my car
View most Mustangs see (taken at Jefferson Circuit, photo by Pat Griffith)
Background
The car is a specially ordered 1996 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, in Polo Green with a Dark Graphite interior. One cold day in February 1996, I drove my old blue Ford Escort to Damascus Chevrolet and put the security deposit on this beauty. April 17, 1996, I drove it home. As of May 2005, 325K+ miles have been logged on the car's odometer, and I love it more every day.What makes it so special? It's a factory race car, with the 1LE package. In 1996, this included a larger front swaybar, stiffer springs, stiffer bushings, an engine oil cooler and double-adjustable Koni shocks (yellows). Rumors say that past years of 1LE Camaros have had no air conditioning (mine came standard, and was sort of a surprise), port matching, blue printed engines, bigger brakes, and other goodies depending on the year, but the reality was only the bigger brakes, swaybars, and no air. I don't feel cheated though, considering the option was less than $1200, which is less than the four shocks alone would have cost me.
What else makes it special? This car was built during the 1996 brake workers strike, when the Ste. Therese plant in Quebec was supposedly shut down. The car left the assembly line on April 2, 1996. Maybe they made my car special? Who knows for sure? ;)
Why?
Why on earth would little ol' me want such a thing? To autocross and drag race, to put it simply. I have seen no other 4th generation LT1 Camaro go faster straight off the showroom floor (13.87@100mph, nothing but a K&N filter on it). With only the addition of Flowmaster's American Thunder exhaust (a cat-back 3", single tip system), the car has gone 13.41@106. That is no typo, folks. Estimates have placed my car's usable horsepower over 300, for less than $300 in performance parts, and less than $21,000 overall initial investment. A lot of bang for the buck, and nothing that Ford could ever hope to touch with the stock 4.6L Mustang Cobras.
a picture taken at 75-80 during the supreme
chevy sunday
Future Plans and Racing History
The car was bought, plain and simple, mainly for national level SCCA Solo2 and ProSolo events. In F-Stock, Camaros still dominate, and that's what I've planned to do with this thing. I still need to learn how to drive it faster, though I've definitely gotten better over the last few years. I will likely be driving alone for at least most of this season, though in previous years, Pat Griffith, Tim Aro, Brian Tiffany and Justin Huffman have all been my codrivers. I've tried to keep a running dialogue of my trials
and tribulations. For past years, click on the
appropriate link below. If you just want
to see the results without reading through all my thoughts
and BS, then go straight to
my stats page. My racing team, Triskelion Racing,
has its own separate site. I also have a list of all
the cars other people have let me abuse throughout the years.
The latest update can be found here.
| 2003 |
2004 |
2005
February dawned cold but sunny that Saturday
that Pat and I drove up to Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. We were in the
Black Death, and had been suffering from autocross withdrawal, so with
a Philly Region autocross scheduled and us on the preregistration list,
off we went. But, when we got there, Pat took one look at the snow-covered
lot and asked, "Are you sure there's an autocross today?"
There was indeed an autocross, one that ended in infamy. But, it started off with a general irreverence about it, as the previous Philly Region event had occurred during a snowstorm. This day was supposed to be fairly warm, and it was expected that the snow cover would quickly melt as the temps increased. To be on the cautious side, however, registrants were encouraged to take a "parade lap" around the course to see if they still wanted to compete.
On the parade laps, the Camaro -- shod with Kumho Ecsta ASX all-season performance radials! -- was the only RWD car that didn't need a little push to help it along. Even after stopping to help out Miata drivers, a Porsche driver, and even smartass Chris Perera in his WRX with bald Falken Azenis, the Camaro had no problems getting moving again. So, we decided to run, and poor me, I drew the short straw and had to run first. This basically guaranteed that Pat would beat my times, as I knew the course conditions would get steadily, if not exponentially, better as the day wore on.
There was indeed an autocross, one that ended in infamy. But, it started off with a general irreverence about it, as the previous Philly Region event had occurred during a snowstorm. This day was supposed to be fairly warm, and it was expected that the snow cover would quickly melt as the temps increased. To be on the cautious side, however, registrants were encouraged to take a "parade lap" around the course to see if they still wanted to compete.
