C.A.R.T. Autox #7 by Liam Dwyer

Rowley Springs in Bristol, CT played host to event #7 for the Connecticut Autocross and Rowley Team. Seventy drivers showed up on a clear hot day to put some rubber to asphalt. Following his Dad’s lead from two weeks ago, Rob Johnson took his shot at being the course designer. Rob’s course started with a tight 3 cone slalom. At the end of the slalom you made a super tight left hander to get into a right hand skid pad. One lap around the skid pad and you exited to the top left part of the lot. Drivers were greeted with a grippier surface to make almost a full turn around and take a long straight down towards the start finish. A decreasing radius right hander brought speeds down and back up into the center of the lot for a double apex left hander followed by a right hand bend into the finish. Drivers that were able to trail brake after the long straight and get the car rotated were greeted with fast runs. The skid pad was also a place to make time as the a slightly wider line before exit allowed for a straighter shot up to the left hand turn around.

As I said earlier, there were 70 drivers that took to this event. But all of about 30 cars were used as keys were getting passed around faster than the blame of Congress and BP executives. E stock saw father and son John England share the Miata and son John W take another class win. D stock had a co driven car, this one the Duran Mini Cooper, however it was the Mini driven by John Westermann that would take home the taller trophy beating out Brad Snow. The other three stock classes, CS, BS and SS are filled with selfish drivers who don’t share. C stock again had Tom Mak’s name on top with Joe Barbato taking second in his MR2. John Williamson added another B Stock win to his belt as did Tom Cavuoto in Super Stock. Alex Lippay made a rare appearance….are the motorcycles in Kent driving him out??? Regardless, Lippay took the GS win by over two seconds.

BSP once again saw contenders for FTD. Last events winner, Liam Dwyer, couldn’t hold the torch as the Maton Cayman took first and second in class with Dad Jim once again leading the way. Father and son were also second and third, respectively in the FTD battle. CSP saw a fantastic drive by Hack Brothers Motorsports driver Kevin FitzMaurice. FitzMaurice laid down a blistering lap of 37.682 seconds to beat co-driver Paul Omichinski for the class win. Mark Eastwood saw the results from last event and saw the Johnson family battle in ESP. Eastwood showed up and just plain kicked ass….on street tires. Eastwood checked out early and the Johnson family battle was on. Anyone wanna guess who won? FSP was once again lead by Joe Rathbun and his Neon. The fourth father-son duo, this one of the Skibisky clan, battled for second in the younger of the two’s Cobalt. Son Matt would beat Dad for second in class. This means the tally for the day was 3-1 in favor of the younger (non gray hair) generation.

Speaking of gray hair, C.A.R.T. has its very own unique gray haired class, its called XP. Its where all the old cars and old(er) drivers get together and have Metamucil drinking competitions. John Santos being on the younger side of the class was obviously quickest in his Cobra Replica. Bob Doiron and his rickety self was once again able to hold off Joerg Bode for second in class. Marc Boerma finished the restoration on his 65 Mustang and it looks a lot like a 2005. Boerma battled Matt Cummings (driving Macaroni’s Camaro) for CP honors and kept Cummings winless for the Cart season. Sean Colsen made his first appearance in his Legends car and piloted it to the AM win. Scott Murray was once again quickest in STA knocking off almost a full second on his last run to displace Austin Golankiewicz from the top spot. In SMA, Phil “Kraft” Macharonis took his first FTD of the season. Kraft let it be known early he was in the hung laying down a 36.0 on his 3rd pass. Then his very next pass laid down a 35.9, a time no one would come close to.

In the Novice classes Kevin Kazlauskas and Ramin Rafatpanah both had one car classes and thus earned easy class wins. Both get the joy of moving up to their proper class with their default wins. In ZN, Eric Isaacson had a bit tougher of a time in his overpowered Evo but was still nonetheless able to eek out an eight tenths class win. C.A.R.T.’s next event is Sunday August 8th, again in Rowley.