CART Autox, September 1, 2008:Storm Clouds pass, by Liam Dwyer
The Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team held another autocross at LAZ parking in Hartford on Sunday September 7th. A total of 81 drivers (25 novices) showed up to see what they could bring. The remnants of Hurricane Hanna pounded Connecticut with over 3inches of rain the night before, but by the time the first car took off, the course was, the sun was out and the air temperature was heating up.
Ray Merkur was the event chair and he had the unfortunate event of having Liam Dwyer design the course. The original layout had them more confused than a 3 yr old hearing yes from Dad but no from Mom. The course was changed slightly for safety reasons but was still fast and fun, some even calling it their favorite course so far. It started with a 20' straight shot that bent right slightly before it made a hard left. You are back on the gas for a quick second and keeping the right through a set of gates before diving in for one lap around a clockwise 70' skid pad. The exit looked very appetizing to get on the gas. If you did that you fell into the trap of missing a 'hidden' gate. The proper line had drivers staying left on exit of the skidpad and making a late apex for the right hander, but already on the brakes hard for a tight left. You stayed wide on original entry and having scrubbed off speed early, you were able to get on the gas hard for a long sweeping left hander that brought you up the right side of the lot. At the top it tightend up a little before opening back up for a bit before you were hard on the brakes to enter the slalom. For the faster cars, the top of the sweeper was a game of who has the cahones to keep their foot in it. Most of the under powered cars with R comps were able to keep their foot in it. The slalom after the sweeper was the second trap as it had a slight bend to it and was uber tight at the SCCA min of 40' between cones. People came in hard, but by the third gate, the slight bend in the slalom caught up with them and they hit the cone ruining many good runs. The end of the slalom was the finish so many competitors tried pushing a bit to make time. With 80 plus drivers, only 7 drivers were able to post times under 34 seconds and 2 of them broke into the 32s on clean runs.
A-stock so American Iron sweep the podium with John Jankura leading the Bowtie charge over Brian Elzin and Joe Solury. This class produced two cars that broke the 34 second mark and the winning time was only one tenth faster than second place. B stock saw a case of honesty as Tim Anderson reported himself off course. Had he not done that, he would have had top time. But his honesty lead him to a well fought 2nd place finish behin Chris Mills (bumped from CS) MR2. The margin of victory here was a scant .196 seconds. E-stock became a combination of D stock and E stock cars. James Duphiney again lead the way running almost three tenths faster than Rob Robillard's 135i. Mike Demaio can't seem to find any fellow H-stock competitors to play with, so bumped himself up a weight class and took out John Westerman and Joe Rathbun in G stock.
Tom Mak and Tom Cavuoto were bumped from SS, but that didnt' stop them from showing the ASP the fast way around the course. Tom Mak posted a winning time of 33.5 almost a full second faster than Cavuoto. BSP saw Ammonis Lampkin borrow James Velgot's Sti and pilot it to a class win. Had this been a lapping session, James might have won the award for consistency by posted 4 clean runs with in .4 tenths of each other. Paul O returned to take the win in CSP, but all was not secure until Chris Difiore ran his final run. Try as he might but he couldn't quite catch Paul and finished less than two tenths back.
Chris Weinle had the trophy girls lined up, and the champagne shaken and ready to be popped....that was until Kevin Shea remembered how to drive and wheeled his 240sx to a DSP win (on his very last run!), dropping an astonishing eight tenths off his best time. ESP sees Yaro Taeger on top again. His co-driver Marc Boerma would finsh less than two tenths back. The battle in FSP was won by Joe Skibisky driving Kevin FitzMaurice's Subaru Legacy. Those two were split by John Bubela who finished just over two tenths back from Joe.
X-prepared saw a conglomeration of classes come together to wage war on Nick Fandacone. But Nick had Excalibur with him and with one run obliterated his competition. Nick took home the class win over Jay Bodes Fiero and also brought home another FTD. Jay Bode did have a battle on his hand for 2nd place, he narrowly beat out Steve Gartner's Miata and John Santos's Cobra. Ray's Merkur put on a good run and ran a 34.9. Ray also kindly thanks those that push his car for him so he can pop start it atleast once at every event. Warren Elliott beat up on Bill Evans and his Fiero in A-mod; he took the win by almost 4 seconds. STU became a bump class of all ST cars; Stan Marcewicz is getting a handle on his Miata. He posted a one second victory over James Reinle and Jim Armstrong.
Street Modified saw Liam take advantage of being the course designer and run rampant on his competition. Bob Pielli would finish second in his Mini. Bob corded his R comps earlier in the week while having fun at Watkins Glen. Liam finished 2nd in the FTD battle, only .07seconds back.
In the novice classes, Rob W. piloted his Civic Si to a XN win over Ron Lane's WRX. Damon O'Palick laid the smack down in YN by beating Pedro Ayala's BMW 323. Daniel Donegan posted quick timein ZN over Jan Giraldo's Crossfire. All three novice winners will now move up to their respected classes where they get to tangle with cars more of their liking.
Next autocross will be Sept 21 again at LAZ with Kevin Shea taken the reins and chairing the event.
