S&M Racing

July 8th, 2001 NOVR

Well, after spending Saturday at Nelson Ledges Road course at 120+ MPH speeds, autocrossing an entirely first-gear course on sandy pavement is a pretty stark contrast. It was a very warm day, in the 90s with an unyeilding sun and not much breeze to talk about. Matt and I were pretty juiced after our day at the track, but I think I used up all my energy on Saturday, first racing and then entertaining some out of town guests. I was completely bushed by Sunday morning, and was having severe problems staying focused on anything but lying in the shade with my toungue hanging out. Not eating anything but ritz crackers all day didn't help either, and my runs reflected my mentally cooked state...I have never hit more cones, or been more off course, in my life. To avoid fresh pavement patches, the course was extremely tight, FWD cars definately had an advantage over the RWD guys, who had to spend all their energy just to keep from spinning. Thankfully, I was able to put in a pretty decent run at the very end, but one clean, reasonably quick run out of 6 isn't something to brag about. The RE010s made their last appearance at this event, after serving well at the track the day before. Fortunately, I was too drained to care about my crappy driving, I was still buzzing from Nelson Ledges...but enough of my bitchin', on to Matt's kung-fu skills on the Steubenville lot: After being one of the quicker objects all day at Nelson Ledges (A 1:21 lap is VERY quick, even for race tires), Matt managed to spank the field and take an honest-to-god FTD with some edge-of-control runs on the slippery patch of sandy asphalt that is Steubenville. He had a comfortable gap over the next closest car, and was just plain ON for the whole weekend. Mad props go out to my S&M brotha, kick ass weekend Matt! Fewer pics this weekend due to my being so completely wasted, but Mark has replaced the RUF 911 Turbo he totaled at Nelson Ledges a couple months ago with a Ferrari F355 Berlinetta...so guess what got the most attention. Andy Waldman gave the CRX a break to co-drive the prancing horse, he picked a good day because I think Matt would have waxed his no-tec tail :)

Results are available Here.