February 8th, 2009
Event 2 of 4 for the 2009 Spring Series
by Dave Lahey
RAIN ??? AGAIN ???
Good morning, Mister Phelps. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to drive in the rain, or partial rain, or absolute DELUGE! As always, this office will disallow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in 60 seconds ...
Oh man! You thought LAST month was wet? Well, it seems a lot of folks decided to stay home this day, and perhaps were right in doing that, but for those who braved the weather, it was a great event! Well, most are saying, anyway. Suffice it to say that it was ... VERY WET pretty much during all Comp Run Groups, though pretty much drying after the midday break, and only Time Only Groups got anything CLOSE to dry conditions. We'll get to that in a minute, but first, some shots from Run Groups B and C, who got the worst of the downpour and got to experience "the lake formerly known as Skidpad 4:"
Perhaps the wettest run, and the coolest ride!
So yeah, we hear you, those of you who stayed home and think you did the right thing. Ah, but wait a minute, check out this course! Doug Rowse came up with yet another great design, and will perhaps bring this one out again in DRY conditions, so we can all REALLY see how much fun it should be? Still, ANY driving challenge is welcome, and for those with aspirations beyond our local events, and perhaps traversing miles and miles to get to Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska next fall, this would be great practice for what is often inclement weather in that part of the country in September.
So, first you drive down the right side of the pad and up to the start line, and you faced a little right-hander and short burst into a 180 turnaround to the left. Traverse that, and into a bit of a slalom, then to the right, but not too fast, as the outside comes up REALLY quickly if you get over anxious. Having cleared that part, continue to the right in a long sweeping arc, and then SLOW DOWN into a left that is pretty pinched, but then you could open it up again and into the second slalom. Sweep to the left out of that one, and between two "walloms" and then a sharp left to the finish. Keep it nice and tidy, with these key points in mind, and DON'T try and overdrive them, and you probably did well. IF you could keep traction and keep the car going STRAIGHT where it should be straight, and TURNING where it should turn!
Suffice it to say that there were many laps of this course that did not turn out "as planned." Splishing and splashing, slipping and sliding, some spins, some coneage, all were evident as the stalwarts among us tried to get as much as we could out of this course, and out of our cars and struggling tires, and out of ourselves! BUT, get it right, and you had the Ace in hand. Try too hard, and you struggled. Calm down and drive that soggy limit, and you got a great time!
So, with the changing conditions, the overall results are, once again, affected by the weather and which run group you were in. However, MOST of "the usual suspects" are still at the top of the lists for Fast Time or PAX-sorted results. Sure, there are some surprises, some disappointments, and some people simply left scratching their heads and wondering what the heck they were DOING out there, but that is part of what this is all about, isn't it?
"Fastest Dude" was Tage Evanson in Alan Wagstaffe's Legrand Dragon Sr1, running in the last Comp Group of the day, with a smokin' fast 36.689 run. Not far behind, though, was Mark Huffman in his DM Lotus Elan, also running in F Group, with a 36.830. VERY CLOSE !!! Next best was Fred Zust, FrankenLotus, 38.294, followed by Rob Rockefeller in his new (and loving it!)'03 Honda S2000 with a "demon run of 38.666, and then Dan Hawrylkiw in the Zink, with some extra-curricular carburator issues, running a fine 38.918. In 6th spot overall, was Doug Rowse, running on STREET TIRES on an STX BMW 325i at 38.922? Then Clint Child from the downpour B Group at 38.945, Don Sattler, co-driving with Mark Johnson in a '94 CSP Miata, with a 39.097, Alan Wagstaffe at 39.503, and Mark Johnson taking tenth fastest with a 39.508. Honorable mention goes to Brian Peters and Jay Balducci in Brian's new SS toy, and Elliot Speidell in the "D'Elliot Bimmer," all of whom were under 40 seconds.
Flip the sorting over to PAX, and there's that man again. Yup, Dougie Doug Rowse put the whoopin' on everyone else today, and ON STREET TIRES !!! Nothing to do with having designed the course, or as some suggest, changing run groups to maximize dry time on course. Nope, nothing like that, so just put that right out of your mind. Clint Child was next, in the Clement's Evo, followed by Rob "I love my new car" Rockefeller, Elliot Speidell, and then Mindi Cross in her Mini Cooper S. In the sixth spot was Jim Rohn in the Evil Audi TT of the O'Neills, Mark Huffman, Dave Rock in his black Toyota Celica, andManfred Reysser in his Silver Slushbox Celica, with Kevin Cote in his Subaru Sti taking tenth.
