photo by John Ryan
The third Winter 4 event was sort of cancelled due to conflicts at the Fentress event site, but they had a " not a Winter 4 event " on Saturday anyway. The FS class was like something from a National Tour -- Sam Strano, Tim Aro (in my car), Terry Baker, G.H. Sharp, Dean Sapp, Patti Frye, Michael Snyder and Chad Madaloni made up the field. Justin opted to drive Roger Garrett's new Corvette in ASP rather than run my car. Tim managed to hang on to the win until Sam's final run, where he pulled out a 53.2 (to Tim's best clean of 53.6). Sam was still a little upset, as he wanted to best Tim's raw time of 52.8. Dean and co. in the Firebird had problems due to the two-year-old R1s they were running. I finished waaaay down in the FS standings (third to last), but was still 13th on PAX (15th, if you count Terry's second runs in the Camaro and G.H.'s second runs in Terry's Camaro).
The fourth Winter 4 event, the "Broken Hearts " autocross, was held on 2/15/98. Once again, Tim Aro codrove my car, as he will be at all the ProSolo2 events I attend this year, plus other events. Tim preregistered kinda late for this event, and so was in the last (sixth) heat of the day. Timer problems delayed the start for about an hour (plus repeated timer problems for me and Jeff Fields resulted in numerous reruns for the two of us -- I had two reruns and he had three), and so Tim didn't end up running until about 5:30. Yes, he and Terry Baker (who ran his Camaro in the sixth heat, but had already run he 924S twice earlier in the day) had to finish their last runs with headlights. Sam ended up winning the class with a 54.9, but Tim wasn't far behind with a 55.3 (on a sloppy run), and Terry was third with a 55.5 (after six previous runs!). I was fourth with a 56.9, which was my third run, but the first timed run. I think my second run would have been fastest (and it makes sense, considering I slowed down with each run), but there wasn't a time. :(
The drive down to Jacksonville for the first ProSolo2 of 1998 was not as long as I'd feared, thankfully, though it ended in rain. In fact, when Tim and I awoke Saturday morning, it was to rain. Thankfully, the hotel where we stayed had a covered lot, and so we changed tires there, staying relatively dry.
The lot was small, but the courses were still longer than the now-infamous Nashville Pro courses in 1997. My first runs were wet, as were all of the first FS drivers, but Tim, Paul Fullarton (Alex Tziortzis' codriver) and Jim Shebest all had "drier" runs than we did since it had stopped raining. It didn't really help Tim, who is still learning the car, and he ended up in 3rd after the morning runs. I was 11th, only beating Alex by virtue of his two left side red lights. The only person I was beating legitimately was Chad Madaloni.
Saturday afternoon saw dry runs for everyone. As Tim was faster, I was relegated to the second FS pack with Alex and Jim. Tim fell to fifth under a charge from Terry Baker and a surprise run from Jeffrey Youmans. I remained 11th, but was now beating Chad and Scott Lewis. I was less than a tenth behind Leon Dupont.
According to the weather report, Sunday morning was supposed to be dry. It wasn't. This was not good, as Sam was looking for a dry run to "fix" his bad right side time (which had a cone included). No one in the first FS group improved, but me, Paul and Mike Snyder (who was now letting Jim Shebest codrive since Dean had to leave early) had fairly dry runs. I improved the most, vaulting past Leon into 10th spot. Mike improved a great deal also, moving from 9th to 7th, but he was still barely a second faster than me. Paul didn't change position, though he did improve.
All in all, it was a fun time, even though the results did not bely the fact. I look forward to the next Pro, in Petersburg, and hope I can improve my driving even more by then.
March 15 saw me and Tim at the Virginia Motorsports Park for a VMSC event. We decided not to do the longer drive down to Fentress, where the makeup Winter 4 event was being held, for several reasons I won't go into here. However, not all the competition went to Fentress; Jim Howard, Gary Krichbaum and Steve Catlin came down to Dinwiddie for this event. While my second run was right in the mix, however, and I knew where I needed to improve, I didn't capitalize on my knowledge on my last run, and I ended up behind all of them. Tim won, on a weak 45.0 (he'd had a 44.2, with a cone). I ended up fifth with a 46.5, two tenths behind Krichbaum and Catlin, and six tenths off of Jim. I told Krichbaum, who brought out what used to be Alex Tziortzis' 1994 Z28, that I'd catch him the next week at the Blue Ridge event in Staunton.