On the parade laps, the Camaro -- shod with Kumho Ecsta ASX all-season performance radials! -- was the only RWD car that didn't need a little push to help it along. Even after stopping to help out Miata drivers, a Porsche driver, and even smartass Chris Perera in his WRX with bald Falken Azenis, the Camaro had no problems getting moving again. So, we decided to run, and poor me, I drew the short straw and had to run first. This basically guaranteed that Pat would beat my times, as I knew the course conditions would get steadily, if not exponentially, better as the day wore on.
i was running the "dry line"; photo by pat griffith
I worked first, and got to see where
people were having the most problems, but at the same time, got to see
the course line melting. By the time I ran, it had basically gotten to
the point where the course was wet, but if you went off course,
it was slushy or even a tad icy still. I got my way around the course pretty
quickly, except for my third run. I pushed to hard through the slalom on
the top of the course, where it was still less wet and more slush. On the
exit from the slalom into the finish section, the car just washed out, and
I ended up needing a push to get out. :(
top of the course, in the snowy slalom; photo by pat griffith
Pat ran after me, and had an even
better course. His last run was smoking fast, fast enough for third on
the PAX standings. I was merely 10th. Though, I think we were the only
RWD people in the top 10.
As I said earlier though, the day did go down in SCCA safety infamy. One of the last runs of the morning (we were going to have another set of runs in the afternoon, since so many people bailed when they heard the lot was snow-covered), a guy in a Mitsubishi EvolutionVIII came across the finish line out of shape. The rear end fishedtailed to the right, and he tried to correct. Well, unfortunately, he was on Toyos (race rubber), and so when the car got a little traction, it shot straight forward instead of continuing to slide. The result? He shot straight forward, into the curb of a traffic island, and hitting two portajohns. There are pictures of this all over the web, but the worst part is that there was a kid in one of the portajohns. The kid was okay -- shaken up, needless to say -- and the Evo lost some plastic bits. It was just a debacle after the fact online, when the driver decided that it wasn't his fault at all that it happened.
As an aside note, the only people who were out of control crossing the finish line that day were in EvoVIIIs. One of them lost a rerun after some jackassery crossing the finish line after he'd received a red flag and was supposed to proceed "calmly" through the finish! Talk about giving an entire group of car owners a bad name.... :(
Next up was the SouthEast Divisional in Jacksonville, Florida. This event was a little weird, as the event site is a military airfield, and with increased security precautions, we didn't know until two weeks before the event that there was even going to be an event. So, with such short notice, I couldn't find reasonable airfare, but I could find a cheap rental car. I'd made plans to codrive with Jerry Grigg in his red '96 Z28 1LE, so I picked up my Buick LaCrosse Friday morning, and set the cruise control for 80mph, arriving at the event HQ around 6:30. My roommates Tommy Pulliam and Joel Fehrman arrive about 30 minutes later, and we all get registered, I check in with Jerry to make sure everything's okay on that front, and then we grab a bite to eat and watch some NCAA basketball tourney action. To Joel's dismay, the Georgia Tech game is no where to be found, so we just drink and watch whatever we can find, until we're tired enough to go to sleep.
The Saturday course started off with a ridiculously tight left-right section that was so tight, the F-body had to creep through it in order to avoid hitting cones. In retrospect, since it was me, Jon Krolewicz and Joel that did most of the cone boxes, we should have changed it. :| In the end though, so many people nailed a cone or two in that section that it was changed for the subsequent heats. Unfortunately, though, FS had run in the first heat. Anyway, it was painfully obvious that I was rusty. We were on brand-new Kumho V710s, and I was just getting dusted by Jerry, and usually, we're running pretty similar times. How bad was it? After two runs, Jerry was only 0.7 behind me... and he had a cone on that run. He cleaned up his third run, and I went 0.450 faster to end the day 0.5 back. Ugh.
The Sunday course was better, and faster. There was a "kenny" cone coming through the finish that required some finesse to "wiggle" the car by it, but it was worlds better than Saturday's course. I started off on a tear, with a dirty 40.6 that Jerry was 0.8 off of. It was my second run that was an major anomaly, and I still believe it was a timer error. Considering there'd been timer errors all along, it wasn't out of line to think so, but just like Connellsville oh-so-long ago, it wasn't enough of a difference for those "in charge" to give me even a provisional rerun. In fact, when I asked Steve Landstra to inquire if there was a rerun coming, the response was, "Deal with it." WTF? Oh, I was mad.... there was no way I'd gone two seconds slower on my second run, and that hideous time had me 1.1 behind Jerry overall. So, my last run was a "spin or win" run... in other words, either I was going to be quick, or the corner workers were going to be pissed.