In Time Only runs, by far the dryest of the day, Doug put down an even FASTER time, scoring a walloping 1046 PAX, with Dan in the Zink close behind at 1042, Brad Owen in his C Stock Miata at 1037, Matt Soeffner, also in a CS Miata with a 1036, and then Wiggy Graecen at 1031, Elliot at 1030, ... you get the idea. The TO Groups got the most favorable of the day's conditions, and made the best of it. Those folks got a taste of this course in the dry, although there are still gravel issues to deal with, it seems. By the way, thanks to all those workers and volunteers who swept the course between run groups, and tried to keep the surface clean and dry for others. Awesome job !!!
Brad Owen was one of the few people in attendance with REAL "rain" tires, sporting the new Hoosier Wets, and showing that they really work in puddles and rain. He put a solid whopping of 2.7 seconds over his next best competitor in C Stock Open, not only with driving talent and skills, but by having the right tire at the right time. Larry Burrow was next best rainmeister in his 10th Anniversary Miata, with co-drivers Matt Soeffner and Kevin Venisnik "slip sliding away." Sean Morrill took the E Stock win over Tom Tkacik and Joe Sandoval, all of whom had the top up one run, down the next, wipers on, wipers off; kinda like most B and C group runners, trying to adjust to ever-changing conditions and a varying amount of rainfall. Danny Allison probably felt the same, although the fixed top on his '95 M3 was less trouble than those pesky Miatas! Danny took the B Stock Open win, while Jeff Wright drove his Ford Focus the H Stock victory,and Jim Barks took the FS Open win over Evan Brom. These are folks who probably had some of the worst conditions in C Group, but results in one of Rob's highlight photos for the day:
Evan is obviously turning the wheel right, left, ANYWHERE, just trying to get some grip in simply awful conditions. And apply throttle? Forget it! Most of the RWD cars were really struggling all day, but the FWD guys and gals, and AWD drivers were loving it! Yup, rainy yucky cold and what great fun it was !!!
Don Sattler thought so, when he jumped into his proclaimed "favorite CSP Miata" belonging to Dawn Maxwell (absent), and co-driving with Mark Johnson. He beat Mark by half of a second, with David Lahey probably wishing he had stayed home! Alan Humes won ESP in his '95 Firehawk, while Alan Wagstaffe took BM Open honors. Mark Shaw brought out the Porsche 550 Spyder, sporting WWI flying ace goggles and the red baron scarf (to get there and back, not to run in, silly), and beat on Jeff Matthews in his slickshod 260Z. More slippin' and a-slidin'. Dave Young didn't seem to have any problem, though, and took the win in SM over Frank Miller and Tim Bergstrom.
In the newly re-organized and re-labelled Street Tire classes, Manfred Reysser sloshed around in the slush of run group A (or should that be slushed around in the slosh?), and took the ST win over Chris Largent in an Impreza and Ross Meyer in an '85 Volkswagen Scirocco. Adam Vega, Josh Johnston and Dangerous Dane (in a VW BUG!) rounded out the field. George Sklyarevsky put his Rx8 in the top spot in STX over Chad Mizner in a Civic, Sergio Perez - BMW 328i and Ryan Bernholtz in another Civic. Dave Branson took what is now called STS over Larry Davis' Mr2, and Travis Berry in his Sti was just a bit quicker than Scott Hutchinson in his, to take STU.
Teresa Clement jumped into an Sti when the EVO had the exhaust dislodge, and proved it is not the brand, but the driver, taking the PAX Ladies' class over Diane Deanovic, who just barely nipped Kat Morrill on points, followed by Mitzi Burrow. In the PRO class, Mark Huffman took the win over fellow Elan driver (Elanian?) Ted Lewis. But it was the Sportsman ranks where most of the fast times came from, topped by Doug Rowse, with Clint Child and Rob Rockefeller real close on points, Elliot Speidell and Mindi Cross also very close, then Dave Rock, Kevin Cote, Fred Zust, Jeff Israel and Brian Peters rounding out the top ten.