Well, Staunton was cold, to put it mildly. Justin and I got there about 10:30, and I looked high and low for Tim, who said he'd be there at 10. Well, I figured he'd get a ride in with Roger Garrett and arrive around the time Roger typically did, that is, right before registration closed. So I went and registered both of us, got the tires changed and walked the course all before he showed up. Anyway, it was an interesting course, a mixture of fast stuff along with some slow 180s that required mucho patience. In the second heat, Richard West, driving his HS Subaru Legacy wagon (one of three wagons there) had FTD. However, Tim was driving in the third heat (along with me and Justin, who was driving Roger's ZR1), so the FTD was up for grabs. Tim took it. Justin and Roger were not far behind, but the Witt boys were in the fourth heat. Fortunately for the Chevy drivers, the TVR was its normal self, and lost a brake pad on Greg's first run. They spent the next hour and a half getting it all back together. By this time, I was third in FS, Krichbaum was second, and Tim was winning. Behind me was a guy on street tires (Brian Wilson), Todd Tignor and Joel Balsley, as well as Matt Carson in his parents' Crown Vic station wagon (which he was running on the R1s from his now-gone Saleen) and Darrell Hale in a Mustang. When the second half rolled around, I was determined to at least beat Krichbaum. Tim went out first, and didn't improve, then I went out again and screwed around to a time 0.2 slower than my fastest. Tim goes out for his last run and reset FTD to a 57.7. I calmly walk over to T&S while Matt is running to see what the current FS standings and times were and see that I need to beat a 60.9 to get second from Krichbaum. I had a 61.7, and knew where I could improve. So, I did it -- going slow in the 180s, and pushing it down the straight. I knew it was going to at least be a decent run when I hit third in the long straight -- the first run that I actually accomplished that. I didn't even botch the braking point at the end, and when I came off the course, I heard Mal announcing what sounded like a 59 something.... with a questioning tone, as if he didn't quite believe it. I looked at him, and he reannounced it while looking back at me, as if to confirm that it was me in the car and not Tim. It was indeed a 59 something, a 59.2 to be exact, which put me firmly in second place in FS, 5th fastest overall (Justin ended up with FTD on his last run, and neither Witt put together a clean enough run to catch it), and 2nd on overall PAX!! I still can't believe it. Now, if I can only pull that off at the Petersburg Pro....
Tim called early on the morning of April 5th to tell me he was wimping out on me and wasn't coming up for the Frederick event that day. It was almost a good thing too, since right after I talked to him, I went out to change tires and snapped another wheel stud (one had broken at VMSC in March). I drove the Lightning over to the event site, finally found Justin and told him I wasn't running. Then I left. On the way home, I thought about maybe seeing if Antietam Automotive had the studs in stock, since if I took Tim's number, I'd have about three and a half hours to fix the problem, at least. So, I went there, and they had the parts (and I got extras!), and when I got home, Justin had come home to see if I was in any better of a mood. Not really, but we got the stud changed and I went back to the event. In a sense, it was a good thing, since I drove fairly well again. Despite starting off badly (there was 37psi in the rear tires because I didn't check them and when my brother mounted them, that's what he inflated them to), I finished third behind Mike Snyder and Sam Strano and ahead of a lot of people I'd never finished ahead of before, like Steve Brown and Jim Howard. I got into the 43s (43.9), which most people didn't see either. I was pretty happy with the finish, and called Tim when I got home to tell him. I'm definitely looking forward to the Pro now.
The Petersburg Pro was pretty fun, despite where I ended up finishing (13 of 17). I'm sure I could have moved up one, maybe two places had it been dry Sunday morning. Unfortunately, it did not dry out until the afternoon, but by then it was too late. Considering I made fairly major (in my mind) mistakes at the same place on both courses, I figure I could have improved by about half a second or more on my total time. Tim, too, wanted dry runs -- needed dry runs -- for Sunday morning to get back into trophies, and it didn't happen. Sam wanted dry runs to try to get back into first. Oh well. Maybe next time. My only consolation is that in the wet, I was definitely in the mix. Terry Baker asked me what I was doing out there, and I told him that I was so quick because I didn't drive any differently in the wet than I did in the dry -- it's just that I'm that bad in the dry.
I got to run up against Pat Salerno, directly, after the first heat since he was slower than Dave Cole, who was codriving his car. I compared my times to the Ladies class and wonder if I should have run there (I would have been 10th and made the Club Challenge if I did), but I don't think I would have done as well without Pat to run against. Seriously. Running against him made me push myself more than I think I would have otherwise. Thanks Pat!
Justin drove Roger's Corvette in ISP and was winning after the Saturday morning runs, but Steve Hoelscher brought his Fiat back for the win. Justin also made it to the Pro Challenge, but lost to Matt Murray (AS Porsche 968) by 0.013 in the first round.
The Study Break Autocross in Dublin proved to be a washout -- literally. After about the first 10 or so cars, the rain had seriously let loose and the course was soaked. Towards the end of the third runs, it had stopped raining enough that fun runs were available, but the damage had been done. I went off course my first run -- it was a visually difficult course, especially in the spot where I went off, evidenced by the many DNFs at the same place -- and so completely botched my third run trying to beat Matt Carson's dry run (he was running Gary's car) that I lost my cool and started trashing my stuff when I took the car back to the pit area. Tim managed to salvage my car's wounded image by taking out Matt's dry run with an FTD/fastest PAX run of 39.202. I redeemed myself somewhat in fun runs, and rode along with Tim's totally amazing 38.2 run, which seemed so perfect I wasn't sure whether to kiss his feet or puke. As awful as I thought I did, however, I somehow managed to take 4th overall PAX and 10th best overall raw time. I guess some people did have a worse day than me.
