Back to School V

 

Some folks donÕt care much for sequels. Not me. I mean look at The Godfather series, Indiana JonesÕ and the Matrix trilogies. And who can forget Murder on Elm Street?  Okay, so Freddy KruegerÕs a stretch, but the chance to return to Corning Community College for the fifth Labor Day weekend in a row was just too good for this autoXer to miss and apparently 30 other folks agreed.

 

Now 30 is a smaller number than normally expected, but it turned out to be the right number for plenty of runs for all. The low number probably resulted from the stifling heat or maybe just the chance to use the rare sunny day this summer for something other than an autoX, but it gave the rest of us eight runs each and thatÕs not bad.  The track layout consisted of a sharp uphill turn to the right followed by what else, a left hand pin turn downhill through a slalom which ended with a left kink to strip off excess speed, a left turn across the lot at the bottom, a left turn up the hill through a very tight left gate and then it started all over again.   With so many left hand turns I was starting to think the course was laid out by Bill France, himself, but the only southern dialect I heard was John PierceÕ Elmira Southside brogue and it isnÕt even close to a real southern dialect, not like someone from Erwin, for example. Regardless, it was an interesting layout that required a lot of thought and air pressure adjustments to master, if master is the right word.

 

The two largest classes of the day were the usual G-Stock and Street Touring-S classes with five entrants apiece. For G-Stock it was the return of the Brian, Brian Tyburski, that is, who in his Õ94 Ford Probe claimed class honors, but it not without a fight. Barry Butterfield (Õ03 BMW Mini Cooper S) showing how heÕs managed to be in the top end of the PAX championship run this season came within 3/10 of a second and on street tires, to boot.  Back behind Barry was Nile Heermans (Õ90 Nissan 240SX), who managed to keep a second Tyburski, Jeff, from putting Tyburskis back to back or at least in the top three. In Street Touring S the drivers were a bit more spread apart and Todd Totman (Õ96 Plymouth Neon) proved a bit too much for the other class contenders, Tom Daneka (Õ98 Honda Prelude) and Matt Lockhart (Õ04 Toyota Matrix). Tom may not have won his class, but by buying a round at the post game ceremony, heÕs definitely made a lot of friends. Just a word, Tom, we canÕt be bought. Leased, yes, but not bought.

 

Deciding to make newlywed Ken (Õ97 Honda Prelude) MoyerÕs life miserable, the Pierce Clan put R-compound tires on their Õ87 BMW 325is and pronounced it a D-Street Prepared car. Ken managed a repeat of the previous event by winning the class over son Greg and brother John and this time he managed the coveted PAX trophy, as well. It was a well-earned trophy as Ken really was pushing the Bimmer to its limits. The Pierces were never able to convince Anthony Cornish to get a BMW, but maybe theyÕll have better luck with Ken Moyer. In the meantime, someone tell Anthony he can come back now and have Street Touring X to himself.

 

Over in Street Modified it was one fantastic duel between Chris Kiefer (Õ03 Subaru WRX) and Daniel Keen (Õ97 Camaro Z28). Although Daniel got off to a great start and set a goal to shoot for, Chris got it back and edged out DanielÕs best time by 3/100 of a second by the time the event was over. Third place Traian Stanev (Õ01 VW Jetta) was no slouch either, but he just picked the wrong day to be in this class with its incredible competition. One question Traian, what is the meaning of your license plate? Curious minds whose only language is English want to know.

 

D-Stock managed to attract three drivers, too, and like Street Modified a close race ensued. In the end, however, someone had to win and Jacob Massey (Õ04 Dodge Neon) barely slipped my Mark Lockhart (Õ01 BMW 330ci) to do it.

 

Other multiple driver classes included B-Stock, which dropped to just two drivers this week. In what started out as a battle to see who could hit the most cones (it ended in a tie at six, apiece), Skip Testut (Õ01 Honda S2000) got by Eric Navestad (Õ00 Honda S2000).  In E-Stock, Tedd Hurd (Õ83 Mazda RX-7) managed to keep it running for yet another event to win the day over second place David Miller (Õ84 Porsche 944).

 

For a moment I thought that IÕd be writing about A-Street Prepared, but in a magic trick that would make David Copperfield envious, Lin Hurd managed to turn an Õ87 Porsche 944S into a Õ97 Ford Mustang Cobra and the class returned to one entrant. I think she did it when Tedd distracted us by imitating a carbide cannon while on course.

 

Although I donÕt normally talk about single class vehicles, I really do need to mention Casey CreamerÕs (Ō90 Techno-Kart). This isnÕt the first time that CaseyÕs managed to sneak away with the fastest time of the day (FTD), but this time he left no doubt in anyoneÕs mind about his FTD claim by running almost three full seconds faster than second in line, Ken Pierce. That is fast brothers and sisters, darned fast.  And pretty to watch, as well.

 

All of the rest of the results may be viewed at http://www.glen-scca.org/solo/2004/results20040904.asp if youÕre so inclined. Better yet, just show up at the next Glen Region event and watch it LIVE. In the meantime, a special thank you to the folks at Corning Community College for renting us the track, to John Florence for making it all possible, and to all of you volunteer workers without whom it just wouldnÕt happen. You folks are the greatest.