From Outhouse to Penthouse: CART Autox 05/02 by Liam Dwyer
On Sunday May 2nd the Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team held its 2nd autocross of the season and the first at LAZ parking in Hartford. The weather Gods once again smiled down upon us with the sun and warm temperatures. This is far from the norm of Hartford events where its usually 90 degrees in the baking sun, leaving people miserable and ready for a cold beer by the 2nd run. The first job of the day was to move our porta john. Club President Bob Doiron started the day at the back of a truck, towing a john across the lot. Liam Dwyer was the event chair and he tasked Jim Duphiney with course design. Duphiney laid out a very fast sweeping course and has us going opposite our usual direction. The course started with a hard left after the launch area through the timing lights, it then broke right and went up the left side of the lot to a hard 180 degree right hander and down into the center of the lot. Drivers were greeted with two tight 90 deg left hander, that when taken properly were a flowing 180 deg left. The trick was keeping it tight on exit because the gates didn’t allow you to open up. Instead they tightened up on the left side before sweeping off to the right and all the way back down the right side of the lot. A quick jog to keep people honest before the finish finished off the course.
In Stock category, John Williamson was took his B stock STI to a class win over the Mustangs of Jerry Jones and Marc Boerma, both bumped from F stock. Tom Mak again had his mom’s 370z and lead all comers in C stock beating out Yaro Taeger’s M3 by almost eight tenths. Brad Snow once again held down D stock in his Mini Cooper. Fellow Mini Cooper driver John Westerman was second. G stock was a battle of agility vs American brawn. Being an autocross its no surprise what came out on top. Jue Lin’s Speed Protégé was the winner followed by the co driven Ford Fusion of Rob and Bob Johnson. In H stock Rob Carter proudly displayed his, “You got beat by a wagon” sticker and took his Outback Sport Wagon to a class win.
Street Prepared only had three classes; BSP was two cars, 3 drivers. The village bicycle again sat on top with John Jankura this time beating Joe Solury. In CSP, Kevin FitzMaurice handed the keys to Paul O to take the win….literally. While Pauls car still sits without a running engine, FitzMaurice tossed Omichinski his keys and Omichinski drove to the CSP win. Chris Difiore again wore the bridesmaid dress and finished second. Greg Cullen’s Saturn made its return to Street Prepared, this time to be classed in FSP. Cullen’s reclassification lead to Joe Rathbun’s first class loss in a loooong time. Cullen was just over six tenths quicker through the cones than Rathbun.
X Prepared almost saw FTD come out of it. John Santos drove his freshly returned Cobra flawlessly but over drove on his last run to hand the FTD award to the infamous 350z. Santos still was too much for Dennis Polio’s Corvette as Polio would finish second in class, seven tenths back. C Prepared = Ray Covino. After Covino lost the non points event to Matt Cummings, Covino cinched down the harnesses and the helmet and hasn’t looked back. Covino decimated the CP class with a full second and a half win. A modified, had another Fiero on top, this one driven by Bill Evans. Bill eeked out a two tenths win over Brian Barnhill’s Tuner Tools car.
Street Touring All was lead by the overly loud Warren Elliott. Elliott piloted, or pushed his was through the course to a class win over Scott Murray. Nick Fandacone is Mr. SM2 and soon to be FTD. Two events, two FTD’s for Fandacone. Nick did have a different challenge Sunday from Santos’ Cobra, but Nick put the pressure on and never looked back.
The Novice classes saw the newbies battle it out. Bart Kotlewski piloted his Civic Si to the X novice win. Paul Pellegrino lead five car Y novice class. Pellegrino’s Focus edged out Ilia Reinfelds Civic by .09 seconds for the class win. Jeff Poarch was in the Bavarian Motorsports M3 and earned the Z novice win.
I know it looks like I forgot a class in the write up, but I must ensure you, I didn’t. Its just the significance of the results is so out of this world shocking, it deserves its own paragraph for special recognition. The class in subject is F Prepared, the CART home for Fiero’s and a decade old championship that has been hoarded by one person. So when that one person loses it makes headline news. In the write up two weeks ago, Bob Doiron’s car left on the trailer with pieces falling off of it and Joerg Bode of course won F Prepared. This week however, Bob Doiron got his clunker back together,and it lasted the whole event without breaking. Not only did it last the whole event, but Bob finally was able to show he really did need new tires after last season. His new tires gave him the slight edge this week, and when I say slight I mean slight. This week’s F Prepared winner Bob Doiron, won the closest class battle I have seen in my four years with CART. Bob drove his Fiero around the cones just .001 seconds quicker than Joerg Bode. News like this doesn’t happen often, Bob winning. Actually, I think I’ve seen more victories of .001 seconds than I’ve seen the number of times Bob beat Joerg. Joerg was so proud of Bob’s efforts and finally able to catch, that Joerg personally handed Bob the first place trophy. Now the question is, can Bob stay on top for event number three? Will he be moving the porta john at every event for good luck?
So far the battle for Driver of the Year and Autocrosser of the year is a one horse race lead by Nick Fandacone. Can Tom Mak keep pace in C stock? Can Paul Omichinski keep up the pace in CSP? Can YOU come and take Nick down? Come to our next event and find out, May 16th, LAZ Parking again in Hartford.
