Veterans Day with AZ Solo

Fall 2006, Event 3 of 4

 

By Scott Meyers

 

 

 

Firebird International Raceway – November 11, 2006

This was held on Veterans Day 2006 and we wish to thank all who are currently or have served in our Armed Forces for the magnificent freedoms that we are able to enjoy thanks to your sacrifices and dedication.

       

This course was designed by Rob Rockefeller and was set up in record time because Firebird had moved our equipment truck and not told us where it had been moved! Kudos to our setup crew for doing a great job.

 

First the Open Classes.   Kevin Cote’s Z06 was top dog over other pretenders in SS, and seems to have a healthy lead in the Series.  Brad Owen seems to have been deserted by other competitors in CS, or did he just scare them away? Same for Mark Johnson in the well-used Lewis Lotus in ASP.  CSP is another story however, as Sattler, Ashcraft, Lahey and the new kid to CSP Gleaton are slugging it out.  Ashcraft is on top by only seven PAX points, with Sattler in 2nd and Lahey only five behind for 3rd.  The DSP contest appears to have been affected greatly after Clint made a major suspension improvement and scored a very healthy 989 PAX.  Can you say “suspension travel”?

Mike Driscoll

 In EM the Bradley / Goodman battle is tilting in favor of Mr. Bradley as he carries a 15 point cushion into the final event.  The SM class has the Miller Evo ahead of the Rubenstein WRX-STi by 67 points, with Ron Huber only 3 points behind in 3rd place. A battle for second looms for event #4.  A healthy STS class was won by Britt Dollmeyer (Civic Si), but he trails the series and Travis Gianelli’s 240SX by only 3 points.  Aric Trust’s BMW 325 is a distant 3rd with Chris Vasilakos’ Sunfire only 5 points behind in 4th.  Better bring your cameras for event #4!  STX is another barn-burner (only a figure of speech, folks….) as Dan Martin’s Spec-V Sentra won the event and leads the series by 30 points over Chad Mizner’s G35 Infiniti, but Jeremy Galo is a spoiler and could pull a come-from-behind miracle. Or not….. J  Won’t somebody please run against Kevin Venisnik in STS2 for a series?  It breaks my heart to see him on street corners begging people to drive his car just so he has someone to run against.  Maybe we should hold a raffle for the next series to help the guy out?

 

On to our Local Classes.  Deb Eymann is learning control in PAX/L as she tries to tame the Z06 beast that Steve has provided her.  Steve let me try his car in a time only at this event and am clueless how he controls it.  The throttle seems to have two positions………idle and GO!!!!  There is no in between. Most of my time was in “idle”. 

Dan Hawrylkiw

The hot PRO class was taught a lesson by Jim Harnish as he brought his FSP Civic down from Prescott Valley to teach the other pretenders how to go really fast.  He not only won but scored a perfect 1000 PAX score.  WOW.  I’m sure second place Mark Huffman (DM Lotus - 999) was really thrilled, but he does lead the Series by 51 points over Ted Lewis and Steve Ryan.  I’m thinking he really wanted that Top PAX number though. L Let’s see. Are local classes popular?  There were 26 cars in SPORTSMAN and Brian Peters took the win with a…..(gasp!) another perfect 1000 PAX score!  How could this be?  TWO “1000’s”?  Yep, we rounded off.  In fact Brian had the real Top PAX by .018 PAX-seconds over Jim Harnish. That puts the three Top PAX scores within 0.046 PAX-seconds!  Seems to me that the PAX system works pretty well most of the time.  For lots of PAX system discussion, click and head over to the AZ Solo Forums.

 

Dan Hawrylkiw

Dan Hawrylkiw

 

Time to visit the very popular Street Tire Classes.  In ST1 we had 19 competitors, and at the top of the heap was Aytinc Akad’s AS EVO with a 923 score, but the RX-8 of George Sklyarevsky was only 20 points behind; that’s about 0.7 PAX seconds, a healthy margin.  Ayntic also leads the Series and is positioned well to take the trophy over George.  The Markiewicz Subaru was a tight 3rd place this event.  Say…. is it just me or does one have to have a uniquely spelled name to place well in this class? J  The ST2 Class seems to have the most forum verbiage if not talent this series. Jim, Mike, Mark and Scott have been pulling all stops in teasing each other about who will win, but after the words settled it was Mr. Rohn at the top both this event (one point!) and the series (one point!).  Mark Shaw somehow drove the heck out of the Beetle on this very challenging course to almost beat Jim in raw time; normally he resides safely in third place, but not today.  Jim’s best run was his first, very unusual for him.  Both Scott and Mike struggled and dropped in the standings.  For the 4th event Mike is vowing redemption, and Scott is out looking for his lost mojo.

 

Mike Driscoll

The Novice Group is also well attended and in NV1 we find Dan Hawrylkiw with an easy win driving an Elise.  He also leads the Series by about 50 points over Martin Nadirsha’s SM2 Miata followed closely by the RX-8 of John Rodhouse.  The Evo of Velizarr Miskovic and S2000 of Andrew Macdonald are gaining ground but might not have enough to narrow the gap.  The NV2 crew found Mike McCune with the win but he has only one event, so it looks like it will come down to a battle between Larry Burrow (Beetle) and Mark McCarthy (PT Cruiser) for the Series crown at event #4.  Mark holds a slight lead right now over Larry.  If William Solan appears for event #4 he will win the NV3 series hands down, but Beau Frusetta’s Mazda3 won this event with a strong 867 score.  In NV/L Suzanne Lipke holds a commanding lead and attended all events, so it appears only bragging rights are left for the last event.  Cherrie Windfeldt’s GTO made a strong first showing and hopefully will attend more events. Full results for all classes can be seen here

 

The unique “four channel” design of this course added extra length and challenge to this event. Some of us handled it better than others, and that is the beauty of holding a Series of four events. Different challenges and “flavors” each month.  In this way not one design or car is favored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To summarize intriguing items of interest, we viewed Brandon Smith’s debut in his new ex-Voboril Zink,….a second  “Bandon Smith” brought out an SRT-4 (to go along with our set of “Brian Peters” I guess),…..a fixed bumper on the venerable PT Cruiser…… Mark Huffman learning his DM Lotus quirks very quickly…..for some reason Mark Shaw was viewed groveling/bowing on the tarmac due to some lost challenge……. finally, Brad Owen has to now drive faster to go along with his new graphics.   Yes, this event had it all.

 

Don’t miss the Series Finale SUNDAY November 26 to see how this all shakes out. And don’t forget to bring a toy(s) for our Toys for Tots effort. There are drawing prizes for those who contribute!

 

See you all there?