Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team Autocross # 10 "A Day of Options" by Liam Dwyer

The Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team held its final summer auto-x Sunday August 24th. With Labor Day a week away, vacation time over and kids getting ready to go back to school, many drivers showed up for one last taste of summer fun before the old routines get put back into place. Nick Fandacone took the reins and was our Event Coordinator and he was able to make the Sun Gods happy as the day remained clear and warm. He also lead the parade for 93 drivers to test their courage around a very fast fun course design.

The cone cart took a stroll early in the morning and the course that was laid out had a little bit of everything for everybody. Their were steady state corners, esses for transitions, tight turn arounds, optionals and even a short straight. There was a fairly long section of real estate with a left hand bend to cover before one's car tripped the timer. Once throught the timer, you made a tight right that opened to a quick sprint into a 70' 270 degree skidpad. Once out of the skid pad, you were heading almost towards the start and on the longest straight before you entered an increasing radius left hander to bring you up the right side of the lot. The corner looked like you could carry speed through it and into the first optional slalom. If you carried speed in, you put the first cone on your left, all was fine and dandy till you got to the third cone ane realized you had way too much speed to get into the gate that was now on your left. If you scrubed off speed early in the left hander before the slalom and kept it tight, you did a one cone slalom and had almost a straight shot into the aforementioned gate. Next you had another optional direction slalom. Most competitors kept the first cone to their left as the second cone was 3' further to the right. You dodged one more slalom cone before you were hard on the brakes for a tight left hander that brought you into the center of the lot before it swept hard right. Keeping the exit of your right hander tight was important because there was an even tighter left hander that opened up to a straight for the finish. A few people got a little heavy with their right foot trying to make up time here. Fortunatley the timing equipment survived another day and no money was forked over to replace any broken pieces.

The prize of the day for slow time was going to be the EZ pass inside a BMW suv that was ungenerously left in the lot. No one wanted the suv (who can blame them it was ugly) so we figured the EZ Pass was of good value. Unfortunately the owner showed up and took it (the car AND EZ Pass).

Some new faces were on top of their classes today. The first being in A-stock with high revving Japanesse technology putting a good ole fashioned butt whippin on American Iron. Nick Barbato pulled the Bill Murray line in Ghostbusters of “We came, we saw, we kicked its a$$,” as he not only took the class win by over a second, but also took FTD by almost a half second. Brian Elzin was 2nd in 86 Vette. C-stock was lead by the father and son team of Robert and Chris Mills, with Robert coming out on top. Front engine was superior in E stock as James Duphiney took another class win over Andrew Breault and his MR2.

G stock was a class mixed of Germans, Americans, Japanese and Swedish. The Germans earned the gold with Jeff Batch, another new winner, taken the win in his Gti, the Japs were second with Mike Demaio's Legacy and the Swedes 3rd with Josh Menke's Saab.

ASP became a bump class and the recipient of cars from SS and CSP. Lee Shelton made an appearance in his Z06 and made it clear right away he was in the hunt for FTD. He couldn't quite get enough grip and had to settle for 2nd on the FTD board but was able to walk away with a class win beating out Tom Mak's SS class Vette. In BSP Jeff Guerrera took the win on street tires nonetheless as he his Evo was able to beat the likes of fellow rally car drivers Jeff Wooten and James Velgot. In DSP, Todd Kean borrowed Kevin Shea's 240sx and wheeled it around to top DSP time. It seems the trend right now in the club is to borrow someone's car then beat them in it, aren't we all so friendly??

In F-prepared Bob Doiron was ecstatic to take a class win being out fellow Fiero drivers Jay Bode and Smart Alec. Bob was so happy after his win he broke into a victory dance a quick google search finds this picture of him in celebration http://blog.nbc.com/ross_blog/I%20won!.jpg A-mod saw two cars battle it out, Dean Cusano's Jag and Bill Evans' Fiero with the big Jag taken the win. Nick Fandacone took the usual SM2 win beating Sopheap Chhoun's G35. Nick made a bid fro FTD on his last run but nicked a cone and settled for 6th overall. In SM Liam Dwyer barely held on with his first run being his only clean pass. Bob Pielli put in a good hard effort but came .054 seconds short of taking him down. Liam also made a bid for FTD on his final run running what was top time at that point, but he too hit a cone. It wouldn't have mattered as Nick Barbato just laid the smack down on his last run. In what looks to be the largest novice turn out with more than 10 drivers in all three classes Ivan Aguilar lead all newbies by posting top time in YN. His M3 was nine tenths quicker then Damon O-Pallick's Miata. Rock Zottic took a narrow victory in XN by beating John Akin by just .023 seconds. Z-novice saw old school reign as Chris Silverstri drove his 1978 280z to a win over David Weaver's Sentra SE-R.