NCR Autocross #2—May 26, 2007
by Joe Kraetsch, NCR Autocross Chair
It was a hot Memorial Day weekend but that did not stop 60+ drivers from coming out to Moore Airfield for the second NCR autocross of the year. Temperatures were near 90° but a few clouds in the morning and a good breeze all day kept things relatively comfortable.
Those who came were treated to a spectacular course designed by Chris Darminio. The course was easy to follow, challenging for even the most experienced drivers, but still a whole lot of fun for drivers of all levels. All day long people came up to me telling me how great the course was. When I thanked Chris for the course at the trophy presentation at the end of the day, he received what might be best described as thunderous applause.
Even though people loved the course, the cones took a lot of abuse keeping corner workers busy and the timing folks even busier. Timing & Scoring gets very hectic when there are a lot of penalties to confirm and record. Tom Gurski and Chris Jacques both did outstanding jobs at Control while Steve Berry, Kevin Bobbitt, Miriam Dunster and Lisa Roche skillfully captured all the car numbers and penalties into the computer. We had a total of 245 cone penalties recorded and that does not include any DNF (off course) runs. There were also a lot of DNF runs most due to drivers trying too hard. I only found two drivers who had all clean runs and I know several drivers did not get a clean run all day—and they still loved the course. Cara Ness was Cone Queen for the day with a total of 13 cones—at least one on every run—yet she still finished 6th in a class of 17 drivers. With as many penalties as we saw, I would normally question the course design but in this case, I believe it is a tribute to the design. People loved the course and literally attacked it. Thank you Chris for a course to remember!
The event ran very smoothly and we were able to get a lot of runs in. With four morning session runs, four afternoon session runs, and a few (but not too many) re-runs, we logged over 500 runs for the day. I want to thank not only my staff, but everyone who participated for helping to make the event such a success.
Here is and in car video, courtesy of Steve Berry, of his last run of the day:
