95 people came out to enjoy a beautiful day with Autocrossers Inc. The results are now posted:

http://www.autocrossersinc.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013_03_10_fin.html

They are also on the sidebar to your right.

Our next event is March 24th 🙂

Autocrossers Inc congratulates its 2012 season champions!

BS: Jim Harris
CS: Les Banyas
DS: Steve Mitchell
HS: Jenny Semple
RTA: Harry Hogenkamp
RTR: Khalid Ismail
RTF: Roger Lee
STR: Christopher Lin
STX: Peter Tyson
STU: Jerry Byrd
SSP: Howard Leikin
ESP: Stephen Long
SM: Benjamin Edick
SSM: Timothy Walker
FP: William Olsen
KM: Franklin Dam
Novice: Jenny Semple
Pro: John Willemin

Our schedule should be out shortly 🙂

On a warm Sunday morning, the third event of the Autocrossers
Incorporated (AI) season went green with sixty drivers testing their
cars and driving skills on a twisty and turny autocross course at
Waldorf, Maryland’s Regency Furniture Stadium. At the conclusion of the
event, the top five drivers’ best times were separated by a hair more
than a half a second.

In individual class competition, the closest battle was in Street
Touring Roadster, where Christopher Lin bested Daniel Bragason by 0.294
seconds. Both drivers drove a Toyota MR2 Spyder. Tara Buck beat fellow
Subaru 2.5RS driver Michael Buck to win Street Touring Compact. Jerry
Byrd was a 1.8-second winner in a field of Subaru WRXs in Street Touring
Ultra. Thomas Kohl won Street Touring Extreme in his BMW 1 Series, while
Craig Stuard won X Prepared in a Factory Five Roadster. Philip Emad was
the F Street Prepared winner in a Honda Civic.

The fastest raw time of the day was set by Kart Modified driver James
Newman.

There are a number of classes that are made up of many different kinds
of cars, handicapped with PAX multipliers to handicap the entrants.
Three of these classes are for stock-class cars on road tires, broken
into front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and all-wheel drive. Rob
Kiernan was the all-wheel drive winner, taking the class in his D Stock
Subaru WRX. The front-wheel drive winner was Dan Myer, driving a Mini
Cooper. A large eight-driver rear-wheel drive class was won by Khalid
Ismail, who drove his Mazda MX-5 to the win by just two tenths of a
second over his co-driver Kamran Bakhtian.

The Novice class is also PAX-adjusted in an attempt to handicap a field
made up of machinery ranging from a Volkswagen Jetta to a 1969 Mustang.
The Jetta, driven by William Gentz, wound up being the winner.

The Pro class saw seventeen drivers post times, and the best of that
bunch was Pat Griffith, who drove his PG Tools-sponsored Camaro to a
three-tenths of a second win over Kevin Henry’s BMW 325i. Karl Bender
(Pontiac Trans Am) was third, followed by Darren Mass (Honda Civic) and
Phil Knowles (Chevrolet Camaro SS).

All eyes were on the battle for top PAX time of the day, which came down
to the last runs of the day. Christopher Lin set a fast time early but
had to watch as Pat Griffith made a late run to make it interesting. Lin
wound up holding on, with a winning margin of just 0.128 seconds after
PAX handicapping.

The next event for Autocrossers Incorporated will be again at Regency
Furniture Stadium on August 11. Registration ($35 for SCCA members, $45
for non-members) is open now. Information on autocross in general,
Autocrossers Incorporated in particular, and links to registration can
all be found on the club’s Web site, http://www.autocrossersinc.com

Twice a year, Autocrossers, Incorporated (AI) puts on a unique autocross program at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, Maryland. Drivers start the day with four runs in the morning, then take a break inside the stadium where they are served lunch. Following lunch, they return to find the course reversed and tweaked, and they get four runs on that course. The morning and afternoon sessions are treated as separate events with double trophies and season points awarded to those who excel.

AI’s Eric Kriemelmeyer designed the courses used on June 16, producing roughly 45-second runs that featured transitional elements that appeared to require slowing to maneuver, but, with experience, could be taken at speed. A capacity entry was on hand and the day was run under ideal weather conditions.

