December 6th, 2009
Event 4 of 4 for the 2009 Fall Series
by Dave Lahey
"Rusty Bucket?"
The sign by the side of I-10 on the way down to FIR read 7:18am, 41F, and while that may not be cold to some of those in the northern states and elsewhere, for we Phoenicians and Arizonans, figure that is 70 degrees colder than normal summer temps, and if you live in Minnesota, and 60F is a nice summer day, then that would relate to -10 degrees, okay? Yeah, I know, not a statistically sound comparison, but still, when you have lived here long enough, your blood thins out, so multiple layers was the norm this day, and yeah, WE call that COLD !!!
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A technical and challenging course designed by Elliot Speidell, and who knows how they name these things, but "Rusty Bucket" was VERY apropos, as it rained the night before, leaving a wet surface and puddles for those arriving early. Pity the folks in the A run group, as they had to deal with a thick overcast and the wet, but drying conditions. Snap oversteer was readily available for any RWD car equipped with even a modicum of power, as Mike Wittkopf would be glad to tell you in his wild and wooly Corvette on slicks! Blue skies eventually started to poke through the clouds, and the sun finally came out and the course dried, grip improved, so the later run groups had some good shots at the course and its many challenges.
Into the course with a short right hander and to the top of the "bucket" loop, where too much adrenalin put you into a wall of cones that pinched what might have been a smooth arc across the "handle" section. But most people figured that out, and that got you into the inside wiggles, where if done right, straightened out that side of the bucket a bit. But get it wrong, and you were forced into what could become quite a tank slapper! A smooth arc around the bottom of the bucket, and up through a couple of offsets and into the "L-shaped turn" which led to the Chicago box. This could have been a REALLY fast section if you set it up correctly, but yet another place where if you were over exuberant, you had all kinds of opportunity to hit the orange things! Through the box, and toward the finish slalom, where again, getting set up correctly was the key. Too much speed in, and wham, slam, the cones went flying!
And here is what happens when enough people overshoot those setup sections and continuously wallop pylons. Yes, we have more cones on order, so won't run out of them one day, and hopefully people have had the chance to get the marks off of the front and sides of their cars. Oh, and while we're at it, Supreme Kudos and Thanks to the folks who put on the Driver School on Saturday! Watching people improve over the day, and then apply what they learned on Sunday was outstanding! Quite a few of the students put their lessons to use, which produced some interesting new names atop the standings in many classes! But before we get into that, how about Fast Time and Top PAX?
Rumor has it that Mark Huffman, having heard that Fast Freddie Zust was going for the PAX sweep this series (ignoring the September DQ), decided to bring out his D Mod Lotus Elan weapon to prevent such a travesty. Well, he sure did, as Mark swept Top Time and Top PAX. Mark's superb 30.332 bested Fred's 31.471, and was the only 30 second run of the day in competition. Being the intense competitors that these two guys are, they were both shooting for that elusive 29 second run in Time Onlys, which Mark pulled off, but with a cone. With one last shot at it, he ran a clean 30.150. This is a friendly sport and friendly folks, so both were found chatting and laughing over the whole thing at the end of the day. Next fastest was David Lahey in a '90 CSP Miata with a 32.339, closely followed by Mark Johnson in a '94 CSP Miata at 32.547. Brian Peters drove the D'Elliot DSP BMW to a fine 32.657, followed by Kevin Gleaton in his SSM Miata at 32.793, Rob Rockefeller "on some crusty old 710s" at 32.937, Matt Soeffner in his first CSP Miata event with a very respectable 33.055, Wiggy Graecen "gracing" us with his presence at 33.079 in an STU Sti, and Clint Child rounding out the top ten with a 33.152 in the STU EVO.
Looking at the PAX-sorted results, Huffman at the top again, with Brian Peters in the second spot, followed by Wiggy (pictured) whose celebratory "whoop!" could be heard even over the P.A. system! David Rock was next, in his wicked fast ST Celica, Clint in the EVO, Fred in the FrankenLotus, Rob Rockefeller in his A Stock S2000, then Elliot Speidell in his STX BMW, Dave Lahey in the CSP Miata, and Britt Dollmeyer in his trusty Civic Si. Honorable Mention goes to Jacob Dawson, who made the trip over from New Mexico with Whoopin' Wiggy and was just one PAX point behind Britt. Of these, 5 were instructors on Saturday, and three students. Yeah, mark the Driver School date on your calendar for next December with a BIG GOLD STAR !!!