King of the Street tires, has to be Jim Rohn, whose ST2 class win was almost 20 points better than next-best of car owner Kevin O'Neill and then Todd Houser in his Mini S. In the ST1 class, Ron Huber made a triumphant return in his Impreza Rs, followed by RObert Smithson in an EVO, Jason SMith in a 240SX, and Brian Dudo in an '03 Protege. Colleen O'Neill took the ST Ladies win.
Forty one Novices paid VERY close attention to Fred Zust's cone clinic, and then set out for their runs and work assignments. In the NV1 class, Dan Tracy put his '05 Sti on top over Steve Smith in his Beck Spyder. Next was Rick Steele in a BMW M5, then Joey Snyder in an S2000 and Jim Thompson in a Cooper S. In the NV2 class, Michael Beiser drove his Civic to the win over Anthony Smith in a Scion Tc, Chris Steele in a Cooper S, followed by Jason Budnik in an '08 GTI and Clayton Saffell in his MX-5. Sam Nalven took the NV3 win over Chris Kohler and Robbie Georgio in BMWs , Keith Showers in a Cooper S, and Rob Georgio co-driving the M3. The Novice Ladies win goes to Mandy Bennett in her Civic, over Kim Chenoweth, Mazda 3, Fengyi Li, Mazda Protege and Melissa Andrews, another Civic.
There was a lot of "creative" driving going on, but the spin of the day has to go to Steve Smith, whose graceful double pirouette near the finish line was captured by two photographers at the same time, from two different angles:
Steve gets the T&A Award (Tried to catch it and Almost did), but was not alone, as many folks found the conditions challenging, to say the least! It is rare in our Region to have ANY wet events, much less two in one year, or even one Series, so it looks like the Rainmeisters should be up there in the results, with two more events to go. Will it rain in March? April? Who knows. But we'll all most likely be there, regardless, because that's the kind of dedicated (crazy), enthusiastic (lunatic), fun-seeking (what?) people we are; out there rain, sleet or snow (NO, not those too!).
Thanks to Rob Rockefeller, Brock Palmer, Roy Corley, and Dave Lahey for the photos featured here and on the Arizona Autocross Photos website.
Good morning, Mister Phelps. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to drive in the rain, or partial rain, or absolute DELUGE! As always, this office will disallow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in 60 seconds ...
Oh man! You thought LAST month was wet? Well, it seems a lot of folks decided to stay home this day, and perhaps were right in doing that, but for those who braved the weather, it was a great event! Well, most are saying, anyway. Suffice it to say that it was ... VERY WET pretty much during all Comp Run Groups, though pretty much drying after the midday break, and only Time Only Groups got anything CLOSE to dry conditions. We'll get to that in a minute, but first, some shots from Run Groups B and C, who got the worst of the downpour and got to experience "the lake formerly known as Skidpad 4:"
Perhaps the wettest run, and the coolest ride!
So yeah, we hear you, those of you who stayed home and think you did the right thing. Ah, but wait a minute, check out this course! Doug Rowse came up with yet another great design, and will perhaps bring this one out again in DRY conditions, so we can all REALLY see how much fun it should be? Still, ANY driving challenge is welcome, and for those with aspirations beyond our local events, and perhaps traversing miles and miles to get to Nationals in Lincoln, Nebraska next fall, this would be great practice for what is often inclement weather in that part of the country in September.
So, first you drive down the right side of the pad and up to the start line, and you faced a little right-hander and short burst into a 180 turnaround to the left. Traverse that, and into a bit of a slalom, then to the right, but not too fast, as the outside comes up REALLY quickly if you get over anxious. Having cleared that part, continue to the right in a long sweeping arc, and then SLOW DOWN into a left that is pretty pinched, but then you could open it up again and into the second slalom. Sweep to the left out of that one, and between two "walloms" and then a sharp left to the finish. Keep it nice and tidy, with these key points in mind, and DON'T try and overdrive them, and you probably did well. IF you could keep traction and keep the car going STRAIGHT where it should be straight, and TURNING where it should turn!
Suffice it to say that there were many laps of this course that did not turn out "as planned." Splishing and splashing, slipping and sliding, some spins, some coneage, all were evident as the stalwarts among us tried to get as much as we could out of this course, and out of our cars and struggling tires, and out of ourselves! BUT, get it right, and you had the Ace in hand. Try too hard, and you struggled. Calm down and drive that soggy limit, and you got a great time!
