Event 1 - May 31, 2003
The first autocross of the 2003 season is now history. 46 drivers came to do battle; battle against fellow competitors, the clock, and their worst enemy of all, themselves.
The weather at Devens was gloomy, but as it turned out gloomy was good. We didn't have to worry about sunburn. We didn't have to worry about dehydration. And we didn't have to worry about it being too hot or too cold. The only concern was the chance of rain. But thanks to everyone's willingness to hustle we managed to get 9 runs in and the cones picked up before the first few drops arrived. NER were not so lucky, and their event at Devens the next day had to be cancelled because of the rain.
We had eight people who were autocrossing for the very first time. Its great to see so much new blood in the sport, and I hope that these rookies of today are now hooked and will be our experts of tomorrow. Tamara Hewitte, James Demers, Marc Dove, Chris Jacques, Jack Saunders, Paul Tallo and both Eric Wickfields, I hope you all had a blast. To the two Erics, Jr and Sr, what better way is there for a Father and Son to spend a day together. And to Jack, who is starting autocross at 80 years young, you never cease to amaze us.
The course was designed by Chris Darminio, and he did a great job of giving us a layout which was easy to learn for the newcomers, yet still challenging for the old-timers. The left sweeper at the end of the first runway was great; I think that was my favorite part of the course.
We had four runs in the morning to learn the course, and then five runs in the afternoon to try and post some good times. Lunch had to be consumed during the start of the afternoon session, but I don't think anyone wanted to sacrifice driving time for a lunch break. Not when the rain clouds were moving in.
The fastest time of the day went to Greg Hill in his yellow rocket with a time of 62.112. This year we are also posting PAX results so that you can compare your times against drivers in other classes (except class 16; sorry Eric, Matt, and Marc). Fasted PAX time was Chris Darminio in his 914.
