Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team Event # 3 Run until the Sun comes out.
For the third time in 2008, the Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team held an autocross. The weather forecast was poor, thunderstorms were forecast, and the skies were leaden as the day started. It was questionable if we would be able to have the event, but we were determined to try.
The skies definitely played havoc with the competitors. It’s no fun to run in a steady rain, we cancel for safety reasons if we get lightning, so the event was questionable. Sixty drivers, including eleven novices, registered to run the event. It was the smallest event we’ve had this year, about half our normal participation.
With an eye to the sky, Bill Evans laid out the course. Understanding that we may have to tear down on a moment’s notice, Bill went for a basic course with a couple of challenges built in. The start was straight forward, just a simple left right combo to keep you honest. Coming off of the first left turn, you were faced with an optional four cone slalom. If you lost a lot of speed entering the corner, you could turn tightly left, and eliminate a gate at the end of the slalom, and build up speed for the next section. Charge the first turn, and you had to take the slalom to the right, give up speed entering the slalom, and try to maintain your speed coming thru it. The consensus was the fast way was the traditional slow in, fast out, and take the hard left. This worked better towards the end of the day, as the sun actually came out and the traction increased.
Coming out of the slalom, you went around a pivot cone to a left ninety degree turn, accelerating into a short straight. At the end of the straight was a tight left two hundred twenty five degree turn. The last outer cone on this section took a beating. Cars would enter the turn too hot, under steer out and helplessly run down this cone. One driver got this cone to rock away from his car, and come back to rest in the box, so no penalty. The interior section of the course resembled the last time we ran: a sweeping right one eighty into a section of offsets that caused off course after off course to the unwary. The finish tightened down a great deal, forcing you to lose a great deal of speed to finish cleanly. Several runs came to grief right at this point, as the finish cones took a beating with over steering cars trying to stay in the lane. Because of the low car count, we were able to have six runs before starting fun runs.
With the small number of drivers, there was a whole lot of bumping going on. Joe Solury led a 5 Corvette parade to win A Stock over Matt Dunham by a half second. Joe Barbato won the C Stock class, with “C” standing for convertible. Joe was driving an MR2 convertible, beating Jim Duphiney in his Miata. D Stock was a potpourri of cars, with H Stock driver Pat Huxley in a Civic taking the class over Colin MacInnes’s D Stock Dodge.
In Street Prepared, Leo Ficks came up short in his drive for his third consecutive FTD, but took BSP, beating Mark Kirves’ STI by over one second. Paul Omichinski was back in CSP and back in front, beating Austin Golankiewicz by over a half second. FSP was a close battle, three cars separated by .13 second from first to third. Chris Fuhrmann in a Mirage pulled it out in his sixth run, beating Kevin FitzMaurice in a Legacy by .075 seconds.
X Prepared was another mixed bag of bumped cars, but Chris Zelle borrowed Nick Fandacone’s Nissan 350 Z and used it to not only beat Nick, but set FTD in the process. Not a very polite thing to do, Chris. Only one driver registered for A Mod, so Bill Evans ran by his lonely self and won. In E Mod, the winner was a car you hardly see on the road, never mind at an autocross. Dean Cusano won in a Jag XJS, beating Richard Parenzan’s STI by over four tenths of a second. In the Novice classes, Nicholas Schriver won in XN and Beverd King won in ZN. FTD was won by Chris Zelle, with Leo Ficks in second and Nick Fandacone in third.
Our next event is off to Pocono, for a North Course track day, but we’ll be back in Bristol on May 18.
