Cone Snake Finishes the AZ

Fall 2006 Solo Series

 

Event 4 of 4 and Series Wrap up

 

By Mark Shaw

 

 

 

Firebird International Raceway – November 26, 2006

The last event in the Fall 2006 series concluded on November 26th using another great course designed by Rob Rockefeller.  The course was an excellent example of using the available space on Skid Pad #4 and had a fast center slalom and the name “Cone Snake.”

 

The course was open in many spots with sweeping turns in both directions (for more even tire wear…).  The only nasty part occurred when you encountered a dip/bump in the tight right hander rounding the bend into the finish.  Some managed to find a good line to minimize the effect and other simply bobbled and thumped their way through it.

 

The last event only came two weekends after the 3rd event in the series, so many were pumped and ready to settle those tight points battles.  Many classes had already been fairly well settled by the 3rd event and some of those defined winners either missed the last event or tried jumping to some other classes or cars for the final event.

 

This was also our sponsorship event for the Marines Toys For Tots effort with several big boxes of toys filled for needy children.  This was arranged by Darrell Covert and included a raffle with one ticket being given for each toys donated.  The drawing was held during the lunch break with helpful assistance from the lovely Laura Haley. Darrell commented the great success by stating “We ended up surpassing last year take by 30%”.  What a great way to share in the season.

 

Photo by Jay Balducci

 

In the Open classes only CSP, EM and STS were not finally settled.  In SS the 2003 Z06 battle was again taken by Kevin Cote over Darrell Covert sealing the series win for Kevin. In CS Brad Owen turned in a very respectable 943 PAX score to round out his series win.

Photo by Rob Rockefeller

ASP was already decided by the 3rd event; and Kim Kemper was alone there this weekend; but this did not prevent him from turning in his best performance of the series with a 951 PAX score.  CSP was one of those hotly contested classes with 7 entrants and no obvious series winner going into the event.  This turned out to be the “Mazda Class” with 6 Miatas and one RX7.  Don Sattler pulled off the class win over Steve Ashcroft by about 0.1 second, but this was not enough to hold off Steve from taking the series win.  Don’s co-driver/car-owner took 3rd place another 0.1 second behind Steve and 0.5 second ahead of 4th place Kevin Gleaton.  Clint Child had DSP sewn up by the 3rd event and actually ran the 4th event on Azenis to try and annoy the ST2 crowd; turning in a 923 PAX score for the second fastest in ST2.  Daniel Short was alone in XP with his MR2 and easily captured the series.  Alan Wagstaff in the BM Legrand and Don Zurliene in his CM Van Diemen both took their respective classes and the series wins.

 

 

EM was a popular class this series with 4 entrants this event.  The battle was mainly between Kirby Goodman in his Mazda RX-7 and Bill Bradley in the Brunton Stalker owner by co-driver Ken Edney.  Ken had sorted out the rubbing issue with the rear tires but Bill was not able to hold off Kirby who took the class win by almost two seconds and the series win.   SM has been dominated by the 4WD crowd and Francis Miller in his Evo; and Francis took the event by 1.4 seconds over Kris Castner to finalize his position as winner of the series.   SM2 was easily taken by Paul Hamersly in his Corvette over Brant Bauman’s Miata; but neither had enough series entries to qualify for the series so the class goes without a series winner. 

 

Photo by Rob Rockefeller

Photo by Rob Rockefeller

The ever-popular STS series was yet to be decided until the 4th event with the top contenders being Britt Dollmeyer and Travis Gianelli.  But Britt managed to post a very impressive 950 PAX score to dominate the event over 2nd place Travis; and to seal the series win without dispute.  Both STX and STS2 remained single car classes with wins by Dan Martin and Kevin Venisnik, respectively.

