Author: admin

Continue reading “Solo event #3 – 6/23/13 – Hot orange cones!”

There’s been a little break in the action since Event #2 on May 19th, but that’s all about to change… This Sunday (6/23) we’ve got Event #3, with Event #4 the following Sunday (6/30). For this Sunday’s event we’re also welcoming the Allegheny Region of the PCA to our event. These guys have had a growing autox program and its great to have them come out!

Register for Event #3 here.
Register for Event #4 here.

Remember, online registration saves you time in the morning! You just need to come down, sign the waiver, and check off your name on the sheet. No waiting in the registration line!

In between Events #3 and #4, PittRace has asked us to put on a new type of event for them… A “TrackCross”! For this non-SCCA event, we’ll be running on the North Track. You’ll have a standing start at the start/finish line, then run the track all the way to turn eight where you’ll cross the finish line and your time will stop.  Its one car at a time and this portion of the track is relatively low speed and has great runoff room, so the risks are lower than a typical track day.  Safety requirements are very similar to autocross, with the only exception being that convertibles must have some type of rollover protection.  A factory hardtop, factory rollover hoops like on an S2000, or an actual rollbar are sufficient.

If that sounds as fun to you as it does to us, plan on coming out!  The event is on Thursday June 27th, from 4pm to 8pm.  Cost is only $60, so this is the cheapest and easiest way around to get yourself out on the North Track!  See this page for more details, including a link to the MSR registration page.  On site registration is welcome as well.

As you can see, there’s going to be a lot of fun available over the next week or so.  I hope to see you all at the events!

Sorry we didn’t get any photos for this event.  Brace yourself for videos!

Andrew Moore – Homebuilt Locost – 60 DM

Here are a couple of stats from Sunday.  98 – Number of drivers on file.  40 – Size of the largest class, the tire index.  3 – National champions present.  1 – Hour at the end of the day used for fun runs.  5 – The time in the afternoon the last autocrossers left the site!

With the sun shining brightly and engines roaring Steel Cities event #2 kicked off with another record sized field of drivers battling out in Wampum PA at Pittsburgh International Race Complex.  Thanks to the hard work of the Solo board and countless other volunteers who stepped up the entire event went off in a shockingly quick fashion.  Things went so well that this event marked the return of fun runs for all competitors at the end of the day.  Adding to the depth of talent that showed up that day was several members of Ohio’s NORA racing program.  National Champions Sam Strano and Andrew Pallotta also showed up to throw their hats into the ring.  Course designers for this event were Dan Ireland & Michael “Figs” Figliolia who laid down and interesting double crossover course with some heavy technical sections tied in.

SCR event #1 would see local SS driver Dan Ireland take his first PAX win at SCR.  Any question whether or not Dan planned a repeat performance were immediately put to rest after pulling in a 38.889 in his morning run.   However the Gaus Evo was back with a vengeance after leaving event #1 with a frozen brake caliper and blown turbo.  Right out of the hole Frank Gaus would run with a 38.890 to take up the 2^nd place position in PAX behind Dan.  While the first two positions belonged to SCR regulars, that’s where the party ended.  Sam Strano & Andrew Pallotta brought out their respective Scion’s to sharpen the FRS’s ability to run in STX.  Local STX competitor Brian DePietro co-drove Andrew’s car.  Meanwhile Danny Kao came all the way from his home DC region to co-drive with Sam for the day.  The initial morning runs between Andrew & Sam were down to the same tenth of each other.  Andrew would emerge from the morning just a mere tick of the clock ahead with a 40.983 to the 41.134 of Sam’s fastest run.  This would pin the two FRS drivers in 3^rd & 4^th respectively.  Coming in the number 5^th spot was Travis Hill with a 40.922 in his Porsche 968.  Of the race tire’d cars that were left in the morning index was the fast Z06 of Randy Pearson running with a 40.152 in 8^th position.  An Ethan Connor would hold down the 10^th spot with a 40.586 in his DSP machine.

