April 5th, 2009
Event 4 of 4 for the 2009 Spring Series
by Dave Lahey
Reprieve !!!
No gravel pit, hooray!!! A last minute request put us on the Bondurant lot for the last event of the 2009 Spring Series, The first three events had been a lesson in futility for some, and a rebirth for others, but definitely a different series than we are used to having here in the "valley of the sun." Two rainy events, one slippery clag-covered gravelly misadventure, and then FINALLY something more like we are used to! The kudos are pouring in, and everyone had a great time today.
Despite a last minute scramble to get Safety Steward coverage, course approval, and with no course maps printed out or available online, the club pulled off what was undoubtedly the best event of this series. There were a lot of DNFs over the day, but really, folks, you have to walk the course a bunch and memorize it, look ahead, and ignore the painted lines on that lot. Once you had all that in mind, the course flowed REALLY well and made for some great competition! Hopefully a course map will become available and get posted here, but from memory, here is how it went:
Drive all the way down to the southeast end of the lot and across to the far corner to line up for the start. Blast off the to the left and into a hard pinch right, then a series of offsets and a blast along the access road and into a turnaround to the right. Another offset right-left and then way to the left toward the middle of the lot, then back right and rejoin the first section, to the left and past the start entrance, and onto the back part of the course, where a box put you into the long slalom across that side, decreasing spacing there, then into a box and left, right, then looping left to the finish. There was a really nice arc and flow to this course, and some really fast times put down, both on race and street tires!
Fast Time went to Fast Freddie Zust in his XP FrankenLotus, putting down a smokin' 45.324 second run, but Fred and Diane disqualified themselves due to riding along during their competition runs, getting Diane some more seat time and instruction. That changes everything! So, the eventual best was Doug Rowse in the DSP BMW 330 at 47.484, followed closely by Dan Hawrylkiw in his FM Zink at 47.772. Diane Deanovic was next, bur also DQ'ed, so that makes Clint Child in the Clement EVO next fastest at 48.739, on street tires, mind you. Rob Rockefeller was 6th overall in his Honda S2000 with a 48.895, then Tage Evanson in his wacky Civic, running 49.324, then Elliot Speidell in the DSP BMW at 49.546, Dave Young in his M3 at 49.719, and Frank Adams in his '95 SM M3 at 49.730. Ben Clement and Frank Miller were the only other cars in the sub-50 second range, rounding out the Top Ten.
Flip things over to PAX standings, and it is once again Doug in the top spot, with Clint Child jumping into second, followed by Rob Rockefeller, Ben Clement, Elliot in 5th, then David Webb in the '06 Mini Cooper S, Britt Dollmeyer driving his S2000 this time around, then Jeff Williams in his stealth black Civic, and Mindi Cross in ninth. Not far off Mindi's time was Kevin COte in his STi in tenth.
Brad Owen finally put an end to the Soeffner Sweep in C Stock with a 52.552, with Kevin Venisnik in second at 52.906, followed by Matt, "driving carefully to save the series lead" (and so out of character!) in third at 53.181. Next was Jeff Hancock, then Larry Burrow. In E Stock Open, Sean Morrill makes it a clean sweep for the series over Tom Tkacik and Joe Sandoval. Evan Brom took the F Stock Open win in his '02 Camaro, and Alan Humes won ESP in his '95 SLP Firehawk Pontiac.
Dave Lahey disproved the old adage that "sleep is overrated" by getting enough and putting down the fastest time in CSP Open at 50.997. Mark Johnson was second best at 51.302, followed by Derrick Disharoom and Steve Ashcraft. In Street Mod, Dave Young was back on top with a 49.719, though Frank Adams was a mere .011 behind in second place, followed by Frank Miller and Tim Bergstrom.
If you want to win ST, you had better get an AWD car and try and outdrive Chris Largent, who once again put his 1997 Subaru Impreza L in the top spot with a 56.516 over Josh Johnston in a 240SX at 57.131, Adam Vega in his Honda Accord, Shawn Brown in a Mazda 3, and Dane Traines' Super Beetle round out the field in that class. Likewise in STX regarding George Sklyarevsky driving his Rx8 to the win by a full second and a half over co-drivers Ryan Bernholtz and Chad Mizner in an '08 Civic Si, then Richard Damp and Sergio Perez, both in BMWs. Dave Branson is happy that no one else has braved STS, as his only clean and complete run was a 64 second tiptoe after two DNFs. In STU Open, Travis Berry took the win over Brian Weikert in the Sti (Berry) vs. BMW M3 battle.
In the Sportsman class, 25 entrants tried their best, but Doug Rowse took the win, followed by Clint Child, Rob "Photomeister" Rockefeller (pictured), Ben Clement, Elliot Speidell, David Webb, Britt Dollmeyer, Jeff WIlliams, and Mindi Cross. Sounds a lot like the PAX standings, and it should, as this is pretty much a duplicate. And that makes sense, as this PAX based class features some of the fastest cars and drivers.
In the PAX Ladies class, Dawn Maxwell ("The woman to make slow cars drive fast!" But what about fast cars, Dawn?) took the win over Teresa Clement in the family EVO, Deb Eymann in the family Corvette (and laughing all the way!), Kat Morrill in the ES Miata, Mitzi Burrow in the CS Miata, and Lynn Ashcraft in a carefully driven CSP Miata.
The ST1 class is probably sick of seeing photos of Greg Rubenstein's Sti, but he once again earned the top spot with a fine 51.871 second run. "Winner, winner, chicken dinner!" Maybe a steak or prime rib is more in order as Greg makes it a clean sweep for the series. Next best was Robert Smithson in a wicked looking and sounding EVO 8 MR, followed by Brady Dohrmann in his yellow M3, then Jon Roesch in his Cayman S, Mike Mah in his Elise, and David Manley in another Sti. Jeff Abrams put his RX-8 in 7th, followed by Nicholas Burke in the pretty orange 350Z, Jeff Israel driving a Mini Cooper S today, and Brian Baily in an Elise.
Jim Rohn once again took the win in the ST2 class, followed by co-driver and car owner Kevin O'Neill. Those two were followed by James Tomassoni in a VW Gti, Todd Houser in his pretty blue Mini Cooper S, then Weldon Knape in the SVO Mustang, and Rick Paradis in his Civic. Colleen O'Neill took the STL class in the "Evil Effin' Audi" TT as well, making it a family sweep in the ST class.
Sam Nalven took the Novice 1 class win in his bright blue Subaru Sti over Jason Peterson in a Gti, followed by Dan Tracy in another Sti, then Dustin Schertz' Sti, Rob Giorgio in a '95 M3, Travis Harrison in yet another Sti and Craig Borger in a '99 Pontiac Trans Am. Robert Giorgio was next in the M3 family co-drive, followed by Stephen King in his white S10 and Will Chun in a WRX wagon.
In the Novice 2 class, Michael Beiser took the top spot in his '07 Civic, followed by Anthony Smith in a Scion Tc, Chris Steele in a Cooper S, then Ted Haskey and Ryburn Ross in BMWs, Peter Yu in a '94 Miata and Michael Pride in his '04 Mazdaspeed Miata.
Chris Kohler topped the Novice 3 class in his raging red BMW 5 series over Elliott Goltsman in his SRT-4, followed by Hector Salazar in a '90 CRS Si, Mike Johnson in a Civic Ex and Klaus Bachmeir in a '93 Miata.
And last, but certainly not least, in the Novice Ladies' class, Jana Sutton put her '04 Mini Cooper S in the top spot over Mandy Bennett in a '99 Miata, Kim Possible Chenoweth in her Mazda 3, Chanda Child making a long awaited and welcome appearance in Mindi's Cooper S, Fengyi Li in a '99 Protege, and Gwendolyn Hanigan-Baily in an R32 VW.
At the end of the day in Time Only runs, two drivers improved on the previously posted PAX premium. Fred Zust and Elliot Speidell both brandished better blasts, with Clint Child cleverly closing, Rob Rockefeller reclaiming recompense, Mindi Cross' Cooper catching capitulation, Britt Dollmeyer doing his dastardly darndest, and Ben Clement clutching, clasping, clinging on and close, but no cigar. No clag or gravel on the Bondurant lot, and rubber down, making for flying fast flights of fancy at the end of the day. For the Summer Series, we will be headed up near Taylor, AZ with the PHX group, and there are always Flagstaff, Tucson and Sierra Vista events if you need to get your autocross fix. And I promise, that is all the alliterations! For now ... Seeya out there!!!
Thanks to Rob Rockefeller, Dave Lahey, Mark Osier, Jeff Israel, and David Manley for the photos featured here and on the Arizona Autocross Photos website.