The main PAX indexed classes of  PRO, PAXL, and SPM were well subscribed in the event with a total of 38 entrants!  PRO had many of the usual suspects with Mark Huffman in his DM Elan being the class leader.   Mark again took the class, top time and top PAX score for the event and easily taking the series win. Second place in PRO went to Jim Harnish and 3rd to Ted Lewis.  PAXL had 4 entrants with Mindi Cross taking the win in the Lewis Lotus Elan by 0.3 PAX second over Teresa Clement in a Miata.  This was the first event that Teresa bested Deb Eymann in her Corvette by about 0.15 PAX second.  Mindi took the series win, but Teresa’s great performance was not quite enough to get past Deb in the series.  If Teresa continues with the Miata in 2007, Deb may have a tougher time of it.  

 

SPM was the largest class in the event with 27 entrants and the stomping ground of always fast Brian Peters.  Brian again took the Miata to victory in the class and took the series win, but not without some serious looking over his shoulder at newcomer Michael Wittlholt who finished just 0.05 PAX seconds (one PAX point) behind him in a 1996 Firebird.  Brandon Smith and Tage Evanson finished the event in 3rd and 4th respectively in the Zink that Brandon bought from Chuck Voboril.   Rumor has it that Chuck is piecing together a killer BM car for the future.  Larry Petrucci took 5th followed by Marc McCombs, Steve Eymann, Rob Rockefeller, Tim Bergstrom and Dawn Maxwell to finish out the top 10.   For the series, Brian Peters retained his win followed by Tage, Larry, Steve and Dawn.

 

Photo by Rob Rockefeller

Photo by Eric Ware

 

The local street tire classes had a total of 28 entrants.  ST1 has been a close race between Aytinc Akad, Justin Markiewicz and George Sklyareskiy.  Aytinc in his Lancer took first in class and the series win followed by Justin and George.   ST2 has been an arena of trash talk and poking fun on the Forum between Scott Meyers, Mike Rogers, Jim Rohn and Mark Shaw and was a toss up going into the final event as Jim and Mike were only separated by one PAX point in the series.  Both Mike and Scott had missed the 2nd event and had to go all out to finish well.  Scott managed to pull off a stunning win in the event by changing from his squirrelly Miata to co-drive Roger’s Acura.  Jim finished 2nd with Mark 3rd and Mike at 5th behind Zach Heidepriem.  This allowed Jim to take the series win followed by Mike, Scott and Mark.  Mike Driscoll, owner/co-driver of the winning Audi TT, finished the series in 5th.  STL was won by Glenda Meyers driving the Miata.

 

The novice classes were well attended at this final event with a total of 27 entrants.  NV1 was easily taken by Dan Dawrylkiw in his Lotus Elise by over 1.5 PAX seconds followed by Andrew Garnham, Bill Miskovic, Andrew McDonald and Todd Mittress who were all within one PAX second of each other.  The series win went to Dan.   NV2 was won by Chris Purcell in a G35 over Kyle Wallmueller in his S-10; but Kyle took the series win.  NV3 was won by Beau Frusetta over William Solan; which their same placement in the series.   Likewise NVL was won by Suzanne Lipke over Cherrie Windfeldt as was their same standings in the series.

 

The course was so much fun and the weather pleasant that the time-only groups were totally filled with 59 entrants in an assortment of cars and drivers.   Looking at the official results it is not really obvious who was doing what and many of the best times posted under some drivers may have actually been different drivers and/or different cars.  Lots of car swapping and fun was had by all as the big relief of the series end and outlook of the long draught until the first 2007 event rested on the minds of many.  Full results for all classes can be seen here while the full 2006 fall series results can be seen here .

 

Photo by Jay Balducci

 

A hearty thank you goes out to Rob Rockefeller who donates his time, photography equipment and skills for all to enjoy during the year.

 

 

We look forward to seeing everyone at the Fall Banquet on Saturday, January 6th and then kicking off the 2007 Spring Series soon thereafter.  Bring on your best game, 2007 will require it since drivers and cars are getting better and better.