Past History of the Car
okay, i was just trying to use up a roll of film when i shot this picture.
1997 and earlier
So far, I've taken the car to two FSL wins, one at the 1996 Pittsburgh National Tour and one at the 1997 Devens National Tour -- but I was the only entrant in both cases. My boyfriend took 3rd in FS at the Pittsburgh event with the car and my trophy says I won FS open class, much to my surprise. When I asked Dave Cole, the real FS winner what his trophy said, it read "1st Place, E Stock" (a Neon dominated class). <grin>
September of 1996 was the National Championships in Kansas, where the car was first run on BFG R1s. A couple of bad decisions in terms of tire pressures put my boyfriend towards the end of FS (28th out of 30-some). I didn't run.
March of 1997 saw the car, sans me again, at the Hampton, Georgia National Tour event. My boyfriend drove it to a 4th place (one out of trophies) finish there.
On April 20, 1997, I took 18th (of 24) in the ProSolo2 Ladies class at the Petersburg ProSolo2. It was disappointing to me, for my first ProSolo2, but then again, I still beat all the people I usually beat, so I guess I didn't do too badly. My boyfriend did 5th in an eight car FS class, and qualified 15th for the Club Challenge, which was high enough to be award the Grassroots Motorsports Rookie Award. But, he went out in the first round after getting cocky running against Heather Mann's Neon. This was the first event we ran on the Kumhos, since we corded the R1s back in March at a Tidewater event.
At the Columbus ProSolo2 (May 31-June 1, 1997), we didn't fare very well. In fact, this was the worst aquacross I've ever been to! I was fortunate, in that the Sunday runs for the Ladies class were done in "drying" conditions, but the Sunday morning FS class was run in 2-3" of standing water. Sam Strano, who was leading after Saturday's runs, dropped from 1st to 6th place when Dave Cole got new tires for his Turbo TransAm. Justin finished 9th of 15, just behind last year's National Champion, Brian Goodner, and 1997 Hampton Tour winner Alex Tziortzis. How bad were the conditions? For the first time ever, I had a better time than Justin. In fact, my one course time was just behind Dean Sapp's time in the ISP Viper! I still only finished 22nd in the Ladies class though.
The Harrisburg ProSolo2 (June 21-22, 1997) was a very hot and humid day. I was stuck on running 31.8s on the left course (4 in a row!), even though I had a 30.4 on the right -- after a rerun caused by an errant cone through the timing lights. I didn't do so hot here, either -- 29th out of 36, and only 0.009 seconds behind the 28th spot finisher Tina Begovich in her FSL Mustang Cobra. Once again, I still beat the people I normally beat, but I haven't seemed to improve any. And, if I was even close to getting a decent light, I probably would have beat Tina. :( Justin was disgusted by the car's handling (but then again, he's always complaining that it doesn't handle like the Mustang -- well, duh, it's a stock Camaro, of course it doesn't handle like a prepared Mustang!), so he bought a new front swaybar for it. Now, instead of the hollow 1LE 32mm front bar (stock Z28s have a hollow 30mm bar up front), we have a solid 32mm front bar.
Two weeks later, we first ran that new front bar, and I got my butt seriously kicked in FSL at the Evansville National Tour (July 5-6, 1997). There would have only been two of us -- Tina Begovich again and me -- but Bea Regganie's ESPL ride broke, and Bob Anderson offered his fourth gen Z28 to her. Since she didn't have any ESPL competition, she decided to run FSL instead. I finished 5 seconds behind her, over the two days. I was half a second behind Tina. In other words, I drove like complete crap. I was so pissed at the car that I didn't want to drive it at the NE Divisional event. Justin did very well at Evansville, coming in 3rd in a 12 car FS class. The sad thing was that I would not have finished DFL if I'd run open class.
The Northeast Divisionals were held in Rome, New York on July 19-20. I didn't end up driving Tim's Porsche, as I had registered, since his tires were questionable as to whether or not they'd make it through the whole event. So, I ran my own car, but in FS open, not ladies class (no one had registered for FSL, so I didn't want it to look as if I only wanted a trophy). With me, there were 8 people total -- 5 of which had an excellent shot at winning. At the end of it all, I was actually not DFL -- no, that distinguished title fell to poor Pat Salerno, who wasn't having a great weekend! -- and Lynne Rothney-Kozlak came out on top. Sam was behind her by about a half second, and Justin was another 0.7 back. Ron Bistrais brought home fourth, Dave Cole fifth, Brian Cook sixth, then me, 1.998 back from Brian. I did better than I thought I would, especially considering how fast Sunday's course was. Justin's best time on that course was a 49.7, while mine was a 51.3. I was surprised to see Lynne applauding when my time was announced. Maybe I am getting better. Maybe I just need some good competition.
On regional notes this year, so far I've done a lot of 2nd place finishes -- at Tidewater (TSCC) events behind Justin, at the Mother's Day Blue Ridge Region event behind Todd Tignor (in his car), and at a VMSC event behind Jim Howard. I was the only FSL person at one of the Steel Cities events I went to, but I would have finished 3rd in the open class. I also finished 5th at a DC Region event , behind Sam Strano, Steve Brown, Jim Howard and Myron Suniega. At the regional Harrisburg event I attended, I ran the non-trophy class, but I would have at least beat my brother's times in my car. ;) At the NASA-VA high performance school autocross on July 26th, I not only had FTD, but also fastest PAX time -- and I'd like to thank Sam Strano and Tim Aro for not running! ;) The next day was the Virginia Commonwealth Games autocross at the Salem Civic Center. There were 83 cars running, including me in FSL and Justin in FS. Justin won FS, handily, and had fastest PAX time (13th on raw), even taking into account Terry Baker's AS car running ASP. I won FSL -- there wasn't anyone else running, as usual -- and was 9th on the PAX index (26th on raw times).
The first weekend in August, I put about 1000 miles on the car, going to Connellsville on Saturday, then Hampton, Virginia on Sunday. It was pouring at Connellsville when I got there Saturday morning (Sam Strano says to me, "Welcome to Indiana!"), so I ran my first three runs on the Goodyear Eagle GS-Cs that came on the car (and have about 37K on them). I was good enough for 4th place at that point. During the lunch break, I put the R1s on, and still was good enough for 4th place, though several seconds closer to 3rd. As Rudy the Tech Guy asked me to do, I beat the two Mustangs that were running FS, but Sam and Lynne weren't touchable. In fact, I spun the car three times (once on street tires, twice on the R1s during one fun run), and left with a bad taste in my mouth. I wanted to leave on a good note, and had I been able to do one more decent fun run, I probably would have come back the next day. Instead, I drove home, then down to Virginia for an Old Dominion Region event at Ft. Monroe. There were at least six FS people there (when I get the results I'll know for sure), and I did well enough to win by about a tenth, plus come in 4th on PAX times. Dale Blankenship ran a polo green FS Camaro (non-1LE) in ESP, and I beat his time also (by about 0.050), which when coupled with the fact that I was 0.6 off of Roger Garrett's time in his ASP ZR1, either means everyone else was driving crappy or I was driving exceptionally well that day. I needed the confidence boost, and I was glad I went down.
I went to Radford, VA again on 8/10 for a Blue Ridge autocross. It was a good fight in FS, with 4 of the 5 entrants within two seconds. I only managed second... I fell to Joel Balsley's Mustang by 0.005 seconds! Unbelievable. But, I still finished 8th on raw times and 4th on the PAX.
There was another two-day Steel Cities event at Connellsville on 8/16-17. Since Sam Strano and Lynne Rothney-Kozlak were in Denver for the National Tour, first in FS was basically a fight between me and Dan McNally, who drives a red 1991 Z28 1LE. I ended up edging him out by 0.4 on my last run on Saturday. Sunday, however, got a little weird when Kent Rafferty and I missed our afternoon runs because we had to take Tim Aro to the hospital -- it turned out that he had a kidney stone. It was pretty scary, both the 90+ mph ride there (I think that was the fastest Kent drove all day! <grin>), and the amount of pain Tim obviously was in. Anyway, I only got 3 runs, Dan got all 6 of his, and he managed to tag my fastest run by 0.1 on his last attempt.
