CART Autocross June 6, 2010 by Liam Dwyer
June 6 of 2010, the Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team staged yet another autocross at the Rowley Springs lot in Bristol, CT. Fifty-eight drivers came out on a gorgeous day and tried to master the cones set out by CART course designer Jim Duphiney. The course started on the left side of the lot leading right into a quick 3 cone slalom, you exited the slalom for sweeping left hander bringing you down to the bottom part of the lot to a right hand 230 corner that brought back up to the top right of the lot. You then swept left again over the top of the lot and accelerated hard over to the top left of the lot where you jumped on the binders to haul the car down for left hander that fed into a W and into the finish. The course was simple but the cross to the top of the lot and increasing radius right hander kept people off their game and running off course or hitting cones.
Tom Cavuoto ran a class of his own in Super Stock in finished in all positions, first and last all at once….not easily done, nice work Tom!! B stock had the addition of C stock cars to run and John Williamson showed them all why B stock is still the superior class. Williamson piloted his STi to the class win over Tom Mak’s 370z. D stock was also a combined class with the addition of G stock cars. John Westerman earned a hard win in his Mini Cooper beating out fellow D stock and Mini driver Brad Snow. E stock was the most competitive class. Three cars total in class and first to third was less than two tenths of a second. Jim Duphiney, the defending E stock champ was unable to pull off the win as John England posted fast time on his fourth pass. Duphiney went quicker on his last pass but not fast enough. H Stock saw something common in Cart….family abuse. Rob Johnson took out the 240sx as mom pulled the keys on the family fusion and showed Dad how its down in a four banger.
In ASP, Andy Pyle was, as usual, the victim of bumping. This time it was Paul O and Kevin FitzMaurice moving up from CSP in Kevin's Miata. FitzMaurice laid down a fast run but couldn’t improve much, but Omichinski figured it out and earned another class win. In BSP, a sexy red Cayman showed up, but this time with two drivers, father and son. Son, Claude led the way most of the day and was actually in contention of FTD. Dad Jim sandbagged all day and drop the hammer on his son and snatched the class win away by just .034 seconds. The village bicycle finished third and fourth. FSP saw Greg Cullen lay claim to another win in his Saturn beating out Joe and Matt Skibisky.
Jay Bode was happy not to see Bob Doiron show up and was even happier to also be in contention for FTD for some of the day. Bode made mince meat of the FP class and took a 4+ second win. Ray Covino took a page from Jim Matons and woke up on his last run and snuck in another CP class win. His margin of victory over Matt Cummings??? .013 seconds
Scott Murray took home another STA class win this time beating up and old regular James Reinle. Nick Fandacone juggled work and auto-x again and took yet another SMA and FTD. Fandacone needed all of his runs though as he spun, hit cones and couldn’t get fast, but his nerves held up as he laid down a smoking time that couldn’t be beat. Imran Dandia was your Y novice winner and Shaun Griffin took down the Z novice class in his GTO.
CART's next event is 6/17 at LRP and next auto-x is at Rowley, June 27.
