FTD BATTLE CART Autox #7 by Liam Dwyer

After a long 3 week break, the second half of CART's 2008 auto-x season began at Rowley Springs in Bristol, CT. 70 drivers showed to make their passes as what turned out to be a very nice course.

It started out with a 90 degree left hander that opened up to a quick straight before drivers were forced to scrub some speed as the course bent right and then entered and 3 cone slalom. Drivers had the choice of which side they wanted to enter on. But upon careful inspection, and looking further, keeping the first slalom cone off to your left was the optimal line. At the very end of the slalom has a gate off to the right which lead to your first gate of the right hand skidpad. Drivers got dizzy for one lap as they hung on and exited the skid pad where they entered and carried speed down the back side of the lot. Drivers were then greeted with a hard right hander through a diagonal gate into a Chicago-box. On your first lap, when exiting the Chicago-box, drivers cranked hard right again to shoot into the center of the lot. In the morning session, people got on the gas too early and forgot about the 2nd gate not realizing how tight of a left hander it was. You then were back in the right hand sweeper that lead you back to the slalom again. This time at the end of the slalom, instead of going into the skid pad, you carried your speed onto the back section of the course. This right hander at the end of the slalom, had many competitors pushing wide trying to make up time and taking out cones. Again you entered the Chicago-box but this time when exiting you stayed left before doing a jog right then back left into the finish.

The course looked like it would really play well with small nimble cars again. But Tom Mak in his C6 almost proved that completely wrong. Only 6 drivers were able to post best times below 52seconds. Those 6 drivers were within eight tenths of each other. The top three had less thant .15 seconds between them. Steve Gartner in his SM2 Miata was 4th on the day, Tom Mak 5th and Paul O 6th. These three drivers' best times were all 51.8 with it coming down to hundredths of a second to separate them, .053 to be exact.

In stock class results, Joe Solury returned to form and pulled a rabbit out of the hat as he took top honors once again in A-stock. Julia Walters put on a great showing but it wasn't to be as Joe has able to put together a clean 5th run and take the class but 1.4seconds.

Joseph Barbato piloted his 2000 MR2 to C-stock win and almost FTD. Joe actually had the fastest timed run of the day but clipped a cone. Joe held FTD for a part of the afternoon, until Bob nicked him for FTD up until that point. He did, however, take an easy class win over the co-driven MR2 of Robert and Chris Mills. In a battle of 250+ hp cars, Rob Robillard (BMW 135i) showed why RWD is superior to FWD as he took out Colin MacInnes (Dodge SRT4) for the D-stock win. And rounding out the stock classes, Brad Snow did his usual just completely owning G-Stock. G-stock was also a bump class as Josh Menke in his Saab was bumped from H-stock. He'd finish third in G-stock but take the H-stock win over David Grigiewicz's Corolla.

Street prepared saw a little shake up; in BSP, a new winner was crowned and someone was able to finally take out Leo Ficks. Jeff Wooten in his 04 STI took the class win by seven tenths. Leo had run faster times, but he kept finding cones to kick over resulting in 2 seconds being added on and handing the win to Jeff. All was not solidified until Jeff's last run were he posted his best time and Leo ran off course missing the 2nd to last gate.

In CSP, Paul O took care of business and was a contender for FTD for a little bit. He took the class win by almost 3 full seconds. Maybe Paul and Brad's new theme song should be “Taking Care of Business”.... should they also think about Office Depot sponsorship???

Todd Kean was able to make some clean runs and take the DSP win over Matt Struski (bumped from STX). Last events DSP winner Greg Cullen, couldn't find a clean run and wrapped up the DSP field. ESP saw the usual co-driven Mustang of Yaro and Marc take the win. Yaro had the better feel and posted a 53.4, .3 quicker than Marc. John Bubela was loving life as his little MG Midget took the class win over Kevin and Joe's Subaru Legacy. John pretty much kept his foot to the floor and ran away to a 2.5 second victory. If this was a burnout contest, Kevin would have one hands down. John Force would be jealous of the smoke show Kevin put on every time he exited the skidpad.

James Reinle used his second run of the day to take top honors in STS. Kieran Coleman had posted faster times, but like Leo, hitting cones cost him the class win.

X-prepared, was a mix of SS, SM2, CP, EP and ASP. Tom Mak, who posted a fast time early and conteded for FTD, took the XP win over Fast Nick's 350z. Ray in his Merkur was 2.6 off Tom's time, Josh Winans' Jetta was another 2.3 back. Steve Gartner some how fell into a class all by himself. His time of 51.850 was good for 5th on day, .027 ahead of Paul and .026 behind Tom. Talk about close racing!

The A-Mod win went to the co driven Legends car. Sean Colsen took the victory over Andy Mortenson by .1 seconds, another very close win. And another tenth back in third was Jay Bode in hs Fiero. Jay was bumped form FP to AM and obviously did very well. Bob Doiron was another 1.5 back behind Jay. Maybe Bob should make a call to ACME as he's been doing a pretty good impression of Wiley E. Coyote chasing down the Roadrunner.

A battle was staged in SM class as Bob Pielli was kind enough to loan out his Mini to Liam Dwyer. Liam, thanked him by by beating Bob by .07, the closest battle of the day. Not only that, but Liam would also take FTD honors with that run. A battle ensued after both drivers completed their 2nd runs, with Bob at that point .06 ahead of Liam. Liam would run faster but he clipped cones on those runs. On Bobs 4th run, he lowered the bar for FTD and made the only complete clean run at that point under 51seconds. Liam took his 5th and final run and was able to best him by .07. With Bob and Joe Barbato still to make their 5th runs, a waiting game ensued. Both drivers completed their final runs, both running, 51.05's giving Liam FTD. FTD went back and forth between these three all day making for an exciting and intriguing battle.

Nick Barbato took his S2000 to a X novice win, with a not so novice time of 54.851. Guess what Nick, after such a stellar job, we'll let you step up to your proper class and battle those guys now. Doug Perkowski drove his 04 Evo to a Y novice victory and Erik Wohlert drove his 07 Z06 to a Z novice victory. Both drivers get to join Nick in moving up to their respected classes.

One week from today, Cart will hold another track day down at Pocono South, before returning to the LAZ parking lot July 27 for another auto-x.