WDCR member Tristan Herbert of Brimtek Motorsports continued to be a force to be reckoned with this season as evidenced by recent races in California. The Pirelli World Challenge rookie placed second in Round 9 and third in Round 10 at Infineon Raceway, Calif.  Herbert followed that double race weekend with an impressive second place showing during Round 11 at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca track.  In addition to leading the race at Laguna Seca for 13 total laps, Herbert earned the Invisible Glass “Clean Pass of the Race” award for his stellar pass on the No 66 K-Pax racing Volvo C30 of Robb Holland after the restart on Lap 7.

“It was tough losing the leading position at Laguna Seca, especially with only a few laps left in the race”, comments Herbert.  “But my team and I are still pleased with our second place finish and feel confident that we have what it takes to be a top competitor in the Touring Car series”.

Tristan was looking for a solid finish during the final Round 12 of the Pirelli World Challenge series at Road Atlanta this past weekend, but a fuel pump failure would move him back early in the race to finish eighth place. An impressive fourth place overall in the championship with one win, two seconds, two thirds and a fourth place, earned him the 2011 Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car Rookie of the Year award.

Tristan credits his grass-roots SCCA club racing background with the D.C. Region for his success as a rookie driver in the Pirelli World Challenge series.

“This year has been an incredible experience for me as a grassroots club racer,” he said. “I am living my ultimate dream every time I get that Number 33 Volkswagen GTI out on the track against so many world renowned racers. I also feel very fortunate that I have so many people, especially our team principal, Dave Tilton from Brimtek, that believe in my driving ability and my crew from RennGruppe Motorsports. My crew chief, Cameron Conover along with the rest of the team continues to demonstrate outstanding work ethic and unparalleled knowledge of Volkswagens.”

Cameron and Brimtek were also chosen as the 2011 Pirelli World Challenge Crew of the Year for Touring Car. 

The support of fellow club racers is something that Tristan values greatly. With the invaluable support of another touring car team, Gila Monster, who helped transport the car out to California from Virginia and the support of countless other club racers who helped facilitate the transport of the car back to RennGruppe Motorsports in North Carolina for final Road Atlanta preparations, Tristan’s season has shown the value of a grass-roots racing foundation.

Excitement continues to brew amongst the team as they are already in the process of developing their program for the 2012 season.

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.

Some of you who’ve been in our merry band of Washington, DC Region SCCA members may recall that our racing activities began not under the aegis of the Washington DC Region, SCCA, but a small group of enthusiasts from the Washington DC area who became infamous for winning just about everywhere they raced in the early 1950s.

Ace Rosner, Dr. Dick Thompson, Bob McKinsey, Bill Kinchloe, Tex Hopkins and several others won with such frequency that Dr. M. R. J. Wylie said of them that they were “egregious pot-hunters” and they supposedly were most ungentlemanly in their winning ways.

About this time a British film starring Alec Guinness was popular. The film told the charming exploits of a small group of down-on-their-luck men who quietly stole many thousands of pounds in gold from a British bank. The film was called “The Lavender Hill Mob” and soon became the adopted name of these enthusiasts who were “stealing” trophies from their competitors on a fairly regular basis.

An important part of this story is in knowing that the members of the Lavender Hill Mob (the racers, not the bank robbers) were some of the earliest members of the Washington DC Region, SCCA. But not all members of the DC Region were Mob members. The Mob was even more restrictive in its membership qualifications than SCCA was at that time. (SCCA used to require, for example, two members in good standing to sponsor a membership candidate. And there were others ways potential new members were vetted!)

As many of you know. The MG-TC almost single-handedly began the sports car craze in the USA after World War II. MGs were the sports car that many of the Lavender Hill Mob cut their racing teeth on. Most of the Lavender Hill Mob were also members of the MG Car Club.

In the Washington DC area we did not have a road racing course and except for the first two SCCA President’s Cup Nationals (the first at Andrews Air Force Base and the second at Hagerstown Municipal Airport) we didn’t have a “street” circuit like Watkins Glen. Our racers did race their cars locally, however. The MG Car Club staged races on the 1/3 mile dirt oval at Marlboro Motor Raceway at least as early as 1953.

Although he would be known later for his many wins in factory-supported Corvettes, Dr. Dick Thompson was a member of the MGCC, the DC Region SCCA and a founding member of the Lavender Hill Mob. He learned to race on that oval at Marlboro. To this day, Dick (who would later be an SCCA National Championin Corvettes; our own Region’s RE; and Chairman of the DC Region, SCCA Competition Board in our Region) claims that the car control he needed with the Corvette was learned in his MG racing on Marlboro’s dirt oval.

The Lavender Hill Mob pined for its own road course, and in late 1954 convinced Marlboro owner Eugene Chaney to pave not only the oval, but to extend a course to and from the oval to make a genuine road racing circuit. To sweeten the pot, each Lavender Hill Mob member pledged $50 each to help with the paving. Interestingly, the contract the Mob drew up with Chaney indicated that the Mob would represent the track’s interest when negotiating with the Washington DC Region, SCCA — a policy that remained in effect until the mid-1960s.