The Harrisburg event the following weekend was also wet, though the torrential rains held off for most of the day. Krichbaum, Harlen Gudger and the Witts came up from Blue Ridge Region to compete, as did Tim. Sammy came down also, so FS was a good -- if not downright decent -- class. Tim and I ran in the second heat for comp runs, and then again in the third heat for "fun." Both Sam and Gary ran the third heat for comp, fourth heat for fun. It was pretty good competition, as I was legitimately beating Tim after my second run (and his first), which has never happened before without Tim hitting a cone. He came back, however, with a 60.1 second run, while I drove with my head planted and didn't improve. :( He finished with a 59.6. Then Sam and Gary came out, and Sam "waited" until his last run to beat Tim -- barely, with a 59.4. Okay, in Strano terms, 0.2 is a huge margin.... ;) Gary had some rain problems -- very uncharacteristic of him! -- and only got down to a 62.3. Sam's time was good for fastest PAX and fast stock time of the day; I was fifth on PAX. Of course, that's not counting fun runs, where I got down to a 60.5, Tim did a 59.2 and Sam did an amazing 58.9. And, no, this time, Sam couldn't complain about Tim having a better raw time -- he was coneless throughout the event!
The next week, Blue Ridge sponsored the Merry Month of May autocross at the Radford site. After all my complaining about the few people who had dry runs at the last event, I'm sure, we ran in class heats this time. FS was in the second heat. Matt ran Gary's car again, Tim was in mine, plus Joel Balsley came out in his Mustang again, so we had a good little party of five. Well, the lot was grimier than usual, making for some interesting rallycross-type tactics to get around the 180 at the far end of th course. Aggessive driving was not the order of the day, and I couldn't seem to get that through my thick, Team HUOA skull until my last fun run. As a result, I finished fourth, and behind Krichbaum for the first time since.... the VMSC event in March, I guess. I did improve down to a 29.2 (a second faster than my comp runs) in fun runs, but Gary did event better there too (a 28 something). Tim was also extremely frustrated after this event, since he beat Matt by less than 0.2. If this truly is the best comparison to Evansville we'll be able to get, we may be in trouble for that Tour..... Justin brought out the 'Stang on street tires, and was able to beat me on raw time. I was at least 8th on the PAX, and even Joel, who wasn't happy with his times either, was 15th.
Memorial Day weekend saw us at the Strawberry Hills Fairgrounds in Richmond for a VMSC event. Terry Baker made the trip up from Virginia Beach, and Gary came over, despite possible clutch problems. There were a couple of local VMSC FS guys too, but the real competition was between us four. Terry ran first and set the pace with a rerun induced 39.2. He was fortunate that a cone was missing on his third run, since he had already knocked over a cone, and was awarded that rerun. I was up next, and squeezed out a 39.3 on my last run. Terry, thinking that his 39.4 from his second run was the one that stood, was firmly convinced that I was leading at this point. Tim's heat was up next, along with Justin, who was driving his Mustang on slicks. Did I mention that it was raining, and had been all morning? ;) Justin had a fit of a time out there, managing only a time in the 40s. Tim, however, belted out a 38.6 on his last run. Terry seemed to be in awe. I know I was. Gary was up next, and for some reason, the weather gods decided to give him a break this time (how often has it been dry for Gary, ever?). While only portions of the track were dry, it was definitely an improvement over when the rest of us ran (it helped that they were so unorganized that it took longer to find workers between the heats than it did to run the heat itself!!). Gary's 39.1 in the semi-dry was good enough for second. I knew then that I had to run fun runs, just to see what I could do. Well, I blew my first two, pretty badly, while Tim steadily improved down to a 36.4 (or was it a 36.2? It was sickening, whatever it was -- it was 0.001 better than Roger Garrett's 36.4 at one point). I only got down to a 37.3, still 0.2 behind Gary's best fun time of a 37.1. Terry was in the 36s also, but I think he was about a 36.8 or 36.6. Just was down to a 36.2 once it dried out. It was very irritating that while I thought I ran pretty well in comp runs, I was still fourth. :(
Frederick . Ah, yes, heat induced sickness reigned in Frederick on the last weekend in May. I was so sick, I thought I would seriously pass out behind the wheel. My third heat runs were just an exercise in maintaining consciousness. While Justin ran away with the CP win, and Sam took the FS win from Tim, I was happy (sort of) with the fourth place finish I managed. I was a tenth behind Steve Brown's old Mustang, and somehow managed to stay a tenth ahead of Gary, who came up for the event. I don't think he left happy though.
June began the autocross month of hell, with the Peru ProSolo2 the first weekend. The Pro was held at the Grissom Air National Guard base, and the course was designed by none other than the great BSP driver himself, Danny Popp. FS driver Kent Weaver was the event chair. Oh, yeah, we were going to have some fun here.
