Thursday

5:00 PM Michael loads up Rental car with CG-Lock display items and leaves Michigan.

Friday

12:15 AM Team arrives at the Black River Ale House for a Sponsor Meet-and-Greet

7:00 AM Team takes Tow Vehicle to Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot for a quick car wash from the local SUNY softball team. Autograph session ensues.

8:00 AM Replace spindle on Dwarf Car, rewire brake lights on trailer, Febreeze truck cabin, change oil in STS car and wash everything the college girls didn’t get clean.

12:00 PM Load up STS car and head out to Seneca for practise starts.

3:00 PM Load up Steel Cities contingent and head back to Rome to pick up Dwarf Car.

6:00 PM Park Tow Rig with Dwarf Car in street in front of Dinosaur BBQ. Politely ask local bikers to keep an eye on it for us (keeping our fingers crossed they don’t realize it’s a GSX-R under all that pretty tin.)

6:15 PM Watch Gentile friends load up on Pork products while I sip a cola drink or two.

11:00 PM Park Dwarf Car next to STS car, momentarily reflect on how fine they look, both being upright and all.

11:59 PM Hit the sack.

Saturday

8:30 AM First car off at the SCCA Seneca Pro Solo. Team Neon patiently stands around waiting to run in the last heat. During the wait team discusses the benefits of CG-Lock with several top flight drivers. Everyone agrees that it is a necessity for all serious competitors.

3:00 PM Put the smack down on all the Haters running Bridgestones; make Sunday Morning’s run superfluous.

6:00 PM Unload the Dwarf Car at Canandaigua Speedway, momentarily ponder the unusual front setup and hit the track.

11:30 PM Lift the remaining pieces of the car onto the trailer, collect winnings and load up drunken friends and newly acquired hanger-ons into truck and head back to Seneca.

Sunday

6:15 AM Wake up and proceed to the closest Dunkin Donuts. Gather local police officers and church goers together to perform a Native Rain Dance.

8:00 AM Arrive at site and answer endless questions about on-track-bodywork done to the car the previous night.

2:00 PM Red Light on first Challenge run.

3:00 PM Come to the realization that we have two cars on site and only one trailer to get them home with. While other team members toss around ideas, Michael jumps in the Rental car and heads for Niagara Falls.

11:59 PM After bringing home the STS car and dropping the Dwarf Car off at the Sharlay Machine Shop, Derek arrives home in Rome.

Monday

1:00 AM After a slight delay in Buffalo, Michael arrives home in Michigan.

Next stop Jersey…..

First off, BIG thanks to Team Neon driver Mike O and ex-codriver Chris Franson for walking the Left course with me the night before we ran. I think I had the course fairly well figured out before this, but they gave me invaluable information about the surface conditions – where there was grip and where it was slippery. They had run on the course on Thurday and so their insights were invaluable. Without their advice, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to hammer the car through certain sections on my first run.

Friday morning, I realized that I had forgotten to put the Terrible Towel in the car the day before. I corrected this problem, and was that much more confident that I would do well.

Looking at the standings from Thursday, I was pretty close to the trophies, but I also had a log jam of folks right behind, so it wasn’t going to be easy to move up. On the other hand, I felt the course favored the Miata over the MR2, so there was reason to be somewhat optimistic.

I decided to skip the morning coursewalk, which I almost never do, in favor of a little more sleep, and a decent breakfast. I felt I knew the course fairly well, and all I really wanted to see was where the edge of the sand was, which I could do on the walk between heats 2 and 3.

Although the weather report called for temperatures in the mid-70’s, it never really seemed to warm up, until the sun came out after we ran. I think it was in the mid-60’s during heat 4 – I ran in a sweatshirt until my 3rd run.

First run, I pushed the car right away much harder than I had on the other course. David’s car is much more stable than my car, and it seems to like a little rougher treatment, plus the grip seemed quite good despite the low temperatures. I got through the first set of offsets pretty well (in fact, better than I would all day), then came the big decreasing radius sweeper in the middle of the course. I was too conservative here, and didn’t carry very good exit speed into the 4 cones slalom. I was surprised at how much grip there was in the braking zone for the following 180, but despite slowing down too much, I got behind the exit cone as planned and into the throttle early for the high speed offsets. Rode the limiter for a second or so into the brake zone before the slalom in at the bottom of the course. Overbraked for this corner, and lost some time, as the grip was very good. I managed to get the car slowed down for the tight turn at the end of the short slalom, but ran right over the apex cone when I turned into the big offset slalom. This sections was fun and fast, although it required some throttle modulation as the cones were offset and unevenly spaced. Since I had killed a cone already, I decided to try the tight part of the slalom with just a lift rather than hitting the brakes, and much to my surprise, it worked. I got back on the gas way too slowly in the left to the finish.