Double winners in contested classes were common. Steve Mitchell won both ends of the doubleheader in his Mini Cooper (D Stock class). Michael Harrigan (D Prepared Mazda Miata) beat his son Ryan in both sessions. Alejandro Aviles (Honda Civic Si) swept Street Touring Compact but the margins of victory were smaller than he’s been accustomed to. Pete Tyson (Street Touring Extreme BMW 325iS) won both morning and afternoon by less than a second in each case. Jerry Byrd won both sessions in Street Touring Ultra in his Subaru WRX STi, Rani Emad won both in Street Modified in a BMW M3, and Timothy Walker scored the double in his Super Street Modified Toyota MR2.

Some classes had two winners. In C Stock, Learic Cramer (Nissan 370Z) won in the morning but Les Banyas (Mazda Mazdaspeed MX-5) took the class in the afternoon. The largest non-PAXed class, Street Touring Roadster, saw Christopher Lin win in the morning but finished second to the owner of the Toyota MR2 Spyder that he drove, Daniel Bragason, in the afternoon.

The Stock Road Tire classes attracted a variety of entrants for their three PAXed categories. David Eng won the morning’s All Wheel Drive Road Tire class with an unlikely car, an H Stock Subaru Legacy station wagon. In the afternoon, Eng fell to second behind Harry Hogenkamp’s Subaru WRX STi. In Front Wheel Drive, the top three (all driving D Stock Mini Cooper S) were separated by mere fractions of a second, although the order never changed. Winning both sessions was John Raymond, followed by Dan Myer and Jack Raymond. Khalid Ismail won the morning Rear Wheel Drive class in a C Stock Mazda MX-5, but Justin Neal (C Stock Mazda RX8) won in the afternoon.

Five drivers entered the PAXed Novice class, and the winners were Christopher Jennings (Street Modified FWD Acura RSX-S) in the morning and Philip Chaney (Street Touring Roadster Honda S2000) in the afternoon.

The PAXed Pro class, for the most experienced autocrossers, had 16 entries. Doug Keiler came up from the Tidewater area to win the morning session in his D Street Prepared BMW 323, followed by John Willemin (Street Touring Ultra Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution) and Lee Piccione (E Street Prepared Ford Mustang). In the afternoon, Willemin got his revenge with the win, followed by Lance Heinrich (B Stock Honda S2000) and Keiler.

In both morning and afternoon sessions, the fastest overall time was set by Laurence Casey in his X Prepared Factory Five Roadster.

Autocrossers, Inc. returns to action at Regency Furniture Stadium on Sunday, July 15th with a traditional single-course event, and registration is open now. The entry fee is $35. All participants must be SCCA members, and those who are not yet SCCA members can get a weekend membership for the event for an additional $10. Novices are welcome. Information about autocross in general, Autocrossers Inc. in particular, as well as the schedule and links for event registration are all found at http://www.autocrossersinc.com.

–Alan Claffie

The weekend of June 30th/July 1st is the 3rd Evo Super Shootout of 2012. This is the first year of the Super Shootout and it has already produced some really exciting racing. The field whittles down to 64 after preliminary runs, and then an NCAA-style bracket is drawn up where anything can happen. There is some serious contingency money in the mix as well!

More information about the event can be found here:

The event at Dover, including a link to register: http://www.evolutionsupershootout.com/events/2012-dover

The format in general: http://www.evolutionsupershootout.com/about

Autocross, the most accessible form of motorsports, returned to Waldorf, Maryland on Sunday with the first event hosted by Autocrossers Incorporated (AI) at Regency Furniture Stadium. While weather during the day was cool with misty rain throughout the morning, that didn’t stop seventy drivers from taking part on race day.

Autocross is a low-speed car control exercise held in empty parking lots, airport taxiways, or other large expanses of pavement or concrete. Each event features a unique course laid out with traffic cones with twists, turns, and slaloms designed to limit top speeds to 55-60 MPH. Drivers run the course one at a time, with their times tracked electronically. Knocking over a cone incurs a two-second penalty. Each driver’s best individual run time is his or her run of record and used to determine the event’s results.

AI, a chapter club of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), has been hosting autocross events in the Baltimore-Washington area for over 40 years. 2012 marks AI’s third year of making Regency Furniture Stadium its home. This year WDCR welcomes Radial Tire Company as the Official Tire of the D.C. Region.

Cars are classified by SCCA regulations, which takes into consideration the car itself as well as any modifications made. Classes range from Stock, for lightly modified vehicles, through Street Touring, Street Prepared, Prepared, and Modified. AI also has three additional classes: Novice, for drivers just getting into the sport; Pro, for the most experienced drivers; and Ladies.