Thirteen FS drivers made the trek to Indiana for the event. Dean, Alex, Lynne, Sam and Terry were among them. Since Tim and I didn't arrive until about midnight (Indiana time), we didn't see anyone until early the next morning, when we encountered Miata driver Andy Poling in the motel parking lot. He tells us that Sam is looking for us, which seems to foretell something bad. And, in fact, it was something bad, though not really for us. It seems that Sam killed his transmission during the practice starts and was looking for an FS ride, though with our BFGoodrich tires and his Kumho sponsorship, it wasn't likely he would be driving my car even if I wasn't running open class. He found a ride, however, in Jen Wilson's Kumho-shod SS Mazda RX-7.
Sam did quite well in SS, taking fourth over Erik Strelnieks and Roger Johnson. Tim finished 5th, a cone away from third (and the mark goes right across Kenny), and I was 11th. 11th may not sound great, but it was actually my best finish relative to the winner, Dean, as evidenced by the points I received. The course was a lot of fun, with a 330ft straight to start (legend says that 330ft is the length needed for Popp's BSP Corvette to run out of first), followed by an easy slalom and a couple of sweepers. The only problem with the course was that the sweepers on both sides went from concrete to asphalt, and so the grip went from great to so-so. Kent says next year, it will be all concrete. It also didn't help that Jim McKamey's "baby grand" car blew an oil hose, and slicked down pretty much the entire right side of the course after the straight.
The following weekend took us on another "international" journey, this time to Rome (New York, that is) for a National Tour event. Twelve of us took this challenge on, with Dean sitting this one out, but Alex flying in from Chicago to run the Strano-mobile (complete with "new" transmission). Saturday morning dawned cool and electrically charged, with Tim and I arriving at the event site early enough to walk the course before registration even opened. After one course walk-through, I waited in line to register while he walked again. I had just entered the truck when Katie Hughes comes in the other side and asks what the contingency plans were for the course workers in the event of lightning. Howard looked a little confused. She then proceeded to explain how not only was her relatively short hair standing on end, but Chris Bernard (Lotus Seven driver, with fairly long hair) was also seeing his hair rising. Howard replied that there was a van that could be used to "scoop up" the workers, if necessary. Well, by this point, I was done registering, and running out to roll up my windows and try to get the magnetics on the car before the rain fully broke. I was partially successful. Tim had just finished his second course walk when all hell broke loose from the skies. It took us forever to get through tech (they wouldn't come out of their little techie vehicle except when the rain wasn't pelting them), and then we went back to grid. Thankfully, we'd changed tires earlier, before the deluge.
Well, the rain didn't let up during our heat. In a sense, I was kinda happy about that. I do quite well in the rain (just like at Petersburg), and after the first five cars (those five cars with two drivers) went, I was in the lead (even over Alex and Ron). After my second run, Tim was leading and I was second! Yeah, I was having a good ol' time. Even after all the runs were over, I was sixth until Alex noticed that a cone marked against him on the timing sheets didn't show up on the audit sheets, so then I fell to seventh.
The next day, it was dry for our runs, and I fell another position when Ron Bistrais, still learning his '97 1LE, finished enough ahead of me on the day's runs to get by me for the event (by 0.162). Pat finished 6th, and Alex was 5th. Of course, I had a cone story to tell, because if my best run of Saturday didn't include a cone, I would have been 5th. And if Tim's best Sunday run hadn't included a cone, he would have won. In fact, he was winning, but when Sam saw the cone (Sam was running after him), he knew he didn't have to push quite as hard, and so came out seven tenths ahead overall. Lynne suffered massive cone trouble on Sunday but still managed 4th and final trophy spot.
The following weekend saw my worst event, probably ever. I didn't want to be there, and it showed throughout my driving. I really wanted to crawl in a hole and die, rather than be at the Harrisburg ProSolo2 , but I went only for Tim. I should have just packed it up and left after my Saturday morning runs, which pretty much turned out to be my best runs. Never have I been more miserable; I literally cried after every run. I got a much needed rerun after my first right side run (first run of the day, and my ATM card was on the dash sliding around and distracting me), but I blew it with a redlight. The car handled terribly, the tires were trashed, probably after the first day, considering Tim couldn't go any faster, and well, I was beat by several people I'd never been beaten by. I won't torment myself further by remembering any more.
The clutch was gone after Harrisburg, plus the transmission cross member was loose, so I didn't drive the Camaro at the Frederick event on the 28th of June. Instead, Andy Poling offered his Miata (he was out of town), so I went to Woodstock and picked it up Sunday morning. Neat little car, it is. I brought it back to Frederick and signed up for BS. My first run was atrocious, a 48 something, as I was surprised by the handling and braking of the Mazda. My second run saw a two second improvement, and there was another 1.4 dropped on my last run. In all, I was less than a second behind Mike Snyder's Firechicken times (and Mike had FTD), and I won BS by 1.8, much to the chagrin of many of the BS regulars. In fact, FSL driver and MWCSCC chair Vickie Smith still hears complaints from some BS drivers about my one time excursion to BS land. I also drove Jim Howard's '97 in the fifth heat, just to see what I could do in an FS car, but I was slower. I would have been 3rd there, behind Gary, but ahead of Jim.