I thought the run was ok, with some clear areas for improvement. The car seemed to be sticking great, so I was confident I could drop some time. Because of the new grid arrangement, you can’t really hear the other times in class while you are between runs, unless you turn on the radio. I generally don’t worry about that while I am running, so it didn’t bother me much.

Second run, I overdid it in the first offset section and almost missed the entrance to the big sweeper. Got into the sand and had to brake about 50 feet earlier than I wanted to – this killed quite a bit of momentum although consequently I had a better line and exit speed heading for the first slalom. I did the rest of the course fairly well and was pleasantly surprised with the time improvement. I felt I lost at least a second with the mistake I made in the early part of the course. I hadn’t heard anyone break into the 52’s yet, but I felt they were in reach.

Last run, I managed to get through the early offsets ok – not great, but not as bad as the second run. Did the sweeper better and the sections following. Coming down the big offset section, I was on the limiter quite a bit more than in previous runs, so things were looking good. Got my visual lock on the slalom cone, hit the brakes, and turned into the corner. Everything seemed great for a split second, the car rotated, was pointing the right way and I started feeding throttle in. Suddenly, the car starter to slide wide, and I got a very sick feeling in my stomach as I slid past the target cone. I was several car widths on the right side of the slalom cone, rather than tucked in on the left where the line was. I had run a little deep and gotten into the sand – at this point I probably would have just punted the run but this is Nationals, so I stayed in the gas and tried to get the car back on line. Somehow, the car found enough grip to clear the first cone (although at an angle I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy). I managed to flat foot the slalom despite the bad entry and did the tight turn into the long offset better than I had all day. In the offsets, I just threw caution to the wind and ran as tight to the cones as I could, and stayed in the gas. I also macho-manned the last corner before the finish, and was pleasantly surprised with a two tenths improvement over run 2. (This turned out to be critical, as Jerry Jenkins was on course just behind me and would have caught me for 10th place if I had stood on run 2.)

I wasn’t sure where I finished until I saw the final results.  I was actually quite surprised that no one managed to break into the 52s, as I really thought there probably another second in my car if I had cleaned up my mistakes.  In impound I compared times with the other Miata guys and I was quite happy to learn I was the fastest Miata.

I ended up in 10th, with the final trophy.  I know the car was capable of winning, so I’m not thrilled with the result at all, but considering the first day stupidity, Friday was a victory of sorts.  Surprisingly, the two day result left me closer to the front than I ever managed in the CS at Nationals.

STS showed unprecedented diversity on the leader board, this year, with the Rhodes 240sx taking the win and strong finishes from two Neons, two Integras and two Subbies. The top ten was split evenly between the Spec Civics and alternative weapons.

Street Touring Category

Street Touring S Drivers: 45 Trophies: 12

T 1 199 Jason Rhoades 1992 Nissan 240SX Red 53.782

T 2 21 Michael King 1989 Honda Civic Si Red 53.887

T 3 19 6 Chris Shenefield 2006 Honda Civic Si Ylw 54.097

T 4 9 6 Cy S Lee 1989 Honda Civic Si Ylw 54.236

T 5 172 Kevin McCormick 1989 Honda Civic si Blk 54.367

T 6 141 Michael Occhipinti 1996 Plymouth Neon ACR 54.504

18 41 Eric Denissen 1996 Plymouth Neon ACR 55.604

20 165 Sean Grogan 1997 Dodge Neon ACR Pur 55.753

Team Neon had a fraught day. They had a seized wheel lug and some other minor car problems that added up to a “day from hell” in Mike’s words. Jeff Hurst was so depressed I decided not to pick on him, for at least a day or two. Mike flew out last night and will be back on Wednesday.

I went to dinner with the Rothermels, Eric Coffman, Nick and Anna and Rocking Randy Pearson. When I got back to the room, I was pretty wiped out. Two straight days of 4 hours sleep caught up with me. Franson got back to the room and we just say around BSing for an hour or two and then I passed out. Unfortunately, I missed the CS driver’s meeting at Baby Dolls, so my perfect record of non-attendance is preserved. I’ll have to catch up the action today and see what embarrassing moments I missed.

The buzz in the paddock is of course all about the impending arrival of Team Neon.  Last reports put the Dream Machine somewhere in Missouri, heading west.  Mike O. and special guest star Jeff Hurst will be arriving in the early evening.
More later, after poker.

Team Neon would like to thank CG-Lock, Red Shift Motorsports and RACEShopper.com
for all of their support over the Team’s 5 years of SCCA competition.

Thanks also goes out to the drivers that have contributed to the Team’s success: Larry Beck, Jake Massey, Cory Kuhns, Jon Coffin, Scott Prior, Nick Flynn, Brian Ciarlei and Lindsay Occhipinti.

Team Neon goes for 101 and 102 this weekend in Buffalo,NY.