The Shrine
For those who don't know already, I absolutely
love my car. As a consequence, I take lots of pictures of it, and
other people who take pictures of it send them to me. These are just a few
of the pictures I have in the collection -- if you have one you wish to contribute,
please contact me
!
Thanks to Tim Aro for the name of this "gallery."
He knows exactly why I love my car so much.
Beno Rubin took this picture of my car in impound at the Petersburg ProSolo2
in 1997. The blue car next to it is Sam Strano's car, which is now in ESP.
Justin took my car to the Challenge, but lost in the first round to Heather
Mann in her Neon. The next time the car made a Challenge appearance? The 1999
Petersburg ProSolo, with Brian Tiffany behind the wheel.
These pictures are from the car's first autocross, where Matt Carson
and I shared it. I had picked up a turtle on the way to the event -- and
put it in the back. I told Matt about it, and stressed to take it out
before he ran. After his first run, Matt comes running over to me (I
was working the start), and says, "Guess what I forgot?" The turtle was
okay, though it never seemed quite "right" after that.... ;)
This picture is from an old 1996 autocross at WB Clements in Salem, Va.
Justin is driving it here, so you know how long ago this must have
been!
Alright, so I was trying to use up some film here. I needed a couple of
pictures of my Escort, and there was one more picture on the roll.... Believe
it or not, the car is completely filthy in this picture! I washed it
right afterwards.
John Ryan took this picture at one of the last Connellsville autocrosses
ever -- the American-Canadian Challenge in September of 1997. I ran only the
Saturday portion of the event, and drove down to a rainy day in Lynchburg
for a Blue Ridge event the next day. Had to get my regional points, you
know!
Pat Griffith took this picture of my car during the July 1997 NASA-VA track
event. I was the third fastest person there, behind Sam Strano ('91 Camaro
Z28) and Tim Aro (924S). I still managed to win the high-speed autocross
(Solo I?), mainly because neither Sam nor Tim participated.
These pictures are from the October 1997 NASA-VA track day, when I really
was just going to do flagging, but then Mike Garner asked me to run the time
trial event. I asked for a few runs during the advanced session in order to
refresh my memory of the track, which is when Pat Griffith took these pictures.
I managed to win the time trial, after watching the BMW M3 that ran right
before me skid off into a tree. I wasn't even driving close to 100%,
after seeing that, plus knowing my brakes were all but shot (still on the
original factory pads!), and my tires were old.
I went to 75-80 for the Supreme Chevy Sunday in 1997, only to be rained
out shortly after this picture. It was actually drizzling when this shot was
taken.
Justin took the car to its first Nationals in Topeka in 1996. Unfortunately,
he fought with the car the entire time, as usual for him, and was lucky not
to finish DFL. I learned from his experience to never change tire
brands right before a major event without having someone to help you out
with pressures!
I have decided that autocrosses are supposed to be fun, and if I'm not
having fun, I shouldn't be there. This event was the first one I did with
my newest co-driver, Brian Tiffany (who took the picture). I signed him up
as a rookie, and he almost beat me. He finally did beat me at the 1999
Harrisburg ProSolo, and likely would have at the Petersburg ProSolo, had
I run FS and not ESP.
The 1998 NEDivs event was a lot of fun, starting with the practice event
on Friday, where I showed Salerno the "magic touch," and spun my car with
him in it in the slalom -- and then we sat and laughed while the dust settled,
and Tim, who was working course, just stared at us. Then I put it in first,
and spun the rear wheels in the dirt, brought the car back around and continued
through the end of the course. ;) The actual event was fun too, especially
when Nick Leverone announced that "all of the best FS drivers are here,"
and includes my name in the listing, but not Strano's! I ended
up doing better than I should have, simply because I managed to have clean
runs on both days -- something some people, including Sam, Lynne and Ron,
couldn't manage.
Right before the 1996 National Championships, my car saw its first track
day, as a pace car for the MARRS Double on that Labor Day weekend. I didn't
get to drive it, so I took this picture as it came through turn 3.
These are pictures of my codriver Tim Aro. He drove my car for the entire
1998 season, from regional events to National Tours in Rome and Evansville
to ProSolo2 events in Jackonsville, Peru, Petersburg and Harrisburg. And,
of course, he took the car to the 1998 ProSolo2 Finale and Solo2 National
Champioships in Topeka, where he took 4th place behind Dean Sapp, Brian
Priebe and Lynne Rothney-Kozlak. Tim drove my car amazingly well, considering
his major autocross experiences only encompassed a 1986 Toyota MR2 and a
1988 Porsche 924S before this.
I only wish Tim hadn't gone into "early autocross retirement" after driving
my car, but other things beckon him besides parking lot racing. I hope sometime
that he will come back to the sport, and enjoy it as much as I have in this
past year of irrelevant and random codriving.