The following weekend was the Pennsylvania State Championship autocross in Harrisburg. After feeling like he took advantage of the situation in Connellsville, Dan McNally came out to take me on again. The only other FS competitor was Dave Senft, who drives a white fourth gen Z28. My goal was to beat Dave and Dan both. After Saturday's runs, I was only 0.2 back from Dave -- and I felt pretty good about that. I figured the overall win was well within reach. Then I saw Sunday's course. Very, very fast setup by John Rudy, with lots of straights and very few transitions. Every time I walked the course, I kept telling myself to keep my foot in it. Well, I think I listened too well. I kept my foot in it, alright, but I didn't do much else. :( After blowing all of my runs at some point or another, I finished 0.8 behind Dave. Dan was 0.3 back from me. Oh well, I guess you really can't win them all.
Nationals has come and gone. After a two-hour delay in Chicago, I was wondering if I was even going to make it! Well, eventually I did get to Kansas City, and from there, Justin drove me to Topeka. It was late, it had been a long day, and I was exhausted -- but I still needed to get up early in the morning to walk the course and get registered. I managed to wake up at the crack of dawn, and walked the South course twice before running around like a madwoman to get to registration (thanks to John Ryan, who lent me his car!). I walked once more, then settled down to watch the first heat FS action. Justin had some problems with the car (doesn't he always), Sam had problems with his car (residual effects of his bad trip to Denver), Lynne wasn't driving particularly well either. In fact, after one day, a nobody named Chris Ramey was winning and a Mustang was in second! Me, I blew the South course big time. My first run, as always, was conservative, and I took off 1.3 seconds on my second run. Then, on my third run, the brake boost went out at the end of the second slalom (at least that's what Yvonne Short says probably happened, since it's happened to her before). I killed a cone, and blew my third run. I was sitting in seventh, behind the staff member, Cindy Jansen, who was running Scott McHugh's car.
I started out Friday by walking and walking the course. I walked it twice the night before, then I walked it again in the morning. I walked it one final time before my heat, and Dave Cole insisted he walk with me. He gave me some specific pointers from his morning drives (he finished ninth in FS), and I promised I'd try to do what he said. I'm more of an instinct driver than anything, so sometimes it's difficult to try to drive a course a certain way. Anyway, my first run was again conservative. Then I went out and blitzed my next two runs. I dropped 1.3 seconds on my second run, then I thought I blew my third run when I screwed up the sharp 180 "ski jump" turn and almost spun the car. Figuring I'd just thrown away my third run -- again -- I just screamed through the rest of the course. John Ryan, working the course in the offsets, said I was truly flying through that part. When I came off the course and looked for my time, I thought for sure it said a 58 something (a second or more slower than my second run). But the more I looked at it, the more it looked like a 56 something. It was -- a 56.000, one more second faster than my second run. If I hadn't blown the turn, it would have been in the 55s. Oh well.
Justin ended up moving from 25th on Thursday to 16th on Friday. Sam finished 7th. Lynne got 3rd. Pat Salerno beat my times, and founded Team H.U.O.A. Alex Tziortzis finished 2nd -- he had an awesome run on Friday that no one else touched. And Chris Ramey with the questionably legal 1992 Camaro RS B4C won.
Scott and Greg Witt were there as well. Scott took second in AP, Greg didn't do so well. Wayne Lewis again finished DFL in AP, driving Pete File's car -- and also tried to roll it on the South course. John Lye came out and beat a Yugo in EP. ;) Tim Aro came in second in CS, and has Kevin Bailey looking forward to some good competition next year. Cathy Strathmann finished first in ASL and shared the first timer award with Ramey. All in all, it was a pretty fun couple of days, and I hope Tim enjoyed his trip to Babydolls on Friday night!
this was the "prize" for beating the staff entry at the nationals. i beat cindy jansen in fsl. justin (and everyone else in fs) beat dennis dean.
