Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team autocross # 5: In the swing of things.

May 18, 2008, the Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team held the fifth event in the 2008 autocross season. It was a good weekend for autocross in the area, as there were three events available this weekend. You had your choice of days and places to run. Even with the competition, ninety one drivers, including twenty novices registered to compete.

Course designer Bill Evans decided to make the course as open as possible, just to change things over the last few events. The start was fast, with just a simple offset and a sweeping left ninety degree turn to slow you down for the first third of the course. It was then hard on the brakes to slow down for the hard left one eighty, hard right one eighty combination, a duo that tested your braking skills. A long sweeping right fed into a tighter right skid pad three sixty that crossed over the course and led to the exit. Simple looking, tough driving.

For the results, Super Stock would make a betting man weep: four cars, three Loti, but the Corvette driven by Tom Mak won by four tenths over Jonathan Williams. The C4 Corvette was the car to have in A Stock, with Joe Solury’s 90 version beating Brian Elzin and John Jankura in an ’86. Joe’s margin of victory was a close .012 seconds. The only C stock car is CS, Charlie Aucoin won, beating Jim Duphiney, both in Miatas. Mike Demaio took his rare 93 Legacy Turbo to a win in G stock, beating John Westerman’s Mini Cooper by a half second.

Leo Ficks continued his assault on BSP and FTD taking both by beating Jeff Guerrera by over one second. Paul Omichinski stayed in control of CSP, winning over Kurt Paskiewicz with a eight tenths of a second margin. DSP had a new face at the front, Ryan Pszczolkowski took the win from Jeff Szymczyk by a half second. ESP was the pony show, with Marc Boerma squeaking past Mark Eastwood by five hundredths of a second, slugging it out in Mustangs.

In FP, Jay Bode kept Bob Bob Bobbing along, beating Bob Doiron and Bob French in the Fiero duel. The mixed bag of A Mod was won by Bill Evans’s Fiero, beating Tom Duran’s supercharged Caterham 7. Chris Zelle cruised to a win in the rattle can MR2 in DM, beating the Corvette of Ed Manz by over one and an half second. Street Touring was adjective versus verb, as a Civic beat a Focus, with James Reinle beating Daniel Polak. Street Modified was home to second and third in FTD with Liam Dwyer beating Bob Pielli separated by less than two tenths of a second. Nick Fandacone came up short in the FTD derby, but won SM2, beating Steve Gartner in a Miata. X Novice was won by Josh Menke, Y Novice was won by Doug Perkowski, and Doug Snell took Z Novice.