And this is my latest codriver, Brian Tiffany. He has only been autocrossing
for a year now, and he is unbelievably quick at learning my car -- faster
even than Tim was. While Tim took my car to its first-ever Divisional win,
highest National Tour finish (2nd at 1998 Rome Tour), and best National
Championship finish (4th), Brian has brought home its highest ProSolo finish
with a 2nd place at the 1999 Petersburg ProSolo. While the Harrisburg event
didn't treat him as well, I'm fully confident that the car stands just as
good of a chance of trophying this year at Nationals as it did last year
-- and I mean the big trophy.
Brian likes to call this picture "Profiling at the ProSolo." This was
taken in Harrisburg at the 1999 ProSolo. The Firebird rims are on the other
side of the car. ;)
Here I am at the Evansville Freedom National Tour in 1999. Jeff Cashmore
took this picture Saturday morning -- before the spin I took on my
third run. Both of the courses were quite fast; if you were at the 1998 event,
you know basically what they were like. I finished DFL :( while Brian finished
3rd.
The 10th anniversary Virginia Commonwealth Games event saw course design
by Scott Witt. Brian and I both competed in FS. I was driving pretty hard
to try to keep up with Brian, but dang, he's really getting good
in my car! Look for a writeup in the October 1999 issue of SportsCar
, as this will be the Solo II Event of the Month. I took the picture of
Brian and Brian took the picture of me.
These cones disappeared in minutes as a thunderstom blew up at the end
of the event, and threatened to kill all of the course workers! Trophies were
delayed until power was restored to the Civic Center, because all of the
results were on the computer.
There was an event at Ft. Pickett in October 1998 where it rained like
crazy during the competition runs, and then cleared up for fun runs. The concrete
dust got all over the car, turning it practically white. Roger's ZR1
no longer looked black either. Tim and I both ran this event, and because
it was so wet and the tires we had weren't too grooved, we ran with each
other and just tried to make each other laugh. He ran 46 while I ran 36.
You can see me in the passenger seat in the picture of Tim driving down the
long straight. This may have been the run where he hit 5th inside of 2nd,
and I couldn't stop laughing. ;)
All of these pictures were taken by Jon Felton.
White wheels in the front and Firebird wheels in the rear -- this must
be the 1998 Virginia State Championships event. This was the first time (and
should have been the only time) I wore the Bud dress to an event. That
thing is not exactly comfortable to wear. Anyway, I got my butt kicked at
this event, but I also got to drive some kick ass cars in fun runs on Saturday
-- Rob Falkner's AS Porsche 968 and Eric Bonnett's CP Saleen Mustang.
Mid-Atlantic F-body is a mailing list, web page, and just a group of F-body
enthusiats in the Maryland, Virginia and surrounding areas. One of the crazy
things we did this year was get together a group of Camaro and Firebird drivers,
along with a few Vipers and a few Corvettes for what we called the 'Vette,
Viper, F-body Road-Race-A-Thon, or VVF RRAT, at Summit Point Raceway. This
was the first time I had my Camaro out on the big track. I'd driven the
big track in 1996, as part of a WDC region SCCA drivers' school, but that
was in an ITC Honda Civic! Big difference. Anyway, it was run like BSR's
Friday at the Track program, and I was put in group 1 since they
weren't sure of my experience. Because a lot of instructors didn't show
up, group one was split into subgroups A, B, and C. I was in group C, along
with about 7 other people, so I basically had the track to myself most of
the time. I passed a few people in the first session, but usually I didn't
see anyone for the entire twenty minutes. I was signed off for group 2i the
next time I go. We were already talking about RRAT2 at the end of the day.
;) Just days later was the MAFB Grillin' and Chillin' 2, in Raleigh, NC. This
was a chance to just hang out with F-body
friends over a grill and some brew. We had an impromptu car show (thanks
to Buddy Bogner), and while my car just blended into the background at the
back of the lot we took over, it didn't get "slowest looking" or "dirtiest"
awards, which I feared it may almost qualify for! ;)
I took the GNC picture, but Scott Breneman took all of the RRAT pictures
of me.
The Camaro has more miles on it currently than any Camaro 1LE ever should.
It is in excess of 200K now. These pictures were taken at Ft. Myers, Florida,
the car's winter vacation spot for the last three years.
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