Of course, I'd psyched myself up for this. I was burning mad over the response I'd gotten from timing, to the point where, as I'm sitting at the line, radio cranked, I barely hear Joel (in the timing trailer) call out, "Good luck!" My response was a casual one-finger salute, just as the starter told me I could go. I lit up the tires off the line and dove into the first slalom, then the offsets and the crossover. I don't know how I managed not to hit anything; I was most certainly overdriving. I was just so pissed right then, it didn't really matter. Coming back, through the last 5 cone slalom into the tight offset "kenny" cone finish, I dove in like I didn't think a Camaro could dive, jumped back on the throttle, and somehow just missed the "kenny" cone. The time was a tick slower than my first run's raw time, but it was clean. Jerry was 0.4 off it, but I wasn't fast enough to take the win. :(
For the record, I did apologize later to Joel and Jon.... somewhat. They hadn't realized how serious I was about my second run's time being off until then, but it was too late at that point to do anything about it. :\
First weekend in April was the Houston Tour, at Gulf Greyhound Park in LaMarque, as usual. I was scheduled to drive Brian Matteucci's DSP (formerly STX) 325is, but in SM, except the Wednesday before my flight, I get a phone call saying that there isn't enough tire for three drivers. In other words, I was getting the short end of the stick, and since Ramey was his "real" codriver, he and Ramey would drive the car while I was getting shunted to John Scheier's M3. I was like, "WTF?" I couldn't be too pissed -- he had found me another ride before ditching me -- but still. John's car was on S04s, and was basically an STU car on race tires. Oh, and Ramey was going to run Brian's car in SM. Yeah. I had a chance in SM. Whatever.
Because my school's spring break was the week before the event this year, I flew out Thursday evening and so got to run some practice times in John's car before the actual event. I tried to take advantage of this, because my only M3 experience thus far had been Lee Piccione's fully-prepped BSP car, and my only S04 experience had been Telehowski's Miata... and I wasn't impressed with either. I'd been faster in James Sheridan's DSP BMW, and the S04s had a tendency to get really greasy when they were hot. I didn't do half bad versus John's times on the practice course, but it was hard to gauge on a course that was barely 20 seconds long. All I knew was that on the short course, Ramey was almost a second faster.... this did not bode well.
As I said earlier though, the day did go down in SCCA safety infamy. One of the last runs of the morning (we were going to have another set of runs in the afternoon, since so many people bailed when they heard the lot was snow-covered), a guy in a Mitsubishi EvolutionVIII came across the finish line out of shape. The rear end fishedtailed to the right, and he tried to correct. Well, unfortunately, he was on Toyos (race rubber), and so when the car got a little traction, it shot straight forward instead of continuing to slide. The result? He shot straight forward, into the curb of a traffic island, and hitting two portajohns. There are pictures of this all over the web, but the worst part is that there was a kid in one of the portajohns. The kid was okay -- shaken up, needless to say -- and the Evo lost some plastic bits. It was just a debacle after the fact online, when the driver decided that it wasn't his fault at all that it happened.
As an aside note, the only people who were out of control crossing the finish line that day were in EvoVIIIs. One of them lost a rerun after some jackassery crossing the finish line after he'd received a red flag and was supposed to proceed "calmly" through the finish! Talk about giving an entire group of car owners a bad name.... :(
Next up was the SouthEast Divisional in Jacksonville, Florida. This event was a little weird, as the event site is a military airfield, and with increased security precautions, we didn't know until two weeks before the event that there was even going to be an event. So, with such short notice, I couldn't find reasonable airfare, but I could find a cheap rental car. I'd made plans to codrive with Jerry Grigg in his red '96 Z28 1LE, so I picked up my Buick LaCrosse Friday morning, and set the cruise control for 80mph, arriving at the event HQ around 6:30. My roommates Tommy Pulliam and Joel Fehrman arrive about 30 minutes later, and we all get registered, I check in with Jerry to make sure everything's okay on that front, and then we grab a bite to eat and watch some NCAA basketball tourney action. To Joel's dismay, the Georgia Tech game is no where to be found, so we just drink and watch whatever we can find, until we're tired enough to go to sleep.
