May Mania

May 11, 1997 Arnot Mall, Horseheads, NY

Glen Region SCCA Solo II Championship Series Event #2

by Paul Schelling, Event Chair

Twenty nine drivers in eleven classes registered at the Glen Region’s second event of 1997, held at the Arnot Mall in Horseheads, NY. They found beautiful weather (low sixties and sunny) and a somewhat novel course set up.

In an effort to get a little speed out of the tiny sealed lot, a dog bone shaped course was laid out with an optional two cone slalom in one leg of the bone. Then, in an effort to equalize tire wear, the course was run three times counterclockwise in the morning, and three times clockwise in the afternoon. Finally, in an effort to get close to a minute of run time out of the course, three laps were taken on each run. The best time from the morning and the best time from the afternoon were added together to yield the day’s result. It seemed complicated at the time, but it all worked out quite well.

Only four of the classes had single entrants. Newcomer Robert Gonsalves ran his RX-7 Turbo in AS, ‘96 Novice Champ Ed Hurd ran his “new” first generation RX-7 in CS, Russ Heft flung his Mustang around the lot in FS, and Chris Wightman ran the day’s best street tire time (seventh in PAX!) in his BS 325i.

In the two driver/one car classes, Brian Maumann nipped novice Lyndon Peck by two seconds in their CSP CRX Si, Kate Hughes took FTD and a six (!) second advantage over Paul Schelling in her CM Zink, and Robbie Craig and Pat Scopelliti couldn’t complete the event as Robbie’s AM Bobsy re-sprung a major oil leak.

There was serious competition in DSP, where Mike Toombs’ only clean afternoon run was a third of a second quicker than morning leader Brian Reeves’ best, good enough for him to take the class win by four hundredths of a second in Reeves’ X1/9. The Finger Lakes Region pair finished second and third respectively in raw times for the day, and third and fourth respectively in PAX. Michael Brush was third in DSP in his street tired Omni.

David Anderson and his Civic shone in all-Japanese ES, where his winning time was good enough for second in PAX. He bested Michael Leary and his Corolla, Kent Sawyer’s CRX, and Jim Marshall’s Civic. Sawyer narrowly won the Novice class for the day.

In GS, Skip Testut turned it up a notch in the afternoon in his Alfa 164 to beat morning leader Clay Rugar and his Dodge Daytona. Michael Eimstad and his Saab 900 Turbo were fast enough to place third in ES, and miss the Novice win by less than two indexed tenths of a second. Mark Athawes came in fourth, followed by Lin Hurd (third in Novice) and novice Mark Lockhart.

HS is the slowest of the stock classes, but its winner, David Estelle had the fastest stock time of the day! It is no surprise, then, that he was the PAX victor. The rest of the HS field had a closer battle with novices Mike Taves (318i), Andy Sullivan (Capri), Casey Creamer (Civic ice racer) and first-timer Patrick Sullivan (Jetta) finishing in that order. Larry Brown’s car suffered mechanical ills in the afternoon, which resulted in him bringing up the tail of the field.

Special thanks go out to those who came early to help set up and then help run the event: Mark Lockhart (registration), Skip Testut and Mike Toombs (tech inspection), Kate Hughes and Dave Anderson (chief and assistant safety steward), Robbie Craig (novice chair), and particularly Jim Forrest (timing), who didn’t run, but came to help anyway.

Don’t miss our next event (it’s not too late to get in on the season points race) on June 22 at Corning Incorporated’s Erwin Complex, or the annual School on Saturday the 21st at the same site. Call Pat Scopelliti at 739-4857 for event details, and Kate Hughes at 524-6889 for school details.