Mike Ferchak – Scion FRS – 11 CST

If you were paying attention in the last paragraph you caught the reference to the “race tire’d” cars and the gaps between them in the top 10.  The reason for this was due to the sheer speed that some of the Street Tire Index cars and now exhibiting.  It’s no longer uncommon for some of the faster tire index cars to work their way into the top 10.  A heated 3 way battle for lead the gigantic class ensued between three lead C-Stock cars driven by Mark Andy in his RX8, Mike Ferchak in his FRS, and John Ryan in his BRZ.  Mark & John immediately started out running in the 42 range with John eventually pulling a 42.386 over the 42.436 of Mark’s RX8.  However it was Mike last run of the morning where his last run dropped him out of the 43’s and down to a 42.160 to hold the rest of the field at bay.  This put Mike in 6^th place over all respectively with John directly behind him in the #7 spot.  Mark was still well within the top 10 in 9^th place overall.  The next closest tire index car way Ohio native Kyle Herbst driving his BMW M Coupe down to a 42.278 with was good enough for 14^th in the overall PAX index.  From the 17^th position back the list of tire index drivers looking to move up was long.  Bruce Wesley, Alex Artayet, Nick Phillips, Jonathan Paine, and Bill Schaefer would all have to wait their turn till the afternoon to take a stab at moving up.

In the afternoon the course line cleared off significantly, but many drivers still struggled to find huge gains in time.  And in a very odd turn of events neither Dan Ireland’s Corvette, nor Frank Gaus’s Evo, would be able to make the course give up any more time.  Giving Dan his second SCR PAX win for the season while Frank would hang onto second.   While Andrew Pallotta did improve on his morning run with a 40.915 in a bid to hang onto 3^rd overall, it would be Sam Strano would finally find the 40 second run he needed to creep ahead of Andrew and take over the 3^rd place overall position and take the win home in STX.  Sam’s 40.869 was almost quick enough to take 2^nd away from the Gaus Evo.  In fact the PAX time between Frank, Sam, and Andrew was within a tenth!  Travis’s best time was able to weather the afternoon runs and help him remain in 5^th overall.  Randy Pearson jumped down into the 39’s in the afternoon with a 39.744 that would take the big Z06 up to 6^th place overall.  Below 6^th place the dogfight in tire index ensued.  On his first afternoon run, John Ryan ran an identical time to Mike Ferchak’s 42.160 but tipped over a cone.  Mark Andy took advantage of the situation and passed John with a 40.170 to take over 2^nd overall in the index.  But in the end Mike Ferchak would hang onto his morning run to take him his first ever win in the tire index!  The final result in the overall standings put Mike in 7^th overall.  Followed by Mark in 8^th and John close behind in 9^th.  Ethan Connor dropped a few tenths off with a 40.336 that would shore up his 10^th place position against Mike Ancus who climbed the whole way up to 11^th in his FSP Civic.  Bruce Wesley made an afternoon dash to pull his B-stock S2000 up into the 13^th overall spot and 4^th overall in tire index.  Another Ohio driver, Joel Higginbotham, pushed his evil looking F-prepared Subaru Impreza to a 39.474 that would be good enough for 14^th overall.  Joel would be followed by SCR’s own Michael Figliolia who is starting to get along with Dan’s Corvette and cracked off a 40.316 to end up in 15^th.  The final five positions in the top 20 would be filled by Tim Vincent in his kart, Danny Kao running Sam’s FRS, Jonathan Paine (who would also end up 5^th in tire index), Jay Storm in his FP Impreza, and Kyle Herbst rounding out the top 20 in his M-coupe.

Andrew Pallotta – Scion FRS – 4 STX

Of the nine novices on file for the day, Ben Heald led the pack in his B-stock Mitsubishi Evo with a raw time of 43.911 which gave him a 21^st place finish in the competitive tire index class.  Not far behind was DSP Neon of Michael Smith’s who clocked in a raw time of 43.813 and would end up 23^rd in the tire index.  Paul Cunningham pulled a repeat performance being the 3^rd fastest of the novices with a 47.186 in his Nissan Maxima.  Tim Demetrio used his Pontiac Solstice to pull in 45.397 which would be 4^th for the novices.  And Michael Falvo would round out the top 5 with his Jetta GLI.

