OK STX NAM folks - time to tell tales, bench race, and share recipes for WRX stew!

The opener for NER was at Devens, on the airfield. A better than usual kickoff for us, as the temperature was a balmy 42 degrees, and the intermittant rain only frustrated the first two heats.

With last year's STS crowd changing classes, and therefore not spilling over to STX this year looks to be a whole new ball game.

Gollum the JCW STX MCS was joined by three WRXs - five including the novice drivers. As usual those wise and speedy folks did a small rain dance after the driver's meeting, with the usual incantations and modest chanting and sacrifices. Despite these proceedings, STX ran in Heat 4 which turned out to be the only truly dry heat of the day.

Due to a FedEx misadventure, this year's tires were not available yet, so last year's rock hard and glass smooth 225 RS2 Kooks were pressed into service for one more event - durometer testing determined that these venerable and tattered tires were somewhat harder that an NHL hockey puck, and slighly softer than steel.

The course featured an interesting collection of slaloms, offsets, and a few pinched sections to catch the unwary. Due to low pre-reg numbers the normal practice of using the whole triangle of runways and taxiways was set aside and instead a "rabbit ears" layout with two turnarounds made for better spectating and less corner worker stress. With 160 competitors arriving on the day, we could have used the standard approach but who knew?

Run one was conducted with elan, panache, and brevity. I launched, turned hard left around the first cone, grabbed second, lined up the first slalom, and spun hard on the second gate of the slalom. Fortunately a fellow competitor with an A Stock Vette had already demonstrated this approach, and so when I spun I was able to follow the foot wide streaks of R compound rubber and thereby came to a stop before leaving the paved surface. After a small round of applause from the corner workers I continued, discovering numerous other opportunities for overdriving and mayhem as I completed that inaugeral run. Result, off course. Zero for one!

Run two profited from the experience gained in run one, allowing me to make it much further through the course before falling prey to hunger which required me to eat a few cones. Reducing rear tire pressures somewhat helped keep the car pointed forward (sort of) although the rear hockey pucks remained cold to the touch despite my efforts to warm them by sliding sideways and backwards. As usual, the winter had stripped me of everything I ever knew about driving, so on Run 2 I started to re-educate myself. The key lesson of the run was the importance of looking ahead - particularly when running NHL rubber on a cold day. Result, coneage! Zero for two!

At this point my fellow competitors, notably a nice gent from Fairfield County (who somehow convinced his better half to let him race despite their three month old son - now THAT's love!) were demonstrating the value of actually driving between the cones and remaining in control. The NY WRX best exemplified this approach and clocked a pretty fast run for his 2nd attempt, making it necessary for me to clean up my act without slowing up much.

Run 3 I felt like Ortiz coming to the plate, with two strikes against me and loaded bases (David was batting .168 so far this year, last time I checked). I steeled myself to actually drive the course as opposed to amusing and irritating the corner workers, and off we went! The run seemed slow to me, and did not include any backwards travel to speak of. The run did includee approximately 150 feet of sideways travel however, with a full turn of opposite lock and hammer down at over 50 mph, due to more ham fisted driving my yours truly. Despite all that I earned almost a two second cushion over my distinguished competitors, and a grudging nod from the event announcer who had been truly enjoying himself calling attention to my incompetant antics in the earlier runs.

So of course I slipped directly into undeserved complacency, and even had the poor judgement to commiserate with my WRX foe - pointing out to him that with five cars in the class he had a trophy coming and should therefore hang around before returning south so as to have something to show his family for the time and travel.

Then I realized he had one run left! That shut me up, and I waited in the combined hope that he'd find the speed to whip me, and the hope that he would not. He didn't. He was faster, but not fast enough - finishing about 1.5 seconds off my third run.

And then, about ten minutes after my last run, the timing truck found a cone for me bless their hard working hearts. That took me out of the top spot (justice, considering the carnage I had caused on course) and put that WRX driving new Dad at the top of the podium (justice again!!).

"The wheels of the gods grind slowly -- but they grind exceedingly small!"

All in all, a great day full of comedy and a few stout performances. The only tragedy was an Evo that apparently ate a connecting rod during the first run - now that is a sound you never want to hear.

Today the other three Dunlops should arrive, and I will have the great pleasure of saying good bye to the Hankooks. De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicit..

Cheers, and happy Motoring!

Charlie

 

good show! if you aren't eating cones or looping it, you aren't driving hard enough

 

NER Solo Event #2 at NHMS began wet, ended dry, and hinted at what lies ahead for the '08 season up here in Yankee land.

Proving that the NER staff can do the impossible before breakfast, an orphaned GMC dualie that threatened the finish area of the course miraculously moved itself to a safe location without benefit of keys (or a fork lift). All this without Wiley too...

Before the day was done it became clear to your humble scribe that there will be great battles in several classes this year - particularly DSP where Chris and Mike teamed up in last year's National Champ car in defense against the onslaught of the Integra featuring Nate and Cliff.

DS was another show stopper with four different makes - pitting the likes of Matt Murray against Chang, David, Scott and Ed H. Still another promising scuffle occured in GS where Lou's Civic overcame a number of perennially fast competitors, proving that you don't need a Mini to win.

We are also graced this year with the immaculately prepared Solstice brought to CS by Bud and Lynne Collins - adding another National level husband and wife team to complement the amazing Kozlaks.

With far fewer competitors in hand than appeared for the Devens opener, this event permitted four runs in the morning, and three more in the afternoon. With changing conditions many competitors trimmed several seconds late in the day - keeping the suspense intact until last runs.

My own contribution to the day was to somehow depart from history, physics, and driver talent, and come out ahead in STX. This improbable circumstance featured seven progressively faster runs with no cones, and proves two things in my view:

1) good tyres in ST are necessary (but not sufficient) - I had a new set, and liked them
2) every dog has his day - although that dog might have to wait years to see it! :-)

I probably aggravated Eric and Dan on the day - which reminds me somewhat of a poster that I liked in the seventies. It depicts a mouse giving the middle finger to an eagle, which is swooping down with extended claws and open beak. The caption reads: "Last great act of defiance".

Respectfully submitted for your dining and dancing pleasure,

The Mouse
STX #1 JCW Mini

 

Had a great time at the National Tour at Devens - full of inspirational driving (and plenty of heat too!).

Some pictures at https://www.northamericanmotoring.co.../Devens5_h.jpg and thereabouts...(also https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...00/Devens3.jpg)

A true gentleman in a D Stock 325 BMW pipped me for the last trophy spot by .06, which was only fair as he also lent me his tire sprayer!

The leader in STX was another gent named Chris Shenefield in a Civic, who gapped his co driver Mr. Lee by 2 secs over both days - the rest of the field was a further 2 secs behind. A truly impressive performance.

Fourth through sixth were seperated by about a half second, and it was this battle I was privy to.

National level drivers are just amazing to watch... As an example of driver over car, Joe Austin in an H Stock Mini had times totalling 123.942 secs for the event - beating my works cooper S on coil overs by over a second and a half. Yes he was on R compounds, but I had better handling and 80 more horsepower at about the same weight!

Cheers,

Charlie