SFR Round 3 Solo2
by Rich Urschel

Co-chairs Soebe Soekamto and Chok Balmaceda welcomed
276 entrants back to 3Com Park on March 25th. The weather
was overcast, the course was dry, the temperature was
warm, and one could get a slight sunburn if staying
to enjoy all of the runs. It was a close call but every
one was able to make three runs in daylight.

The course began with an immediate sharp left before
the lights, a good straight run, a fast sweeper followed
by a twisting fast straight leading to a hard braking
zone before a hairpin, good traction left-right and,
oops, an off-camber, dirty left that required a tight
line. Then we had a high speed section with some quick
flicks followed by some very bumpy terrain with a gate
hidden in the right wall of cones leading to a fast
smooth left sweeper, a tight right, and the turn
around opening up into a few ever faster kinks and
a hard right hander leading to another hard right
hander with the finish lights in the middle of the
turn.

A Porsche was selected to prerun the course as a test
of the bumpy section, but a few cars with less than
famous German reliability left with broken parts and
alignments out of skew. Compliant, long-travel
suspensions and a high seating position helped carry
speed over the bumps and through the chicane.

In the first group the big Z's found the bumps to
their liking with Carl Merritt turning a best in
class 61.336 that with an ESP PAX adjustment was
only good for fourth. Next best raw time and best
PAX time was captured by the other 300ZX of David
Parker working with an F Stock PAX. Jim Rowney,
BMW 328i, and Mark Searles, B Stock Miata captured
2nd and 3rd. David and Jim are tied for the class
points lead.

The PAX class also ran in the first group when
fast times are hard to deliver on a dirty course,
but no matter, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best PAX times
for the event were settled early. Josh Sirota
was the first to break 60 seconds in Teresa
Neidel's Boxster, but Teresa worked a best of
59.399 to take the win and lead in the class.
Derek Butts in his Toyota MR2 was able to claim
second best adjusted time.

The second group quickly got down to business
with Kevin Christman's Tiga bouncing a lovely
echo off the stadium while stopping the clocks
at 58.830. OSP cars collected lots of cones
and DNF's until first Arnold Escano broke through
with a 59.354 in Joey delos Trino's Corolla edging
past Louie Martinez in the same car. Then Tito
Solis kept it clean and mean on his final run to
post the ultimate top time of day at 58.566.
Mert Solis clung to the points lead with a fourth
place finish.

Jim Zalesny coned every run but walked away with a
two second victory in Street Modified over Kenneth
Liao, Camaro Z28, and Jeff Canano, Eclipse GST. Jim's
Talon has taken three in a row.

Fourteen rookies ran in the group with five of them
listed as not working. Not very cool as every single
person at an autocross event is a volunteer. George
Kibilov captured the win and snuck up to only ten
points behind Soslan in their shared 300ZXTT. Jeff
Finder claimed third in the event and third in the
points race in his Maxima.

The third run group saw one more driver breaking 60
seconds as John Kelly put his years of speed mainenance
discipline to good use posting a remarkable 59.383
for fifth fastest time of day. We won't mention that
he gave the "kid" in the other Lotus a 1.2 second
pasting nor that John still trails in season points.

Meanwhile in E Prepared Dwayne Komush brought the
Fiat 124 home in front of Neil Verity's MG.

Durk Edwards finally came alive in F Street Prepared
taking the win over Arie Villasol's nice drive in
the MGB, Scott Fraser in a VW Rabbit, and Marty
Nygaard who retained a share of the points lead
with Durk. Scott trails but by ten points. JoJo
Collantes finally got the Corolla moving to take
fifth.

E Stock is looking like a run away with Ed Chang
besting Alan Gruner, Civic, and Dany Arteaga in
a Corolla.

Russ Bowlus returned to H Stock and took the win
over Larry Sharp, Focus, and Zach Scibior, Integra.
Larry holds the points lead with Au Nguyen and
Russ tied for second.

