Gt3. Next best was Ben Clement in his Evo, followed by Doug Rowse, Rob Rockefeller, Wiggy Graecen and Britt Dollmeyer. Elliot Speidell was seventh, followed by Kevin Cote, Brian Peters and Fred Zust rounding out the top ten in that class.
In ST1, 14 competitors jumped into the fray with Greg Rubenstein taking the win in his Subaru Sti over Robert Smithson in an Evo, James Frink in Geren Smith's Porsche Boxster, followed by Mike Mah in his Lotus Elise and George Sklyarevsky in fifth. Geren Smith was next, followed by Josh Terasaki in and S2000 and Dave Bibby in a Z3. Mark Shaw stole the wife's Z4, and Alan Humes was tenth in an '01 Mustang GT.
The battle in ST2 was a near sweep of Honda Civics. On top was Clint Child, and then Jim Rohn broke the Civic Sweep in Kevin O'Neill's Audi TT. Jeff Williams was next, followed by Pete Creek and Chad Mizner in Civics. Kevin O'Neill was next, followed by Todd Houser in a Mini Cooper S. Colleen O'Neill drove the family Audi TT to the win in ST Ladies and Suzanne Lipke was second.
In the Novice classes, David Manley took the NV1 win in his Subie Sti. Jeff Abrams was next in a Mazda Rx8, followed by Travis Harrison in a Subaru Legacy, then Jim Thompson in a Mini Cooper S, Brian Dudo in a Mazda Protege, and David Leff in a Lotus Elise. In NV2, Michael Beiser took the win in his '07 Civic Si, followed by John Gianelli in an '88 Jetta, Chris Steele in a Mini Cooper S and Anthony Smith in a Scion Tc.
Cone killing Niki Voyatzis got a clean run and took the NV Ladies win over Mandy Bennett. In NV3, Richard Damp once again put the hurt on the others in his '96 BMW 328Is, with the win over Jerome Silvers in an Infiniti G35, Travis Berry in his Sti, Scott Matthews in an Rx8 and Rick Nalven in another Sti.
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All in all, another fabulous event, and a fitting close to the 2008 Fall series and the year. Sure, it was cold, but the rains held off until the work week started the next day. It looks like we may be on the Bondurant lot again in January, waiting for the surface and sealer to cure over on Skidpad 4, so look forward to another great event to start the year! Maybe it will be sunny? Maybe not, but one thing you can rely on in Arizona, the course designs are always fun and challenging, the the events are always run with the best that the organizers can do, even when faced with challenges during the day.
So, Happy Holidays to all, and see you out there next year!
Thanks to Rob Rockefeller and Dave Lahey for the photos featured here and on the Arizona Autocross Photos website.