A change is as good as a holiday by Liam Dwyer

May 16th saw bright sky’s and clear weather over Hartford, CT which set the tone for a perfect autocross. CART course designer Jim Duphiney laid out a very fast sweeping course that from above some what resembled the state of Michigan. The course started with a hard right through the timing lights and opened up to a long sweeping left hander that brought you up to the top center of the lot before tightening up and making a hard left that brought you back down into the center of the lot. Duphiney set up a double apex right hander that if taken correctly allowed power down early and for you to shoot to the top of the lot again. If you turned in early for the second apex, as many did, you pushed wide on exit and could never make up the time. Back at the top of the lot you made left hander that opened up and brought you down the left side of the lot. The key here was to have discipline and stay wide at the top of the lot. This made for a straighter shot as you came down into a left right kink into the finish. If you stayed wide up top, then you were able to keep it to the floor through the kink and pick up time. If you kept it tight, you washed out wide and again lost time. As with most CART courses, patience was a virtue, and in short supply.

In A stock Chris St. Mary’s Corvette battled with Jerry Jones, bumped from F stock Mustang. Jones put up a tremendous fight in his pony car but came .111 seconds short as St. Mary took the class win. C stock saw its first event of the season without Tom Mak and Yaro Taeger. That left the door open Charles Aucoin to take his first win of the season. Jim Duphiney would finish second in his bumped from E stock Miata. D stock saw a bit of a shocker as Brad Snow was not the class winner. Instead John Westermann piloted his Mini Cooper to the class win. Snow actually didn’t even finish second as Ben Lanson’s 330i earned the silver trophy. G stock was a battle of Japanese agility vs American power. American fire power showed the way with Bob Johnson eeking out a class win over Nick Leung’s 08 Civic. Just two tenths off Leung was Johnson’s son Rob who edged out Leung’s co driver for third.

BSP saw some family love as father Jim Matons tossed son Claude the keys to their beautiful 07 Cayman S while the elder Maton stayed home with his other son. The younger Maton made dad proud as he killed the BSP class. Stephanie Zadrozny was second in her street tired STI. Maton would finish fourth in the FTD battle. In CSP, an upset was brewing as CART photographer Kevin FitzMaurice looked to be getting the handle on his Miata. But codriver Paul Omichinski tightened down the straps and reminded everyone why he is CART's lead instructor as he took a four tenths victory. Omichinski’s 28.079 was good for 6th in the FTD battle. FSP saw things return back to normal as Joe Rathbun took another class win. Joe Skibisky was able to hold off son Matt for second.

X prepared was again the catch all class with cars from ASP, EP and DP making up the field. The EP VW Scirocco driven by David LaVine took the class win with Dewey Tsangs DP Miata in second. C prepared was again held down by Ray Covino’s Merkur. Covino had a fight on his hands when he tossed the keys to CART's personal tire shredder Liam Dwyer. Dwyer locked up the Merkur drifted it, whacked cones and created all sorts of carnage with the unruly beast. Dwyer did get a handle on things but not enough so as Covino would whup on him and take the win. Covino’s 27.834 was good enough for third in FTD.

The question this early in the season in F Prepared is, what is happening??? Bob Doiron had the closest of class wins last week over friend Joerg Bode. This week, Bode wasn’t at the event (was he home still licking his wounds??) which left the door open for Doiron to take the class win. Not only take the class win, but put up a battle for FTD. Doiron held FTD for much of the afternoon, but wound up a few tenths short. Still not bad work for a 25yr old car that weighs 1800lbs with 700hp and a driver who waddles around like a penguin.

Street Touring all saw another FTD contender as Eric Lanzl’s 05 STi took the class win over Scott Murray’s 08 STi. Nick Fandacone drove back and forth to work and still earned the SMA class in and another FTD. Fandacone’s third FTD didn’t come easy as Doiron’s Fiero put up the good fight. But Quick Nick showed us why he has that nickname and prevailed once again. Sarah Ramsey and Alex Leach both earned novice class wins in XN and ZN respectively.

CART will be doing some marketing at Lime Rock Memorial Day weekend, then the very next weekend we will have autocross number four at Rowley Spring in Bristol. Remember Bristol has a 90dB limit that is STRICTLY enforced. If you think you are too loud then you are probably too loud.