In the Open classes, Kim Kemper made it a clean sweep for the series with his win in Super Stock. It was also nice to see his daughter Kat out for some runs again, who took second, followed by Mike Terrey in his '04 Z06, using up some old Hoosiers. Joe Sandoval took the E Stock win over Tom Tkacik who was DQ'ed for cones after the finish lights. Tom had him covered by two seconds in his '96 R Miata, but may have tossed it all trying to break the 36 second barrier. Mindi Cross took the GS Open win in her '06 Mini Cooper S, proving that her National Championship is no fluke, and has probably scared off anyone who might even try and tarnish that crown. Mindi has mastered the art of peering out the driver side window to spot ahead on those left-handers, and is really fast and fun to watch!
The CSP Open battle was quite a thrash, with each round producing faster times, and newcomer Matt Soeffner co-driving Kevin Venisnik's car, Don Sattler driving with Mark Johnson, and Dave Lahey co-driving with Steve Ashcraft. Both Matt and Mark ran sub-32 second runs which would have taken the win, but both coned them away. Don coned away a potential second place on his last run, leaving Lahey atop the heap, followed by Johnson and Soeffner. Doug Rowse jumped over into DSP Open to spoil Dave Webb's sweep, but Dave was darn close with just a 1 point shortfall. Jeff Israel also ran in DSP, but will have to try harder next time. In ESP Open, Stephen King tossed the white S-10 around the course, running a respectable 37.220.
The Epic Battle of the Day HAS to go to Dave Rock and Britt Dollmeyer in ST, who swapped the top spot back and forth with every round, ending up with Dave taking the win with a SUPER fast 33.813 over Britt's 34.158. And these are STREET TIRES, mind you, along with superb driving skills and well sorted cars. Next best was Brock Palmer in his '97 Subaru, who survived two twirly spins at the L-shaped turn to take third, closely followed by Chris Largent in another Subie, then Adam Vega in a Honda Accord, Josh Johnston in his 240SX, and Dane Traines in the gold SuperBeetle convertible. Rumor has it that Dane is going to retire this car from autocrossing and bring out something even older, perhaps a Karmann Ghia? After that, there may be a Miata in his future, or so it is said. Speaking of Miatas, Dave Branson once again drove his to the STS win. Oh, and let us not forget Jay Balducci's enthusiastic and even thrilling Announcing during this run group, which made it all the more dramatic! Waytago, Jay!
Another driver who put his School lessons to work was Larry Burrow, who put the whoopin' on former favorite Jay Balducci; '99 Miata 10AE over '06 MX-5. Larry has continually improved and his development over the last couple of years is more than evident in watching him drive. Larry's 38.470, in the A group, mind you, was more than 7 tenths better than Jay, whose 39.186 was also about 7 tenths better than the improving and enthusiastic Clayton Saffell in his '07 MX-5. In contrast, George Sklyarevsky was once again in the top spot in STX in his pretty blue Rx-8 over Rich Damp in a '96 328Is and Chris Kohler in an '87 535i. In STU, Jake Dawson took the win over Tim Bergstrom; Subie Sti over BMW M3. Kevin Gleaton ran a 32.793 in his supercharged SSM Miata, and Mike Wittkopf took the XP Open win with a 38.349. Ted Lewis says, "Show me the money," and was the PRO class winner, in his usual tail-happy and entertaining style!
Clean Colleen O'Neill laughed and smiled her way around the course to take the PAX Ladies' class in the F'n Audi TT over Mitzi Burrow, ever improving, and Deb Eymann in the family Porsche Gt3. Two more students, who put their Saturday learnings to use, have Deb scratching her head and chomping at the bit to get the 2010 season started! Meanwhile, Teresa Clement, the perennial favorite and past Champion, has been too busy with work, but is reading this with the same sort of hungry grin as Deb's, we are sure! Better bring your A game, gals, as Colleen and Mitzi have upped their skills, and seem ready for that challenge!!!