September 21 , I went to a Tidewater event at Fentress... the first post-Nationals event, if you will. After a discussion with Terry Baker on Saturday, we decided he was going to co-drive my car since he'd just placed an order for a '98 1LE. Justin, after much indecision, decided to stay home this weekend. Terry enjoyed his runs in my car -- he won FS by 1.1 seconds (over me). Robert Rhodes came up from North Carolina, and he managed a best 57.0 to my 56.2. Terry had run a 55.1, clean, and a 54.9 with a cone. Tom Newman also drove his FS Firebird, and he did a 57.2. Then, during fun runs, I made the mistake of swapping cars with Tim. I'd forgotten what driving the 924S was like, and while I barely managed sub-60 runs in his car, he managed to do a 54.8 clean and a 54.5 with a cone in mine. The 54.8 was good enough to take best PAX... over his own 55.3 CS time. What can I say? He's a hell of a driver. I'm happy I was less than two seconds back from him. If only I hadn't missed a shift on my last run in the Camaro.... ;)
I reverted back to some of my old ways the Saturday of 9/27 in Connellsville, for the Saturday portion of the Am-Can Challenge. Running against Sam Strano, Dan McNally and Neil Wilson, as well as three Mustangs, I figured second or third was well within reach. After first runs, where I slid all over the course and hit three cones in order to stay on course, I even thought second was not only a possibility, but definite. But I never pulled my head out, and never improved enough in timed runs or fun runs to get past Dan, who finished 2nd. My best raw competition time would have taken Neil out, but I had two cones on it. :(
I went to Lynchburg for an aquacross on Sunday the 28th rather than face more humiliation in Connellsville. Justin came down with me, and we ran on the street tires. I still didn't drive extremely well, but I was good enough for second there.
On October 4th, I helped out at the NASA-VA performance school being run on the Jefferson Circuit. Because I was doing corner work (flagging), Mike allowed me (and the other workers) to run the time trials event for free. My car is such a cheater car at track events though, being the 1LE package and all, and so it really came as no surprise to me that I won the time trials even though I was trying to conserve my brakes (braking early in turns 1, 5, and 7, and generally taking it easy around the course). I was happy that my car made it home in one piece, too, as two BMWs went off course in major ways. One was totalled when it stopped -- against a tree.
October 12th didn't exactly have a happy ending to it either. That was an autocross at Ft. Monroe, in Hampton, Virginia, put on by the Old Dominion Region. I was the only one in FS, and while that is kind of sad, the really depressing part was when Tim Aro finished his last run and the 924S was making a scary noise. That, and I think we're all starting to suffer a little bit from autocross burnout. Terry Baker brought out his new toy -- a white 924S that's been converted to M030 specs -- and crushed Tim's best time by almost a second. Granted, Tim's car probably wasn't running well, but it was impressive nonetheless. Terry's time was a 95.0, while my best was a 100.2 (yes, it was a long course). Dale Blankenship asked if he could take a spin in my car, and I let him; he managed a 100.1 on his run.
Rainy and wet described the Tidewater area on October 19 . I had been at the USRRC Trail of the Lonesome Pine taking pictures the day before (look for them in the January 1998 issue of Sportscar on page 20!), and drove out to Tim Aro's house Saturday night. The check engine light came on just east of Lynchburg, which concerned me. Waking up around 9AM Sunday morning and seeing green covering the local radar screen during the Weather Channel's local forecast didn't make me any happier. However, Tim's roommate's mom was enough to make me want to get up and leave, and so I went over to the event site to see what was going on. There were maybe 8 cars there at the time. I watched a few of them run and Curtis Staples offered me a ride in his CS Porsche 944. I didn't think I wanted to run, and I hadn't filled the gas tank in the Camaro or anything, but finally I just caved in, asked if I needed to tech the car, and then unloaded the race tires. Tim asked if he could ride with me, and I warned him that with street tires, rain and five gallons of gas, it was going to be, um, interesting. It was, especially my first run, since I hadn't even walked the course, just watched a few runs and looked at the course map. I stayed on course and managed a 71 something, which was by no means STD. My next run I got a little lost trying to run the course in a different configuration, figured out where I was supposed to be, got sidways in the slalom and pushed like crazy in all the turns, and still managed a 71.4. The third run, I was ready to get down to business. I had the tire pressures set, and I was ready to break into the 69s; I didn't manage it that time, but did get a 70.3. Traction was nonexistant with the light rear end. So, I threw one of the race tires in the trunk pit, and tried first in all the turns to "cure" the push. It worked a lot better (plus I was actually trying to listen to some of the things Tim was telling me -- he'd been in the car for all the runs), and I got a 69.3. I went out for a fifth and final run (though only the first four counted), and spun it in a turn. I got high marks for entertainment value.