The Saturday course started off with a ridiculously tight left-right section that was so tight, the F-body had to creep through it in order to avoid hitting cones. In retrospect, since it was me, Jon Krolewicz and Joel that did most of the cone boxes, we should have changed it. :| In the end though, so many people nailed a cone or two in that section that it was changed for the subsequent heats. Unfortunately, though, FS had run in the first heat. Anyway, it was painfully obvious that I was rusty. We were on brand-new Kumho V710s, and I was just getting dusted by Jerry, and usually, we're running pretty similar times. How bad was it? After two runs, Jerry was only 0.7 behind me... and he had a cone on that run. He cleaned up his third run, and I went 0.450 faster to end the day 0.5 back. Ugh.
The Sunday course was better, and faster. There was a "kenny" cone coming through the finish that required some finesse to "wiggle" the car by it, but it was worlds better than Saturday's course. I started off on a tear, with a dirty 40.6 that Jerry was 0.8 off of. It was my second run that was an major anomaly, and I still believe it was a timer error. Considering there'd been timer errors all along, it wasn't out of line to think so, but just like Connellsville oh-so-long ago, it wasn't enough of a difference for those "in charge" to give me even a provisional rerun. In fact, when I asked Steve Landstra to inquire if there was a rerun coming, the response was, "Deal with it." WTF? Oh, I was mad.... there was no way I'd gone two seconds slower on my second run, and that hideous time had me 1.1 behind Jerry overall. So, my last run was a "spin or win" run... in other words, either I was going to be quick, or the corner workers were going to be pissed.
Of course, I'd psyched myself up for this. I was burning mad over the response I'd gotten from timing, to the point where, as I'm sitting at the line, radio cranked, I barely hear Joel (in the timing trailer) call out, "Good luck!" My response was a casual one-finger salute, just as the starter told me I could go. I lit up the tires off the line and dove into the first slalom, then the offsets and the crossover. I don't know how I managed not to hit anything; I was most certainly overdriving. I was just so pissed right then, it didn't really matter. Coming back, through the last 5 cone slalom into the tight offset "kenny" cone finish, I dove in like I didn't think a Camaro could dive, jumped back on the throttle, and somehow just missed the "kenny" cone. The time was a tick slower than my first run's raw time, but it was clean. Jerry was 0.4 off it, but I wasn't fast enough to take the win. :(
For the record, I did apologize later to Joel and Jon.... somewhat. They hadn't realized how serious I was about my second run's time being off until then, but it was too late at that point to do anything about it. :\
First weekend in April was the Houston Tour, at Gulf Greyhound Park in LaMarque, as usual. I was scheduled to drive Brian Matteucci's DSP (formerly STX) 325is, but in SM, except the Wednesday before my flight, I get a phone call saying that there isn't enough tire for three drivers. In other words, I was getting the short end of the stick, and since Ramey was his "real" codriver, he and Ramey would drive the car while I was getting shunted to John Scheier's M3. I was like, "WTF?" I couldn't be too pissed -- he had found me another ride before ditching me -- but still. John's car was on S04s, and was basically an STU car on race tires. Oh, and Ramey was going to run Brian's car in SM. Yeah. I had a chance in SM. Whatever.
Because my school's spring break was the week before the event this year, I flew out Thursday evening and so got to run some practice times in John's car before the actual event. I tried to take advantage of this, because my only M3 experience thus far had been Lee Piccione's fully-prepped BSP car, and my only S04 experience had been Telehowski's Miata... and I wasn't impressed with either. I'd been faster in James Sheridan's DSP BMW, and the S04s had a tendency to get really greasy when they were hot. I didn't do half bad versus John's times on the practice course, but it was hard to gauge on a course that was barely 20 seconds long. All I knew was that on the short course, Ramey was almost a second faster.... this did not bode well.
don't they all three-wheel in a turn? photo by doug pawlak
Well, SM was up in the first heat (lucky us! :p), and
we're up against Ramey, as well as a real SM car, the Hymans in their
Supra. There's also a couple of drift cars -- Nissan 240SXs with SR20DET
conversions to make them "Silvias" -- and a Camaro Z28 that looks like it
would be a better show car than an autocrosser. With 10 cars in the class,
trophies go four deep, and I'm thinking Ramey and Scheier are probably out
of my reach, and I'm not sure about Eric and Laurie in the Supra yet. It's
a small consolation for me that I am the second driver, so I can ask John
for tips on how the car is handling and about the course.
