One Wet Day by Liam Dwyer

Rowley Springs played host to CART's 2nd autocross of the season. The weather was the detering factor for some drivers, but there were still 83 drivers that made the start. Greg Cullen was the event chair and had a nice course drawn up; that was until he arrived and saw a trailer at the bottom of the lot.

The course started out fairly simple with a straight launch with a kink left about 90ft out. The left was meant to get people off line so you couldn't carry speed through a left hander on the top of the lot. Through this left hander you had a quick slalom that dumped you into an oval skid pad. You did almost 2 full laps before exiting near where you started and branching off to the right to a decreasing off set slalom. It was important here to slow down early as the exit of the slalom was a quick 180deg right hander than opened to a short straight. At the end of the straight was a left hander that turned 180degrees and tightened up as you went. A late apex here let you have a quick right hander that brought you into the finish.

Weather wreaked havoc with peoples runs. Those who were hoping to get quicker as the day went on, saw that evaporate as the run started coming down midway through third runs. Some got 2 good runs while some got 3. If weren't clean and fast by your 3rd, you weren't getting any faster. By the time 5th runs came around, the course was soaked and in some spots very slick sending many drivers into a few spins. The day was called early as some driver's antics were getting a little carried away.

The timed runs came as such.....In A stock, Nick Barbato kept his street tires on and posted the quick time (41.1)beating out the two Corvettes of Joe Solury and Eric Carlson. B stock was lead by Liam Dwyer's 41.0 second run. Mike Mallinson finished 2nd in his M3. Charlie Aucion took another win in C stock, beating Joe Barbato's MR2 by just .08 seconds. Jim Duphiney stayed in E stock this week and took the class win. His Miata was 2seconds quicker than Gary Frankels Fiero. Brad Snow earned his first G Stock win of the year. His 42.1 was almost 2seconds quicker than Jui-Lin Chang's Protege. The husband and wife duet of Tom and Martine Duran finished 3rd and 4th respectively in this large class.

None of the BSP heavy hitters were present which allowed Eric Lanzl to steal the show in his STI. Tyler Healion's Evo X was 2nd. In another very popular class, CSP, Paul Omichinski returned to the top posting almost a full second victory over Chris Mills and Pat Huxley (bumped from DSP). FSP saw a good group of cars and drivers come out with Joe Rathbun taking his 2nd class victory. Kevin Fitzmaurice kept the Miata at home and codrove the Legacy with Joe Skibsky to 2nd and Joe in 3rd.

X prepared was again a bump class as John Santos kept the top down long enough to stay dry and take the class win. Jay Bode was 2nd in his Fiero and course designer Greg Cullen finished 3rd. B Prepared, was also a bump class, with Tom and Tom Corvette Show leading the way. Both were bumped from Super Stock; Tom Mak earned a 1 second class win but came up short in the FTD battle finishing 2nd. Somehow Chris Zelle was in a class by himself with his MR2 and took the E mod win. STA had Doug Perkowski back on top. Doug's Evo posted a very fast 39.72 second run and was over a second faster than Mark Kirves Sti. Warren Elliot was just .05sec behind Kirves Sti. SMA was home to FTD with Nick Fandacone driving his 350. Nick ran a best of 38.79. Kevin Shea co drove the car to 2nd place and 3rd in FTD.

X Novice was lead by Robert Tsang's RSX, over 5seconds faster than 2nd place. Nick Schriver's Cavalier lead YN with a 44.56. Z novice was lead by Bob Bradley's 911. Z novice was a battle as the top 3 guys were with in six tenths of each other.

CART will be praying for sun and heading to Pocono North course Friday May 8th. We will then be back to Rowley on the 18th of May.