Sunday’s event featured a course designed by multiple national championship-winning driver Sam Strano. Its highlight feature was a five-cone slalom that teased drivers with a high-speed entry but punished those who could not keep up with the transitions with cone penalties or “off course” calls. The challenge of the day was increased as light rain in the morning and a heavy overcast sky meant that drivers were testing their skills on a wet course, as autocross events are held rain or shine.

Close competition was the order of the day, with two classes seeing the winner taking the trophy by a tenth of a second or less. Super Street Prepared was the closest battle, with Howard Leikin driving his Lotus Exige to the class win over James Harris’ Corvette Z06 by just 0.092 seconds. C Stock was the next closest, with Les Banyas taking the win in his Mazdaspeed Miata by 0.108 seconds over Learic Cramer’s Nissan 370Z.

Other contested class winners included Rani Emad (BMW 3-Series) in Street Modified, Jerry Byrd (Subaru WRX STi) in Street Touring Ultra, Justin Neal (Honda CRX Si) in Super Street Modified, James Dunham (Mazda MX-5) in Street Touring Roadster, Yaroslav Burmaka (Toyota MR2) in Street Touring Sports, Chris Hebert (Nissan 350Z) in B Street Prepared, Danny Kao (Corvette Z06) in Super Stock, Shawn Roning (Subaru STi) in B Stock, Steve Mitchell (Mini Cooper S) in D Stock, and Nathaniel Spoltman (Subaru WRX) in Street Touring Extreme.

The Novice class featured ten drivers in machinery that ranged from a Honda S2000 to a Chrysler 300C. Using a scientifically-calculated PAX multiplier to eliminate the difference between different classes, the winner was Dmitry Maslov, driving a D Stock BMW 335i. Second place went to Phillip Chaney (Street Touring Roadster Honda S2000) and third place was William Olsen (F Prepared Toyota Celica).

The Pro class was made up of 20 drivers who also drove a wide variety of cars. Using the PAX multiplier to handicap Mazda Miatas against Corvettes and Mustangs, the winner was Sam Strano, who drove a C Stock Nissan 370Z. Kevin Henry (D Street Prepared BMW 325i) and Steve Kahre (B Stock Honda S2000) rounded out the top three.

Autocrossers Incorporated returns to Waldorf’s Regency Furniture Stadium on Saturday, June 16th, for a doubleheader day. Drivers will see competition in the morning, then take a break for lunch inside the stadium while the course is modified. Following lunch, they’ll get another set of runs on a different course. The morning and afternoon sessions will count as separate events for both individual awards and season-long championship points.

Online registration will open a month before the next event on http://www.dlbracing.com. Drivers looking for information about car classification can consult the SCCA Solo rule book, which is available to download at http://www.scca.com.

–Alan

Registration is now open for the 1st championship event in the 2012
Autocrossers Inc season. This event is on Sundary, March 25 at Blue Crabs
stadium in Waldorf, MD.

Event registration is $35 for SCCA members and $45 for non-SCCA members. There
is a $10 late registration fee for all entries received after midnight on
Wednesday, March 23. Cancellations must be received prior to midnight on
Wednesday, March 23 to qualify for a refund. On-site registration is only on a
space available basis and will also include the $10 late registration fee.

Registration is available on-line through DLB Racing:

http://www.dlbracing.com/clubs/registera.aspx?EventID=4915&LMID=213

Please contact me if you have any questions or problems registering.

Thanks,

Andrew Baker
AI Registrar

AI’s schedule for 2012 is now confirmed:

March 25 A.I. Championship 1
April 7 Evolution School
June 16 A.I. Championship 2
July 15 A.I. Championship 3
Aug 11 A.I. Championship 4
Sept. 16 A.I. Championship 5
Oct. 14 A.I. Championship 6

All A.I. events this year will be held in at Regency Furniture Stadium, Waldorf, MD

For 2011, our season class champions were:

CS: Les Banyas
DS: Steve Mitchell
ES: John Nicolaysen
GS: Mark Liller
HS: Roger Lee
ASP: Jim Harris
CSP: James Dunham
ST: Alejandro Aviles
STS: Yaroslav Burmaka
STR: Christopher Lin
STX: Arthur Shuman
STU: Iman Capers
XP: Aron Parsons
CM: Frank Weichold
SM: Steve Mayclin
SSM: Timothy Walker
SMF: John Ehnes
F125: James Nemman
FJA: Lena Weichold
FSAE: Danny Kao

Congratulations to all our champions!