Karen Kraus
2350 Boteler Rd.
Brownsville, MD 21715
(301) 416 2009

Southeast Divisional #2 Hits Hotlanta

Atlanta in late June is a daunting prospect for anyone north of Georgia, as the usual heat and humidity make for a less-than-ideal autocross spot. Floridians, on the other hand, welcome the trip to the cooler northern latitudes. This year, the Evolution Performance/RFR Race Parts Southeast Divisional held at Gwinnett County Fairgrounds in Lawrenceville favored everyone with a brisk cold front coming through the day before practice. Temperatures held to the mid 80s, the sun shone all weekend, and prospects for showers dried up as the weekend progressed. The Heath McMillan and Heyward Wagner designed courses were the cherry on top of a sweet weekend.

The first heats of each day included the street prepared and modified classes, while the stock and street touring classes ran in the afternoon. As such, hotly contest classes such as DSP, SM, ESP and FSP were showcased early on.

ASP was a battle of the “old” versus the new Corvettes, as local Atlanta region driver Tom Simon brought out his C6 to take on Jim Orr’s C5. Orr took the overall win by 2.4 seconds mostly on the strength of his Saturday runs. Orr’s ASPL codriver, Barbara Bennett did not fair as well, however, as she fell to SCR’s Donna Littlejohn. Littlejohn, running a 2002 Corvette Z06, drove to a 123.340, while Bennett struggled with DNFs and cones on both days.

Mike Taylor usually drives an Oldsmobile in DSP, but this weekend, he came in as Ben Thatcher’s codriver in a BSP Corvette. While still a GM product, Taylor found that RWD and torque make a car drive a lot different than a four-cylinder FWD car! Still, he did respectably well for being in a new car, finishing 2.5 behind Thatcher, and having to stand on his first run on Sunday after DNFing his second two. James Ink, in a 1991 Corvette ZR1 was 0.6 behind Taylor in third.

Saturday’s course designer, Heath McMillan, took full advantage of his knowledge of the course to open a huge lead on the first day. The Southeast Division Solo Chair, Karl Rickert, found himself almost two seconds back from class leader McMillan after Saturday’s runs. McMillan stretched that lead to just shy of four seconds with Sunday’s runs, after Rickert coned away a 53.3 and had to stand on his final, slower, run. Kevin Boswell and Steven Gutman, both in Miatas, found themselves in third and fourth position in CSP, respectively.

DSP has been a BMW hotspot at the National events so far this year, and this weekend was no different, as Brian “Car du Jour” Flanagan brought out his latest E46 BMW project – a 328is. Flanagan’s only mistake was in letting Cliff Rosenberg behind the wheel. Unlike his last trip to Atlanta (at the Tour), there was no loss of wheels, but when Rosenberg one-upped Flanagan’s 59.387 with a 59.078 on Saturday’s course, then extended the lead with a 52.357 to Flanagan’s 52.932, Flanagan had to wonder why he let his employee behind the wheel. Michael Keogh, in a Plymouth Neon, brought home the third place honors in class.

Atlanta is home to one of the most dominant ESP cars in National Solo2 competition this year, and Brian Larose probably wondered why he decided to be the lone pony car representative when Joel Fehrman and Tom Pulliam showed up with the silver STi known all over as “Stompy.” Being one of the first cars off the line on Saturday, Fehrman struggled initially with a dusty course, and only managed a 58.6 to his codriver’s 56.9, though Pulliam had a cone on that run. While Fehrman improved to a 57.188 on his third run, Pulliam cleaned up that 56.9 to go into Sunday with a 0.2 lead. Larose, unfortunately, had problems finding the course on Saturday, and DNFed all of his runs. Still, the Camaro was back on Sunday to take on the Subaru again. With a sandy start line and grit all over the new course, Fehrman again struggled on his first run, but was only a second off Pulliam’s initial time. Dropping 0.8 on his second run, it looked like Fehrman might pull out the win, especially when Pulliam didn’t improve. But an early cone on his last run cost Fehrman any chance of removing the Georgia Bulldog livery from his car this time around, as Pulliam took the ESP win by 0.35.

Eight drivers and four cars made FSP one of the larger classes of the weekend, and interestingly enough, the results came in pairs. The pair of VW Rabbit drivers from Concord, North Carolina – Geoff Zimmer and Chris Peterson – took top honors, with Peterson succumbing to Zimmer after a narrow 0.3 lead on Saturday. Shane Lovely and Melissa Fifer brought their 1998 Honda Civic DX to third and fourth place, respectively, while J. Brett Howell and Shelton Lowe were coupled in the fifth and sixth place spots, driving Howell’s 1992 Honda Civic hatchback. The father-son team of Tommy and Dustin Culbreath brought in seventh and eighth places, driving father Tommy’s 1984 VW Scirocco.