In other class battles ESP continues to be one of the better subscribed classes with four drivers squaring off.  Gibby Bozicevich would face the familiar face of Paul Lynd’s WRX again.  However a mechanical issue with Gibby’s Camaro would leave the door open in the afternoon for Paul who would take his first win in ESP for the year with a 42.445 to Gibby’s 43.218.  STR was well represented with four drivers.  Steve Vyn would use his S2000 to keep just a few steps ahead of the competition with a 43.306 that was from his morning’s runs.  Steve would be followed by the Miata of Zachary Stover whose 43.765 would firmly secure 2^nd place for the day.  The familiar pairing of Tim Ward and Brian Buchanan would preside over the four driver STU class.  Tim’s 42.049 would take the win for the day in his STI.  Meanwhile Brian’s GTO with its 44.368 would just hang onto 2^nd place.   Jordan Kulik’s almost eclipsed 2^nd place with his final run of 44.413 in his BMW M3.  Manfred Woodall was having a blast driving around the V8 powered Spongebob Miata of Don Fazekas.  Also new to the grid was Pete Kowalik’s BMW 335ix prepped race tires and ready to roll in D-stock.

Come join us for event #3 at PittRace on Sunday June 23^rd!

Brian Huber – Corvette Z06 – 58 SS

A beautiful cool spring day marked the beginning of Steel Cities 2013 autocross season at Pittsburgh International Race Complex in Wampum Pennsylvania.  A record breaking 96 drivers consisting of long time SCR members, novices, and even a large chunk of drivers who came from Ohio to shake some rust off on the VDA.  Course designer Frank Gaus laid an interesting technical course down that was met by rave reviews from many drivers.  The course was a mix of rewarding those who looked ahead in some spots while also exhibiting patience in others.  A crossover and a long straightaway along the backside of VDA capped off the design.  The larger driver turnout pushed the return of the three heat “Run, Work, Rest” order to get through the day.  Also new for this event was live timing that drivers could check class positions from their smartphones!

One of the big stories throughout last year was the massive Super Stock class whose battles were headliners at most of the events.  This year though marks a clear paradigm shift as several well-known drivers have decided to make their stand in the fiercely completive tire index class.  One of the reasons is SCR allows for a PAX multiplier to make the times from cars in the tire index competitive in the overall PAX index.  Several long time stalwarts have returned to the class including Bruce Wesley & Mark Sanner in their respective S2000’s, the GTi duo of Nick Phillips & Alex Artayet, the Vincent Family’s Miata, and 2012 Novice of the year John Fink in his Corvette C6.  Two longtime local drivers switched classes this year in a bid to rule the index class.  After winning Super Stock last year Mark Andy has set his sights on the index class with his Mazda RX8.  Long time ST competitor Mike Ferchak surprised everyone over the winter when he bought a new Scion FRS to replace his Subaru 2.5RS.  To add to the mix on Sunday Ted Weidner came out of hiding with his Miata.  Alex Artayet’s GTi is temporarily down so he bummed a ride in Nick Phillip’s GTi.  In the morning this allowed Alex to climb to 5^th in the standings with a 46.059.  Bruce Wesley brought his S2000 in with a 46.339 which would be good enough for 4^th during the morning heats.  But the interesting thing coming out of the morning was the top 3 cars all stacked together taking up the 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th spots in the overall PAX index.  Third was Ted Weidner’s Miata who was standing on the heels of Mark Andy’s RX8 in 2^nd.  But holding down first was Mike Ferchak with a 45.962 which held little over a two tenths advantage to the 46.2 set by Mark Andy.  Going into the afternoon last year’s tire index champion Alex Artayet began to learn Nick’s car a little better and fought his way up past Ted to a 3^rd place finish.  Newcomer Shawn Bauman fought hard behind Nick Phillips and the two came in to the 7^th & 6^th spots respectively in the index.  Bruce Wesley fell one position to 5^th.  As well as Ted Weidner who now resided in 4^th behind Alex.  Mark Andy picked up his pace by cracking off a 45.956 to barely eek ahead of Mike.  Mark would finish off the day with a 45.330 from his RX8 on his last run to take the first win of the season in the tire index class.  With the new tire index PAX multiplier Mike Ferchak’s time would net him a top 10 finish in the PAX index coming in at number 10.  While Mark’s fastest time would push him all the way up to 6^th in the overall PAX standings.

