Autocross, the most accessible form of motorsports, returned to Waldorf, Maryland on Sunday with the first event hosted by Autocrossers Incorporated (AI) at Regency Furniture Stadium. While weather during the day was cool with misty rain throughout the morning, that didn’t stop seventy drivers from taking part on race day.

Autocross is a low-speed car control exercise held in empty parking lots, airport taxiways, or other large expanses of pavement or concrete. Each event features a unique course laid out with traffic cones with twists, turns, and slaloms designed to limit top speeds to 55-60 MPH. Drivers run the course one at a time, with their times tracked electronically. Knocking over a cone incurs a two-second penalty. Each driver’s best individual run time is his or her run of record and used to determine the event’s results.

AI, a chapter club of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), has been hosting autocross events in the Baltimore-Washington area for over 40 years. 2012 marks AI’s third year of making Regency Furniture Stadium its home. This year WDCR welcomes Radial Tire Company as the Official Tire of the D.C. Region.

Cars are classified by SCCA regulations, which takes into consideration the car itself as well as any modifications made. Classes range from Stock, for lightly modified vehicles, through Street Touring, Street Prepared, Prepared, and Modified. AI also has three additional classes: Novice, for drivers just getting into the sport; Pro, for the most experienced drivers; and Ladies.

Sunday’s event featured a course designed by multiple national championship-winning driver Sam Strano. Its highlight feature was a five-cone slalom that teased drivers with a high-speed entry but punished those who could not keep up with the transitions with cone penalties or “off course” calls. The challenge of the day was increased as light rain in the morning and a heavy overcast sky meant that drivers were testing their skills on a wet course, as autocross events are held rain or shine.

Close competition was the order of the day, with two classes seeing the winner taking the trophy by a tenth of a second or less. Super Street Prepared was the closest battle, with Howard Leikin driving his Lotus Exige to the class win over James Harris’ Corvette Z06 by just 0.092 seconds. C Stock was the next closest, with Les Banyas taking the win in his Mazdaspeed Miata by 0.108 seconds over Learic Cramer’s Nissan 370Z.

Other contested class winners included Rani Emad (BMW 3-Series) in Street Modified, Jerry Byrd (Subaru WRX STi) in Street Touring Ultra, Justin Neal (Honda CRX Si) in Super Street Modified, James Dunham (Mazda MX-5) in Street Touring Roadster, Yaroslav Burmaka (Toyota MR2) in Street Touring Sports, Chris Hebert (Nissan 350Z) in B Street Prepared, Danny Kao (Corvette Z06) in Super Stock, Shawn Roning (Subaru STi) in B Stock, Steve Mitchell (Mini Cooper S) in D Stock, and Nathaniel Spoltman (Subaru WRX) in Street Touring Extreme.

The Novice class featured ten drivers in machinery that ranged from a Honda S2000 to a Chrysler 300C. Using a scientifically-calculated PAX multiplier to eliminate the difference between different classes, the winner was Dmitry Maslov, driving a D Stock BMW 335i. Second place went to Phillip Chaney (Street Touring Roadster Honda S2000) and third place was William Olsen (F Prepared Toyota Celica).

The Pro class was made up of 20 drivers who also drove a wide variety of cars. Using the PAX multiplier to handicap Mazda Miatas against Corvettes and Mustangs, the winner was Sam Strano, who drove a C Stock Nissan 370Z. Kevin Henry (D Street Prepared BMW 325i) and Steve Kahre (B Stock Honda S2000) rounded out the top three.

Autocrossers Incorporated returns to Waldorf’s Regency Furniture Stadium on Saturday, June 16th, for a doubleheader day. Drivers will see competition in the morning, then take a break for lunch inside the stadium while the course is modified. Following lunch, they’ll get another set of runs on a different course. The morning and afternoon sessions will count as separate events for both individual awards and season-long championship points.

Online registration will open a month before the next event on http://www.dlbracing.com. Drivers looking for information about car classification can consult the SCCA Solo rule book, which is available to download at http://www.scca.com.

VIDEO COURTESY ALAN CLAFFIE:

Alan Claffie at Autocrossers Inc

VIDEOS COURTESY DANNY KAO:

Danny Kao

Sam Strano

Holly Schwedler

With the winter dust settled heavily on our shoulders, it was yet again that time to dust them off and invade the south for the SCCA Dixie National Tour.  Like a second Christmas, the start of the motorsports season is equally anticipated, folks tossing and turning the night before departing the DC Metro Area, eager to pull forward to the line and have the starter wave them on, as they rip off the initial runs of the 2012 season.

The last time we left the motley crew of DC natives and interlopers was the SCCA Nashville Road Tour, where we closed out the season in a fairly polarizing fashion.  It seemed as though folks either loved it or hated it and it left a very bittersweet ending to the 2011 season.  The events that would transpire at Dixie would make just about all of us forget any grumblings about the Road Tour experiment and just be happy that we’re back doing what we love.

Arriving late Friday evening, my traveling mates of Danny Kao, Justin Neal, John Crouse and I missed the practice sessions.  While rolling into the paddock and searching for a clear spot, we noticed that Sam Vassallo’s E Street Prepared Mustang was jacked up by the rear differential and being worked on by he and Brian Burdette.  We were told that they had a failure in the rear suspension during the practice sessions, this would later prove to be a bit of a theme for the weekend.

DAY 1

Saturday kicked off with Super Stock action, with a big anticipation on the Sam Strano vs Matthew Braun battle.  Last season Matthew came away victorious, but this season he would be in a C6 Z06 instead of the Lotus we’ve grown to know him in, thus leveling the playing field between Sam and himself on the “up and back” course that Dixie is limited to.  Sam Took the lead on day 1, while standing on his first run as he coned his following two.  Knocking on the door of the final trophy spot was Sam’s co-driver, Michael Snyder.

Heat two featured A Street Prepared and Kart Modified.  Courtney Cormier wasted no time, picking up right where he left off from his jacket winning season of 2011, chasing Mike “Junior” Johnson to within .2 for the lead in ASP.  KM brought about mechanical failure number 2 of the weekend for DC.

During the off season, I had sent away my motor to get rebuilt by famed kart shop CKT, the build costing me more than $2000.  Running the same jet I ended the 2011 season with, the fuel level proved to not be enough and the piston stuck during Justin Neal’s final run, destroying the top end of the brand new motor.   Justin’s second run of the day was still good enough to leave him in the first trophy position with one more slot left for grabs.  Having just witnessed my brand new motor get destroyed, two dirty runs on my timesheet (leaving me last in class at that point) and bumming a ride in a kart I’d never driven before, things were not looking good, but I was able to hold it together and put down a run that just barely slotted me into the final trophy position.

Heats three and four would have several instances of DC region success.  Having driven the “Thunder –Chicken” (as coined by Mike Johnson) on a few occasions last year, Holly Schwedler jumped right up to the top of the time sheet with only Shelly Monfort .4 ahead of her.  With B Street Prepared structurally revised, Mike Lane was able to take advantage of the lack of Evolutions in class and close out the day in the first position.  Driving the aforementioned car, Josh Luster (rocking a beard that would make playoff beards jealous) took a break from STi’s to co-drive with John Willemin and found himself in first.

Heat 99.9, wait, no, 99.9 was the volume of Sam’s ESP Mustang on just about all of their runs, heat 5 I mean,  had the Stang back together and Burdette hunting down Rod McGeorge.  They were .3 from each other, with McGeorge taking the top spot when the day closed.

DAY 2

Last season, after a VERY failed attempt at fielding a D-Stock Mazdaspeed3, our own Mr. Kao purchased a C5 Z06 from one of our neighbors in Philly Region.  He had ups and downs with it last season, more so of the latter, but March 11^th, 2012 would mark a turning point where things just clicked into place for Danny.  Sitting in the bottom half of the timesheet, well out of the trophies, General Kao went on to drop over a second each of his runs, putting himself within .5 of names such as Strano, Braun, Conners and .130 out of the trophies regardless of his mediocre Day 1.  I did nine national level events with Danny last season, this run was easily the most inspired I’ve seen him do.

Two runs into KM on Day 2, I was sitting in 1^st place, already forgetting what transpired the day before.  My co-driver, Philly local Jeff Craven had other ideas and put together a run .6 faster than mine, taking top pax for Day 2 and first overall in KM.  Justin Neal was luckily able to get a co-drive with Trey Davis and ripped together a set of runs that would put him right behind Craven on the combined times.

They say that deaths come in “three’s,” well it seems that mechanical failures come in such also.  Courtney and Junior were the victims of the third failure when they had a wheel bearing go out, the likes of which left the time sheets with a massive oddity, neither of them finishing in the trophies.

Heat four had much of the same from the previous day.  Mike Lane cleared his class by 1.8 seconds and Josh Luster’s beard put .46 seconds on STU.

If you ask AC/DC, they’ll tell you that “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution.”  If you ask Dixie sound management, they’ll tell you that Sam’s Mustang is, as it unleashed 102 decibels from it’s V8.  Sound troubles aside, Burdette looked more comfortable in the car on Day 2, beating Rod on the day by .25 but falling overall by .045.  Brian had quite the flyer together on his final run, but lost it in the final seconds on the slalom.

“History repeats itself” is a common platitude, but on this occasion it held to be true.  The North invaded the South and came away victoriouss!

DC REGION MEMBERS AND THEIR FINISHING POSITIONS

Super Stock
1) Sam Strano (Winner of SS, 7^th overall in PAX)
8 Danny Kao (54^th overall in PAX)
12) Michael Snyder (84^th overall in PAX)

Super Stock Ladies
4) Holly Schwedler (169^th overall in PAX)

D Stock
3) Terry Baker (104^rd overall in PAX)

Street Touring R
16) Noel Leslie (127^th overall in PAX)
19) Andy Thomas (165^th overall in PAX)

Street Touring Ultra
1) Josh Luster (Winner of STU, 117^th overall in PAX)
3) John Willemin (161^st overall in PAX)

Super Street Prepared
5) Courtney Cormier (111^th overall in PAX)

B Street Prepared
1) Mike Lane (Winner of BSP, 63^rd overall in PAX)

E Street Prepared
1) Rod McGeorge (Winner of ESP, 66^th overall in PAX)
2) Brian Burdette (Trophy in ESP, 69^th overall in PAX)
4) Sam Vassallo (221^st overall in PAX)

Kart Modified
2) Justin Neal (Trophy in KM, 22^nd overall in PAX)
3) James Newman (Trophy in KM, 25^th overall in PAX)

MONSTER RUN VIDEO COURTESY DANNY KAO:

2012 Dixie Sunday – Danny Kao\’s Monster Run

Mike Stanley driving the TR11 car at the Solo Nationals. Photo courtesy of gotcone.com

By Pat Griffith

Mike Stanley won the Solo Nationals FTD Trophy presented by Small Fortune Racing at his year’s TireRack Solo Nationals in Lincoln, Neb.  Stanley drove the University of Maryland car to the Formula SAE win and bested time from A Modified, B Modified and Formula 125 for the fastest overall time at the week-long even held Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

Mike’s combined time over both courses was 107.883 while Gary Milligan, a three-time recipient of the award, logged a 108.795 driving a 2008 Vancouver Special to win A-Mod.

While this is Mike’s second year in a row winning FSAE, the car is actually a bit different than the one from last year.  Under FSAE rules, university’s have to build cars that are a “significantly new design” for national FSAE competition (not necessarily SCCA).

“There are some persisting features year to year, but this year’s car is a new car,” Mike said. “In keeping with good engineering principles, we’d like to keep what is good, fix what is bad, and improve on anything and everything we can.”

The FTD Trophy has been presented since 1998, but this was the first year a driver in an FSAE car has won it.  Mike’s time was also good enough for top PAX for the event, as compiled by Chicago Region’s Rick Ruth.

FSAE ran Tuesday-Wednesday (Aug. 30 and 31), the same days as A Modified, but Mike benefited from having dry courses both days while AM ran in an earlier heat after rain – albeit a drying course — on the East Course on Tuesday.  But the slalom-intensive West Course on Wednesday was ideal for the Terps Racing 2011 (TR11) car.

“This was where the car could shine,” Mike said.  “We love transitions and high-G corners. I typically like technical/element-heavy courses. Fortunately the car can make up a lot of time in these areas due to the high cornering forces. The car was extremely predictable, and horribly underpowered.”

The FSAE rules have opened up over the years to allow teams to more liberal use of aerodynamics, and the TR11 as well as other cars have begun morphing into more of a typical Nationals A-Mod grid.

“We made some specific requests of the FSAE rules committee prior to 2011 pertaining to locations of aerodynamic elements, which they accepted,” Mike said.  “This allowed us to make some subtle improvements to the wing package over the previous year.”

There’s a quote floating around from Bob Tunnell about autocrossers shouldn’t make any changes to their cars after July if they’re preparing for the Solo Nationals.  Well the Maryland car didn’t even have an engine until less than two weeks before heading to Lincoln.  Mike and two other team members bought an engine from 2001 Honda CBR F4i and tuning was done in the days leading up to the Solo Nationals.  The team has access to parking lots at certain hours where they were able to do some testing, and Mike and co-driver David Eng, who ended up in third place in FSAE, hit the practice course for some runs.  So bottom line, not a lot of seat time.

Mike said he didn’t have much input on the design of the TR11 car, so he owes a great deal of gratitude to the students who put time in on the car.  He couldn’t even fathom calculating the total number of man hours.

“The FSAE program is run a little like a business and lot like an educational course,” he said.  “Things are done and re-done, some things are done at 4 a.m., some are done minutes before a fina l… it’s a real challenge for those guys. Moving back and forth between class work and car work is really tough.

“The testing done at Maryland includes some static testing in the lab, and we have use of the parking lots at certain hours. We have a dyno, but it’s pretty pathetic. Much of our engine tuning is done out in the lots.”

The best of the rest

The FTD Trophy presented at the Friday banquet capped a solid showing for WDCR and Autocross, Inc., members.  Three drivers had to claw back from trailing after their first day of competition on Tuesday to come back to win championships, two of them doing it for the first time.

Lisa Garfield won her first national championship with her victory in Formula 125 Ladies.  She was trailing Suzanne Segal after the first day by 0.053 after the first day but came through with the fastest time in class on the second day to win by almost a second.

Courtney Cormier also came from behind to win his first national championship driving the McGeorge Toyota 2006 Chevy Corvette Z06 in A Street Prepared.  After the first day on the East Course, Courtney was back in third trailing overall leader and co-driver Mike Johnson by almost a second.  On his first run on the West Course on the second day, Courtney ripped off a 64.728, which would stand as fastest time in class.  Mike’s final run of 65.5 wasn’t enough, and he missed out on repeating as ASP champ by 0.056 seconds.

In Formula Junior A, Julian Garfield found himself in an unfamiliar position – second place after the first day of competition and trailing the Atlanta Region’s Jesse Sealey by more than a tenth of a second.  FJA drivers found themselves in wet conditions on the East Course on Tuesday.  The next day on the West Course saw no rain, and Julian took over the lead on his first run.  He and Jesse went faster on their second runs and faster again on their third runs, but Julian held on to win his second straight FJA championship and fourth overall.

While he only seems to autocross once or twice a year and not usually within the WDCR, Tim Aro is still a region member.  And he also overcame a deficit on the first day – another driver dealing with wet conditions – to win in C Street Prepared.  Behind the wheel of his brother Harry’s 1995 Mazda Miata, Tim splashed to third place and 0.7 out of the lead in the first heat on the West Course on Tuesday.  On a dry East Course on Wednesday, his 61.033 on his second run leap-frogged him to the lead, and that stood to give him the overall win by more than seven tenths.  It was his second Solo National Championship – he won CSP in 2004.

Still a supplemental class but fiercely competitive, Street Modified F (SMF) saw Brian Karwan win for the second year in a row.  He stood on a 66.9 on his first run on the first day on the cone-intensive West Course to lead switching over to the more open East Course for Wednesday competition.  Brian ended up winning by more than seven tenths but said he was sweating it out watching Dave Hardy and Jim Reyenga co-driving Dave’s 1989 Honda Civic and getting faster and faster on the second day.  Dave actually pulled within two tenths on his final run, but Brian came through just after him with a 63.4 to seal the win.

Other WDCR/A.I. members taking home hardware:

• Sam Strano, 2^nd place, Super Stock, 2010 Chevy Corvette Grand Sport
• David Eng, 3^rd place, FSAE, 2011 TR11 downforce car
• Brian Garfield, 3^rd place, AM, 2011 TR11 downforce car
• Lee Piccione, 4^th place, F Stock, 2008 Ford Mustang Shelby GT-C
• Ian Baker, 4^th place, Street Touring Sport, 1989 Honda CRX Si
• Ryan Lower, 5^th place, F125, 2008 CRG Road Rebel
• Kenny Sorensen, 6^th place, B Stock, 2008 Porsche Boxster
• Jason Burns, 6^th place, SS, 2010 Chevy Corvette Grand Sport
• Josh Luster, 6^th place, Street Touring Ultra, 2006 Subaru WRX STi
• “Little” Mike Snyder, 6^th place, SMF, 1989 Honda CRX Si
• Norm Beaver, 7^th place, D Modified, 1979 Caterham 7
• Justin Neal, 7^th place, F125, 2008 Shockwave
• Karen Kraus, 7^th place, E Street Prepared, 2006 Subaru WRX
• Terry Baker, 9^th place, D Stock, 2011 Ford Mustang
• Shane Chinnon Rhoden, 10^th place, Street Touring Ultra, 2006 Subaru Cone Hitting Machine (20 cones hit and only one clean run all week … but still trophied!)

See final results.  Also, gotcone.com has more pictures of Mike Stanley and just about everyone here.

Me in John Vitamvas' STS/R RX-7 on the first day of the Toledo National Tour. (Photo by John Krolewicz)

By Pat Griffith

If you recall the article we did on John Vitamvas’ RX-7 last year, you may also recall that the car is still alive and well and proving to be a pretty capable car in STS.  While it hasn’t been an overdog and Ian Baker may not have rotary nightmares, John and co-driver Greg Olsen have definitely made the car noticed* both in the D.C. Region and at national SCCA events.

[*Note: It’s been so noticed that John was able to sell almost all the go-fast parts from the car in, oh, about three weeks because he and Greg are abandoning the STS RX-7 project and moving onto an E46 BMW for D Street Prepared that’s already been built. But I had this article pretty much written before all that, so keep that in mind as you continue reading.]

The highlight of the year was John winning STS at the SCCA Pro Solo in New Jersey, holding on to a win by 0.016 over Ian, despite not picking up time on his runs Sunday morning.

(Don’t tell Ian, but I was rooting for John and Greg that weekend because I like to see oddball cars do well.  Like Solo needs another class for Hondas to dominate?!)