Rain the weekend of 10/26 made it two rainy autocrosses in a row, but at least the Staunton, Virginia site had someplace to escape the rain. A long course setup by Rick Ebinger, Mal, Doc, and Todd Tignor was made more interesting by slight changes that were made throughout the course of the day due to people hitting cones, and the cones not being marked in boxes (due to the rain, since there was nothing waterproof to mark them with). Of 23 cars entered, three were FS (if you include me) -- Todd, me, and a kid in a Mustang. Well, I was leading after my second run, but then the kid in the Mustang rips off a really good run -- partly due to the fact that the slalom had just been destroyed, and reset so that it was not longer really a "slalom." My third run, I regain the lead, but then he took it right back. My last run, I go all out, and the car's pushing like mad the whole time. I didn't catch the kid's third run, when he betters slightly on his fourth run, to beat me by a total of 2 seconds. I find out though that he was running on R1s, while I was still on my streets. Next time, he's mine....
Finally! The weekend of 11/16, there was no rain, and the autocross wasn't cancelled! Friday night, Tim Aro finally called to let me and Justin know that the event -- including a Saturday school -- was on, so we drove on down almost immediately. Saturday was the school, which was kind of boring for me since I was just hanging around (Justin was instructing, as was Sam, Tim and Calvin Sanders). Mike Garner and I shagged cones a bit during the slalom exercise, until Justin came out to show students what his Mustang could do. We also got a little nervous after Tim put a BMW almost into the trees -- I guess he should stick with "buzzbombs." Anyway, after the students left, Sam modified part of the course, and then we all went playing. I ran my car a couple times around, then I took Sam's car out. It's better than mine in the 180s, but my car has more acceleration and better brakes. I also wasn't really impressed with how the steering felt in his car. However, everyone (Tim, Mike, Sam, etc.) was saying that I looked a lot faster in Sam's car than I did in my own (and Tim rode with me in both my car and in Sam's car). I didn't think it felt faster, just smoother, and that was possibly because I was driving more slowly and carefully. Anyway, Sam and Tim also took my car for rides, and now Tim, especially, doesn't think Sam's car is that much better than mine and Sam doesn't think my car is necessarily better than his. Depending on the tire situation next year, Sam and I may do co-drives, but that would mean me going back to Kumhos.
At the autocross the next day, I went down with Sam to Tidewater , and let him drive my car. We were the only two FS drivers, so I finished second and DFL, 2.1 seconds behind Sam (he had a 54.0 while I had a 56.1). I screwed up the braking point going into the final turn on my last run, so I know I could have done 55s, but I don't know about the 54. Sam complained that the car wasn't hooking up -- well, we corded the two rear tires the day before and we were just lucky to get them through tech inspection (I didn't notice they were corded until after Jim signed our tech card and left). Plus I need a new diff. And the EGR valve still needs replacing (the car is still telling me to service the engine soon!). There's nothing scheduled for the weekend of 11/22, so I'm going to try to get that stuff done so I can be somewhat successful at the Va. States, where Terry Baker will probably have his new car (he should be picking it up the weekend before states, and driving it back from Texas). Dean is hoping to have his car in the next month as well. F-bodies everywhere! Now, if we can just convince Tim to get one too...
Okay, I still need the new diff (as of 12/12/97), but I replaced the EGR valve on Thanksgiving, and the car is no longer telling me to service it.