On a weekend in May of 1955, with frequent thundershowers, the Washington DC Region, SCCA and the Mob staged the first Washington DC Region SCCA road races on the newly-paved .7-mile Marlboro course. The Region continued to race there until the end of the 1969 racing season, the same year Summit Point would stage its first sports car races.

Just before the 1957 season at Marlboro, Chaney saw the immense popularity of sports car racing and filled the full 28-acre site with another mile of road course to extend Marlboro to 1.7 miles with eleven turns. It would easily have fit within the perimeter of the current Summit Point main course.

One of the reasons Chaney expanded was because SCCA National told Chaney and the Region that a .7-mile course was not suitable for SCCA National competition. Once the course stretched to 1.7 miles, the Region was able to host its own first National race in 1957. (That’s not a contradiction from what was stated above. The first two President’s Cup Nationals were organized by SCCA National and manned locally by our Region.)
But that 1957 SCCA National was not the first National sports car race to be staged at Marlboro.

Despite the rather modest, but nonetheless challenging, .7-mile Marlboro course, in October 1955, the MG Car Club staged its first ever National race at Marlboro, two years before the DC Region would stage its first National. Appropriately, this MG National made national news with a lengthy article by second-place main event driver David Ash, in Sports Cars Illustrated.

The weekend’s main event was won by the late Duncan Black (of Black & Decker fame) from Parkton, Md., driving his Lester-MG. Black would later be an SCCA National Champion in years to come in two classes, EP with an A.C. Bristol and CP in his Daimler SP250. Third was Dr. Dick Thompson.

Many other Washington DC Region, SCCA drivers raced that weekend, among them Steve Spitler (who would, a few years later, tragically, be the first of two sports car drivers to lose their lives at Marlboro when he rolled his D-Jaguar); Spitler’s mother, (!) Rebecca Spitler; Dick Nash; Pinky Windridge; Foxy Carter; Frank Baptista (later known for many race wins in various Elva sports-racers); Art Tweedale, a Lola sports-racing stalwart and frequent winner, and “Cappy” Cappiello. Cappy would have a turn named after him — apparently because he lost it so often in what would become “Cappy’s Corner” — after Marlboro’s course was extended to its final 1.7 mile configuration.

The entry fee for the MG Car Club National was a whopping $10, with a $5 late registration fee. A “Victory Dinner” at Andrews Air Force base would close the weekend at $2 per person, but participants were advised: “gentlemen will wear coats.”

Take a few moments to view the photos with this article as well as the “supplemental regs” and other memorabilia like the tech inspection form included here.

Author’s note: Many, many thanks to Michael Eaton who shared this information and photos with us. Michael is the proud owner of a very historic MGA TwinCam. I am also indebted to Stan Smilow, who appears driving the “Motto MG” (the white car number 103) for his photos of that 1955 National.

Throughout its existence, the heart of Marlboro was a 1/3 mile oval. Here, the MGCC is gridding the cars on the “unused” portion of the oval. Once the race started, this portion of the oval was not used.

Here is the start of the main event. On the outside is Duncan Black in his Lester-MG #4. He is flanked on the inside by Stan Smilow in his Motto-MG #103. Notice the covered grandstands in the background.

Here, Stan Smilow has come off the oval and entered the road course proper. This led to tight Esses and ultimately a hairpin turn. The entire course was only .7 mile! “Motto” refers to the Italian coachbuilder, Motto. Motto bodied this MG and also styled early Ferrari roadsters.

These are the supplementary regulations for the MG National. The rules were fairly simple, and the entry fees are certainly worth noting!

This is a good diagram of the DC Region’s “home track” in 1955. In this configuration it was less than a mile long, but would ultimately have another mile added to it in 1957 — and all within 28 acres! The course is still there, although quite overgrown, across U.S. 301 from the old Upper Marlboro horse racing track in Prince George’s county.

Very basic, this is the 1955 tech inspection sheet for Stan Smilow’s Motto-MG. The car raced as an “F-Modified” car that weekend, since the rebodied MG was hardly a regular “production” MG.

No fancy credentials here, just a basic luggage tag served as the official Pit Pass for the weekend.

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.)

Sheetz will sponsor the MARRS Labor Day Double race weekend Sept. 3 to 5 at Summit Point Raceway.

 “The MARRS series and specifically Summit Point draws racers and volunteers from all across the Sheetz footprint,” said Fred McConnell, Sheetz director of brand development. “Those customers are buying fuel, food and beverage, so we wanted to support something that they are passionate about in hopes of continuing to make a connection between them and the Sheetz brand.”

The convenience store chain has several locations throughout the mid-Atlantic area, including the popular Charles Town, W.V., location for racers, workers and spectators travel to and from Summit Point.  Sheetz also has a long-standing sponsorship with Meathead Racing.