The fourth of July weekend saw the trek to Evansville , Indiana for the Freedom National Tour. The drive was long, the weather was a bit warm, and the bearings were shot (as evidenced by the newly annoying wah-wah-wah sounds), but the clutch was new, and my spirits were a little higher after the Miata success. We got out there early enough to register and get the tires changed, after walking the course once, then we were ready for Saturday morning.
Matt Carson was there in his new '98 LS1 Camaro, as were 13 other drivers in various year cars. Also notable was the appearance of Vince Bly in his copper Miata, and Eric Peterson and Jonathan Roberts, both driving Eric's Miata. As usual FS was first out, and with me and Tim being one of a couple two-driver cars, that meant I was one of the first cars out, which sucks. But I found that I was driving much better than I did the year before, and in fact finished quite a bit ahead (seven tenths) of Bea Regganie after the first day. Bea won FSL last year, and was running open class here because no one else was running FSL. I was also ahead of Matt after Saturday's runs, but barely (0.05). Tim was in fourth, behind Alex, Sam, and George Williams (who had an excellent, though surprising, run of 44.8).
Sunday's Evansville course was the complete opposite of the crappy little twisty things they had last year. This was wide open, possibly third gear, and completely intimidating to me. I had to keep thinking of it as a road course, a mini Jefferson Circuit, if you will. I knew that if I thought of it as an autocross, I'd only screw it up. Well, I started screwing it up any way. I started out with a weak 43.1, to Tim's 40.8, 41s and 42s for others. My second run was yet another 43.1, while a lot of the previous 42s worked their way into the 41s. I was going to be screwed if I didn't do something on my last run. Well, I don't know exactly what I did, but I got a 41.996 on my last run (big improvement), but Matt went and one-upped me with a 41.8 -- enough to pass me for 9th spot overall. However, Bea never got out of the 43s (finished 14th), so after last year's five second thrashing, and the fact that she was 3rd at Nationals, I didn't feel too awfully bad about 10th. Tim took 3rd away from George and was 0.152 back from Alex. Sam, despite still claiming that Sunday's course was a fourth gen course, finished with the fastest times both days, almost a full second ahead of Alex.
photo by Pat Griffith
July 12th, I decided to go to a local event at Fort Meade . Thus begins my latest slide into mediocrity. I wasn't enthused with the Z-car Club designed "course" (a series of straights is what it was, with a circle around a light post thrown in for good measure), but then the car was pushing and I wasn't driving it well, and it all culminated with an off-course (after the car pushed too much then suddenly oversteered in the circle, I drove off the course, changed tires and was ready to go by the time Justin finished his last run). I think I still managed 5th spot, ahead of Steve Brown, but Vickie and Steve Smith beat me for the first time ever, and Steve Catlin won FS.
The Northeast Divisionals were the next weekend, back on the concrete at Rome. Once again, I decided to drive with my head firmly planted. During the practice session on Friday, I spun the car in a slalom (two runs after getting very sideways with Pat in the car). Then I proceeded to drive like crap during the actual competition. I didn't deserve to finish where I did (6th), and really only finished that high because of cone problems on Ron Bistrais' part (cones on every single run) and the fact that Brian Cook's back problems were really bothering him. On the other hand, Tim did very well, staying completely coneless all weekend (when was the last time that happened?), and beating a cone-happy Sam (cones on all Saturday runs) and Lynne (cones on all Sunday runs). He's really starting to drive the car a lot better lately, with it almost moving like his old 924S through some of the turns.
The Pennsylvania State Championships were held the following weekend, in Harrisburg. After the previous two weeks, I wasn't really sure I wanted to go to this, especially after the ProSolo2 nightmare. But I thought this would be the way to exorcise those demons. Well, I was wrong. After a slalom-infested Saturday course, I was fourth of five, behind Tim (who was doing well, as always), Sam (who was using the "inferior equipment" excuse to explain why Tim was leading by all of a tenth), and Mike Snyder. The next day, I fell even further back, and stayed fourth only because I was the slowest of the four people who ran both days. Dean showed up and was cleaning everyone's clock, and even Mike Snyder was putting some great runs together on a fast, slalomless course (I guess they got the slalom bug out of their system with the Saturday course). Tim and I did both suffer from the fact that I brought old tires with me, and they corded early, but Sam wasn't on exemplary rubber either, and he creamed everyone's times, to take the overall win with Tim in second.