So, with the changing conditions, the overall results are, once again, affected by the weather and which run group you were in. However, MOST of "the usual suspects" are still at the top of the lists for Fast Time or PAX-sorted results. Sure, there are some surprises, some disappointments, and some people simply left scratching their heads and wondering what the heck they were DOING out there, but that is part of what this is all about, isn't it?
"Fastest Dude" was Tage Evanson in Alan Wagstaffe's Legrand Dragon Sr1, running in the last Comp Group of the day, with a smokin' fast 36.689 run. Not far behind, though, was Mark Huffman in his DM Lotus Elan, also running in F Group, with a 36.830. VERY CLOSE !!! Next best was Fred Zust, FrankenLotus, 38.294, followed by Rob Rockefeller in his new (and loving it!)'03 Honda S2000 with a "demon run of 38.666, and then Dan Hawrylkiw in the Zink, with some extra-curricular carburator issues, running a fine 38.918. In 6th spot overall, was Doug Rowse, running on STREET TIRES on an STX BMW 325i at 38.922? Then Clint Child from the downpour B Group at 38.945, Don Sattler, co-driving with Mark Johnson in a '94 CSP Miata, with a 39.097, Alan Wagstaffe at 39.503, and Mark Johnson taking tenth fastest with a 39.508. Honorable mention goes to Brian Peters and Jay Balducci in Brian's new SS toy, and Elliot Speidell in the "D'Elliot Bimmer," all of whom were under 40 seconds.
Flip the sorting over to PAX, and there's that man again. Yup, Dougie Doug Rowse put the whoopin' on everyone else today, and ON STREET TIRES !!! Nothing to do with having designed the course, or as some suggest, changing run groups to maximize dry time on course. Nope, nothing like that, so just put that right out of your mind. Clint Child was next, in the Clement's Evo, followed by Rob "I love my new car" Rockefeller, Elliot Speidell, and then Mindi Cross in her Mini Cooper S. In the sixth spot was Jim Rohn in the Evil Audi TT of the O'Neills, Mark Huffman, Dave Rock in his black Toyota Celica, andManfred Reysser in his Silver Slushbox Celica, with Kevin Cote in his Subaru Sti taking tenth.
In Time Only runs, by far the dryest of the day, Doug put down an even FASTER time, scoring a walloping 1046 PAX, with Dan in the Zink close behind at 1042, Brad Owen in his C Stock Miata at 1037, Matt Soeffner, also in a CS Miata with a 1036, and then Wiggy Graecen at 1031, Elliot at 1030, ... you get the idea. The TO Groups got the most favorable of the day's conditions, and made the best of it. Those folks got a taste of this course in the dry, although there are still gravel issues to deal with, it seems. By the way, thanks to all those workers and volunteers who swept the course between run groups, and tried to keep the surface clean and dry for others. Awesome job !!!
Brad Owen was one of the few people in attendance with REAL "rain" tires, sporting the new Hoosier Wets, and showing that they really work in puddles and rain. He put a solid whopping of 2.7 seconds over his next best competitor in C Stock Open, not only with driving talent and skills, but by having the right tire at the right time. Larry Burrow was next best rainmeister in his 10th Anniversary Miata, with co-drivers Matt Soeffner and Kevin Venisnik "slip sliding away." Sean Morrill took the E Stock win over Tom Tkacik and Joe Sandoval, all of whom had the top up one run, down the next, wipers on, wipers off; kinda like most B and C group runners, trying to adjust to ever-changing conditions and a varying amount of rainfall. Danny Allison probably felt the same, although the fixed top on his '95 M3 was less trouble than those pesky Miatas! Danny took the B Stock Open win, while Jeff Wright drove his Ford Focus the H Stock victory,and Jim Barks took the FS Open win over Evan Brom. These are folks who probably had some of the worst conditions in C Group, but results in one of Rob's highlight photos for the day:
Evan is obviously turning the wheel right, left, ANYWHERE, just trying to get some grip in simply awful conditions. And apply throttle? Forget it! Most of the RWD cars were really struggling all day, but the FWD guys and gals, and AWD drivers were loving it! Yup, rainy yucky cold and what great fun it was !!!