John thinks the car is on par with Matteucci's BMW, even with Ramey driving, and first run times show that it is -- Ramey has a 51.6, and John has a 51.8, albeit with a cone. Laurie has a 55.9, and then it's time for us second drivers, of which I'm the first. Jack Mott is the starter, and he laughs at my domestic-driving-ass behind the wheel of a BMW, but I ignore it (hell, I'm used to it), and take off. The first thing I notice is that the car seems a bit loose, but John's warned me about it, and hell, I drive a Camaro, so it's no big deal to collect it and go on. Then, after the first 180 on the far side of the course, I cone. I just turned in on it (damn German engineering that has no built in delay after a steering input!). I'm annoyed, and even more so when I come in and hear that I had a second cone somewhere. <scowl> The time wasn't even all that great -- a 52.5 -- but I am just getting used to the car. Second runs will be better, I know.
Except that on second runs, Ramey drops 1.4 to John's 0.8. John did clean up his run, too. Laurie drops almost 3 seconds off her time, and then it's me. I only drop 0.5, and cone again, and now I'm getting angry with myself. There's no reason for me to be driving like such a pansy. Of course, having to listen to Chris and John berate me for driving like ass doesn't help either, and so before my third run, I'm just concentrating on what I need to do. Then, when I pull to the line, Jack says, "You gonna clean it up?" and that was the end of me having a good run. All I could think about was staying clean, so I was sooooo far off the cones, that I just plain sucked. I slowed down a second off my previous raw time, and had to sit on a 53.1 for the day, leaving me in fifth behind Laurie. John was in third, Eric second, and Ramey was leading with the only 49 second run in the class.
John thinks the car is on par with Matteucci's BMW, even with Ramey driving, and first run times show that it is -- Ramey has a 51.6, and John has a 51.8, albeit with a cone. Laurie has a 55.9, and then it's time for us second drivers, of which I'm the first. Jack Mott is the starter, and he laughs at my domestic-driving-ass behind the wheel of a BMW, but I ignore it (hell, I'm used to it), and take off. The first thing I notice is that the car seems a bit loose, but John's warned me about it, and hell, I drive a Camaro, so it's no big deal to collect it and go on. Then, after the first 180 on the far side of the course, I cone. I just turned in on it (damn German engineering that has no built in delay after a steering input!). I'm annoyed, and even more so when I come in and hear that I had a second cone somewhere. <scowl> The time wasn't even all that great -- a 52.5 -- but I am just getting used to the car. Second runs will be better, I know.
Except that on second runs, Ramey drops 1.4 to John's 0.8. John did clean up his run, too. Laurie drops almost 3 seconds off her time, and then it's me. I only drop 0.5, and cone again, and now I'm getting angry with myself. There's no reason for me to be driving like such a pansy. Of course, having to listen to Chris and John berate me for driving like ass doesn't help either, and so before my third run, I'm just concentrating on what I need to do. Then, when I pull to the line, Jack says, "You gonna clean it up?" and that was the end of me having a good run. All I could think about was staying clean, so I was sooooo far off the cones, that I just plain sucked. I slowed down a second off my previous raw time, and had to sit on a 53.1 for the day, leaving me in fifth behind Laurie. John was in third, Eric second, and Ramey was leading with the only 49 second run in the class.
I wasn't in a particularly good mood after my runs,
so that evening, I spent at the dog track after dinner with Frank and Jeff
Stroh, just drinking and talking. Then we went and gave a half-hearted attempt
at a drunken course walk, but it just wasn't like last year. I finally
just hitched a ride back to the hotel with Ramey, and that was the end of
Saturday.
We lost an hour Sunday morning due to daylight savings time, and I think the lack of sleep may have helped me. I was too tired to do much of anything except concentrate on where the course went -- it was deceptively similar to Saturday's course, only the slaloms were opposite, and one of the 180s was completely different. So, instead of worrying how much the S04s sucked and how much I would have preferred to be in a DSP BMW instead of a BSP BMW, I could only think about one thing at a time -- and that was to just drive.