As with the case last year, the battle near the top of the PAX index is never an easy one.  While the SS class was down in size, it was still making itself known amongst the ranks of driver in the top 10.  This year Dan Ireland is back in the big white Grand Sport Corvette.  He is joined by a new co-driver Michael “Mitch, Figs, Hamfist” Figliolia.  Returning as well is the always fast Randy Pearson in his Z06 and longtime SS veteran Brian Huber.  Fending off the Super Stock cars near the top of the heap is last year’s driver of the year Frank Gaus and his wife Kristi Gaus who have pushed their Evo up to Street Mod this year.  Several old autocross rides have returned for 2013 with Travis Hill in his Porsche 968.  Jay Gyger in his vintage tangerine colored 911.  And Chris Carlisle back out in STC with his Civic Si.  Rounding off the list is the always fast Ethan Connor in his D Street Prepared BMW.  Greg Maloy in his very fast STS Honda CRX.  Cory Robb has teamed up with Tim Vincent to copilot his KM kart this year.  And last but not least there was Trevor Hill who rolled out to meet the field in a new Mini Cooper of all things.  The second group to run in the morning would see Chris Carlisle in his rejuvenated STC Civic jump to the top of the PAX standings with a 45.130 followed by Ethan Conner’s BMW with a 43.657.  However the third run group would take over the battle for the lead as Dan Ireland pounded through the course with a 41.896 that bested Frank Gaus’s Evo by seven tenths in PAX.  Travis Hill crossed the line with a strong 44.189 to take over the 3^rd spot in PAX.  Trailing Travis would be Randy Pearson’s Z06 with a 42.906.  Chris Carlisle rounded out the top 5 followed by a very fast Tim Vincent who was busy driving the wheels off his kart with 39.015.  Going into the afternoon Frank turned on the afterburners ducking into the 41’s in the SM Evo.  While this did close the gap on Dan’s big Corvette who would end up standing on his morning run it wasn’t quite enough.  Dan Ireland took his first PAX win at SCR followed by Frank less than a tenth back with his best time of 41.735.  Clawing his way back to the top of the field was Chris Carlisle’s Civic who’s 44.615 would land him in the 3^rd place position.  Randy Person picked up an extra tenth over his morning run to just BARELY sneak ahead of Travis Hill in PAX index by .047 to take over the 4^th place position.  Travis would round out the top 5 for the day.  Despite being in the tire index Mark Andy would drop his RX8 into 6^th place.  Ethan Conner laid down a half second improvement over his morning runs with a 43.127 to hang onto his 7^th place position.   Tim Vincent put down a wild final run with the kart barely under control to pull in a FTD of 38.628 and that would plant him in 8^th for the day.  Trevor Hill gradually coxed more speed from the Mini as he moved from 12^th during the morning runs to 9^th overall with 46.404 to finish the Mini’s first outing.  Rounding out the top 10 was another tire index competitor Mike Ferchak in his Scion FRS.

New for SCR this year is better tracking for our new novice drivers so they can better see how they are doing.  Working off the same basis as the tire index, PAX times are used to put focus on driver skill as a measuring stick rather than raw speed.  We had an interesting mix of cars come out and get their feet wet for their first time.  At the top of the novice sheet was a brand new 2013 Porsche 911 driven by Charles Hu with a 49.506.  Charles was followed closely by a car that couldn’t be more different, but showed almost as much speed as Paul Cunningham pulled in a 53.921 in his Nissan Maxima.  Troy Simpson would lead his RX8 in with 53.406 to be the 3^rd fastest novice on file.   And just BARELY beating out Kate Figliolia’s GTi for the 4^th place spot was Jim Andrzejczak whose PAX time was separated by a mere four hundredths of a second.

There was action in the other classes as well.  For the first time in nobody knows how long Dave Mohar and his son Adam brought the family Corvette out to play in BSP.  Dave would take the win over National Road Rally veteran Al Hogan who also came out to join the SCR crowd for the day.  Gibby Bozicevich would take on all comers in a six car ESP class.  Gibby’s 45.026 would barely hold off Tom Buskey who’s final run of 45.110 would leave him just eight hundredths of a second out of first.  Paul Lynd’s WRX pulled in a 45.543 to round out the top three in E Street Prepared.  Another six car class was STX in which the familiar Lobster Taco Racing RX8 of Brian DiPietro & Megan Biddle would finish 1st and 2nd respectively.  With Trent McMillion’s Ford Mustang completing the top three in STX.  Despite not having the best luck with cones Tim Ward pushed his Subaru STi to a 44.936 to take the win in STU.  Tim was followed by Brian Buchanan in his Pontiac GTO in 2nd and Jordan Kulik’s BMW M3 in 3rd.

