O.K., we can sneak one more in. by Kevin FitzMaurice

The Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team held a members only autocross on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at the Rowley Spring facility in Bristol, Connecticut. The temperatures ranged from too cold to just cold, as the mercury was at 25 degrees when I left my house, and I think it warmed all the way up to the mid 40's by the afternoon. It was autocross in a straight jacket, because of the way we were bundled up. The wedding I attended the night before, and the contribution I made to the Lynchburg, Tennessee economy, made the morning rough. However, Jack Daniels and I did the crime, so I had to serve my time. It's tough putting a helmet on when your head keeps changing size from the throbbing.

Thirty six drivers showed up to see what course designer Bill Evans could do to make the day interesting. Bill pulled out a course we had run previously, with one important change. We would run the course three times before ending. Since some of our members are mathematically challenged, I knew it was going to be a fun day.

We started out traveling across the parking lot at a ninety degree angle from the timing trailer. A right ninety kept you within the park, and onto a straight. This whole section was just plain fast. A right one eighty pivot took you to the interior section of the course, again very fast. A straight, then a left one eighty took you to the "torture box" and the slalom.

The box was slightly angled to the left, and a four cone slalom came next. The entry to the box was very challenging, with all the speed you had built up, combined with cold pavement sealer. Spinning on entry to the box was optional, but not recommended. The slalom entrance was optional. A left entry looked shorter, but a right entry worked better with an understeering car coming out of the box.

When you exited the slalom, you went into a sweeping one eighty right. Upon exit of the turn, the first two times you went tighter right, to stay on course. A "rumba" series of right, left, right fed you back parallel to the start. You rejoined the course at the first right ninety, and got to do it all over again. At the end of this run, you stayed to the right on the last sweeper, and ran lap number three. At the end of lap number three, when you went thru the one eighty right sweeper, you stayed left this time, went thru the right left kink, and the finish. The kink took a beating. It was tight, adrenaline was up, and you were actually tired from thrashing around for the last ninety plus seconds.

Since it was a members only, some of the normal rules were relaxed. You could take another registered entrant out in your car, and car swapping was encouraged. The results are not really accurate, as some people ran three different cars, from three different classes, but show up in the results in one place. Despite all the changes, Todd Kean did run FTD in a BSP Subaru STI. Everybody had a good time, the sun was out, and now we have to count the days down until April 2008. Have a great holiday, enjoy the down time, and do all the home maintenance you've been avoiding. Thanks for the support in 2007, we'll see you next year.