John started off with a rough 52.0 run, which was way off the pace as Ramey had coned away a 49.2. He and Brian had made some adjustments to the car Saturday afternoon, and I think he was just trying to feel the car out. Me, on the other hand, I didn't have enough experience in the car to really notice any difference. I launched it, made the right-hand turn, and just prayed for a relatively fast, clean run, which I got, with a 51.3. Of course, it was still a tenth slower than Ramey's run including the cone, but it was almost 4 seconds faster than Laurie Hyman, which moved me into trophy position.
John took my run as a challenge, and knocked off almost a second and a half on his second run, but Ramey cleaned his up. Laurie also dropped a bunch of time, over two seconds, so I was feeling threatened in my trophy spot. I took several deep breaths at the line, consulted with my stuffed turtle (my "woobie," as John was calling it), and thought about the mistakes I didn't want to repeat, namely getting "lost" in the revised 180. I was finally getting comfortable with how the car handled and braked, and this run was going to prove it -- and when it was announced that I'd just run a clean 49.8 (0.8 from Ramey's time), and only the second 49 second run in the whole heat, it was no wonder I was shaking something fierce when I came across the line. The pressure was on John to step it up a bit.
John did improve on his last run to nip me by 0.3, overdriving into the last turn on the course cost me any improvement on my last run (though I still ran a 49.9, proving my second run wasn't a fluke). Laurie only did a raw 50.6, and so didn't come close to catching me for that final trophy spot. Conage and unfamiliarity with the car on Saturday kept me far from John's third place times, but I guess I came away from Houston satisfied. Sort of.
A weekend off, and then I was in Atlanta for the next stop on the National Tour. It was a "professional day", so I left early from work and arrived just after the welcome party. I really had wanted to see Matt Glagola's band, The Liverhearts, play at the party, but I needed to finish grades before I left. :(
I'd driven my black Camaro to Atlanta for Jerry Grigg to drive. It was also going to be left in Atlanta for the week, as Pat would be driving it for the ProSolo (along with Jerry again), and it was just easier if we could fly down that Friday night. I didn't find Jerry that night, but I did meet up with the owner of the car I would be driving at both the Tour and the following weekend's ProSolo; that would be Joel Fehrman, owner of "Stompy" the beastly ESP Subaru Impreza WRX STi.
the only car i've driven that rivals this one? the witt's TVR.... seriously; photo by RJS Photography
We went over to Nathan's and Megan's place for a little while to hang out, then went back to Joel's for sleepytime. Joel was the event chair, and I was chief of impound, so we both needed to be at the event site first thing in the morning (him, especially, since he had the key to the fairground's gates!!). ESP ran third heat (after some finangling by the ESP competitors) and SM ran fourth heat, so we weren't rushing to get there because we needed to get ready to drive.
I was codriving the STi with Marc Osgood, who had evidently called Joel earlier in the week after seeing my name on the entry list, signed up to run SM in the Subaru. Thinking his Honda had no chance against the AWD car, he pleaded with Joel for the chance to drive the Subaru, so I was tirewarmer. :\ At least I had Tommy and Joel to compare to before my runs (and the tires wouldn't be completely cold). So, watching those two, as well as Mike Johnson and Courtney Cormier (driving Rod McGeorge's STi in ESP), I could get some insight into a course I didn't feel comfortable with, due to lack of course walks, and just generally being busy with impound.
My first run out, I manage a 44.6, which wasn't too bad, considering Marc ran a dirty 44.4. Compared to Tommy's (44.0) and Joel's (43.1) first runs though, it wasn't so good, but they do have more experience in the car. I overdrove badly on my second run, while Marc improved to a clean 42.9, leaving me with just my third run to figure out how to launch the car and get into at least the 43s. My only consolation? The fact that the rest of SM was miles behind.