Steel Cities event #2 will be underway May 19th at PittRace so come on out and join us!

Some on-board video from Dan Ireland’s PAX winning run in his Grand Sport Corvette.

And for a view from a completely different car here is Chris Carlisle’s STC Honda Civic on it’s fastest run.

All pictures provided by Dan Ireland.

It’s been said when Pittsburgh International Raceway (then Beaverun) was built several years ago that the facility had little to no regard for weather reports.  Many autocrossers kept their smartphones at their side, watching the radar and calling up weather reports for the next hour.  Others packed a few days worth of clothes into their cars in case they got deluged with water again.  But for whatever reason, the facility shook off some water from the night before that had drenched the course and opened up patches of blue sky for the last SCCA event on the VDA before the big finale down at Consol Energy Park in Washington Pa.  In contrast to event #7’s high speed course, Frank Gaus laid down a unique twisting course featuring two crossovers.  This kept drivers arms working hard and their eyes looking far ahead as they weaved through the course.

The morning started off with the SCR’s largest class, the tire index, stomping though the few puddles that were left.  Alex Artayet led through the morning runs and held on into the afternoon to finish 16^th in PAX and secure 1^st place in tire index for the year!  However behind Alex things were changing throughout the day.  Coming out of the morning Ann Vincent would show the boys how it was done coming into 2^nd place, with Fred Beighley’s rejuvenated Dodge Stealth hanging onto 3^rd.  Jason Amistadi would use his Fiero secure 4^th for the morning.  However going into the afternoon everything got turned on its head.  John Fink has been running very strong all year in his Corvette showing that a large car on street tires can get it done.  On his final run of the day John crawled back to a 2^nd place finish for the day.  Not to be outdone, Mark Sanner followed John’s performance to secure 3^rd place.  Jason Amistadi however was not so willing to let go of 4^th place and dropped almost 2 seconds from his morning runs to stand his ground in the Fiero.  Newcomer Ben Heald would round out the top 5 in his Evo X.

When the 2^nd heat took to the VDA for the first time, they we’re already enjoying a fairly dry course.  The SS class got down to business with the first car into the 39’s being the Jay Gyger Porsche GT3 being driven by Chris Carlisle with a 39.819 on the 2^nd pass.  Times continued down into the 39’s with a 39.628 by Mark Andy in his Chevrolet “FOR SALE!” Corvette ZO6.  However the real shocker was a raw time of 38.729 set by Dan Ireland who had just a single cone.  Comically enough, the next two cars to run 38’s would be Mark and Randy Pearson running IDENTICAL 38.957’s with the PAX sheet’s showing Mark leading Randy due to the names being alphabetically arranged.  Dan would take it right back with a 38.721 that would lead SS going into the afternoon.  Even more impressive was Dan’s run landing a mere three tenths off Frank Gaus’s ASP Evo whose 38.087 was knocking on the door to running a 37 in the afternoon.  Shockingly as the afternoon got underway, Frank would never see 37’s out of the Evo and end up standing on his morning runs.  This opened the door for one of the SS cars to possibly take the PAX lead away from the Evo.  All the vette drivers scrapped and clawed trying to find grip and more time.  On his 5^th run Mark would knock a tenth off his time to a 38.804, but a mess up on his final run would end his day in 3^th place in SS with a 4^th place overall PAX position.  Mark’s codriver Cory Robb was far from done and on his final run pulled through the lights with a 38.759 that would push Cory the whole way up into 2^nd place in SS and 3^rd overall in PAX for the day.  When the dust settled, Dan Ireland would remain standing on his morning run to hold off Cory by a mere three hundreds of a second to take the win in SS and 2^nd overall in PAX just behind the Gaus Evo.

