9/13/09 Autocross at LAZ Parking

The Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team held its final autocross in Hartford Sunday September 13th. Seventy-seven drivers ran a course that was designed by Liam Dwyer, the event chair and Jim Duphiney. Dwyer decided to start the course on the left side of the lot versus the usual right side. The course started simple enough with a 4 cone slalom that brought you to the top of the lot. You exited the slalom to a decreasing radius right hander that brought you into the center of the lot. You were on the gas very a quick second before the binders had to be applied for a 180deg left hander that tightened up at the end. The inside cone of the gate that lead you out of the left hander was a constant victim of being slammed to the ground all day. You exited the left hander for a Chicago-box that brought you towards the top right of the lot where a pivot cone was place that had you sawing the wheel hard to the right. Getting in here and set up properly was key as this lead you to the longest straightaway of the day. Duphiney through in a quick kink to throw people off before you had to kill your speed for a tight right hander into the finish. With SCCA Nationals being held earlier in the week, many of the local fast guys were not present. This left a lot of time for the people that were there to get six runs plus fun runs. And not to mention, the weather for only the second time this season was predicted to be good on one of our race days.

A-stock had 3 cars in it Saturday, 2 Jap rally cars and one German convertible. The German convertible driven by Jared Doran, ran with the top down and posted the quick time in class by a full second. In B-stock, Tom Mak once again laid the smack down on Dwyer. Mak’s RX8 used its better handling to embarrass Dwyer’s overpowered Z. In G –stock, Matt Cummings showed up, that’s really all that needs to be said. The battle for second place was won by John Brennan in his Civic while John Westerman finished third in his Mini.

Street Prepared was once again home of FTD. Jeff Guerrera showed up in his Banana Evo and laid down a smoking time of 26.566 seconds, good enough for a 1+ second class win. Brian Elzin and John Jankura co-drove their Corvette to second and third in class respectively. In CSP, it was Kevin Fitzmaurice taking the class win over Pat Huxley, Chris Difiore and Paul Omichinski. Fitzmaurice put down a quick fourth run and made Huxley chase him on his last runs. Huxley came up .024 seconds shy with Difiore a tenth behind him.

The home of the bump classes, X-prepared, was once again lead by Joerg Bode. However Jim Jaffe didn’t let him win it without a fight. Jim found a full second on his 4th run giving him the class lead at that point. Old man Bode was non fazed by this as he went out and did just enough to eeek ahead of the Miata. Bode ran a 27.735 to Jaffe’s 27.746, a difference of .011 seconds. Dennis Polio was third in his CP Corvette. A modified was once again lead by Sean Colsen’s Legends car. Colsen was in contention for FTD most of the day, until Guerrera found the fast line. D-modified actually had a class as Josh Menke brought his 24hours of LeMons crew and car. The car is a POS Saab (does the year really matter), with no glass, no trunk and no interior. The car lifts its rear inside tire higher than a Great Dane lifts his leg to relieve himself. Glenn Milliken drove the car to the class win, relegating Menke to second.

STA was won by Steve Young and his 92 Miata. Tom Lough and Eric Lanzl battled for second place, with Lough coming out on top by .045 seconds. SMA had Nick Fandacone’s name on top again, but not before having to fend off Phil Mackaronis’ Camaro. Doug Perkowski brought his newly refreshed Evo out and ran in SMA and finished third. If Perkowski gets R comps, Mackaronis and Fandacone should be watching out. X novice as lead by Tim Brodeur and his 02 Celica. Marc Antaya was second. Y novice was a bunch of Focuses, the quick one belonging to Paul Pellegrino. Michael Debruin was the winner in Z novice. His STi beat fellow Subaru driver Ryan Schneider by seven tenths. All novice winners will be moved up to their appropriate class at the next auto-x.

Speaking of next autocross, its less than a week away. Sunday Sept 20 at Rowley Springs in Bristol, see you there.