View
from a Hill: Drowning our sorrows takes on a new meaning
Autocrosses
at Ithaca College have always been my nemesis. I don’t ever remember doing well
there and over many more years than I care to remember. I can’t even find a
consistency in the reasons why as attempts at explaining run the gamut of autoX
existence: bad track conditions, pulling mental blanks in the midst of a run,
and poor weather conditions or the wrong set of tires for the existing weather
conditions all served to defeat me at one event or another. Sometimes it was a
combination of factors. Even more strange is that none of the reasons are
unique to me, specifically, as each and every one of them befalls all of us who
autocross, sooner or later. And yet IC for some inexplicable reason trumps them
all. IC is a rule unto itself. I’m not completely alone in my opinions as many
of you also harbor concerns about the IC experience. You’ve told me as much.
Despite
my misgivings and those of others 46 folks registered on Sunday, July 20 for the
chance to dance with the cones and dance we did. The start of the day was no
harbinger of good things to come. The curse appeared to be alive. Rain and
overcast skies were the rule as we prepared to run our cars in the Terrace
Parking Lot. The lot, itself seemed a little small after two events at the
Seneca Army Depot, but then what lots wouldn’t. What was and has been for years
the most challenging components of the Terrace Parking Lot were still there: differing
surfaces with different adhesion, some decently paved, others crumbling, pot
holes and curious pedestrians, all guaranteed that course designers and drivers
had to be alert. The vastly different
surfaces and existing defects required the course design team to work very hard
to use every square inch of surface available. Given the lot conditions I think
the course design group did extremely well. The course opened with almost a
short straight before turning sharply left and then right into a small slalom.
Adhesion was quite good in the slalom, before ending, both adhesion and slalom,
into a hard right turn. This was followed by an immediate and hard left arc before
reaching a “decision point.” The first run into the decision point required an
early and hard 90 degree turn, which reentered the slalom. Even though the
speeds increased on the second pass through the slalom, the adhesion held and
speeds seemed noticeably quicker. On the second entrance into the “decision
point,” the driver took a hard right immediately after the location of the
first, which dumped the car into a hard leftward arc back into a box with more
cones than a Dairy Queen in August. Running the box required hard right-hand
turns, but in a section of the track with far less adhesion than existed
elsewhere. The driver exited the box in a tight rightward arc into the “stop
lights” to end it all, assuming the driver hadn’t pulled an “off course”
somewhere well before the box, something that occurred frequently. Cone killage
was high as the designers had employed many cones to keep the cars from hitting
rough spots and hard objects, resulting in a lot that looked like the place
cones go to die, a virtual sea of orange.
As
for the event, itself, G- and H-Stock classes had the largest turnout with six
drivers, apiece, while A-Stock managed five entrants. Street Touring S and Street
Modified 2 had four drivers. There were many other multi-car classes. G-Stock
is typically among our most popular and this event was obviously no exception.
It also saw some of the best competition including two new drivers, who
acquitted themselves well given the conditions. At the conclusion of the first
run group, Adam Adlik (’01 Subaru Impreza) led Cody Chambers (Subaru Impreza
2.5RS), but Cody charged back in the afternoon to ease out Adam for first place
in G-Stock and by less than 3/10 of a second. Behind Adam and in third place
was Brian Balliet (’03 Nissan Altima), who continues to improve as the season
goes on. He might even do better if I didn’t continuously bug him at start.
Over
in H-Stock James Coulombe (Honda Civic) liked being in first place so much that
he grabbed it early and refused to give it up to second place finisher Rich
Ayers (Honda Civic Si). Third place finisher, Bruce Coulombe, was very
“enterprising” in his use of a ’08 Toyota Prius. Of course, what would an
Ithaca event be without a Toyota Prius and Birkenstock racing shoes, right?!
H-Stock also had an interesting collection of vehicles made more interesting by
the other father-son team of Peter and Nicholas Dittler, who showed up in
Triumph Spitfires, Peter in a ’68 and Nicholas in a ’64. Rain didn’t dampen
their spirits nor evoke the Lucas effect. Here’s hoping that they return for
future events.
Back
in May, this writer chastised Ben Heater for being the only non-Honda S2000
driver in A-Stock at the opening event. I even suggested he come over to the
dark side, but Ben had plenty of Subaru WRX company at IC, tipping the balance
in Subaru’s favor, at least in terms of the numbers of vehicles. In the end I
(’01 Honda S2000) was able to pass along my “IC Curse” to Ben (Subaru WRX Sti)
and win the A-Stock trophy. Victor Miller (’06 Subaru WRX STi) rounded out the
top three places.
In
Street Touring S, Allan Kintz (Scion TC) handily defeated Bill Szozda (’92
Eagle Talon) for class honors, with Jesse Darrow (’03 Mazda Protégé 5) taking
third place. Street Modified 2 saw some incredibly good driving by recent EVO
graduate David Savage (Nissan 350Z). David managed to grab an early and
commanding lead despite the best efforts of Team Raymond, Colin and Dave, in
their supercharged Mazda Miata. Colin currently leads the seasonal trophy dash,
but only by 2 points over Dave. There’s plenty of good racing remaining down in
that class, however, and by no means has the final scoring been determined.
Speaking
of family teams, over in F-Stock the three Hendricksons were busy with their
’87 Camaro Z28. David, however, came out
the winner at the end followed by Ryan and Kevin. In Street Touring X, it was
the Pierce family, John and Greg, in their ’87 BMW 325iS against outsider (at
least not a Pierce)
As
I mention every time, there were several other single and two car classes at
the event that are well worth a look. Check out all of the official results
online at http://www.glen-scca.org/solo/schedule.asp. Be certain to check out
the seasonal point and PAX standings at the same location, while you’re there.
You’ll be glad you did.
On
behalf of the Glen Region thanks to all of you who made the Ithaca College
event possible.
The
next event is scheduled for Saturday, August 30 at Corning Community College.
More information is available on our website at http://www.glen-scca.org/solo/.
In the meantime, we'll keep the timing lights on for you.