Submitted by Marshall Cone
After the unbelievably snowy winter of 2009-2010, it was hard to ever imagine spring arriving again in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Luckily, the winter snows eventually melted away, and the street cleaners swept away most of the filthy sand and salt encrusting the roadways. Only a week after the arrival of spring, WDCR autocrossers were given an opportunity to clean off their own rides and see whether they remembered how to scream around a parking lot at highway speeds!
March 28 was the day that we were awaiting, and the “F” lot at FedEx Field was again our venue for the official start of the Washington, D.C., Region SCCA Solo program for 2010. The day was a little cool and ended up being surprisingly windy, with a drizzle or two thrown in for good measure. The mediocre weather didn’t keep 187 competitors from taking four runs on the course to see how they could stand up to their competition.
Lee Piccione designed the course this time, and his creation was met with high praise, particularly for its unusual looking downhill offsets. Most of the day’s times were hovering around the one-minute mark, with the fastest times of the day just over 50 seconds in duration. Being a test and tune event, there were no trophies awarded or championship points earned for the season total. However, that did not keep everybody from pushing hard to extract the last bit of performance from their vehicles!
Once again, the Formula 125 shifter kart drivers had the fastest times of the day, and Brian Garfield topped the 11 drivers in the class with a blistering 50.2 second run in his CTS kart. Vic Madrid was the runner-up in his Tony//Kart shifter.
All three Junior Kart classes were represented by eight drivers. In FJ-C, Samuel Klosky was the only competitor, and he was plagued with mechanical problems which only allowed him one run on the course. Carson Garfield had the fastest time in the four-driver FJ-B class in his CRG Cadet kart, besting the times of many adults that ran that day in much more powerful vehicles. Finally, in FJ-A, Julian Garfield rocketed around the course in his newly acquired kart to set the fastest PAX time of the day in addition to leading the three-driver class and acquiring the fastest Junior Kart time of the day.
All nine Stock classes were represented at this event, and there was some tight competition to start the season.
Only two drivers were present in Super Stock at this event, and, despite coning away his fastest runs, Steve Brown took the class win in his bright yellow Lotus Elise with four runs that all broke the one minute mark.
The newly reorganized A Stock enticed a surprisingly large group of seven drivers, and Brian Walsh took the class win at this event in a Corvette, with James Sheridan in his Porsche Cayman S and Neel Lakhani in a BMW M Coupe within a few tenths of a second of the leader.
The B Stock competition level was extremely high with Brendon Bengermino and Clyde Caplan duking it out as co-drivers in the C4 Corvette for the win. Brendon took the lead in the large 11-driver class this time, besting Clyde’s fast runs by about a half a second and earning him the fastest Stock time of the day.
Four Miata drivers competed in C Stock, and Les Banyas continued his winning ways in his 2004 Mazdaspeed model with the solid class win.
There were nine entrants in D Stock at this event, and Vince Bly took the win in his spotless Integra Type R, with James Elmore in his BMW 135i only about a half second behind.
E Stock was a mostly Miata class at this event, with six of the seven drivers in these tiny convertibles. Tim Wilson took the solid win this time in his 1994 Miata.
Sam Strano continued his winning ways in an extraordinarily tough local F Stock class, driving Mike Snyder’s Shelby GT Mustang again to some very quick times. Course designer Lee Piccione finished in second spot in the seven-driver class in his own Shelby GT, and Mike Snyder was only about a half second behind Lee.
The top two drivers in G Stock finished less than a blink apart from each other. Matthew Ayers took the class win in his VW GTI, and Jeremy Rutter was only 14 thousandths of a second behind in his Honda Civic in the six-driver class.
Rounding out the stock classes, Marshall Cone took another class win in H Stock in his usual MINI Cooper. Less than a second behind in the eight-driver class, Jason Burns earned the second-place spot, driving wife Heather’s Scion tC.
A Street Prepared was a small class with only three drivers attending this event, but they were all driving very potent vehicles. Mike “Junior” Johnson took the lead this time, screaming through the course in a Corvette Z06 and earned the fastest Street Prepared time of the day.
BSP was not represented at the practice event, but CSP had six drivers, and Jason Zapol took the solid class lead with some quick runs in his vintage Honda CRX.
Despite being on street tires at this event, Kevin Henry took another class win in DSP in his usual four-door BMW 325i, taking the win in the tiny two-driver class.
ESP was also lightly attended with only four drivers in three cars, and one car topped the class and took the runner-up spot. Brian Burdette and John Vitamvas co-drove Brian’s familiar 1995 Camaro. Both coned away their fastest runs, giving Brian the class win. We hope that John will have his STS Mazda RX-7 ready for the first championship event this year!
Finally, in FSP, seven drivers competed at this event. Darren Mass and Philip Emad co-drove Philip’s ex-DSP Civic Si to the solid class win this time, with Darren edging out Philip by about a half second.
The Prepared classes continue to grow in popularity in the DC region, and two of these classes were well represented this day. An unusual grouping of vehicles competed in XP, ranging from Honda Civics to Cobra replicas. Factory Five roadsters took the top couple of spots, with Fred Kelley taking the lead over Wade Chamberlain by about a second and earned him the fastest Prepared time of the day. J. Karl Sachs took a commanding lead in CP, driving his familiar Mustang Cobra convertible to the win in the five-driver class.
The only Modified class represented at this event was D Modified. Four drivers competed in two Caterham Sevens in DM, and, despite mechanical problems on the first few runs, Mike Stanley took the class win in Danny Kao’s Seven, earning him the fastest Modified time of the day, with Scott Lentz earning the runner-up spot in his own Caterham.
The Street Touring and Street Modified classes were well represented this day. ST had 11 drivers, and Alejandro Aviles topped them all in his Acura RSX Type S.
While many of the regulars in STS were absent from the class at this event, the runs were still quick, and Scott Blair earned the top spot in his newly constructed Miata, with Shawn Roberts less than a second behind in his own Miata.
Five drivers competed in STX, and Chike Dellimore earned the top spot in a Mazda RX-8, with course cartographer Paul Evans taking the runner-up spot in his MINI Cooper S.
STU was the largest Street Touring class, with 12 drivers honing their skills this time. John Willemin co-drove with Norval Johnson in a Subaru WRX STi, and John took the class lead by about a half second over Nick Rubenstein, driving his sharp BMW M3.
Twelve drivers also competed in Street Modified, and Peter Tyson took the solid class win in his BMW.
In SSM, only two drivers ran at this event, and the top spot was earned by David Lane in his quick and immaculate Mazda RX-7.
Finally, the Ladies indexed class was represented by only two of our usual autocrossers. Katie Orgler and Jane Garfield competed, and Katie took the win this time in the STS Mazda Miata by nearly a second on the index.
For full results for any of the WDCR Solo events as well as schedules and registration information, check out the website.
As always, we need to thank all the people whose hard work and dedication made this season run smoothly and safely. In addition, we thank Radial Tire for their sponsorship. And – don’t forget to check out Danny Kao’s amazing pictures for this event. Thanks to Danny for his tireless efforts in taking all of these photos and organizing them for us to enjoy!
Course Designer, Lee Piccione:
