Circuits Maximus II: 3 times the fun by Liam Dwyer
On Monday September 28, the Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team descended on Pocono Raceway for its grand finale, Circuits Maximus. For those of you that don’t know what this is, CART rents the entire facility and racers run on the East, South and North Course. We ran this event last year with a many saying they couldn’t wait to do it again. Many of us showed up at 630 a.m. to set up. Registration was set up on the track access road. Each participant was handed an envelope with all the information needed, a free t-shirt, and then sent to the garage area for set up and tech inspection. Despite being short on time, the tech crew got together and gave every car the necessary inspection, and still was done before the driver's meeting. The novices and drivers received the information they needed on the format, and we were ready to run.
The morning sessions were run in groups with it being broken down by experience and lap times. Nick, Jim and Paul led the groups around all the courses. After 3 one hour sessions, a lunch break was called, but the event didn’t stop. Parade laps were run around the 2.5 mile tri-oval. It was a lot of fun, just cruising around the banking. The track re-opened at 1:00 p.m.
The East course was again the hit of the event. Both drivers with laps of experience and no experience on the North and South all agreed the East course was completely different. I having run East on a bike before was even more excited to run it in a car. It’s tight, very technical and bumpy. It’s very narrow in spots so guys in the faster cars are challenged and very bumpy in others so the smaller cars are hampered also. Those that were new followed the experienced guys around to get their line down. The enthusiasm for the track was still high and many drivers look forward to doing this track again. With so much track time, attrition was the name of the game.
The East course was again the hit of the event. Both drivers with laps of experience and no experience on the North and South all agreed the East course was completely different. I having run East on a bike before was even more excited to run it in a car. It’s tight, very technical and bumpy. It’s very narrow in spots so guys in the faster cars are challenged and very bumpy in others so the smaller cars are hampered also. Those that were new followed the experienced guys around to get their line down. The enthusiasm for the track was still high and many drivers look forward to doing this track again. Unfortunately this course reared its ugly close-walled head and took out one of our drivers cars. The driver was ok, the car not so much. With so much track time, attrition was the name of the game.
There was a threat of rain in the afternoon, but the weather looked too good in the morning for that to happen. So instead of holding the time trials at noon time to avoid the possible rain, the weather gods once again stuck an obscene finger in the air to us. With that, the skies opened up right when time trials were about to start and time potion of the event was called off for safety reasons.
You think that would stop us from running? No way. Many people put on their street tires and went out and played. Nick and Liam practiced their drift skills on North course, with both of them taking trips through the grass. Others tackled the technical East course. Despite not having the time trials or Team Relay Event, everyone had a great time. As our luck would have it, the skies cleared shortly after we departed the track.
Since there were no official times recorded, we couldn't run the Team Relay at this event. Based on previous stellar performances, and the fact that Team Mixed Nuts can count to four as well as Team Fiero can count to six, Team Mixed Nuts regains possession of the Bill Evans Team Relay Trophy and Liam Dwyer beats Nick for Time Trialer of the year. To top it off, Paul Omichinski gets to hold onto the Team Relay Loser hat until next year. Thanks all for coming, see you next year!