So, my last run, I pull up to the line, where Steven Rankins is starter. I tell him that before I really launch, I'm going to try to figure out the launch control, which I was having problems using (go ahead, laugh at me). So, before he waves me on, I put the clutch all the way in, floor the gas, and sure enough, it just bounces off a preset rev limiter. Cool. Steve asks me if I'm ready, I say yes, and then I go. Launching with the launch control is... interesting, to say the least. I manage to get second gear before hitting the regular rev limiter, and rocket around the rest of the course to my best time of a 43.8. Not that good, really, but I was still figuring the car out. It was a lot different than the last time I drove it (in November), and it was a lot different than anything else I've driven, so I guess I shouldn't complain. I just expected better of myself, especially when I was a second behind Marc, and 0.7 behind Joel (though that's how far back I was from Joel last time I drove it).
the salt flats in May; photo by Karen Kraus
We lost an hour Sunday morning due to daylight savings time, and I think the lack of sleep may have helped me. I was too tired to do much of anything except concentrate on where the course went -- it was deceptively similar to Saturday's course, only the slaloms were opposite, and one of the 180s was completely different. So, instead of worrying how much the S04s sucked and how much I would have preferred to be in a DSP BMW instead of a BSP BMW, I could only think about one thing at a time -- and that was to just drive.
John started off with a rough 52.0 run, which was way off the pace as Ramey had coned away a 49.2. He and Brian had made some adjustments to the car Saturday afternoon, and I think he was just trying to feel the car out. Me, on the other hand, I didn't have enough experience in the car to really notice any difference. I launched it, made the right-hand turn, and just prayed for a relatively fast, clean run, which I got, with a 51.3. Of course, it was still a tenth slower than Ramey's run including the cone, but it was almost 4 seconds faster than Laurie Hyman, which moved me into trophy position.
John took my run as a challenge, and knocked off almost a second and a half on his second run, but Ramey cleaned his up. Laurie also dropped a bunch of time, over two seconds, so I was feeling threatened in my trophy spot. I took several deep breaths at the line, consulted with my stuffed turtle (my "woobie," as John was calling it), and thought about the mistakes I didn't want to repeat, namely getting "lost" in the revised 180. I was finally getting comfortable with how the car handled and braked, and this run was going to prove it -- and when it was announced that I'd just run a clean 49.8 (0.8 from Ramey's time), and only the second 49 second run in the whole heat, it was no wonder I was shaking something fierce when I came across the line. The pressure was on John to step it up a bit.
John did improve on his last run to nip me by 0.3, overdriving into the last turn on the course cost me any improvement on my last run (though I still ran a 49.9, proving my second run wasn't a fluke). Laurie only did a raw 50.6, and so didn't come close to catching me for that final trophy spot. Conage and unfamiliarity with the car on Saturday kept me far from John's third place times, but I guess I came away from Houston satisfied. Sort of.
A weekend off, and then I was in Atlanta for the next stop on the National Tour. It was a "professional day", so I left early from work and arrived just after the welcome party. I really had wanted to see Matt Glagola's band, The Liverhearts, play at the party, but I needed to finish grades before I left. :(
I'd driven my black Camaro to Atlanta for Jerry Grigg to drive. It was also going to be left in Atlanta for the week, as Pat would be driving it for the ProSolo (along with Jerry again), and it was just easier if we could fly down that Friday night. I didn't find Jerry that night, but I did meet up with the owner of the car I would be driving at both the Tour and the following weekend's ProSolo; that would be Joel Fehrman, owner of "Stompy" the beastly ESP Subaru Impreza WRX STi.
the only car i've driven that rivals this one? the witt's TVR.... seriously; photo by RJS Photography
We went over to Nathan's and Megan's place for a little while to hang out, then went back to Joel's for sleepytime. Joel was the event chair, and I was chief of impound, so we both needed to be at the event site first thing in the morning (him, especially, since he had the key to the fairground's gates!!). ESP ran third heat (after some finangling by the ESP competitors) and SM ran fourth heat, so we weren't rushing to get there because we needed to get ready to drive.
I was codriving the STi with Marc Osgood, who had evidently called Joel earlier in the week after seeing my name on the entry list, signed up to run SM in the Subaru. Thinking his Honda had no chance against the AWD car, he pleaded with Joel for the chance to drive the Subaru, so I was tirewarmer. :\ At least I had Tommy and Joel to compare to before my runs (and the tires wouldn't be completely cold). So, watching those two, as well as Mike Johnson and Courtney Cormier (driving Rod McGeorge's STi in ESP), I could get some insight into a course I didn't feel comfortable with, due to lack of course walks, and just generally being busy with impound.