Trevor Enos topped the rookies in his H Stock VW
Golf, with Calvin Wan, FSP Corolla, and Yukon
Maruyama, E Stock Legacy PAXing second and third.
Wan and Enos are both closing in on the points lead.

In E Street Prepared Kirk Meline continued to impress
on R tires as his first run was good enough for the
win without improving by eight and seven tenths on
his second and third runs. Tony Ozzello, Pontiac
WS6, and Terry Campbell, Mustang GT, found their
ways cleanly around the course on their final runs
to take second and third. Kirk leads the class by
190 points.

Joe Friedman, BMW M3, George Lawson, Pontiac Formula,
and Hugh Simmons, Z28 lead 12 rookies all running
ESP cars. Chris Warner brought his Talon home fourth
to tie for the class points lead. Lawson is 30 points
back.

Mr. Deja Vu Peter Mottaz didn't come from behind to
win again as was his practice last year in F125 Karts,
but he did post top PAX time of day again in his
G Stock BMW 325is over Stuart Langager, Probe, Sean
O'Boyle, Integra Type R, and second place points
holder Jesse Wills, Prelude.

D Stock saw Patrick Jones' remarkable winning streak
come to an end as Dan Williamson turned a miserable
day into a two-tenths victory on his last run. John
Lawrence claimed third. Patrick Simmons claimed fourth
and third place in season points behind Jones and
Williamson. Them be Neons running away from Mr. Lee's
BMW 318ti.

Fourteen rookies were headed by Sam Cabral, DSP Corolla,
Nitzan Wilnai, GS Prelude, and George Chiou, Integra.

Run group six is stuck in something of a rut. Jerry
Mouton won the A Stock Porsche battle over Dan de
Gruchy.

Scot Zediker bested Dennis Armstrong and Doug Gentges
in the 1.6L Miata C Stock class. Scot holds a forty
point lead.

Points leader Craig Boyle provided the highlight of
the group by not winning the B Stock Miata class
which fell swiftly to Rick Gould on a clean third
run following 5 cones on his first two. Philip
Hogue took third.

The Rookie class went to points leader Kevin Kluge,
M3, third in points, Ben Chien, M3, and second in
points, Richard Bright, Toyota MR2.

The seventh group had over 50 drivers. CSP fell to
Don Ebaugh, Civic on 225/45-13 Hoosier radials. Not
225/50's and not Autocrossers nor Street TDs. Radials.
Sharon Levy came second in an Audi A4 on a clean
third run and Corey Smith had to settle for his
first run's time collecting a count of five cones
on his last two runs. Ebaugh is 70 points up on
Corey in season points.

Soebe Soekmato was seen limping badly across the
grid to Chok's really something Integra which
carried Soebiantoro to a 1.7 second Street Touring
win over Adam Kim, Sentra, Jared Holstein, Maxima,
and Chok Balmaceda his own self. The hat trick puts
Soebe 170 points up.

Points leader Adrian Tang took the Rookie class win
over 12 other drivers including Seare Tate, second in
an Audi A4, and Howard Kwok, third in an MR2.

The eigth run group brought the long-awaited Corvette
and Porsche assualt on top time of day. The A Street
Prepared class saw the fastest runs in years with Chris
Boynton's Porsche Turbo getting down to 58.757 for
second best on the day, Don Campbell turning a 59.445
for seventh fastest in the Dodge Viper, and Jeffrey
Gordon turning a very respectable 60.533 in the RX7TT.

Mr. Super Stock, Don McKenna turned the hat trick in
59.795 with co-driver Steve Hobaugh losing his third
run to a DNF.

B Street Prepared had six cars but three of them ran
in the wrong group. The top points earners were
Jim Jobe, Mitsubishi 3000GT, Keith Mendia, Corvette,
and Sergiy Zhuk, Corvette.

Five rookies made the correct group with Brian
Elloy winning in the BMW M roadster over David
Stone, RX7, and David Tchankotadze, Porsche 911.

It was a long day with thanks to Soebe, Chok,
Chris, Ben, and others. Fun was had.