The last two events I've attended, I've run against some of the "big guns" in FS, running in open class. November 29-30 was the Virginia State Championship autocross in Dinwiddie, Virginia, at the Virginia MotorSports Park. Justin took his Mustang down, so I was running my car myself. I'd offered it to Dean, but he couldn't make it (Erik Strelnieks' wedding was that weekend), and Tim got a ride in Roger Garrett's 1998 Corvette (he ran BP so as not to beat Roger in ASP). After the first day, I was sitting nicely in third place, about sixth tenths behind Steve Catlin, who'd bought a fourth gen Z28 after being convinced his third gen 305ci wasn't going to cut it (I don't know who convinced him of this, but he definitely has more confidence driving the fourth gen). I knew I could run with Steve, and I set out to prove it on Sunday, in the rain. Well, I was doing okay on my first run, but my second run was a complete disaster; as I pulled up to the start line, my rightside windshield wiper started acting funny. I figured I'd look at it after the run. Wrong move -- when I hit the gas to start, it flew up and locked with the good wiper, obstructing my view, and of course, not clearing off the pouring rain. I couldn't see crap during the entire run. It's amazing that I didn't go off course and was only a second slower than my first run. Anyway, my confidence in the car was shot, and my third run I coned away a run that would have put me in second. Worse still, even with the cone, it was my fastest run, and it almost dropped me to fourth, behind Krichbaum (the "kid" <grin>) in the Mustang, who had a much better day in the rain than most of us. I do have to thank Bill Brochu, ESP BMW driver, for fixing the wiper for the third run; after all, I was so mad after I got off the course after my second run, I was ready to just rip the thing off if he hadn't come over and said he knew what was probably wrong (the nut securing the wiper to the wiping mechanism had become loose).
The next weekend, December 7th, was an Autocrossers Inc. event at UMCP. Strano came down, and Justin drove his car in FS rather than mine. Once again, I drove my car myself, this time against people like Dean and Neal Sapp. Neal was driving the gray convertible Mustang owned by Steve Brown, which is a big change from the Neons and Miatas he's used to driving. I wasn't in the best of moods that day anyway, and I just became more unhappy when I finished my first run and thought I heard "67" something. That would have put me only six seconds behind Terry Baker's best clean run in his '98 Camaro. I sat in the car and reflected on my run, thinking of where I could go faster. My next run, I swear I heard "65." I was ready to cry at that point, and was trying to stay calm when Lee Piccione came up and said that I was on the same hundredth as Jennifer Wilson -- a 63.9. While still not great in my eyes, it was significantly better than what I thought I had. My third run was only marginally better, a 63.1, but it was good enough to get Neal Sapp by three tenths, which surprised the hell out of me. Sam won, Justin was second, Dean was third (driving Mike Snyder's 1998 Firechicken, which only had about 70 miles on it at this point), and Terry was fourth (he would have been second, had it not been for a cone on his fastest run, but then Dean would have won had it not been for a cone on his fastest).
Everyone says my car has a lot of horsepower though, probably more so than the '98s that are starting to show up. Dean and Lee drove my car in fun runs at UMCP, and were both impressed at the pickup. Terry drove it during fun runs at the Virginia States, and thought it was faster too. If I can get the diff fixed sometime soon, and figure out how to get it to handle a little better, in the right hands it might win a couple of events in 1998. I also have to replace at least one wheel stud, since it broke when we were changing back to the street tires at UMCP.
Last, but not least for 1997, I went to the second TSCC Winter 4 event , held at Langley Speedway on December 21. The diff (and the broken wheel stud) were fixed by Dean on Monday, and so I was ready to run. But, like last time, I was a little nervous about putting my car into the wall. Fortunately, no one else did (even though there were some close calls!), so I wasn't shaking getting into the car. I did have to "save" my car from Strano, though (who was running Justin's CP Mustang!) -- he comes up to me and asks if my keys are in the car (knowing full well that's typically where I leave them when the car is in grid). I do a quick pocket pat, realize where they are, then the race is on! I beat Sam to the car in time to grab the keys and keep them with me, thereby saving my car to autocross another day. ;) Oh, as for results, well, Terry ran his CS Porsche 924S and Justin ran CP, so I was left to run against a novice guy. In fact, the official results probably list me as the only FS entrant, since novice is a separate class. Like it mattered anyway -- after the timer keeled in the first heat, the times were done by two or three people averaging stopwatches together. Plus we only got two timed runs. But, I'm not too concerned. Because of the timer malfunction, we all got a "free" fun run, and then I took one more fun run because Tim wanted to ride around with me (he ran Curtis Staples' CS 944). The run with Tim was my best (a 44.8 by Tim's watch, a 44.6 by the stopwatchers).