Maximum: the greatest quantity, amount or degree possible or attained.

Circuits Maximus: CART's biggest and best track event of the year. by Kevin FitzMaurice

September 29, 2008, the Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team attempted the most ambitious project of the season. Could a group of volunteers organize and manage three race courses, run two time trials and one relay event at the same time. The answer was a resounding "YES".

Pocono Raceway hosted a three day hot rod show before we got to take over. As everyone knows, 1000 shiny show cars means only one thing: torrential rain. On Sunday, the garages were flooding, the parking areas were swamps, and there was a puddle the size of a bass fishing lake in turn one. What would Monday bring, when it was our turn to run?

With the help of the track officials, we were able to get on site at 6:30 a.m. and set up. The skies were still partially cloudy, but there was no rain. Track workers were scrambling to remove traffic control fencing and clean the mud and debris from the track. 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.

Because of the rain Sunday, the plan to hold a pre-event tech inspection at one of the hotels was discarded. 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. We were ready to run, but the course was still being swept of debris. We started a little later than planned, but we had made our best effort to hold to the time schedule.

The track vibrated to the sound of North, South and East course all starting at the same time. The field had been broken into sessions for the morning period to help drivers acclimate to the track, especially the East course. CART had never run the East course before. We all needed time and laps to learn its intricacies.

The East course was the hit of the event. Drivers with hundreds of laps on the North and South all agreed the East course was completely different. It was tight, technical, and somewhat bumpy. The fast cars were challenged by the narrow pavement, the small cars were hampered by the bumps in the braking areas, and a multitude of lines were tried and abandoned. The enthusiasm for the track was evident in the pit area, as driver after driver pulled in with a big grin and began bench racing with each other. The East course is a keeper.

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.

At 2:00 p.m. the schedule called for drivers to begin lining up at the North Course for their timed runs, and then continue to the East Course for round two. South Course was kept open for drivers who chose not to participate in the timed runs. Several drivers set personal records for the amount of laps driven.

At 4:00 cars lined up for the final Team Relay event of 2008. By that time mental and mechanical attrition had taken its toll, but 20 cars still showed up, so we had four teams of five cars. A quick primer on the Team Relay: the teams are handicapped by calculating their best timed laps for 5 laps per driver, for a team total of 25 laps. The slowest team is sent out first. The idea is for all 5 drivers to run 5 laps at or faster than their best recorded times. Passing zone rules are still enforced, and overly aggressive driving is punished. If a driver fails to complete 5 laps, he has to go back out at the tail end of the team and make up missing laps. If he goes over 5 laps, it’s a self inflicted penalty. It’s a race with the other cars, but more importantly, it’s a race against yourself. Can you keep count of your laps, and still hit your times? It’s a lot harder than it sounds. When the dust settled, it was Team Fiero winning the relay and the overall championship, wresting the Bill Evans Team Relay trophy from the two time winning Mixed Nuts team. Wait until next year! Will you be there?