Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team Autocross June 6: Beating the heat. By Liam Dwyer
Connecticut Auto-x and Rally Team held its 5th auto-x of the season for the first time at LAZ parking in Hartford on June 8th. With National Tour up in Devens many Cart regulars were up there trying their hand with the likes of Mark Daddio and John Winchester.
The day turned out to be sunny, but hotter than a scorched koala looking for a burn unit.
The course started out with a 90degree right hand turn directly after the start, so all those guys with mid-engines or AWD didn't have their launch advantage. The course then bent left where you were able to put it to the floor before having to scrub off speed for a left hander that tightened up a lot and brought you back into the center of of the lot. This seemed simple enough, but there was a quick kink to that many people would miss before the course wrapped itself right. Out of the right hander you were on the gas quickly before slamming on the brakes to make an even tighter left hander that had many people running deep and wide trying to turn to full lock. If you scrubbed off speed earlier and were able to crank the wheel quick enough, you had almost a straight shot to the finish. Many people ran wide here resulting in many hit cones and timing equipment being hit. After the timing equipment was fixed, $20 handed by a generous and honest competitor, we had our first LAZ auto-x complete.
It was Matt Cummings in his new to him 99 Boxster winning A-stock by a mere .020 seconds, the closest gap of the day. At the beginning of the season, it looked as if Joe Solury was going to run away with an A-stock championship, but with 3 cars beating him and Matt moving up from FSP, things could turn out differently, this is definitely a great class to watch.
Robert Mills in his MR2 would take C-stock honors(and first class win this season) by besting Charles Aucoin in a Miata by .624 seconds. D-stock was handled by Josh Menke in his WRX. He and Rob Robillard in a BMW, both ran their best times on their last runs with Josh edging him out by .315seconds.
In class that has gone back and forward this year between James Duphiney and Rob Carter, James finished on top beating Rob by .665seconds. James had the class won, but decided to pour a little salt in the wounds by running almost a tenth faster on his last run. G-stock had a familiar face on top, with Brad Snow in his Mini beating John Westerman in his Mini by almost .900. Brad has won his class in every event he's attended this year and looks to be making a bid for autoxer of the year. Mike Demaio easily handled H-stock in his Legacy by almost 2seconds.
The street prepared classes and FTD got a break from Leo being on top. First in ASP, Andy Pyle in his awesome TVR from 1973!!! beat out Jude DeMeis in his 06 Z06 by 1.5 seconds. James Velgot was able to pick up his first BSP win as Leo and Jeff were up at Devens. James easily handled his class by 1.533 seconds and was 3rd in the FTD battle. CSP had another familiar name on top with Paul Omichinski taking top honors, snapping the tail around to a 1.2second win over Chris DiFiore in an MR2. Andrew Weinle etched his name on top of DSP, taking down Greg Cullen in his Saturn.
In ESP, the battle of the Mustangs continues with Yaro taking the win over his co-driver Marc Boerma in the 05 GT. With last year’s champ now moved to AS, FSP will have a new winner. Chris Fuhrmann in his old school Evo, aka 2000 Mirage (no you’re not seeing things) took out Ken Daust by two tenths.
The catch all class for the uber fast cars had Nick Fandacone on top again. His 28.712 was good enough for 2nd in the FTD (.002 ahead of James V.) and win XP by 1.766 seconds over Bob Doiron in his Fiero. Bob can take sympathy in the fact he beat his son Todd. Todd was able to however pull off an A-prepared win by an oh so close .022 seconds. Todd was able to do this on his lat run of the day. He had run faster but those pesky orange triangle looking things kept getting in his way.
In Street Touring; James Reinle was able to take the STS win over Igor Romashko. James added a little insurance at the end improving his best time by .04 seconds. Matt Struski in his 00 RS was able to handle the two Focuses of Daniel Polak and Harold Hill. He took STX by 1.6seconds.
In SM, Liam Dwyer took another class win and took advantage of Leo not being around to earn his first FTD. He took the FTD battle by .184 of Nick. Oh so close Nick.
In the Novice group, the lucky winners who get to play with their fellow classmates are George Hwang, Doug Perkowski and Andrew Wesolowski. They won XN, YN and ZN respectively. George drove his S2K to a .7 second win, Doug needed .2 and Andrew took ZN by .5
The next auto-x 6/22 is in Hartford. Same bat time, same bat location (Hartford).