So that leaves us with the latest Frederick escapade. I'm getting extremely frustrated with my failing driving skills, and the flogging I did this past weekend didn't show any improvements. Sam showed up, but drove David Tittermary's LS1, and Tim actually came up for the event and still drove my car (after threatening to drive Sam Vassallo's CS MR2). Dean couldn't make it due to a death in the family, but Mike Snyder was there in the Firechicken, and Steve and Vickie Smith were in their LS1 as well. Gary and his dad showed up and both were running, and there was a plethora of other FS drivers, including Drew Manzella, who ran my car in the second heat to prevent a two-driver problem with his dad's car, and Lee Piccione, who hadn't yet fixed the 240Z's head gasket and so ran Mike Snyder's car. The Lee Piccione designed course made good use of the limited area at Harry Grove, but still presented problems for the chronically understeering Camaros. Lee had allegedly done a 43.0 in the first heat, and Drew managed a 45.7 (maybe a 45.8) in my car in the second heat. Third heat, Mike Snyder got down to a 44.1, while I did a miserable 45.409, as did Steve Smith. Vickie, on the other hand, did a 44.9. Because Steve and I ran the exact same time, I think I "beat" him with the second fastest times, as I had a 45.6 to his 45.7. Fourth heat brought out Tim and Sam, with a low 43 second battle ensuing. Tim's best 43.3 was marred with a cone, while Sam managed a clean 43.1. Tim's second-fastest 43.4 was good for third place.
We stayed for the "AI" meeting afterwards, where after one run in my car (a 44 something), I noticed that the right front tire had a slit on the sidewall. When I knelt down to investigate further, I saw EGOD! Yes, I'd never experienced it before in all the times I've run BFG tires (on the Mustang and on the Camaro), but the look was like nothing else -- a deep, corded, steel belt-showing groove right down the middle of the tire, while the rest of the tire looked "fine." The other front tire was corded, slightly, in the fashion I've seen all too often lately on my R1s. It looked like a couple of layers literally peeled themselves away from a patch in the middle of the tire. Very, very odd.
The rest of the fun runs, I took Andy Poling's Miata out a couple of times, with John Ryan in the passenger seat, trying not to spin it. It oversteered a lot more than the last time I drove it. I also took John Ryan's Neon out twice, even though it was on street tires, and finished about 0.6-0.7 behind his best times. It didn't understeer like I thought a FWD car on street tires was going to do. Weird. I also took both Mike Snyder's Firebird and David Tittermary's Camaro (both LS1s) out, and didn't do a whole lot better than I did in my own car (45.2 in David's car, and had oversteer problems in Mike's).
Well, the weekend afterwards, instead of going to the NASCAR race at Watkins Glen, like I probably should have, I drove out to the Central Divisional in Indiana by my lonesome to get beat by a bunch of people I rarely run against. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time joshing around with the likes of Chris Lindberg and Brian Goodner, but I really wanted to do better than 11th of 12. We had four runs the first day, and I got my best time on my third run (I dropped 1.3 from my second to third run). I think I also got my best time on my third run on Sunday, but I didn't do quite as well on Sunday, and fell from 9th to 11th, behind two people I was beating very soundly, and at least one of whom I beat badly at Evansville. My only consolation is that the car worked very well, once I got the tire pressures straightened out, and I would have won FSL (over Bea Regganie and Scott Lewis' wife) by almost two seconds.
I think we (Tim Aro and I) may be doing Harrisburg this weekend. I don't know for sure which events we are doing before Nationals rolls around. Things are kinda weird here.
"Things are kinda weird" was an understatement. I won't go into all of the gory details. Suffice to say that things will never be the same between me and my former co-driver, Justin Huffman. Anyway, Tim and I did go to Harrisburg that weekend, August 23rd, primarily because I needed to get away from the house and the problems associated with it. Sam and Lynne were there for the Saturday course, but when they saw the Sunday course (designed by a go-kart driver, and it was obvious), they packed up. Sam left before he saw the first heat coup d'etat that led to a massive redesign, and Lynne, while she saw it, had no desire to change tires again and unpack. Tim and I only did non-comp runs, and if we both had run comp runs, I would have been 3th (Tim would have won, Mike Snyder would have been second, and I would have been followed by Brian Burdette and Scott Breneman). The most interesting part of the day was the fun runs, when Rex Carle took my car for a run, and was surprised at the brakes and the power. ;) I think the handling also wasn't as bad as he expected, but I'm sure it was still nothing compared to his Lotus Elan.
The following weekend, I didn't do much of anything except look at houses, and find a new place to live. That worked out great. Then Labor Day weekend, which I thought I was going to spend at Summit Point, took a different turn. Tim and I decided that we'd drive to Rome, New York for a regional event! So, Saturday evening, after I'd moved most of my stuff to the new place, we left for Rome, stayed in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the night, and drove the rest of the way in the morning. We weren't the only ones.... Lynne and Paul were there, along with some other last-weekend-Nationals-practice types like Chang Ho Kim, the Raffertys, the Fines, Heather Mann, Tony and Ian (from Toronto), and Mikey and Blake. It was a regular "National" event! ;) It was also one of my best drives of the season (man, why'd I waste it there?) -- I was third, less than two seconds behind Lynne and Tim, who'd been within thousandths pretty much every run.