For the SCCA National Tour July 4 weekend at Toledo (Ohio) Express Airport, I decided I wanted to go but didn’t want to pay for the gas and toll$ along the Pennsylvania and Ohio turpikes to tow my ESP Camaro out there.  Looking for a ride, John mentioned that he had a seat open in his car, albeit in the pirate class – STR (Ess Tee Arrrrrrrrr!).  Teen driving sensation Tom O’Bieber O’Gorman was already going to co-drive with him in STS.  I figured I was just out to have some fun, and the car was completely different than anything I had ever driven, so I figured, why not?

My experience in the street tire classes has been limited over the past several years.  I drove Ian’s CRX once at an Autocrossers, Inc., event at Ripken Stadium (so that tells you how long ago that was), and I drove my old Sentra SE-R a couple times in the rain the past few years.  But my last rear-wheel-drive experience in Street Touring didn’t  go well.

But I figured street-tire technology has advanced over the years that a lot of people claim they are on the same level of performance as early R-compound tires, maybe even on par with the old BFG R1s or even Kumho Victoracers.

So it shouldn’t be that bad right?

Right?

Well actually, it wasn’t that bad.  When I got to Toledo on Friday morning, I opted to not do any runs on the practice course.  I often do OK in unfamiliar cars just hopping in and driving them (well, except for the first time driving Keath and Donna Marx’s Super Stock Corvette Z06, which took me a month or so to get the hang of).  Heck, the first time I sat in John’s car was Saturday morning in paddock to drive to grid.  After getting a quick overview of the car from John, I headed to grid.

Well, not right away.  The car wouldn’t start.  “Keep trying,” John said.  “It just does that.”  There were a couple of “It just does that” remarks from him over the weekend.  Marissa, John’s wife, said the initial conversation about buying the car involved John telling her the car only had reverse, “But he said, ‘I can fix that.’”  She was hoping for a Porsche GT3.

Anyway, the car started on the second turn, and I was off to grid.  STR was in the first heat, and I slotted in a grid full of cars where the oldest one – other than the RX-7 – was built in 2001, and most were models from the last five years.  Mazda MX-5s and Honda S2000s.

For those of you who have never been to Toledo, the site is on an airport parking apron and is all flat concrete.  There hasn’t been any resurfacing anywhere that I could see.  Just a huge slab of smooth concrete.  John said his impression of driving the car on the practice course, the brakes worked really well at the site.

One of the things he mentioned was that the car had no power.  Well, let me rephrase that.  It has 160 horsepower, but for a normally aspirated rotary, the torque band is low in the rpms and very flat.  It is a 1.3-liter engine after all!

He said to launch the car at 5,000 rpms and just dump the clutch.  On my first run, it just hooked up and left the line with no drama.  I shifted to second and found out what John meant about lack of power.  I eased into the throttle – being used to 350 ft-lbs of wheel/torque in my Camaro – and for a brief moment, I thought something was wrong.  I made it to the first turn – a slow, sharp right-hander – the car rotated, and I mashed the throttle – no spinning of the rear tires — and tried to remember to do that as much as possible.  I came in with a 54.7, which I guess wasn’t too hateful.  I just tried to keep the back end under control, which wasn’t difficult at all.

There was a fairly fast section of the course with a chicane that led into a three-cone slalom that I thought to try and take it flat out on the second run.  I made it through but overshot the entrance to the hard 90-degree turn after that.  A little wiggle later, and I was into some offsets that led to what was basically a two-cone slalom, which was a little tricky because a tight hairpin turn was just after that, and you were on the brakes as you were turning the wheel.  I carried too much speed into there, got on the brakes and spun the car about halfway around.  I pushed in the clutch and revved the beerkeg to keep from stalling.  I tried to turn around but there wasn’t a whole lot of room to do it, and I ended up running over a couple pointer cones while trying to make a quick escape.  I forget what the time was, but it didn’t matter anyway.

Carrying a souvenir back to grid after my second run on Saturday. (Photo by John Krolewicz)

With “the edge” now defined in that section, I went out on my final run to try and improve on the 54.7.  Everything was going great until I got to the hairpin where I spun the previous run.  The car got out of shape, but I flailed on the steering wheel and managed to keep the nose pointed the right direction.

Heading into the finish, which was a prefaced by a tight 180-degree turn, I remembered John telling me I might be able to try first gear in some sections.  So I decided to try it here.  Which didn’t work as the RPMs went way up, and the rear tires spun hard for a brief moment.  Shifted back up to second and got on the gas.  The time was a 54.3, which was still a four-tenths improvement.  I’m guessing with all the ham-fistedness on that run, I probably lost about a second or so.

I was 16^th out of a 23-car field, so it wasn’t too bad.  A couple people in front of me weren’t too far off, so I was hoping to move up on Sunday.

The temperatures on Saturday reached oppressive levels in the upper 90s and thick humidity.  I was lucky in that regard to have run first heat, so it wasn’t bad early on.  Then my work assignment was to announce during the third heat, which was in the comforts of one of the SCCA’s Ford pickups and air conditioning.

The course for the next day was almost exactly backwards from Saturday, the exception being the finish, which was a bit further back from where the start was the previous day.   The weather was just a bit cooler than the day before with no threat of rain.  I had more confidence because I knew what the car could do, and I walked the course trying to figure out if some “braking zones” could be taken with just a little lift instead of using the brakes.  John was right that the brakes worked really well on the concrete.  The car doesn’t have ABS, but I’m used to that with the Camaro and previously my Classic Sentra SE-R.

My first run Sunday was drama free, and the time was a 48.8.  I got the impression that this time was much more competitive than yesterday – in the same neighborhood as some of the drivers near the bottom of the trophy ladder (which was all the way back to seventh place).  My second run was another four tenths faster, and I figured something in the 47-second range was possible.

Sunday’s course started off heading into a sharp, left-handed 180 (where I botched the finish heading the opposite direction on my last run the previous day trying to downshift to first).  I was lightly tapping the brakes to set up for the turn on my previous two runs, and, debriefing in grid, John asked if it could be taken with just a lift off the throttle – no brakes.  I had nothing to lose, so I tried that on the third run, and it worked!

Next up was a three-cone slalom that exited into a sharp left-hand sweeper, and I tried a similar strategy there – lifting off the gas and not using the brakes.  It pushed a bit on exit, but there was a lot of room there, so it seemed carrying the momentum was better.

However, this is where it got dicey.  Because of that, I was now on a slightly different line and carrying a bit more speed to set up for a right-hand 180.  The same turn I botched twice yesterday when I was entering it from the other direction.  I didn’t get the car sideways or anything but didn’t get the car whoa’ed down enough, and it pushed badly on the exit.  One of those where you’re off the throttle with the steering wheel cranked, and you’re waiting for the car to come back online.  Luckily, I didn’t hit the cone that was looming off to my left.  But I guessed that maneuver cost me a half second or so.

In the middle of the course was a right-handed turn that you had to give up some speed for, and I think I drove that section at the limit.  Just grazed the brakes and was quickly on the gas, better than my first two runs through there.  Did the rest of the course pretty well, and came in with a time two tenths slower than the 48.4 from my second run.  Coulda, woulda, shoulda, but didn’t.

When results came out, it showed I had moved up from 16^th to 14^th overall.  Then as we were standing around in impound, all the other classes had left already while all of STR was still sitting there.  It turned out, another competitor noticed that somebody else’s first run from Sunday was on the timesheet as his fastest run from Saturday (remember, Sunday’s course was four to five seconds faster), and the results were being corrected.  When those results came out, I had moved up another spot to 13^th place!

I ended up with the ninth-fastest time in class on Sunday.  Later in the day, Tom ran a 48.3 in the car in STS, and John had a 48.5.  They co-drove in the same heat so were better off keeping heat in the Hankooks, so I was happy with my 48.4 as a solo driver in the first heat.

In impound both days, I had several competitors come up and ask me about the car.  Most were in admiration, probably because it was an oddball car even sitting in the STS grid.

I hope John – and Greg – keep up with it and don’t just dump it to buy an already-sorted Street Prepared car that lifts a front wheel coming out of every turn.

(OK, I added that last line long after I finished writing this article.)

The second round of the National Street Tire Challenge hit Washington, D.C., July 16 with 117 coming out to FedEx Field to hit the asphalt with squealing tires rated at 140 treadwear or higher, and event management was provided by the WDCR Solo Committee.

The NSTC began three years ago in the Milwaukee Region as an alternative for people who wanted to compete on non-R-compound tires but not in a Street Touring classes.  This year, with sponsorship from Bridgestone, the NSTC expanded to four events.  The first one for 2011 was held at Mineral Wells, Texas.  The final two will take place Aug. 6 in Atlanta, Ga., and Sept. 17 and 18 back in the homeland of Milwaukee, Wisc.

There were five classes, four being indexed using the PAX for SCCA classes:

1. Street Touring Shootout: All the Street Touring classes.
2. Rear Wheel Drive: All non-Street Touring classes for RWD cars.
3. Front Wheel Drive: Like RWD but for cars powering the wrong wheels.
4. All Wheel Drive: Non-ST classes for AWD cars.
5. Muscle Car: Heads-up non-indexed class for 1992 and older rear wheel drive, eight cylinder naturally aspirated or six cylinder force induction cars.

Competitors got six overall runs on the Greg Olsen-designed course – three in the morning then three in the afternoon following a lunch break.  A competitor’s best time, whether in morning or afternoon, was used for the final results.

“The six runs split morning to afternoon were fun,” said Stuart Fain, who brought out his Porsche GT3 on a set of Bridgestone RE-11s and had John Vitamvas co-drive with him.  “It allowed for screw ups and time to make corrections.”

