CART Auto-x June 22 Hartford, CT “The Guessing Game” by Liam Dwyer

On June 22nd CART held its 6th auto-x of the season once again at the LAZ parking lot in Hartford. The weather forecast called for thunderstorms intermittently through out the day. The day started off cloudy and humid giving way to some sun before the darkness rolled in and we were rained on for 20 minutes. Many people saw the rain and packed it up. Those that stayed saw the clouds clear up and course get dry again. Once dry, the times started dropping the oohs and aahs starting coming from people running faster and faster.

The course design worked well for light weight quick handling cars; cars that had quick steering and were light on their feet. It started out with a 90 degree right hand turn right from the start. Competitors then went into a long left hander than many were able to hold their foot through. This tightened up a little at the end before it entered into the first Chicago-box. The first box made you go slight right to dodge the first cone, then left to avoid the center cone before you exited right......into another Chicago-box, this one making the you go the opposite direction slalom. Once through the Chicago-boxes you were brought out to a slight straight which lead into a tight left hander. Instead of being able to carry your speed out, you were forced to stay tight through two gates taking you further left before you had to swing back right which aimed you down towards the start. The course then made a very tight right hander swung back to the finish with an increasing super tight radius left hander, that had many people locking out their steering wheels. The term of the day was off course as many people missed gates or just got plain lost out there. Corner workers were busy too as many cones were nicked, hit, slammed, dragged and just plain abused. Through the hit cones, off courses and the rain we were able to get some clean runs in.

A-stock produced another first time class winner for the year with Brian Elzin taking down fellow C4 (not dynamite) driver John Jankura by seven tenths. This makes the 2nd event in a row Joe Solury has not won this class. C-stock saw Joseph Barbato in his MR2 take the win over Chris Mills in another MR2. Similar cars but different drivers, led to a .345second win. Joseph at one point had FTD with many people looking on saying, “Did a C-stock car really run that time?” The answer was yes, nice driving Joseph.

E-stock was bumped to D-stock due to lack of participants but that didn't phase James Duphieny as he was able to take down Erica in her Speed 3 and Ed Manz in his 325 by almost 4 seconds. G-stock saw Brad Snow due his usual in taking another class win, this time by almost 4seconds also. I guess the rule with G-stock this year is if Brad shows up, you fight for second place. Mike Demaio's Subaru Legacy took down the two other H-stock competitors by 2.5 seconds. Mike was sitting second in class until his last run when he pulled the rabbit out and improved his best time cleanly by 2.7 seconds.

Getting into the prepared classes, Tom Mak in his C6 Vette beat out Tom Cavuoto's Z06 by 1.5 seconds. Both drivers had run faster times than Mak's winning time, but those runs weren't clean as the corner workers were busy picking up the cones the deemed 'in the way.'

BSP became a bump class with ESP (Mustang Street Prepared) moving on up. Leo Ficks made his return and as expected posted fast time in BSP with a 35.764. Jeff Wooten made a great run at the end but came up a lil' short to finish second. Leo's time was second fastest clean run of the day and good for 2nd in the FTD battle. Marc Boerma in his 05 GT was third in BSP and in turn took down Mark Eastwood in his 03 GT.

CSP is looking much like G-stock with the same guy winning so long as he shows up. Paul Omichinski did his usual in taking the CSP class win; this time by a little over a second on Chirs DiFiore's MR2. Gregg Cullen earned his first out right DSP class win by piloting his Saturn .3 faster than Kevin Shea in his Nissan 240. Kevin was able to take some solace in the fact he ran faster in fun runs, but oh so sad, those runs don't count for time. Kevin FitzMaurice in his Subaru Legacy earned the FSP class victory by saving his best for last and running almost a half second quicker on his last run than Joe Skibisky in the same car.

In the everything runs here class of XP Nick Fandacone was once again bumped from SM2. This of course wouldn't phase him as he ran away with not only the class win but the FTD. And when I say ran away....he took FTD by 1.3seconds. Seems those changes he made have made a difference. Jay Bode who was bumped from Fiero Prepared to XP was second with a best run of 36.566. Myron Steele in his teeth showing, tongue hanging out, tires that make a Vette's cry foul Focus was third (bumped from EP) with a 38.204. John Santo's replica Cobra was bumped from AP and finished 4th in XP with a 38.794. Alex Rozentuller in his MR2 was fifth and James “packing it up early” Jaffe rounded up XP. Not have a top and having to drive with an open trunk is not something I want to do in the rain, but it did clear up for those that were brave enough to stick around.

B-prepared saw Ray Covino finally put R-comps on his Merkur. Ray was bumped from CP and competed against the Polio's 64 Corvette. Ray was able to take them both down by besting Dennis JR by six tenths.

A-mod contained Warren Eilliott's interior less A4 take out Dana in his Custom Fiero. Dana used his fifth run to ensure victory and post his best time of 38.022.

The Street Tire class were all clumped into one class....STU. In the battle of the Pleiades Trophy (Subaru guys should know this); Igor Romashko took his 07 WRX to fast class time by beating Matt Stuski's RS, bumped from STX.

SM had a new winner this year as Justin Baltrucki's GTI earned the class win over Matthew Seyller's WRX and Liam Dwyer's constantly breaking and always loud Evo. Great driving by both drivers as the tight course was not conducive to heavily modified turbocharged vehicles.

In the novice groups Nichola Schriver in his Cavalier won X-novice buy besting Robert Bath's Mazda 3 by 1 full second. Joshua Fadrigo took out fellow 240SX driver Louis Shogry by 6 tenths in Y-novice. Z-novice was handled by Dabid Plis in the BMW 325is. He took out Ryan Wandas in his DSM by a second and a half. The winners of the novice groups get to move up and take on their class competition in the next auto-x.

CART will hold its 7th auto-x (Half Way There) of the season July 13 at Rowley Springs in Bristol. A reminder to all competitors, the noise level at Bristol is STRICTLY enforced. If you think you are too loud, then you are too loud. If you are deemed too loud, you will asked to leave with no refund.