In Street Modified Ladies, Megan Marcum opened a 0.8 lead over Laura White on Saturday, taking her supercharged Honda Civic Si to a 62.618. Sunday’s course seemed to favor White’s Mini Cooper S, however, as she improved to a 57.423 on her last run, narrowing Marcum’s win to a hair under 0.4. Meanwhile, in the open class, first day leader Marc Osgood, driving a 1993 Honda Civic, also saw his margin of victory almost disappear, as the Scirocco driven by Tennessee native Ted Visscher came back to almost take the win. Visscher had the fastest SM time on Sunday, but in the end, the gap was still 0.035 to the Civic. Josh Snelling, codriving with Osgood, wound up in the third spot, while Nathan Peters, driving the Civic he shares with Marcum, found himself 0.8 out of trophies in fourth.

Mary Monks had the SM2 lead on Saturday, driving the 1994 Corvette she shares with husband Russell. However, Wagner’s Sunday course just did not mesh well with her driving, and she fell to third spot. Russell moved up to take the win by 0.4 over fellow Corvette driver David Ball.

Many of the prepared classes at the divisional were uncontested. Mike Simard brought in the AP trophy, driving a pristine Superformance Cobra to a 124.045, while Ken Gaines drove his BP Corvette to that uncontested trophy. In CP, it was all Carl Couric, in the “yella banana” Camaro, while Rene’ Dunham, also in a yellow car, won DPL in a Triumph Spitfire. John Reamer won EP in a Civic while Bill Coffey’s beautiful 240Z took home the FP trophy.

DP was the only class with more than one driver, and John Brown showed he still knows how to drive his Toyota MR2, despite dabbling with his daily driver Mini on occasion. Brown ran a 107.124, 2.5 seconds faster than his codriver Steve Hoelscher, and 5.3 seconds quicker than third place finisher Duane Dunham, in a Spitfire.

FTD for the weekend was former Subaru pilot Michael Fiyak in his F125 shifter kart. He ran a 52.327 on Saturday and a 50.252 on Sunday for a fast 102.579 overall. Considering he only had that one clean run on Sunday (his following two runs were dirty, and one included a spin), Fiyak was happy that none of the junior karts caught him.

In FJ4, Nick Rickert started off strong with a 55.699 on Saturday, but by third runs, found himself behind Alabama driver Shelton Wright by a little over 0.2. Local driver, Matthew Brueck struggled from the start, and had to stay on his first run time of a 55.9. Wright opened up Sunday’s portion with a blistering 49.7, a second and a half faster than Rickert, and 2.7 faster than Brueck, but never improved. While Brueck only managed a total time of 107.094, Rickert brought in a 49.1 on his second run, but clipped a cone. With one run left, he still ran fast – a 49.435 – and with no cone calls, it was quick enough to take the overall win by just over a tenth. Meanwhile Rickert’s sister Kat ran uncontested in FJ4L to make it a three trophy weekend in the Rickert household.

Some of the modified cars found themselves losing times not for getting lost on course or for old British cars acting like such and breaking, but due to the strict 96dB sound limits imposed at the Gwinnett Fairgrounds. FM was one such class where the two cars (three drivers) repeatedly had to rework the exhausts to meet sound requirements. In the end, Jim Murphy kept his Daredevil F500 quiet and quick, to take the win over codriver Steve Brueck. Chris Eckles, with a KBS Mk3, struggled all weekend and finished third.

In EM, Miatas dominated the weekend, as Matt Welsh made the trek from North Carolina in his 1990 model to win by more than seven seconds over Alabama’s Alan Branch. Branch did managed to stay ahead of Rob Welsh – codriving Matt’s Miata – and the Superformance Cobra driven by Richard Price of Tennessee.

The RX3 of Greg Gerdon brought home the lone DM trophy, with a time of 126.077.

Super Stock was won the previous weekend at the Toledo Tour by a bright orange Lotus Elise, and while there was one such Elise present at the Southeast Divisional, Ben Rhoades would not be able to repeat Mike Johnson’s Toledo performance. Instead, it was local driver Tevin Richardson’s day to shine, driving his 2003 Corvette Z06 to a mere 0.2 win over Paul Barros, also in a Corvette Z06. Ian Stewart found himself merely third in class and 1.4 seconds back from Barros, despite dominating with the Porsche GT3 at the Atlanta Tour earlier in the season.