Quite a few of the usual suspects came out in their Street Touring cars, whether it was ST, STS, STR, STX or STU.  Some cars even saw double duty competing in one of the non-ST indexed classes. Josh Luster and Shane Chinnon-Rhoden tried to maximize their prize potential – Josh drove his Subaru WRX STi in the ST Shootout on the STU index while Shane tried to win the AWD class driving the same car on the BSP index.  However, Shane missed out on winning a set of Bridgestone tires given to the fastest non-Street Touring car on PAX.  Lance Keeley of the Milwaukee Region got that prize driving his G-Stock Hyundai Genesis Coupe to an indexed time 0.048 faster than Shane.

Shane driving Josh Luster's STU WRX STi ASAP PDQ in BSP YMMV.

Other people simply brought out their normal autocross cars on their normal street tires.  Learic Cramer tried her hand in the RWD class in her C-Stock Nissan 370Z on Continental ExtremeContact DWs because she wanted “to challenge myself against most of the local CS competitors who generally run on street tires.”  She also liked what she saw on the prize list, and also didn’t mind driving to FedEx Field and not having to touch a lug nut.

Kevin Henry figured since he had to be at the event as a Solo Committee member he might as well drive his DSP E30 BMW on his rain tires – Toyo R1Rs.

“I was going to be there anyway, and any seat time doesn’t hurt,” he said.

For Danny Kao, this event marked a return to street tires – he drove in STU for a few years, last competing in the class in 2008 in Mike Neary’s his Mitsubishi Evo Lancer.  But since then, he’s driven shifter karts and then Stock cars on R-compounds.

“[Street tires are] cheaper, but once you taste the speed and grip it’s hard to go back to a street tire unless I am sick of sending money to Hoosier,” he said.

Danny actually has an ST Honda Civic Si – “The Money Maker” – and he drove it with John Nicolaysen but in the FWD class on the SMF index.  A.J. Aviles drove it with Mike Kline in the ST Shootout in its proper class.

Another person making the switch from a high-horsepower RWD car on R-compounds to a low-horsepower FWD car on street tires was Brian Burdette.  He brought out his H-Stock Volkswagen Golf TDI on 225/45/17 Continental ContiProContacts.

“I am adamantly against the ‘street tires in stock’ concept for numerous reasons, but I thought I should give it a chance,” he said. “Especially since the venue was so close to where I live.”

Brian actually drove the V-Dub earlier in the year at the WDCR practice event, so he was somewhat familiar with how the car would handle on street tires.  He had moved into the lead of the FWD class at one point in the afternoon, but Tony “Effing” Savini, who had un-retired the Mini Cooper S he drove to the G-Stock Solo and Pro Solo National Championships in 2009, bested Brian on his final run by 0.101.

Usually going from a Honda Civic to an S2000, means picking up a lot of horsepower, but not so for Brian Karwan.  Instead of driving his SMF Civic, he co-drove with Greg Martell in an STR-prepped S2000 on Dunlops.

“The econobox on R rubber is faster, but rear-wheel drive on street tires equals 10 times the fun,” he said.  “I now understand why STR has become such a popular class.”

He can’t remember the last time he autocrossed on street tires, but after the NSTC, he’s considering adding another car to the stable.

“I am seriously looking for a street tire car right now for the days I feel lazy,” Brian said.  “Changing tires or loading up a trailer seems like a lot of work now.”

For me, I drove in the Muscle Car class in my ESP Camaro.  I have some old Sumitomo street tires that have been in my shed for three years, but before the weekend, I tried to think of who I knew with a Camaro or Corvette who might have decent street tires on wheels that I could bolt up to my car.  Karen has Kumho ASXs on both her Camaros, which aren’t too good on an autocross course.  Well, unless there’s snow on the ground.   I sent a message to Danny asking him what he had for street tires for his Corvette Z06, and he had Toyo T1Rs — 295s in the rear and 265s in front.  And he said he would bring them to the event for me to use!

Holly Schwedler and Learic Cramer wondering if I drove it up from the Bahamas.

The T1Rs are just a step below Toyo R1Rs and have a treadwear rating of 280.  It took me a few runs to get used to them and find a sweet spot for air pressures.  Also, people have said the R1Rs don’t like heat, and most drivers who use them in the ST classes spray them down with water liberally in between runs.  I figured the T1Rs would need the extra attention, too, and their performance did seem to be a bit better after I started drowning them with water.

It was funny that I showed up to the event trailering the Camaro on Hoosier A6s – two of them new with the stickers still on them.  Then switched to street tires, then switched back to A6s to load the car up on the trailer for the ride home.  Probably not in the spirit of the event, though.  Mike Fineburg and Aaron Shoe also did the same thing with Mike’s BSP Mitsubishi Evo.

See final results.

Also, check out General Kao’s pictures: part 1 and part 2.

Autocrossers were taken aback by this striking likeness of Lee Piccione just inside The Monster Mile gate. (Photo by Perry Aidelbaum)

By Pat Griffith

The Road to Lincoln made a stop in Dover, Del., for the TireRack SCCA National Tour over the weekend at “The Monster Mile” — Dover International Speedway. This is the first time an SCCA national event has been held at the speedway’s lot, and it proved to be a fantastic venue for a National Tour stop.

The lot is roughly the size of the one used for a few years for the Solo National Championships at Heartland Park Topeka and is a bit bigger than the E lot at FedEx Field. The Heartland Park pad contained two courses running simultaneously. Now imagine that much area being used for one single course — that’s what it was like over the weekend as Lee Piccione was called on to design the courses for both days. Saturday’s course featured a huge sweeping left-hander that tested the brave heading into the finish. Both courses had a long six-cone slalom running almost the entire north-south length of the course. Despite a few bumpy sections, the asphalt provided excellent grip … well as long as you weren’t in the first heat where you were basically sweeping the optimal line of sand and pebbles.

The weather held up both days, although there were light showers overnight between Saturday and Sunday. But the course was dry before first heat began, so weather was not a factor. The forecast called for a chance of thunderstorms starting around noon Sunday, but they never materialized.

How did the WDCR and Autocrossers Inc., members fare? Eight class wins and an additional 11 trophies.

In F Stock, the course designer took the win, leading after Saturday then coming behind with a 64.8 on his final run Sunday in his Kao Yellow 2008 Ford Mustang Shelby Shelby GT. Terry Baker took the third and final trophy spot with his 2008 Shelby.

Brian Karwan’s 1994 Honda Civic broke during practice starts at the New Jersey Pro Solo, but he came back to Dover and unleashed his wrath on Street Modified FWD. Last year’s SMF national champion (or whatever the proper term is for the supplemental class champ) had a best of a 62.7 the first day while nobody else in class was even in the 64s. Brian cruised on Sunday to take the overall win by 3.5 seconds. “Little” Mike Snyder took the last trophy position in The Plaid CRX.

WDCR members ended up taking four of the top five spots in the street tire classes. While the Atlanta Region may be known for being the top dogs in plain ol’ Street Touring, but WDCR may have a more talented overall group across the Street Touring categories.

Mike Stanley and Ian Baker get Greg Olsen ready for a run on Sunday.

After the dust settled Saturday, Ian Baker held a lead in Street Touring Sport by 1.7 seconds in Little Mike Snyder’s 1988 Honda CRX Si. Despite feeling a bit under the weather on Sunday and hitting nine (!) cones on his first run, he ended up lengthening that lead to win by almost three seconds. Greg Olsen held on for the third and final trophy in the class driving John Vitamvas’ RX-7.

Greg Olsen channels John Vitamvas before a run on Sunday.

Another street tire class saw two competitors who normally don’t drive on even R-compounds, let alone a tin top vehicle — Mike Kline and Edwin Liu. The two, who normally kill bugs dead in shifter karts in Formula 125, teamed up to drive a 1991 Honda Civic Si in Street Touring Xtreme. Mike at least may not be invited back to the class because he took the win, although it wasn’t easy for him. After leading Saturday, he coned his first run Sunday then was marked as DNF on his second run for driving around a gate after the finish. He put it all together with a clean run on his final run to take the win. Edwin unfortunately wasn’t as lucky. Two DNFs and a dirty run bounced him to third place and out of the trophies.

Street Touring Unlimited saw another familiar story — the car owner having cone problems while the tire warmer stayed clean to earn the win. Shane Chinonn-Rhoden, despite his fits of laughter spiking sound readings taken on site, finished with the win there in Josh Luster’s 2006 Subaru WRX STi. Josh coned every run Saturday, including tagging seven (!) on his final run, and looked to be out of trophy contention. But he managed to turn in three clean runs Sunday for the second and final trophy in the class.

The newest street tire class, Street Touring R (AKA, The Pirate Class — Ess Tee Arrrrrrrrrrr!), has quickly grown a substantial following since its inception last year. In Dover, there were 10 competitors, and WDCR’s Christopher Lin came out on top. He wheeled his 2002 Toyota MR2 Spyder for the victory after a building healthy lead on Saturday. He only had the fourth-fastest time in class on Sunday, but it was enough to hold off a charging James Dunham, who moved from third to second in his 2006 Mazda MX-5.

Courtney Cormier continued his dominance from the New Jersey Pro by winning A Street Prepared in a 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. With regular (I almost typed “normal”) co-driver Mike “Junior” Johnson wreaking havoc in Super Street Modified, Courtney finished on top of the ASP timesheet by more than two seconds overall.

One of Mike

In E Street Prepared, WDCR members swept all three trophy positions. Sam Strano led the way in his 2011 Ford Mustang GT, Brian Burdette followed in his 1995 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, and “Big” Mike Snyder filled out the bottom step of the podium warming the tires for Sam.