In the ever popular Sportsman class, Huffman was again atop the heap, with Brian Peters jumping into the DSP BMW (pictured) and finding a clean run for second spot. Wiggy whooped it up into third, with Clint Child next. Fred Zust bounced his way around the course and into the fifth spot, followed by Rob Rockefeller, then Elliot Speidell. Dan Hawrylkiw was in the eighth place in his Lotus Elise, followed by Bryan Nelson driving a Lotus Exige, then Dave Munsey in his Boxster S, tied on points with Bryan. Also tied, and just one point back, were Kevin O'Neill in the Audi TT and Steve Eymann in his Gt3 Porsche.
In the ST1 class, Chad Mizner proved that his smack-talk has more mojo than anyone else's, as he drove his 330i to the win over Scott Meyers in his '07 Mustang, (im)patiently waiting for the 2010 PAX changes to take effect. Mike Rogers was next in his Acura RSX and then Chris Steele in his Cooper S. Geren Smith made a return performance to take fifth spot, with dedicated setup man Rick Paradis tied on points, then Weldon Knape just one behind in the vintage 85.5 SVO Mustang, Jon Roesch in the Cayman S Porsche, and Jim Witkowski in a Mazda 3. Brad McCann (pictured), using a pointer cone to guide his Saturn Sky around the course, took the ST2 win, followed by Elliott Goltsman in his SRT-4, and Todd Houser in his Cooper S. Jeff Abrams took 4th in his wildly customized and turbocharged Rx-8, running the SM class on Street Tires. Gwen Hanigan-Baily took the STL win in another R32 Volkswagen, and would have placed well in the ST2 class as well!
The Novice 1 class winner was once again, John Leonhardt in his '09 Cobalt SS, taking the win over Stu Lasswell in his Mini Cooper, Erich Weber in a VW Jetta and Richard Forrester in an '04 Cavalier. Chris Wadding took the NV2 class win in a Subaru WRX over John Hogan in another WRX, newcomer Tyler Glembo in a Cobalt, Juan Espinoza in an EVO 9, and Mike Esser in his gorgeous '98 M Roadster. In the NV3 class, Robert Giorgio in his M3 BMW took the win, with Wallace Gow IV in the second spot in his Sentra, and Lucas Chavez-Pardini in his Acura TSX coming third. Special mention HAS to go to Justin Floyd, who brought out his MONSTER '08 Charger RT on 22" wheels and rubberband tires, and tossed that thing around like a rag doll, entertaining workers and spectators alike, both at the school and this event. Mandy Bennett took the Novice Ladies' class in a '99 Miata Sport, followed by Anshula Glembo in a Cobalt and enthusiastic newbie Rachel Stewart in her BMW 318i.
It was hard to pick a Car of the Day this time, as the whumpa-thumpa Dodge Charger on the 22s was way cool, and well driven by Justin Floyd, and the Exige is just plain bitchin' as hell, but the "award" this time goes to Zack Foulk in the WAY OldSkool VW bug, whose tail-happy runs were something to behold! After all, when you bring out a 40 year old car that looks so good, and runs street tires, and has such great history and memories, AND movie stardom, how could you NOT pick that one? "Mad Props!" [whatever that means ... LOL.]
All in all, a FABULOUS weekend of Autocrossing here in Phoenix, not only with the Driver School, but a fine event to round off the year! Tremendous improvements were shown by the students on Saturday, and even the "old dogs" learned some new tricks, or worked out some old bad habits and replaced them with newly learned skills. And a HUGE welcome to those whose first event and participation was this weekend. We hope to see you all back in 2010, where our schedule kicks off January 10th.
As always, stay tuned to the azsolo website for updates and information, as well as the azsolo Forums for what's going on and when, and who is doing what with their cars, looking for info, news, updates, smacktalk, all of it !!! From the Pylon Press, and your Steering Committee, and all the participants and players in the 2009 Series, Happy Holidays, and see you soon !!!
Thanks to Rob Rockefeller and Dave Lahey for the photos featured this month. :)