Matt Glagola plays drums for a local band called The Liverhearts, and they had a rare out of town appearance in Savannah, Georgia on Friday night. Knowing how his all-nighters didn’t seem to affect his National Tour performance, Glagola opted to drive back Friday night, arriving in town at 5:30AM Saturday morning. The magic worked again for Glagola, who opened up with a run that included three cones, then a spin, and finally sat on a 59.873 – 1.4 seconds faster than his closest competitor. On Sunday, after a good night’s rest, he had three clean runs with a best of 53.469, to take the overall win by just over three seconds. Jeff and Roberta Wetzel took second and third respectively.

One week ago, the yellow 350Z owned by Andrew James was in the body shop, having work done to repair front-end damage caused by an inattentive driver that nearly ran head-on into James at an intersection. James had worried that the accident damage would affect the car’s competitiveness, and two back-to-back DNF runs on Saturday did not show that the car was ready to be run. After Saturday was said and done, Chuck Palmer, driving a 1999 BMW M Coupe was on top of BS, with a 60.129 to 350Z driver Richard Sleeper’s 60.305, barely quicker than James’s 60.364. Dennis Sparks, in a Mazda RX8, was also in the hunt with a 60.747. The M coupe and Sunday’s course did not get along so well though, as Palmer only managed a 56.039, dropping him to third spot in class, and Sleeper too, fell to fourth, with only a 55.899 to show for the day. James moved up from third spot to first, despite not having the fastest time either day; he ran a 54.502 on Sunday, compared to Sparks’s 54.470 in the RX8.

After watching him earlier in the season, some said that Robert Carpenter would never get the hang of driving a RWD Miata, and would go running back to his FWD Celica GT. This weekend showed that the National Championship driver may have just been giving the rest of CS some hope. Carpenter had cone troubles on Saturday, but still set fast time in the class with a 59.0 on his one clean run. Clay McCool was within striking range, sitting on a 59.4, but Carpenter had shown glimpses of what he was capable of by running raw times in the mid-58s. On Sunday’s course, Carpenter just ran away from McCool, doing a 52.755 to McCool’s 53.615. The overall margin of victory was just about 1.2 seconds to second, and Charles Wright, McCool’s Miata codriver, was in the final trophy spot, another 1.2 behind McCool. CSL was uncontested for Debbi Eley, who took her Miata to a 119.227.

The surprise in DS on Saturday was that Greg Hahn was driving a Dodge Neon SRT-4 – a car that even Mark Daddio gave up on – and was only 0.5 back from class leader Alex Muresan, who was driving an Acura Integra Type R. On Sunday, the multiple sweepers wreaked havoc on the SRT-4 driver, and while Hahn held on to second, he fell to Muresan by another 2.1 seconds and only managed to stay ahead of the Integra Type R of Charlie Smith by a mere 0.002.

At the local Atlanta region events, it’s been said that ES MR2 driver Jay Parcon has been “flying.” He was quick last year, but recently discovered that the spark plugs he’d had in his car were those for a MR2 Turbo; when he replaced them with the correct plugs, and fixed an exhaust leak, he found that his car has midrange power. Jesse Naughton found this out first hand, as Parcon ran a 59.083 right away on Saturday, compared to Naughton’s 59.7. Naughton did improve to a 59.301 on his third run while Parcon went no faster. Sunday’s runs saw Naughton struggling with cones, and only managing a clean 53.782 – slower than his codriver Jim Reyenga who finished third, and nowhere near Parcon’s 53.248. In the end, Parcon took the ES win by 0.7 over Naughton, and Reyenga finished third, less than four tenths back of the car owner.

FS started off with Jim Fossum and Karen Kraus in Fossum’s Camaro on Saturday, while Kraus tried to replace a broken hose on her car. Steve Rife represented the Blue Oval with his 2004 Mustang. Kraus set the early pace for FS with a 60.242 on her first run, but would go no faster. Rife, too, stood on his first run, as he DNFed then coned a 0.7 improvement. Fossum took the FS lead by only 0.043 on his second run of 60.199, then extended it to 0.061 with a 60.178 on his third run. Kraus fixed her car for Sunday, but wouldn’t be able to catch the LS1 powered Fossum car. Fossum lengthened the lead to just over 0.7 for the weekend on the strength of a 54.535 on his second run, while Kraus only managed a 55.251 in her car. Rife got down to a 58.358 on his second run, finishing third for the event.