Jason Burns lead Super Stock for all of about 20 seconds over the weekend, albeit taking that lead after his final run on Sunday when he came through with a 61.2 in his 2010 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport. At that point, Jason was the only SS driver to turn a clean time in the 61s, but Brian Connors, who had lined up right behind for his final run, came through with a 61.1 to reclaim the lead and the overall class win. Jason held on to second place.

In G Stock, Shawn Roberts was the only driver in an R-compound class — Stock, Street Prepared and Street Modified — who took home a trophy driving on tires other than the purple crack. After finishing up Saturday in fourth place and one spot out of the trophies, he took his Kumho-shod Mazdaspeed Protege into the third and final trophy spot in the class.

Mark Liller, Ron Shurie and Jeff Fields brought their G Stock cars from the D.C. Region to play at Dover.

WDCR’s Formula 125 contingent wasn’t as large here as at the New Jersey Pro with several members MIA or driving in other classes. Ryan Lower did finish third and in the trophies in his 1999 CRG Kalifornia kart.

A.J. Aviles took home a trophy in Street Touring driving a Civic, but not the black coupe he is normally seen in. This time, he drove a little bit more competitive car, a 1991 Honda Civic Si, and finished fourth.

Holly Schwedler and Lee Piccione soothe General Kao

Other finishers

SS
Danny Kao, 2002 Corvette Z06, ninth
Heather Burns, 2010 Corvette Grand Sport, 10th

SSL
Holly Schwedler, 2002 Corvette Z06, second

BS
Kenny Sorensen, 2008 Porsche Boxster, fifth
Steve Kahre, 2006 Honda S2000, 10th

CS
Scott Hoffman, 2004 Mazda RX8, fourth
Karen Kraus, 2004 Mazda RX8, fifth
Les Banyas, 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata, sixth

FS
Jason Huepenbecker, 2008 Ford Mustang Shelby GT, fourth

GS
Ron Shurie, 2002 Toyota Celica GT, fourth
Jeff Fields, 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe, fifth
Mark Liller, 2005 Dodge Neon SRT4, seventh
Katie Orgler, 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt SS, ninth

STS
Mike Stanley, 1990 Mazda RX-7, fourth

STR
Anthony Martell, 2004 Honda S2000, seventh
Greg Martell, 2004 Honda S2000, 10th

STU
Eric Eskandari, 2007 Subaru WRX STi, fifth
Jennifer Eskandari, 2007 Subaru WRX STi, sixth

ASP
Stuart Fain, 2007 Porsche GT3, fifth

DSP
Doug Keiler, 1999 BMW 323i, fourth

ESP
Me, 1982 Cone My Fastest Runs Camaro Z28, fourth
Adam George, 1998 Ford Mustang Cobra, seventh

SSM
Jason Becker, 2000 BMW M Coupe, fourth

DM
Frank Weichold, 2000 Caterham, fifth

EM
Joseph Legasse, 1976 MGB Roadster, third
William Legasse, 1976 MGB Roadster, fourth
Bernard Cooley, 1965 Fiat 600, fifth
GeneCooley, 1965 Fiat 600, sixth

F125
Justin Neal, King Yangs Magic Trailer kart, fifth
Josh West, Buenconsejo Racing Team for Filipino Giants kart, sixth
James Newman, King Yangs Magic Trailer kart, eighth

Josh West finds out the offsets heading into Sunday finish can

For more photos, check out Perry Aidelbaum’s (AKA autox4u.com) flickr gallery as well as Steven Seguis (AKA Steguis Photography).

In the first of three straight weekends of national level autocross, the WDCR/A.I. crew travelled to Jimmy Hoffa’s gravesite (AKA, The Meadowlands) in New Jersey for the TireRack Pro Solo. In a new lot that was paved over the site of the old Meadowlands Stadium, autocrossers hit the Dave Newman-designed courses as Pro Solo action hit the east coast for the first time.

The lot had fairly smooth asphalt but there were a couple of bumps in braking sections that challenged the drivers. While ideally Pro Solo should be identical mirrored courses, it’s not always the case — as it was here — with designs having to deal with obstacles like light poles. As a result, the turnaround on each course was markedly different, as were the offsets heading back toward the finish. The right-side course was just a bit quicker than the left.

John Vitamvas and Ian Baker line up Sunday morning.

In Street Touring Sport (STS), John Vitamvas in his Mazda RX-7 and Ian Baker in a Honda CRX had an epic battle. Ian took the lead after runs Saturday morning, but John took the top spot during the afternoon runs. Sunday morning as the first cars to hit the course and with the weather markedly different – mid-50 degrees and dark overcast skies – John struggled to get heat in the tires while Ian went on a charge. Ian was ripping off .5XX reaction times and kept dropping time, but John kept hitting cones and then DNF’ed his last run on the right course. Ian ended up with the fastest time on the right course, but John’s margin on the left course held up and gave him the win by just 0.016.

John Vitamvas (in blue shirt) is congratulated after holding off Ian Baker (in green) for the win in STS

However, John and Ian met in the second round of the Gumout Super Challenge where Ian got revenge and knocked John out. Ian advanced all the way to the final round before falling to the winner from H Stock, Matt Murray.

Cone issues continued for the RX-7 during regular competition as John’s co-driver, Greg Olsen, coned away about eight tenths of a second improvement. It wouldn’t have been enough to catch the front runners anyway, and Greg held on for third place and a trophy in STS.

The weekend also marked the return of Dean Sapp to national-level competition. He and Jeff Fields partnered in Jeff’s 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe in G Stock, and Dean, with eight Solo and Pro Solo National Championships combined on his trophy case, showed he hasn’t lost much. Jeff had the early lead after Saturday morning runs, but Dean took the lead back for good Saturday afternoon. Robert Robeson, driving Mark Liller’s 2005 Dodge Neon SRT-4, made a charge Sunday morning to take second place and the final trophy spot in the class. In fact, the top four in GS were all WDCR members with Dean, Robert, Mark and Jeff dominating the top of the time sheets.

In E Street Prepared (ESP), Sam Strano found himself in an unfamiliar position Sunday morning … in second place (gasp!) trailing another Sam. Karen Kraus offered the keys to her 2005 Subaru WRX to Sam Krauss (no relation — see, they spell their last names differently), and Sam, no stranger to other people’s AWD cars having finished second last year in ESP at the Solo National Championships in a borrowed Eagle Talon, held the lead from the drop of the lights on Saturday. (Our) Sam was trailing by about three tenths heading into Sunday, but he made up the deficit with his 2011 Mustang GT and then added another three tenths on that gap to take the win. (Our) Sam’s co-driver “Big” Mike Snyder took home the third and final trophy in ESP.

In Ladies Class 1 (L1), Learic Cramer also found herself in second place in her 2009 Nissan 370Z after the first day but managed to come back on Sunday to take the class win from Heather Everett. Her times would have given her third place in C Stock. WDCR’s Holly Schwedler put in some impressive times Sunday Morning in Lee Piccione’s Mustang to lift herself up into third place and take home a trophy, her first ever in Pro Solo.

Mike Snyder waits for the word to send Learic Cramer and Heather Everett to the line for the Ladies Challenge.

In A Street Prepared (ASP), Courtney Cormier hit a lot of cones (11 in eight runs) on Saturday but also managed to put in some fast clean runs in the 2006 McGeorge Corvette Z06 and lead the class by more than a second. On Sunday, he continued to beat that beat up in New Jersey and extended his lead. After the Porsche GT3 of second-place driver Perry Aidelbaum broke on his first run Sunday, Courtney only had to worry about his co-driver, Mike “Junior” Johnson, who was down in third place. Mike took over with warm tires and improved enough to move up in the standing but not enough to catch Courtney.

Another guy who hits a lot of cones but didn’t this weekend was Josh Luster. Over 12 runs, he hit only one cone and had no red lights or DNFs and won Street Touring Ultra (STU) in his 2006 Subaru STi by more than a second. Unfortunately, he passed the cone curse on to his co-driver, Iman Capers, who only had one clean run on the left-side course and finished fourth. He had raw times that would have put him just behind Josh in second place.

Formula Junior saw the Garfield brothers taking the wins in each of their classes. Carson won by almost five seconds in FJB. Julian was the lone competitor in FJA and spent the weekend trying to cut perfect .500 lights on the tree.

Julian Garfield brings a kart cart to impound for F125.

In B Stock, Kenny Sorensen took home a trophy with his third-place finish driving Alan Pozner’s 2008 Porsche Boxster. Kenny was sitting in second place and improved on his final two runs but watched from impound as Lynne Rothney-Kozlak went from third to first place passing her husband, Paul, who had been leading the class.

Kenny Sorensen waits in grid to face Paul Kozlak on Sunday morning.

The weekend didn’t start off well for Brian Karwan. The transmission broke in his Street Modified FWD Honda Civic during practice starts on Friday, but, showing why Solo has great camaraderie, Jason Becker offered the keys to his Street Modified 2000 BMW M Coupe. What’s a FWD guy like Brian supposed to do hopping in a RWD high-horsepower beast? Um, beat the car owner, I guess. Brian kept the tail wagging and finished in second in SM with Jason behind him for the third and final trophy in the class.

In Formula 125 (F125), it was a battle between the WDCR and the boys from Michigan, East Coast versus Midwest in a throwdown of who had the baddest shifter karts. Unfortunately, the good guys couldn’t pull enough magic out of King Yang’s trailer to come out on top. Brian Garfield and Mike Kline finished third and fourth, respectively, but they couldn’t match the speed of “The Kid” Jeremiah McClintock and the godfather of F125, Alan Sheidler, who finished first and second.