“The D.C. Region is recognized across the country as the premiere region in the SCCA, so we are pleased to have the opportunity to partner with the Region in a way that allows us the chance to reach a core group of our customers,” McConnell, who is also a racer who will take to the track in an F-Production Mazda Miata during the weekend.

Sheetz will offer free food and coffee coupons to drivers and volunteers at registration during the weekend.  Also, through the long standing relationship with MEATHEAD Racing, if a competitor places a Sheetz sticker on their car, or a volunteer displays the Sheetz Racing Patch they are entered for a chance to win Sheetz Z cards.

In addition, Sheetz team members will be available to provide information and prizes regarding the MySheetz loyalty card that has been recently introduced.

Sheetz, Inc. is one of America’s fastest growing family-owned and operated convenience store chains, with $5 billion in revenue for 2011 and more than 14,000 employees. The company operates 400 locations throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina. Sheetz provides an award-winning menu of MTO® subs, sandwiches and salads, ordered through unique touch-screen order point terminals. All Sheetz stores are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For more information, visit www.sheetz.com.

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).

Earlier this month, Jackie Cooper, 88, passed away. He was one of the “Little Rascals” and in 1978 played newspaper editor Perry White in the film “Superman.” The child actor also appeared often on television in the 1950s and early 1960s.

But did you know that Jackie Cooper was a regular racer in early Washington D.C. Region, SCCA races? Cooper usually raced Austin-Healeys (100-4, 100-6). He ran in the 1955 President’s Cup Nationals at the Hagerstown airport course, and was a fixture in the early days racing at our first “home track” Marlboro Motor Raceway in Upper Marlboro, Md.

Regrettably, our archives do not indicate whether he was a member of the region or not, but we was, nevertheless, a regular competitor in our early races.

Tristan Herbert World Challenge Crash Mosport from Tristan Herbert on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, the result after that was not good as Tristan spun out of second place and into a tire wall. Judging by what happened to the cars behind him, it looks like there was oil on the track, but nobody else who spun behind him managed to end up in the same spot along the tire wall.

The race is scheduled to be shown on Versus on June 18 at 3 p.m.

The Brimtek team’s next race weekend is Aug. 5 to 7 at Mid-Ohio.

This was the third weekend in a row at the track and it was one of the best weekends of racing. I thought National Regional worked well and a big thanks to the D.C. Region for coming up with this and making it work. I did like the signs pointing to the paddock with “Thanks for coming” on the back — nice touch!

A quick run down for Saturday … perfect weather.

Group 1
SRF: Started the day with some metal to metal at turn 8. lose it here and you will end up in the tires drivers right. Fortunately the second SRF slowed him up a bit. Both cars made repairs and returned for Sunday. Think this might be a bad omen.

Group 2
Wings and things: WOW!!! The Formula Atlantics were class acts and a full field of Continentals if you like open wheel this was fun to flag, and from the drivers I talked with, it was almost as much fun from the drivers seat. Blue flag heaven (hope we helped you guys).

Group 3
Production cars – The GTL cars were quick but the lonely little 1964 Elva Courier was up for the challenge. The Miata’s were quick and nimble and then you have Beth and John turning some pretty impressive laps no “shock” here. Unfortunately Beth’s car broke but John carried the Burkhard banner well. How about a 1958 Porsche bath tub?

Group 4
SSM- Full field of cars. Same drill — qualify A.M., race P.M. Good close racing throughout the pack with the wiley veterans taking on the new upstarts. One item of note all of the SSM cars have to be built from real miata’s no kit cars here.

Group 5
Big Bore – Some heavy duty ground pounders came out and were quick. The quickest at 1:12 flat averaging 106 mph. A very exciting day with oil in turn 10 and a Corvette in the wall at Turn 1. We all learned some lessons on radio response. Nice drive Dave in the #15 AS camaro with the Bald Flagger decals. I know the competitors were jealous (heard that at lunch). I am waiting for the letters and e-mails to come in for requests.

Group 6
SM and Ts: very well run There were more cars with the Bald Flaggers decals. Mike from Planet Miata got an extra boost from the decals. With all this attention the Bald Flagger ranks are sure to grow. (razor sales are up). Met Don Knowles at registration really a class act and drove very well. Very busy day for these guys.

Group 7
Formula Vees and Fords: Had three Honda powered FF’s intresting how the politics will play out on this one. John nice drive. The Vees now were talking drum brakes, and the
big national motors all that horsepower and drafting too. If you like open wheel this was the best weekend so far. If Joe and his club ford gang were out mixing it up … perfect.

Group 8
IT: Nice group of Datsun/Nissan Hondas and Miatas with a few RX7s The Datsun/Nissans were quick and the Honda and Miata’s in ITA were a nice mix. Dave, Mike and John were fun to watch Regional racing at it’s best. Thanks guys.

Lunch at Chez Summit was never better!

Town Hall meeting this was a great idea I spent maybe 10 minutes listening, most
of the comments were positive. We need to do this more.