October 11th, 2009
Event 2 of 4 for the 2009 Fall Series
by Dave Lahey
We're cured !!!
Evidently, the long hot summer sun is good for at least ONE thing; baking the lot sealer! Yes, it is FINALLY nice to be back on Skidpad 4, with no gravel, sand, or clag built up offline. For many skeptics, myself included, this is a welcome relief from what we had experienced over the Spring Series. The grip is back, and the sorted fast times prove it, with the "usual suspects" back near the top, particularly the VERY quick CSP cars that had wallowed in lower positions previously, and those pesky AWD Rally Cars back where they belong! (LOL) Even in the later runs and Time Only groups, the build-up was just not there. AND, it has finally cooled down, so the weather was perfect! Hooray!!!
Cheech and Chong, oops, I mean Doug Rowse designed this course, titled "Up in Smoke." And there was plenty of that, especially near the finish, as many overcooked the last turn and locked their front tires, producing clouds of tortured tire smoke and cone carnage galore! This was a modified version of a course used a couple of years ago, and it was a great one; really fun and fast, and rewarding those with a bit of patience in the right spots.
Take off and turn right and go through a left-right challenge with a VERY tight little opening at the end of a LONG wall of cones, and you were into the twisted lollipop loop. For most, this was a long flowing section with a small offset disguised as a slalom, but around the bottom with the right line, and having planned ahead for the pinch near the end, then the hard left, and you were back where the loop began. Go to the left and through a fairly tight slalom, and then a hard left to the finish. As with most of our recent courses, there was room to stretch your ponies, and some tricky bits where you had better NOT do that, but rather use patience and plan ahead. There were a few cones that took a beating all day, but mostly, the orange things stayed pretty much where they were. Well, except for the finish:
Fastest Time, and I DO mean FAST, was Flyin' Fred Zust, simply "Smokin'" everyone else in his XP Elise, with a 34.992. However, Fred's time and listing in the results has been changed due to the rule where anyone who has not taken their competition runs is not permitted to ride along or instruct in a previous run group. Unfortunately, Fred went out with a Novice in an early group, having been asked as our Chief of Driving Instruction, and helped them get around the course on their very first event. Being the stand-up guy that he is, Fred has agreed to take a DNF for all his runs. That being said, it is interesting to note that Fred's time was almost THREE FULL SECONDS faster than anyone else; including Mark Johnson in his CSP Miata, followed by Dave Lahey in CSP, Steve Eymann in his Porsche GT3, Larry Petrucci in his SM Firebird, Don Sattler in CSP, Kim Kemper in an '06 Z06, Rob Rockefeller in his S2000, Ted Lewis in the ASP Elan, and Kevin Venisnik, also in a CSP Miata.
Fred also took the top spot in PAX, but that result has also been changed, putting Rob Rockefeller in the top spot, followed by Britt Dollmeyer in his ST Civic Si, Mindi Cross in her GS Min(d)i Cooper S, Dave Rock in his ST Celica GT, Elliot Speidell in an STX BMW 325, Mark Johnson and Lahey in CSP Miatas, and Matt Soeffner in his STR Miata, and then Dawn Maxwell in her HS Mini. If you didn't make it into this Top Ten, keep in mind that this includes two 2009 National Champions; Fred and Mindi.
In the Open classes, it was Kim Kemper taking SS over Mike Terrey. Joe Sandoval took ES in his red '90 Miata, and Jim Barks was the FS winner in his '07 Mustang GT. Mindi Cross took HS Open, David Webb took DSP, and Alan Humes took the ESP win in his Firehawk Pontiac.
Announcer Scott Meyers called it one of the best battles of the day, as Mark Johnson barely eked out Dave Lahey in CSP Open on his last run by a tenth of a second. Mark, Don Sattler, and Dave were all shaving time off with every run, and swapping out the top spot pretty much whenever the next guy went out! Lahey had the last chance to take it back, but had "a moment" just before the finish slalom, and had to settle for "first loser," Sattler in third, and Kevin Venisnik in fourth, still getting used to his new toy.
In the ever popular and growing Street Tire classes, ST was won by Britt Dollmeyer back in the trusty red Civic, and puttin' the hurt on everyone else. However, Dave Rock was REAL close this time, followed by Josh Johnston and Adam Vega, Tiffany Cline and Brock Palmer. Dave Branson ran alone in STS and won that class. Ryan Bernholtz took the STX win in his '08 Civic Si, followed by George Sklyarevsky in his Rx-8, and two BMWs driven by Matthew Reams and Chris Kohler. Tim Bergstrom took the STU Open win in his '03 M3.
Matt Soeffner put a Tein suspension setup and Toyo R1R tires on his new 15x9" wheels, and put down the top time in the new STR class. Second was Jay Balducci, followed by Larry Burrow and Clayton Saffell. This new class for SCCA Solo has attracted quite a few of the previously R tire shod Stock class Miata and MX-5 guys, now able to do more suspension mods and run some of the fantastic new street tires that are available. Michael Wittkopf took the XP Open win in his '86 Vette, and Don Zurliene brought out an '88 Van Diemen RF88 to take the CMod win. First time we have seen Don and his car, and judging by the HUGE grin on his face, I'm betting we see more !!!
Mike Rogers drove his RSX to the ST1 class win, followed CLOSELY by Scott Meyers in the V6 Mustang, then Chad Mizner in a borrowed RX-8, James Frink in a borrowed Porsche Boxter S, Klayton Albers in his new Mazda 3, Jim Rohn in the same car, borrowed, and then Chris Steele in his '08 Mini Cooper S. Seems to be the borrow-a-car class? Similarly in ST2, but Doug Rowse HAD to borrow a car, as his "done broke." He took the win over car loaner Jeff Israel, VW RS32, followed by Greg Rubenstein, STi, Brad McCann in the RED Sky Redline, Dan Tracy in another STi, and Jana Sutton in her '04 Mini S. Honorable mention goes to Harry Steiner in his highly modified 240SX, who was drifting the night before. Evidently he can put on a different hat, errr, uhhh, helmet according to what sort of event it is? Glenda Meyers took the ST Ladies class in the family 'Stang, no helmet change needed!
It's Ladies First in the PAX indexed classes, with Colleen O'Neill taking the win over Deb Eymann and Mitzi Burrow. Methinks Colleen LIKES those R tires a lot! And we all KNOW that Ted Lewis loves his R tires, as he took the PRO class over Dane Traines. In the highly contested Sportsman class, Fast Fred slammed the field, but had to be excluded from the results. So, the win there goes to Rob Rockefeller in his S2000, followed by Elliot Speidell in the STX 325 BMW, Dawn Maxwell in her pretty blue Mini, Dave Munsey in Boxster S, and Brian Weikert in his STU BMW M3.
Plenty of Novices, as usual, and it looks like you had better be driving a Cobalt SS if you want to top the NV1 class, as John Leonhardt proved, followed closely by Tyler Glembo. Next best was Brett Hughes in an STi, and then Vern Hausen in a 328i, Stuart Lasswell in an HS Mini, and David Tiro in an RSX. In NV2, Larry Watson (pictured) drove the Wittkopf XP Corvette into the top spot, followed by John Rodhouse in an RX8, Jose Soto in a MazdaSpeed 3, and Jason Baker in another RX-8. In NV3, John Speidell drove Elliot's 325 BMW to the first place finish, pretty much leaving everyone far behind. Paul Rojas gave it his best in a '92 Integra, though. In the Ladies' Novice class, Mandy Bennett drove Brad Owen's C Stock Miata to the victory over Marquette Gianelli in an FSP VW Jetta.
In Time Only runs, there is no question, Fred got the top spot. Doug Rowse borrowed the O'Neill Audi TT and took second, with Kevin O'Neill in third, Rob Rockefeller fourth, then Brian Peters in Jay's STR MX-5, Britt in the Civic, Dave Rock (pictured) in the Celica, and Elliot in the BMW. Lots of fast folks taking second runs at the course, and not seeming to lack any grip or suffer the gravel and clag from earlier in the year. Yes, it looks like we are finally good to go, as far as the surface goes. Now, if we can just get them to make it bigger! ;^) Yeah, yeah, I know, ...
As many already know, our good friend and avid autocrosser Kris Castner has been having some health issues, and the club has been sending out prayers and thoughts to help get him and his family through this. For this event, there was a Donations jar and a Silent Auction of many items, and all those proceeds went to Kris and his family to help out with bills and such. Kris made it down to thank everyone, and looks really good! He says he hopes to be back out come January, but until then, is continuing to get his health and strength back. In this photo, he is pictured with Bev Sattler, who has been key in drumming up support and relaying news via the Forum, and who organized the Auction. We ALL wish Kris and his family the best and continued recovery and progress!!!
"Bitchin' Car of the Day" award has to go to David Houser in his '70 Firebird, whose pretty blue muscle car tortured the old BFG radials on every run! Not set up for autocross, and I am sure those traction bars didn't help much, but come on, who DOESN'T like to see some vintage American muscle out there once in a while.
All in all, a near perfect day, great course, and superb weather! Sure, there were some folks suspiciously absent, but they will be back once the good news about the pad gets around. With two more events coming up, and including the Driver School in December, it looks like we are set for a fantastic finish to the year! Come one, come all! The next Drivers' Meeting is November 8th! Seeya out there!
Thanks, as always, to Rob Rockefeller, Dave Lahey, and John Leonhardt for the photos featured here and on the Arizona Autocross Photos website.