SCCA Autocross Event #2 2009 • CS Solstice • John Run 3

This is footage from the second event of the 2009 Northwest Region SCCA Autocross series. The event took place at Hampton Mills on May 3, 2009. I apologize for the off center mounting, and lack of interior video, I wasn't sure if I was even going to film this event.

I was quite unsettled going into this event. My poor driving at the practice on Saturday in combination with the terrible weather conditions did not give me high hopes for Sunday. We got around 20 runs each at the practice, and between four drivers we somehow managed to cord all four of our race tires. One of them down to the steel belts! This left me and my co-driver, Glen Hernandez, in a bit of a predicament. With no hopes of securing fresh race rubber by the next day, and having handily brought exactly zero spares, we needed to find new rides, and quick.

Luckily, help came to me in the form of Rick Vomenici. He was kind enough to lend me the use of his a National Championship winning beast of a car. His Pontiac Solstice was formerly owned by Kevin Dietz, and has a jacket, as well as countless trophies to it's credit. Needless to say I was excited at the prospect of driving such a capable car. With a proper ride secured I could focus on other matters, like the dismal weather reports.

The weather turned out to be fantastic and I was very angry. I had been half hoping, seriously, that the weather would be just as bad on Sunday as the previous day. At least I could feel better about ruining my tires and missing out on my first chance to drive with the new setup at Packwood! Though I needn't have worried, Rick's Solstice was more than capable of accomplishing my goals for the day.

I was quite surprised at how easy the car was to drive. It was similar to my Miata in terms of response, but the overall grip was so much higher than I had even dreamed. I had problems going fast enough to use up all of it's available grip. It was probably the best handling car I have ever driven. Wow, I never thought I would say that about an american car...

This was my best run, a 57.915. This was enough to win my class and PAX 8th overall for the day.

Here's a link to the results: http://www.wwscc.org/event_results/2009/scca-02.html


A HUGE Thanks to Rick for giving me the opportunity to compete! You Rock!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Autox
• Auto-x
• auto
• Mazda
• Miata
• Packwood
• Washington
• Hampton
• Mills
• racing
• John
• Kimball
• fast
• fun
• cone
• SCCA
• 2009
• Fat
• Cat
• America
• Sports
• Car
• Club
• autocross
• cross
• Pontiac
• Solstice
• Stock
• CS
• c-stock

[johnkimballracing]

Hmmmm, so tempting... I'm not sure that I want to buy a car that accelerates slower than a Miata!

[dmikko]

seems like you should get yourself a solstice eh? nice run John!