Other finishers:

Super Stock
Jason Burns, Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport, 5th place
Heather Burns, ditto, 12th place

C Stock
Scott Hoffman, Mazda RX-8, 6th place

F Stock
Jason Huepenbecker, Mustang Shelby GT-C, 4th place
Lee Piccione, ditto, 5th place

DSP
Kevin Henry, BMW 325is, 4th place

ESP
Me with one clean run on the right side, Grape Ape Camaro, 4th place
Karen Kraus, Subaru WRX, 6th place

SSM
Daniel Bragason, Toyota MR2, 5th
Timothy Walker, ditto, 7th

F125
Justin Neal, King Yang’s Magic Trailer Kart, 9th
Josh West, Buenconsejo Racing Team for Filipino Giants Kart, 10th
Danny Kao, King Yang’s Magic Trailer Kart, 11th
Edwin Luo, King Yang’s Magic Trailer Kart, 13th
Lisa Garfield, CTS CR125, 14th
Andrew Huo, CRG Road Rebel, 15th
James Newman, King Yang’s Magic Trailer Kart, 16th

Next week, several area autocrossers are making the trip to Lincoln, Neb., for the first time a Pro Solo and National Tour are going to be held the same weekend — four straight days of autocross! Friday and Saturday will be the Pro Solo, and Sunday and Memorial Day will be the National Tour.

The following weekend, June 4 and 5, the TireRack SCCA National Tour will make a stop a bit closer to home, Dover, Del, and Lee Piccione is designing the courses.

If you’re not going to be there, you can still follow the action online. Results for New Jersey and the the Atlanta National Tour were showing up in near realtime on Sololive, and live announcing will be streamed through UStream.

Several WDCR and Autocrossers, Inc., members marched to Atlanta over the weekend for the SCCA National Tour at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In Super Stock, Sam Strano led the way driving Jason Burns’ 2010 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport.  Jason finished third in a class that was five trophies deep. 

Ian Baker and “Little” Mike Snyder were in the trophies in Street Touring Sport, driving to third and fourth, respectively in Ian’s (or is it Mike’s?) 1988 Honda CRX.

In Street Touring Unlimited, Karen Kraus came from sixth place after Saturday to finish in third place in a 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

Other finishers included:

Danny Kao finished 10^th driving his General Kao/King Yang’s Magic Trailer/Big Chicken Corvette Z06 in Super Stock.

In SSL, Holly Schwedler was one spot out of the trophies in fourth place driving General Kao’s Corvette Z06.  Heather Burns was seventh.

In B Stock, Steve Kahre finished in fifth place, just 0.007 out of the last trophy spot driving his Honda S2000.

Scott Hoffman finished eighth in C Stock in his new-to-him 2004 Mazda RX-8.

Shawn Roberts finished fifth in G Stock in his Mazdaspeed Protégé.

Video of the course Saturday from Danny, and Sunday’s course from Karen:

Next up on the National event calendar is the Pro Solo May 21 to 22 at the New Meadowlands in New Jersey, which will see a lot more partcipants from the WDCR and A.I.

(Editor’s Note: This appeared in the SoloMatters, the official newsletter of The TireRack SCCA Solo Series. To receive SoloMatters please email solomatters@scca.com.)

A decade ago, Stock Class was hands down the most vibrant category in our sport.  The norm was double-digit fields in multiple classes at National Tour and ProSolos and many classes posting 50 plus car fields at the National Championship event.  In fact, from 2003 to 2008 at the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals, the combined open and ladies Stock Class entry made up roughly 36 percent of the total event.  The high over that time period was in 2008, at 37.98%.  Since then, however, the numbers for Stock Classes have been in a steady decline, dropping to 30 percent in 2009 and fell again to 28 percent in 2010.  This trend has come at a time where Super Stock has seen significant growth, going from 14 percent of the total Stock Category in 2003 to 28 percent in 2010.  That leaves the remainder of the Category, which was 32 percent of Nationals in 2003, making up just 21 percent of the 2010 event.

To gain some perspective on the issue, I approached three drivers who have helped shape the sport of autocross over the last 20 years, Bob Tunnell, GH Sharp and John Rogers.  Bob Tunnell, the 2002 Driver of Eminence and 2007 Solo Cup recipient, is one of the most successful drivers in the history of the sport.  Along with wife Patty, they hold 18 Solo National Championships, many coming in the iconic 1995 BMW M3 that has won in every Category and now resides in E-Modified.  GH Sharp, a National Champion in his own right, served eight years on the Solo Events Board with a two-year term as the board’s chair.  During that time, Sharp established himself as a near universally accepted voice of reason within the Solo community.  While those two names are virtual household names in the world of autocross, it is likely that the third name has had the greatest impact on the sport.  You may know him better as “Woody” Rogers, of the Tire Rack.  As a national level competitor, John has enjoyed a 20-year Stock Class career that began with a 1988 CRX Si and one of the earliest R-compound tires to hit our sport, built by Yokohama.

To understand the current state of the Stock Category one needs to have an understanding of the evolution of the R-Compound tire.  For many the heyday of Stock Class competition was the early to mid nineties when the BFGoodrich R1 was the tire to have.  The R1 was reasonably priced, wore at an acceptable rate and, unlike previous R-Compounds, had otherworldly grip.  Eventually, BFGoodrich replaced the R1 with the G-Force, which never really amounted to a serious autocross tire and was quickly over taken by the Kumho Victoracer.  The Victoracer was similar to the R1 but was eventually out paced by Kumho’s new tire, the Escta 700 and offerings from Hoosier.  Hoosier was developing their own autocross specific compounds, and was the first manufacturer to produce a virtual slick with just a ghost tread pattern for the sake of appearances, but they had not yet reached the current dominance they enjoy today.  In Rogers’ opinion, the game changed in the early 2000’s when Kumho introduced the 710.  The 710 was another “virtual slick” that provided ultimate performance and reasonable wear. Hoosier was quick to respond with a new tire of their own and from there the guys in purple have never looked back.

To put the affordability of the R1 in perspective, in 2000, Bridgestone’s high performance street tire, the 225/45R17 RE-71 sold for $146 a tire.  Currently, it’s descendent; the RE-760 Sport has actually dropped the price to $137 a tire.  According to Rogers, this is due in part to the performance tire segment’s strong growth over that time.  In contrast, the BFGoodrich R1, in a 205/50-R15 sold for $128 dollars.  Currently, the same size tire from Hoosier lists on the Tire Rack site at $221.

Using 205/50R15 as a reference, here is some historical pricing for perspective:

Or 275/40R17

Many are quick to vilify Hoosier for their pricing.  Rogers however, points to the factors that drive the current cost of tires, most notably, the variety of applications, sizes and compounds.  The cost to build a single tire mold in a single size is around $40,000.  In the 90’s, BFGoodrich could get by with just a few molds and less diversity of materials as road racing and autocross used the same compounds.  Only about 25 sizes, ranging in diameter from 13” to 17”, were needed.  Rain tires were simply full tread dry tires.  Today, Hoosier makes tires in 40 different sizes ranging from 13” to 19” in diameter, separate compounds for autocross and road racing and a separate line of wet condition tires.  Part of this fracture is due to higher demands for performance, but the variety of vehicles and wheel sizes currently competing is as big, if not a bigger factor.   The end result is far fewer tires sold per size, driving production cost per tire up significantly.

Another factor at work is Hoosier’s position in the market.  Hoosier is a large race tire manufacturer, but remains small in comparison to most road tire manufacturers. To quantify their economies of scale, Hoosiers A6 annual tire production is on par with what a traditional consumer grade tire manufacturing plant produces in a few days.  While these larger companies have the option to view their motorsports programs as part of a marketing strategy and thus have an incentive to sell tires at or below cost, Hoosier’s entire business is motorsports.  The fact is, to stay in business Hoosier must make money racing and to do that they must make the best tire on the market.

It was, however, those larger manufactures, powered by marketing dollars, which created the climate of the late 80’s and early 90’s.  Companies like Yokohama and BFGoodrich became fixtures in the sport with on site tire support, big-rig trucks, generous contracts and lots and lots of contingency dollars.  These dollars were often matched, if not exceeded by automotive manufactures like Chrysler and more recently Mini. Tunnell recalled a particular ProSolo weekend in the early 90’s where he and Patty drove their Jetta to Montana and returned home with just short of $4000 in winnings.  According to Sharp, it was this kind of potential that fueled the success of the Neons in the mid nineties, contributing to the general health of the category at that time.  If it is not self evident that those numbers were driven by contingency dollars, the mass exodus when Chrysler pulled their program clearly shows that it was not the sporty appeal of the Neon that motivated Soloist.

For Rogers, contingency was a secondary motivator.  The money was the gravy on top of the satisfaction of a solid drive.  Sharp and Tunnell, on the other hand, point to contingency as a key motivator.  For the top drivers it was a huge part of the annual racing budget, offsetting if not eclipsing racing expenses.  Thanks to contingency dollars and tire contracts, Tunnell was actually able to autocross in the black for 3 consecutive seasons.  For less successful drivers, contingency was the promise that, should they do their best, there would be a reward.  This not only drove participation, but it also contributed to a culture where there was a premium value set on having a Stock Class package that could win.  If you did not, and you drove well, the perception was that your equipment was effectively costing you money. Today, contingency is still paid by many of the sports sponsors, however the earning potential has been far reduced from its height.

