CART Autocross # 13 Slip sliding away by Liam Dwyer

Sunday October 5th, CART held its 2nd to last autocross of the season, this time at Rowley Springs in Bristol. The biggest factor of the day was the weather with rain in the morning, and cool temperatures. It wasn't' until peoples 4th or even their last, 5th run where they were able to put down a decent time. The course design made for some interesting wheel work by drivers too aggressive with the throttle in the wet.

The course started on the right side of the lot and was fairly straight besides a bend left. The course ran the length of the lot, before turning around hard left and heading into the middle section. Here people tried getting on the power early but found there to be no traction. If your tires hooked up you shot forward for a brief second before scrubbing off speed for an increasing radius right hander that brought you up to the left side of the lot. This was more of a tight sweeper as the day went on. You were then brought down the far side of the lot before braking hard and making a 180degree left hander to head back up the lot. The course swept right and back into the center where you had a quick switch back before diving left for the finish. The quick weave before the finish made for some interesting photos for Stan and Kevin as many cars were coming in sideways.

As stated before, the weather was the biggest factor on the day. Many drivers opted to run r-comps right from the start and were rewarded with slow times as their tires spun worse than cotton socks on a waxed tile floor. By the end of the day, the course had dried a bit and drivers were eager to put down a fast time. Many good runs were lost to cones being hit with people trying to push the last bit out.

In A-stock, Joe Solury made the most of wet and posted fast time yet again. This time Joe had to hold his breath though. Nick Barbato was on hand with his S2000 and John Jankura is figuring out how to hook up his bow tie beast. John's last run was just a tick off Joe's' time and finished just .079 seconds back. Nick blew his last run and finished over a second and a half back. Nick did loan his car to Liam who coned his last run and finished with a 42.00 +1 though. FTD was lost because of this.

Joe Barbato won C-stock in his MR2. His 43.38 was just a hair of Solury's time but enough to eke out a 3second win over Erica's Zoom Zoom. Chris Mills finished 3rd, Quinn Kizis finished 4th in Joe's Mr2. In what I believe to be the closest battle for class win of the season, John Westerman drove his Mini Cooper to a G-Stock win by beating Matt Cummings' 08 Gti by just .004 seconds. John looks to be getting faster in his car as Matt is freshly learning how to drive his. Will Matt continue racing his car and made a G-stock run next year? Pat Huxley drove his Civic to PAX time and an STS win running an impressive 43.929.

ASP saw top time of the day with Tom Mak earning his first of the year....so no more complaining! Mak took out fellow Corvette driver Tom Cavouto and John Demetre's FD. BSP was another where the win wasn't decided until the last run. Jeff Wooten came up just short and lost to fellow STI driver Albert Yin by less than half a second. CSP saw a Paul O escape with a class win even though he whacked 2 cones on his best run. Even with adding 4 seconds to his time, he still took a four tenths victory.

Todd Kean borrowed Pat Huxley's Civic and still drove to a DSP win. His 44.03 was good enough for 3nd in PAX and an almost 2 second class win over Kevin Shea's 240sx. ESP saw Yaro earn another victory giving him 5 (???) on the season. His time of 45.529 was good enough to beat his Marc by a quarter of a second. FSP was won by Harry Caruso's 02 Lancer. Kevin FitzMaurice and Joe Skibisky couldn't quite keep up in their Legacy and finished over 2seconds back.

Ray Covino was able to wrangle up a few friends and create a CP class, and this time he did the right thing by letting one of them win. Matt Teicholz borrowed Ray’s car and drove to a 1 second class win. He thanked Ray for letting him borrow the car and win, but breaking the rear diff. Ahh what are friends for. Sean Colsen piloted his short wheel based Legends car to a 48.035. Considering the conditions, Sean had his hands full out there and did a great job of keeping her relatively straight. In FP, Bob Doiron proved he hasn't been sitting idle for a long period of time. He kept the motor running and the heat on, beating Jay Bode in the Fiero battle.

In the Street Tire classes Mike Lodsin and Stever Merchant posted class wins. Lodsin aka Big Bear just nipped Stan Marcewicz by .174 seconds to take the STS win. Steve Merchant held his breath and won STU. But that wasn't until 2 cones were confirmed on Rob Carter's last run. Had it not been for those two, Rob would have taken the class win. Jim Armstrong split the two of them to finish second in class. SM2 saw Nick take go head to head with a loud red Evo. But the loud red Evo wasn't the one we all know, it was owned by Kris Schreiner. Nick took the class win but without struggle. He looked to have a hard time reigning in his power on the wet. He still posted a 44.1, but over a second off FTD.



In the X-novice, Damon Kercher took the win with his 07 Rabbit. Tyler Healion earned a Y-novice win and Jason Ruffin took the Z-novice win. Congrats on your wins guys, now you get to move to your regular classes. Tyler you will be in STU so long as you run street tires.

The next (Oct 19) auto-x is the last of the season. Check the forum board for a points review and see what is still up for grabs heading into our last event.