Then, we came home Sunday night, and the next morning, I changed the oil and said "bye" to the Camaro for the next week.... Tim was taking it with him so he could drive it out to Topeka for me! He was leaving me with his "trusty" MR2 (always check the coolant before an important trip!). That Friday afternoon, I tore outta work to go straight to BWI and catch a flight to Kansas City so I could go to the ProSolo2 Finale and the National Championships. I caught my flight, no problem, switched planes in Nashville (where I met up with AS MR2 Turbo driver Carter Thompson, who was on the same flight) and made it to Kansas City a little ahead of schedule. I picked up yet another car -- a four door Geo Metro rental -- and drove the hour to Topeka, where I found the hotel only because I found my car (and boy, was I happy to see my car).
The ProSolo2 Finale was less than ideal driving on my part, and on Tim's too, I guess. My mind was elsewhere, and had been for the entire week. I don't know what was up with Tim. The course was tight -- designed by Howard Duncan -- and I found myself caught between first and second much of the time. It was either ride the rev limiter in first, or bog in second, no in betweens. :( That, and I fought the car too much, not being patient enough to let it do what it needed to do. I wasn't DFL after the morning session, but it wasn't looking hopeful for the afternoon.
The afternoon saw Strano throw another amazing fit, this one over yet another "mystery cone." Pat Salerno (who was co-driving my car at the Nationals and running it at a practice event on the North Course side), Alex, Dave Tittermary and I saw the FS grid sheets and immediately noticed that Sam wasn't listed #1. Thinking it was a mistake, we went to tell him, just to watch him get mad. Of course, the first person he bitches to was Lynne (since she works T&S), then he goes to the timing truck to yell at Howard. Well, they never did take back the cone, even though Howard finally let Sam have his way and run in the #1 spot against Dean. Plus, it turned out that that run might have cost him the championship... as it was, he lost to Alex by 0.010, which left them tied in points, and since the Finale determines ties, Alex won. Me? I should've just flown out Monday. :( I finished DFL. I almost walked away from the whole event, without even finishing my work assignments (thank you, Kim, for not penalizing me!), considering it started raining right after my last runs, and I was working impound. As it was, when I was done on Sunday, I just took my spare keys and found my car where Salerno had parked it, then went back to the hotel without telling anyone. Tim came and bothered me later, as did Mike Garner's fiancee', Jean-Marie, but my mood was shot by then.
Monday was a lazy day that we spent walking the course over and over and over again. We got registered (breeze), teched (did Jeff even open the hood?), and that was all by, oh, I don't know, 10 AM? I think I walked the south course about 7 times, and practically had blisters from the experience. I hung out with some of the FS guys, avoided two in particular (and I'm not talking Brian Goodner here), and tried to maintain a positive attitude. We also got two more tires mounted up (shaved), and then we were set for Tuesday morning.
Tuesday, I was first of the three of us, since I was running FSL. I bombed. Period. There's no other way to describe how I drove. I knew the course like the back of my hand, and still, when I came into the first 180, I went too deep and threw the whole run away right there. I never did quite recover. I let all the other crap bothering me detract from my driving, and I just couldn't concentrate to save my life. Tim, on the other hand, drove like he meant it. He opened up with the fastest time of the class, setting the mark for everyone else to catch. Pat was doing respectably also. At the end of the day, I was sixth (of seven), Tim was sixth (0.001 behind Sam), and Pat was around 20th (ahead of Justin, as he pointed out at the Team HUOA dinner that night).
Wednesday, I really didn't feel like going back. I had to look at it as a new day. I knew my chances of winning were gone. I just had to make a respectable showing. North course was much faster than South course; I tried to treat it like I did the Sunday course at Evansville. I did drive slightly better, though I had dug such a deep hole, there was no escaping it. I didn't move up, though I didn't move down either. Tim managed to move up a couple of positions with the North course, as did Pat. Dean won, but was sweating it until Tim's last run was announced. The final results were Dean, Brian Priebe, Lynne, Tim, Chris Ramey, Sam. Pat finished 18th.
I flew home Wednesday afternoon, leaving my car in teardown, where it just passed the mandatory differential check. It was probably a good thing we ran the ProSolo and the regional event before the Nationals.
We took a little break the following weekend, then we were back into regional action on the 27th of September. We drove to Lynchburg, Virginia for a Blue Ridge Region event, where there were four drivers and two cars in FS -- mine and Krichbaum's. Both Gary and his dad were driving this time around. My car decided to lose its ABS on Tim's first run (the only time it did it, but it was enough to play mind games with us). Other than that, we did okay; though I finished DFL (4th) in class, I was fourth overall on PAX. Yes, FS went 1-4 on PAX, with Roger Garrett and his FTD raw time finishing 5th.
The following weekend, October 4th, saw rain and cool weather in the Richmond area. Still, Tim and I drove to Ft. Pickett for the first time ever to experience a VMSC event being run by Subaru afficionado Richard West. The rain kept a lot of people away, but we were there to have fun, and I think that, despite the weather, that was one of the best times I've had at an autocross in a long time. Tim walked away with FTD and the win in FS (over just me), and I was only 1.5 behind him. I was fourth overall, third on PAX, and would have been third overall had John Sheally not shown up and run when the course was almost dry. I even had a better time than Roger, but then again, he was running on practically slick R1s on wet pavement. Mine at least had tread! On the way back to Richmond, Roger and I had a little fun on the highway (let's just call it triple digit fun), and then we (Tim, Roger and I) watched the CART race from Mulligan's.