My first run out, I manage a 44.6, which wasn't too bad, considering Marc ran a dirty 44.4. Compared to Tommy's (44.0) and Joel's (43.1) first runs though, it wasn't so good, but they do have more experience in the car. I overdrove badly on my second run, while Marc improved to a clean 42.9, leaving me with just my third run to figure out how to launch the car and get into at least the 43s. My only consolation? The fact that the rest of SM was miles behind.
So, my last run, I pull up to the line, where Steven Rankins is starter. I tell him that before I really launch, I'm going to try to figure out the launch control, which I was having problems using (go ahead, laugh at me). So, before he waves me on, I put the clutch all the way in, floor the gas, and sure enough, it just bounces off a preset rev limiter. Cool. Steve asks me if I'm ready, I say yes, and then I go. Launching with the launch control is... interesting, to say the least. I manage to get second gear before hitting the regular rev limiter, and rocket around the rest of the course to my best time of a 43.8. Not that good, really, but I was still figuring the car out. It was a lot different than the last time I drove it (in November), and it was a lot different than anything else I've driven, so I guess I shouldn't complain. I just expected better of myself, especially when I was a second behind Marc, and 0.7 behind Joel (though that's how far back I was from Joel last time I drove it).
the salt flats in May; photo by Karen Kraus
Awards and Such
photo by David Newman |
I won the 1996 and 1997 FSL trophies in Blue Ridge Region, and my regional
co-driver in 1996, Matt Carson, won FS that year. I was the
runner-up for the FS trophy in 1998, mostly because Gary Krichbaum
did more events than I did (though it probably would have
been a tossup at the end had we both competed at all of the events).
I won the NASA-VA
FS trophy over my codrivers for three years straight
(2000-2002) also. Driving Eric Kriemelmeyer's Subaru, I finished
3rd overall in L1 points for ProSolo in 2000, and tied for
7th in Challenge points. The car is capable, I know, it's just that I have to learn to drive the stinking thing better! It is set up beautifully, and has been since Evansville 1997. Even in my less-than-capable hands, I took the car to an 11th place finish (0.149 from last trophy spot) at the 2003 National Championships, the highest finish for the car since Tim Aro claimed 4th in 1998. My consistency leaves a lot to be desired, and I must learn to let emotional crap slide off before an event, otherwise it screws with my mind. |
Codriving in the past has made it easier for me to run national level events, but again this year, it looks like I'm going to be pretty much alone. For 2005, it looks like I will run the Camaro in the Southeast Division Solo2 series, and I will be running for ProSolo series points in DS, starting with Kevin Youngers at the Wendover ProSolo and then with Matthew Grainger at the Oscoda and Toledo stops.
I was chosen as the November/December 1997 Driver
of the Month on the Thunder Valley Racing
website. You can read some of my racing
history there in the write-up. I was chosen
by Grassroots
Motorsports to win the FSL Championship in 1998, and
mentioned as a contender for the 1999 FSL Championship
(even though I was running FS) by SportsCar. I was
showcased by reporter Sean Sedam in the June 11, 2003 Gazette
newspaper for my "unique" hobby. Most recently, I've been
in SportsCar (June 2005) and Racer (July 2005) magazine
as part of the group of people who trophied in the car known as "Stompy"
(Joel Fehrman's Subaru Impreza WRX STi) at the Atlanta National Tour.
my car's first track experience was as a pace car at the MARRS regional double at summit point raceway in '96; photo by me
What Else?
| What
else do I do race-wise? I sometimes take the
Camaro out to the local drag strips (75-80 Dragway
in Monrovia and Mason-Dixon
Dragway near Hagerstown),
and I've been known to take it out on the road course
during high performance driving schools too. I've taken one
SCCA drivers' school, but wasn't able to continue my car-building
exploits due to lack of money. One of these days, I'd
like to run a Camaro or Mustang in A Sedan (SCCA) or American Iron
(NASA), or, if I had enough money, possibly a GT-1/Trans Am car.
I think it would be fun to set up a Camaro Z28 for a performance rally
too, but I don't know if I could find someone crazy enough to be the navigator
if I did that. :) |
my car at the supreme chevy car show... before the rain; photo by me |
links camaro pictures results friends' cars the list send email
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