While Carpenter opted to run a Miata in CS, Mark Pilson took Carpenter’s Celica out to terrorize GS with it. A 60.120 on Saturday propelled him to the top of the class, while Philip Gillett struggled with cones in his Subaru Impreza RS, and had to settle for a 61.756. Pilson didn’t slow down on Sunday, running an impressive 54.699 on his final run, for a total time of 114.819. Gillett couldn’t narrow the gap, and finished in second, 2.8 behind, but ahead of the Mini Cooper S of Joe Oliveira (119.312) and Jason Minehart’s Acura RSX-S (119.381). Jodi Bradley was the lone GSL entrant in a Mini Cooper S; she ran a 120.657 total.

The brothers Austin combined their talents in Joe’s HS Mini Cooper for the weekend, though that was almost a mistake. During the Friday practice Joe broke a rear control arm on the car, and it was a struggle to get replacements before HS ran on Saturday afternoon. After taxiing the part to the event site, everything was set, and when the first three runs of the event were over, Tom Austin was in the lead by over 0.7 over Ron Foley, and Joe was sitting in third. Sunday went a little better for Joe, as he got down to a 56.5 on his last run, and while that was good enough to get by Foley for second place, it wasn’t good enough to catch his brother Tom, who’d ripped off a 55.825 on his last run. Tom’s wife, Diane Wood-Austin, ran Joe’s car uncontested in HSL, driving on street tires on Saturday and race tires on Sunday.

Heyward Wagner and Ryan “Preppy” Thompson both have 1989 Honda Civic hatchbacks set up for STS. Thompson has been very inconsistent of late, and Wagner planned to take full advantage of Thompson’s problems to come out with a win for the weekend. The unknown in STS was Aaron Buckley, who was fresh in from a motor replacement in his Toyota Celica GT-S, and had been relatively quick before the motor problems last year. Wagner soon discovered that Buckley wasn’t going to be a factor for the weekend, but Thompson wasn’t going to be a pushover. Going into Wagner’s Sunday course, Thompson was sitting on a 61.104 – merely 0.041 behind Wagner. Buckley was in third, 0.6 behind. The Wagner course was evidently designed to play into Heyward’s hands, as Sunday allowed Heyward to extend his lead to 0.600 as well as allowing Heyward’s brother and codriver Mitch to move past Buckley’s Celica into the third spot, 1.8 behind Thompson.

In STSL, the fairer Wagner, Heyward’s wife Amy, drove the family hatch to a 64.121 on Saturday, opening an insurmountable lead over Subaru Impreza RS driver Tara Knoll. While Knoll ran a 59.219 on Sunday’s course, Wagner did a 58.557, for a total win over 2.3 seconds ahead of Knoll.

STS2L was an uncontested class, where Chasity O’Steen ran the Miata she shares with her husband Jason to a 126.256 total time. In the open class, James Feinberg’s new toy, a Honda CRX, showed it could be “the” car to have in the class. A 61.122 on Saturday was the fast time, over fellow CRX pilot Scott Sawyer (62.113) and Miata driver Mark Davis (62.421). Feinberg won despite not having a single clean run on Sunday; he rested on a 55.450 that had one cone added to it. Sawyer would stay in second, 0.371 back, and Davis would remain in third and final trophy position with a total time of 119.009.

Kurt Breitinger took the early STU lead in his Mazda RX8, running a 63.830 on Saturday’s course. But he never managed better than a 58.925 on the Sunday version, allowing Subaru Impreza STi driver Chris Williams to sneak into the top spot with a 57.979, and a total time of 122.119 to Breitinger’s 122.755. Williams’s codriver, Jonathan McAllister, sat on his first Sunday run due to DNFs on the subsequent attempts, and salvaged a third place finish for the weekend.

Tom Hoppe may have sold his STX winning Subaru, but somehow it still ends up in his hands for Divisional and National events. A 60.612 on Saturday was fast time to Mike King’s 61.581 (and King’s only clean run of the day). Josh Morgan, driving Heyward Wagner’s STS-prepped Civic, was in the hunt with a 61.8, ahead of King’s codriver Scott Strickland. On Sunday, tire issues kept Hoppe only two runs, and he settled for his second run time of a 55.178. It was good enough for a win by 2.3 seconds over Morgan, as King had cone troubles, finishing the event in third place.

The next chapter in the Southeast Division series will be July 30-31, 2005 at Nashville Superspeedway.