In light of the drop in contingency money and the rise in tire cost, shocks have become the insult to the Stock Class injury. Sharp, who was also the ‘S’ in SF Motorsports, a preeminent Koni dealer in the 1990s has a unique perspective on the the issue.  According to Sharp, in the era of the R1 shocks were also a similarly simple game.  The top of the line in those days was the Double Adjustable Koni Sport, or DAs as it has come to be known.  The DA Konis were based on a single adjustable street application, rebuilt to add compression adjustment.  Typically the cost of these shocks ranged from $1500 to $2000 depending on fitment and who did the DA conversion.  Since then, the sport has seen an influx of high dollar, sophisticated race-bred shocks from companies like Moton and Penske as well as Koni.  This new breed of shock brings remote reservoirs, finer adjustment and price tags ranging from $5000 to as much as $7000 for a set.  However, according to both Tunnell and Sharp, despite the perception, these shocks many not be the be-all-end-all of stock class performance.

In September of 2003 an article appeared in Grassroots Motorsports in which Tunnell tested a number of shock options on a competitive D-Stock BMW 330.  The test compared the Koni Sport and DA built by TC Kline to the more expensive Moton.  When the results came in, it was found that the Moton was only marginally quicker than the Koni Sport, and actually a tick off the pace of the TC Kline DAs.  What was more remarkable is that all of the aftermarket offerings were only marginally quicker than the original equipment shocks on the car. Sharp added that there have been several real world examples of drivers doing exceedingly well on stock shocks.  Most recently, Greg Hahn’s win in 2008, taking the B-Stock National Championship in a S2000 CR on stock shocks.

Tunnell, Sharp and Rogers all agree that the current shock rule is not the Stock Class problem, rather it is the perception that needs a review. Sharp added, “in Solo, and particularly in Stock, it’s usually the driver who figures out the course a little quicker, and who makes the fewest mistakes, who wins on a given day.  And he may be doing it with a car that’s not set up as well as the one you or I are driving.  It’s just human nature for our ego to regularly get in the way of making that leap of logic.”

Despite the agreement on shocks, the three do see different reasons for the shrinking Stock Class numbers.  For Rogers, who has recently transitioned to Street Touring R, it was the ultimate cost of Stock Class that pushed him away.  Prior to STR, Rogers campaigned a Stock Class RX-8.  While the operating cost of the RX-8 was significant, it was the cost of keeping up with an ever evolving ‘car to have’ mentality that really drove the cost. On the other hand, Tunnell sees the success of ST as a direct contributor, noting that this was the first rule set that the sport has developed specifically as a reaction to what potential new autocrossers would most be interested in.  It only speaks to the success of that attempt that many of the current new generation have skipped Stock to compete in ST.

Sharp, however takes a broader view citing the relative cost of competition and the ever-increasing gap between the Stock Class haves and have-nots.  The reality is, as our national economy has struggled, the cost of autocross in general has increased, while the number of people who can compete at the top level has decreased.  By virtue of this, many of those who are still able to compete are able to compete on a grander scale.  This drives a perception that to be competitive, you need to have the best shocks, the top car and you may even need to trailer the car to events.  All of these factors lead to a possibly false perception that it takes a lot of money to compete in Stock Class.  Sharp is quick to warn, “Racing will always be expensive.”  The question is, how expensive does it really have to be?

In looking for potential solutions, one place of disagreement is the direction of the Stock Class tire allowance.  While both Tunnell and Sharp admit to personal preferences and prejudice, they both believe that R-Compounds belong in all Stock Classes, both citing reasons that revolve around cost.  For Sharp the issue is venturing into the unknown. Right now, the only way anyone can outspend you is by having a fresher set of stickies. The cost to match that fresh set is a known, fixed cost. However, if street tires were introduced, then the testing factor would kick in.  Drivers with the resources to test and find the silver bullet would have a real advantage over those who could not afford to do so.  Tunnell’s concern is that the most dedicated competitors will still spend the money to have the very best and freshest tires at all times.  As a result, the only reduction in cost would be in the price per tire which, as the demand for more specific tires increases, would continue to drive up the cost, effectively returning us to our present state.

Rogers sees another option.  With the caveat that Super Stock is a class for super cars and thus should have access to super tires, he sees a place for street tires in the remainder of the Stock Category.  Aside from the immediate potential cost benefits of lower cost tires, Rogers likes the idea of the reshuffle it would create.  Much like a rain condition, the reduction in grip category-wide would likely make room for more diversity at the top of each class.  It may also reduce the need for the ultra rare package cars.  Rogers points to the MX-5 as an example. The MX-5 has proven to be an autocross favorite since it debuted 20 years ago, and responded well to bolting on sticky tires.  However, the 3^rd generation NC Miata handled well with its OEM performance summer tires, but once the car was shod with R-Comps, the car became harder to drive, less balanced and for lack of a better term, unhappy.  The fix was the MSR package, which stiffened the car, giving it the ability to maximize the higher grip tires.  The other notable change, according to Rogers, is a possible reduction in the effectiveness of the high dollar shocks when paired with stock springs and lower grip tires.  Rogers, who test street tires on stock suspension cars on a weekly basis, is also quick to debunk the notion that street tires would make stock class less fun.  It would change the fun, but he feels strongly that the challenge of managing grip is as big a thrill as the ultimate grip of R-Compounds.

Each of these three competitors represent a different take on the stock class concept, and this factor alone may play as big a role in the stock class decline as any other.  Sharp’s attraction to Stock Class is to the idea of a level playing field.  For Tunnell, however, stock class is about the opportunity to innovate, to prove the notion of ‘the car to have’ wrong.  This dichotomy between the philosophies of Sharp and Tunnell is where drivers like Rogers can easily get caught out.  While the Sharps of the world are seeking parity and the Tunnells are looking to break new ground, Rogers represents the vast majority of Stock class competitors that are looking for an affordable way to be competitive and have fun.

Tunnell points out a meaningful division in National level competitors, drawing a distinction between the ‘vast majority’ and the minority that will do whatever it takes to win.  Those who will do whatever it takes will ruthlessly look for advantages whenever and wherever possible.  This mentality can be as simple as a fresh set of tires at each top-level event.  However, as the innovators of the sport push to find new ways to achieve, they effectively conspire with the ‘do whatever it takes’ minority to create a climate of rapid change.  Simply, once beaten by a different model, ‘doing whatever it takes to win’ dictates that a car change is required for success.   This ‘car to have’ shift breeds a perception that drivers such as Sharp and Rogers have to follow suit or become uncompetitive.  For those willing to do whatever it takes, this has become an accepted part of the game.

What is unclear is whether it is the ‘car to have’ that is the actual root of Stock Class success, or if it is the ‘whatever it takes to win’ attitude that determines order.  In reality, as long as the two are linked, the perception in Stock Class will remain that there is a singular, yet ever changing package to have. The end result is that each time the establishment is successfully challenged, the boat gets rocked and, if Rogers’ cost driven exit from Stock is any evidence, people fall off.

It is notable that all three, Tunnell, Sharp and Rogers are on hiatus from Stock Class at this time.  As mentioned, Rogers has recently moved to a temporary home in STR thanks to a joint project between Grassroots Motorsports and The Tire Rack.  Nonetheless, Rogers thinks his stock class days are behind him.  He enjoys the challenge of executing on street tires and despite being employed by a tire retailer, does not miss the cost of R-Compounds. Sharp has been away from the sport for a few years now but is looking for a path back in to Stock Class, most likely borrowing seat time from friends in the familiar and formidable Mini.  For Tunnell it has been a quest to claim a title in each Category that has taken him from Stock.  A quest he fears will end on Jeff Kiesel’s doorstep.  With a greater budget, Tunnell would like to stay in a Modified Class, but since other priorities have taken hold he too is contemplating a return to Stock.  The most likely formula; a BMW 1 Series M Coupe on Hoosier Tires, a front bar, an aftermarket exhaust and a set of Double Adjustable Konis.

Driving my FSP Sentra SE-R at a WDCR autocross at FedEx Field.

By Pat Griffith

(Gone but not forgotten, I sold my 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R last year.  I had been writing an article at the time for The Straightpipe to give a glimpse on what goes into putting together a Street Prepared car, mainly getting past the bolt-ons and looking at maximizing the ruleset, especially with update/backdate.  Even if the car is somewhere in Connecticut right now, here is a look back how I took my daily driver and tracktoy to being a somewhat competitive Street Prepared car.)

In 2009, the SCCA moved the 1991-1994 Sentra SE-R and 1991-1993 NX2000 from D Street Prepared (DSP) to F Street Prepared (FSP) and included them on the same line as the existing 1.6L Sentra/NX in FSP.  This move was a result of member comment, which also included moving a handful of other “also rans” from DSP into FSP as well.

I bought this 1992 Sentra SE-R in 2005 with the aim of doing more track days and had been slowly modifying it since then.  I autocrossed it occasionally but didn’t really put much effort into maximizing it for Street Prepared since I knew it was totally outclassed in DSP with the E36 and E30 BMWs.

But after finding out the move to FSP was approved in 2009, my thoughts turned to building … well, rather, finishing the build on my Sentra SE-R.  Luckily over the years I had resisted the urge to swap in a set of aftermarket cams or replace the 2.0L engine with an SR20VE engine (2.0L engine featuring Nissan’s Variable Valve Lift and Timing technology that is found in a number of vehicles outside the U.S. market).  The latter was really a temptation since I blew the engine … twice!