Three weeks until the next event, and the first event by myself in a long time. October 25th was the last MWCSCC event at Ft. Meade for the year. I should have stayed home. After a relatively good event at Ft. Pickett, I totally bombed out at Ft. Meade (do I ever have a good event there?). I was a second behind people like Steve Catlin and was even behind Steve Brown and Steve and Vickie Smith, both of whom I've beaten soundly before. I tried to maintain a happy face, but cried almost the whole way home. I'd let Justin's presence distract me yet again. :(
The following weekend was Hallowe'en and the Virginia State Championship autocross, at Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie. This event was fun, if for no other reason than I got to drive some fun cars in fun runs on Saturday. Tim was there, and drove Eric Peterson's Miata in BS. I finished fourth overall in FS, behind Strano, Terry Baker (in his third gen) and Steve Catlin. Saturday, being Hallowe'en, I drove in my Budweiser dress, just for kicks. I also got fun runs in Rob Falkner's Porsche 968 (a nice combination of the 924S handling and the Camaro's power) and Eric Bonnett's CP Mustang which he just bought from Dale Maurice. Saturday night, a bunch of us went out and watched the final F1 race of the year from Suzuka, where Mika Hakkinen won the World Championship.
November 8th was a cold day in Staunton, Virginia. I went by myself, and was the first one to arrive -- not because of a screwup involving daylight savings time this time around, but because I was setting up the course. I was very nervous about this first course effort, especially when I saw a red BMW M3 in the paddock -- G.H. Sharp was there. I asked for input from everyone, and everyone was very willing to help out. The course turned out really great; too bad the weather wasn't cooperating too! I finished first in FS, despite the fact that I was running race tires (I likely would have done better on the street tires, it was so cold). G.H. took two fun runs in my car, and improved by a significant margin, so after taking Jeff Colvin's Mustang out for two runs and letting him take my car out, I went out once more and improved -- still about two seconds off of G.H.'s time, but a lot better for me. Riding with G.H. was interesting, mainly because it was the first time ever I'd ridden with someone else and felt like we were going slower than when I was driving. That's how smooth G.H. is behind the wheel. Jeff's car was fun too, being on street tires.
November 15th was the first of the Winter 4 series in Tidewater, and I got this crazy idea to run as many different cars in the series as possible. So I started this one with Roger Garrett's 1998 Corvette. That morning, I went down to Richmond, left my Camaro, and drove the '98 the rest of the way, following him in his ZR1. Needless to say, a lot of people were surprised to see me pull up in a Corvette. In fact, many of them, the first thing they asked was, "Where's the Camaro?" The Corvette was a lot of fun, though the back end was a little too tail happy for my liking. Roger and I were the only ones in BSP, and he won, without a problem. I had fun, though I was pining for my little green terror by the end of the day.
The 22nd was supposed to be a high speed event at Dinwiddie, but was cancelled at the last minute, to everyone's chagrin. So, December 6th turned out to be the final Blue Ridge Region event for the year, held in Lynchburg. The "Let It Snow" autocross was more of a "Let the Sun Shine Down" event, as the temperatures were in the 70s. The course was a little shorter than usual, but it was enough to give us four runs on the day, which was a good thing, since I threw away my last run with an off course. I started off with a crisp run that Terry Baker swore I wouldn't be able to match, much less beat, so my second run, I let him get to me and screwed up the slalom. That left the door wide open for my co-driver, Brian Tiffany, to come back with a faster run. Considering this was something like Brian's fifth autocross ever, and I'd signed him up as a rookie, I couldn't let his time stand. My third run nipped him by two tenths, and his third was a little slower than his second. My third run also shut Terry up about me being able to match my first run time. My fourth run, I was determined to drive the win home, but the sun was low in the sky, and I missed the turn in for the slalom completely. Brian, fortunately, didn't improve by quite enough to catch me, though the final margin was less than a tenth. We were 7th and 8th overall on the PAX times, and 12th and 13th overall on raw times. I don't think the rest of the people were convinced he was a rookie....
The last autocross of the year was the 20th of December at Fentress. I drove my own car this time for competition and then took Brian's 944 out in fun runs. Brian drove my car again in competition and he also took his car out for fun runs. This time, though officially I beat him by seven tenths in the Camaro, he had a slightly faster raw time than my best raw time, though we both had cones on our best runs. I nailed my third run in his Porsche and managed to get him there too. I don't think Brian and I will be sharing a car again any time soon. ;)
I will hopefully be driving Terry Baker's (Bob Brochu's?) BMW Z3 coupe at the next Tidewater event. If not his car, then perhaps someone else's, such as Tom Bleh's BMW, or Terry's Camaro.
go to current history go to links page go to results go to picture page send email