Don Sattler thought so, when he jumped into his proclaimed "favorite CSP Miata" belonging to Dawn Maxwell (absent), and co-driving with Mark Johnson. He beat Mark by half of a second, with David Lahey probably wishing he had stayed home! Alan Humes won ESP in his '95 Firehawk, while Alan Wagstaffe took BM Open honors. Mark Shaw brought out the Porsche 550 Spyder, sporting WWI flying ace goggles and the red baron scarf (to get there and back, not to run in, silly), and beat on Jeff Matthews in his slickshod 260Z. More slippin' and a-slidin'. Dave Young didn't seem to have any problem, though, and took the win in SM over Frank Miller and Tim Bergstrom.
In the newly re-organized and re-labelled Street Tire classes, Manfred Reysser sloshed around in the slush of run group A (or should that be slushed around in the slosh?), and took the ST win over Chris Largent in an Impreza and Ross Meyer in an '85 Volkswagen Scirocco. Adam Vega, Josh Johnston and Dangerous Dane (in a VW BUG!) rounded out the field. George Sklyarevsky put his Rx8 in the top spot in STX over Chad Mizner in a Civic, Sergio Perez - BMW 328i and Ryan Bernholtz in another Civic. Dave Branson took what is now called STS over Larry Davis' Mr2, and Travis Berry in his Sti was just a bit quicker than Scott Hutchinson in his, to take STU.
Teresa Clement jumped into an Sti when the EVO had the exhaust dislodge, and proved it is not the brand, but the driver, taking the PAX Ladies' class over Diane Deanovic, who just barely nipped Kat Morrill on points, followed by Mitzi Burrow. In the PRO class, Mark Huffman took the win over fellow Elan driver (Elanian?) Ted Lewis. But it was the Sportsman ranks where most of the fast times came from, topped by Doug Rowse, with Clint Child and Rob Rockefeller real close on points, Elliot Speidell and Mindi Cross also very close, then Dave Rock, Kevin Cote, Fred Zust, Jeff Israel and Brian Peters rounding out the top ten.
King of the Street tires, has to be Jim Rohn, whose ST2 class win was almost 20 points better than next-best of car owner Kevin O'Neill and then Todd Houser in his Mini S. In the ST1 class, Ron Huber made a triumphant return in his Impreza Rs, followed by RObert Smithson in an EVO, Jason SMith in a 240SX, and Brian Dudo in an '03 Protege. Colleen O'Neill took the ST Ladies win.
Forty one Novices paid VERY close attention to Fred Zust's cone clinic, and then set out for their runs and work assignments. In the NV1 class, Dan Tracy put his '05 Sti on top over Steve Smith in his Beck Spyder. Next was Rick Steele in a BMW M5, then Joey Snyder in an S2000 and Jim Thompson in a Cooper S. In the NV2 class, Michael Beiser drove his Civic to the win over Anthony Smith in a Scion Tc, Chris Steele in a Cooper S, followed by Jason Budnik in an '08 GTI and Clayton Saffell in his MX-5. Sam Nalven took the NV3 win over Chris Kohler and Robbie Georgio in BMWs , Keith Showers in a Cooper S, and Rob Georgio co-driving the M3. The Novice Ladies win goes to Mandy Bennett in her Civic, over Kim Chenoweth, Mazda 3, Fengyi Li, Mazda Protege and Melissa Andrews, another Civic.
There was a lot of "creative" driving going on, but the spin of the day has to go to Steve Smith, whose graceful double pirouette near the finish line was captured by two photographers at the same time, from two different angles:
Steve gets the T&A Award (Tried to catch it and Almost did), but was not alone, as many folks found the conditions challenging, to say the least! It is rare in our Region to have ANY wet events, much less two in one year, or even one Series, so it looks like the Rainmeisters should be up there in the results, with two more events to go. Will it rain in March? April? Who knows. But we'll all most likely be there, regardless, because that's the kind of dedicated (crazy), enthusiastic (lunatic), fun-seeking (what?) people we are; out there rain, sleet or snow (NO, not those too!).
Thanks to Rob Rockefeller, Brock Palmer, Roy Corley, and Dave Lahey for the photos featured here and on the Arizona Autocross Photos website.