As it stood, the car was pretty well prepped for Street Prepared competition.  It already had Koni “red” inserts with adjustable spring perches, camber plates, a big rear swaybar, a rear strut tower brace, a header, lightened flywheel, some ghetto eBay cold-air intake, and a programmable ECU.  For wheels, the car had 15X7 Koseis K1s with 225 Kumhos V710s in front and 205s in the rear.  It had the larger front brake calipers and rotors from an NX2000 (legal under update/backdate), and I had also removed the air conditioning along the way for weight savings.  Basically, the result of 4-5 years of messing with the car.

Nothing left to be done, right?  You know the story can’t end there.

Box of jello
The Sentra SE-R and NX2000 came stock with a Viscous Limited Slip Differential (VLSD).  The “box of jello” as I like to call the VLSD is good for one thing – going in a straight line, so getting a better limited slip was a top priority.

Did I mention that this was the fourth Sentra SE-R I had owned?  In addition to a 1991 SE-R I raced in Improved Touring and a 1992 SE-R before that, I had another, a black 1993 SE-R that I autocrossed in DSP and did some track days with.  In fact it was the only car that I trophied with at the SCCA Solo National Championships, which happened in 2001.  That car had long since been sold but given the small community of SE-R enthusiasts, I had kept in touch with the owner, Calum Johnson.  In fact, he started a side business selling modified Nissan ECUs, and I installed one in the SE-R I currently own.

Anyway, he ended up getting rear ended in the car, and since the insurance company didn’t want to pay to fix a 15-year-old Japanese econobox, the car had been sitting ever since.

This car still had something I wanted – a Quaife limited slip, which is no longer produced for the SE-R.  I arranged to buy the transmission out of the car in the summer of 2009, and fellow autocrossers Dave O’Maley and Chris Cline picked it up in Nashville, Tenn., and brought it to the D.C. Pro Solo that year.  A couple weeks later, with the help of local autocrosser Pete Johnson, the Quaife-equppied transmission was in the car.

Big wheels keep on turning
Until a few years ago, the biggest option for tires were 225s, which seemed like a good idea at the time.  But watching cars get faster and faster as they progressed up to larger and larger tires, Hoosier released a 275/30/15.  These gave competitors in front-wheel-drive cars the option of having trash cans on the front of the car while still having the good gearing of a smaller diameter tire.

Then Hoosier released a 255/30/13, which was even better for the FWD cars with the peaky dual overhead cam engines.  Such as the SR20DE- powered SE-R.  My car also doesn’t have any options under update/backdate for alternate gearing, so changing tire diameter is the only choice.

However, I wasn’t sure which tire I wanted to use.  The wider 275s or the smaller diameter 255s.  Instead of just settling with one, I bought both to test with.  I got a pair of 15X10 REAL racing wheels from Dave Hardy of DILYSI Motorsports, and fellow WDCR member Ian Baker let me borrow a pair of 13X9.5 wheels from his mothballed CSP Honda CRX. (With the promise that he could use my 15” wheels for fitting/testing on his CRX – isn’t the autocross community just one big happy family?)

A lighter car is a faster car
With the 1991-1994 2.0L Sentra SE-R on the same line as the 1.6L Sentras, I could look at differences between the cars to save weight.  To even an average car enthusiast, the 2.0L and 1.6L cars are virtually identical (one of the reasons I like the SE-R – the wolf in sheep’s clothing).  But there are a few subtle “downgrades” from the 1.6L that could be applied to the SE-R to help save some weight.

Foglights.  The SE-R had them, most of the 1.6L cars didn’t.  Remove them, save some weight.

Spoiler.  The SE-R had a spoiler on the trunklid, except for a few models, the 1.6L cars didn’t have them.  Remove it, save some weight.

Trunklid.  The SE-R had another pair of taillights on the trunklid with some plastic molding as well as a wing/spoiler.  Again, most of the 1.6L cars didn’t have the taillights and only had a small strip of plastic, and no spoiler.

The SE-R trunklid has cutouts for the taillights – about 4” by 4” – and holes for mounting the wing.  As it so happened, I had a trunklid from a Sentra E leftover from a car used to fix body damage on my old Improved Touring racecar (that’s a whole ‘nuther story).  Using a method that has developing a cult following as a cheap DIY way of painting cars, I used a foam roller to re-paint the trunklid black so it matched my car.  The results were surprisingly good, definitely a good “five foot” paint job.

The wing-less Sentra E trunklid I painted using a foam roller.

All told, the car got down to 2,368 pounds with about three to four gallons of gas.  Other areas of weight savings that I never addressed were the exhaust (still had a catalytic converter and a heavy OEM-style muffler), removing the sunroof and replacing with sheet metal (legal to do in SP since the power sunroof was an option on the 1991-1994 Sentra SE-R), and removing the radio and speakers.   There could have been some more weight savings with the rear wheels, and probably a few other nickel-and-dime areas like an even lighter clutch and flywheel.

One year in the making, the waiting was over
Most of this stuff was ongoing throughout 2009, and because of circumstances beyond my control (aka, Mother Nature), I wasn’t able to test the 15” and 13” wheel combinations and therefore abandoned my plan to autocross it at the Solo Nationals in Lincoln, Neb.

Last year, I resurrected my 1982 Camaro Z28 in ESP, and Eric Kreimelmeyer also asked me to co-drive his Pontiac Solstice in B Stock at the WDCR events as well as Pro Solos and the National Championships, so I started off the year juggling two cars.

However, the SE-R remained basically untouched since the Quaife install, and I still had the 275/30/15 (new!) and 255/30/13 (eight runs!) Hoosiers.  With autocrossing Eric’s Solstice at the 2010 Northeast Divisionals and the D.C. Pro Solo, I decided to take the SE-R to the SCCA National Tour in Peru, Ind., last Fourth of July weekend.

I ran the previous week at a WDCR autocross at FedEx Field.  I was able to do some testing prior to this at a BMW event on the 255/13 combination and decided to try the 275 Hoosiers on 15X10 wheels.  I did some other tweaking, and the car felt really good.  I was a tenth behind Darren Mass driving Phillip Emad’s “jellybean” Honda Civic, so I didn’t think that was too shabby of a finish all things considered.  My gut feeling said the 255 Hoosiers on 13′inch wheels were the better option, though, but I decided to bring both tire/wheel combos to Peru.

On the practice course there, I still wasn’t sure because of the limited number of runs, so I decided to run the 255s on 13-inch wheels on Saturday and the 275s on 15-inch wheels Sunday.  While you can’t look at my times and see a difference (the car was basically tuned for running on FedEx Field’s slippery lot and didn’t rotate nearly as much as I wanted to on the grippy concrete at Grissom Air Force Base), the 275/15 combination was better.  No data, just seat of the pants feel.

Making your own shocks
For a car like my 1992 Sentra SE-R, there are fairly limited “off the shelf” shock/strut/damper options.  The best, and I use that term loosely, are KYB AGX struts, which are adjustable but can’t withstand higher spring rates and don’t have enough range of travel when the car is lowered.

My best option, other than $ending them off for $omething cu$tom, was to fabricate my own struts.  No I don’t have some kind of mechanical engineering degree, just a drill and an angle grinder. 

Koni offers a variety of “inserts” – basically the guts of a shock that can be installed into housings.  For my Sentra (and is the case for other vehicles), you take an OEM strut, drill a hole in the bottom to drain the oil, then cut off the top to remove the rod and the guts of the strut.

The Koni insert has an attachment point where it basically bolts into the original housing.  I also used a bit of JB Weld on the inside for added insurance.

To accommodate the heavier, and smaller diameter, Eibach ERS springs, I had a threaded collar welded onto the body and added a spring perch.  People running stock classes or who just don’t want to change their springs can still do use inserts and keep the stock spring perch.

It was a fairly easy process to accomplish.  After slicing open the first one, things went quickly from there.  The only thing I couldn’t do myself was weld on the threaded collars.  Koni has step-by-step directions that come with the inserts.

I ended up doing this for a set of Koni “red” inserts then for a pair of Koni “yellow” inserts.

A pair of Koni red inserts (I think these were the rears) with threaded collars/perches in OEM housings.

What ‘cha done to it?

Here’s a breakdown on modifications the car had at the time:

Go fast
SCAC header
Calum ECU
Ebay cone filter
Sachs clutch
Machined (lightened) factory flywheel

Suspension
Koni Spec V inserts in Nissan (not B13) housings in front (Steve Foltz setup)
Koni red inserts in OEM housings in rear
Eibach ERS springs
Whiteline caster bushings
Progress adjustable rear sway bar
OEM front sway bar (had a bar from a 1.6L car to experiment with)
Bolt In Bars rear strut tower brace
Camber plates

Brakes
OEM Sentra SE-R brakes (NX2000 calipers/rotors too much unsprung weight for just autocross, in my opinion)
Stainless steel brake lines

Wheels/tires
REAL 15X10 wheels in front, Hoosier A6 275/40/15
Kosei 15X7 wheels in rear, Hoosier A6 205/40/15
Also Panasport 13X9.5 3-piece wheels for testing in front with 255/40/13 Hoosier A6

Other
Corbeau seat and bracket
Fog lights removed
Rear decklid from a Sentra E (no wing or lights on trunk)
Miata battery
AC removed

So that’s a rundown of a pretty decent build.  It still wasn’t 100 percent to the rules as there could have been some more done with weight savings, “better” parts”and general tinkering through more custom stuff (like the rear sway bar and dampers).  Not to mention the engine was completely stock of unknown origin (the original spun a bearing my very first track day on Summit Point’s Jefferson Circuit), so doing an SP-legal rebuild would have been nice, and then the subsequent tuning and dyno time.  It just came to a point of what I wanted to throw more money at, the Sentra or the Camaro.  The Camaro is more fun to drive, so that won out.  There may be a companion piece on that car in the future.