Further down the PAX listing Randy Pearson coming in 5^th in his Z06.  A final run charge brought Kristi Gaus the whole way from 13^th up to 6^th overall in the Evo.  7^th place came to the Chris Carlisle at the helm of the GT3.  Fellow SS competitor Joe Montuoro would end up in 8^th in the index, followed closely by Greg Maloy in his STS CRX.  Trevor Hill’s Volkswagen R32 would round out the top 10.  Some honorable mentions include Mike Ancus who while being nice enough to bring his car out for Dennis Witt to drive, ended up 7^th in PAX in the morning while falling back to only 11^th in the afternoon.  Also Tim Ward put on spectacular morning drive to lead PAX before heat 2 began.  Tim eventually found himself trying to hold off returning driver James Turnsheck whose BMW M3 placed just a tenth behind Tim.  Tim almost has STU wrapped up for the year, but an appearance by Jonathan Sierra at Consol could put those chances in jeopardy. In other classes, while Brian Dipietro and Megan Biddle fought back & forth in their Team Lobster Taco Racing RX8, they ended with a 1-2 finish in the five driver class.  Tim Vincent has shown some serious speed in the past 4 events co-driving Greg’s shifter kart.  Greg has been historically fast at Consol so it will be very interesting to see who comes out on top for the year in KM.

Several drivers have their classes sewn up for the year and are now just hoping to improve their DOY standings.  Among these drivers is Frank Gaus (ASP), Trevor Hill (DS), Ethan Connor (DSP), Regis Kaminski (FS), Michael Figliolia (STX), Don Fazekas (XP), Greg Maloy (STS), Paul Lynd (ESP), and Chester Charnesky Jr (SSM).

The Steel Cities SCCA season finale will be our Wounded Warrior Project charity event held at Consol Energy Park in Washington PA, October 12^th & 13^th.  For more information click on the link, we hope you’ll join us in supporting this great cause!  http://scrsolo.com/schedule/wounded-warrior-project-autocross/

Thanks to Dan Ireland & Michael Figliolia for the pictures!

With the SCCA solo nationals over and cool fall mornings becoming more common.  The racing season is now heading towards the finish line.  Steel Cities event #7 would begin to show how the many classes and driver of the year points would be stacking up.  Once the cool morning gave way to beautiful late summer day, 63 drivers tried their hand on the VDA at Pittsburgh International Race Complex.  The course itself was designed by Chris Carlisle (that’s me!).  It’s main feature were two huge high speed sweepers that forced drivers to the ragged edge of their car’s capabilities.  However the VDA is a harsh mistress when it comes to grip for drivers.  Making matters worse was large amounts of chalk lines cris-crossing the course from a ride & drive program the previous day.  First run karts & cars left huge wakes of white dust as they ventured through the course.
While the SS class has garnered much attention over the course of the year, one question in the back of everyone’s mind was “I wonder how Sam Strano’s Corvette would do?”  After some poking & prodding, Sam rolled his Z06 out to meet the SS class head on.  While the first SS car to dip into the 39’s would be Dan Ireland’s 39.898 in his Grand Sport, Sam answered back a run later with a 38.394 and the chase was on.  Out of the morning heat the only other SS ride to run a time close to Sam would be Travis Hill with a 38.979 driving Brian Huber’s corvette.  Sam’s morning performance was almost good enough to hold PAX going into lunch.  However the low grip levels with play into the favor of the Gaus Evo which had a time of 38.078 with Frank Gaus at the wheel.  This was a mere three hundredths ahead of Sam’s time.  The next closest car was Travis at a half a second back.

The afternoon would be a different ball game as the racing line was well cleared off, allowing the rear drive cars to find some much needed traction.  Mark Andy took to the course with a set of fresh tires and plunged deep into the 38’s with a 38.552 putting Mark a mere three tenths off the 38.215 Sam had laid down.  Randy Pearson entered the 38.757 and finally a 38.718 to finish the day.  However a real surprise came with Dan Ireland landed a 38.483 on his second to last run to bump him into the 2nd place.  Sam has saved the best for last with a 38.086 that would put him at the head of SS & PAX.  The Gaus Evo didn’t land another time as fast Frank’s morning run and would lose PAX to Sam by a mere tenth of a second.  Mark was the last person to take a stab at winning everything on his last run.  Mark’s final run of a 38.113 would me marred by cones, leaving Dan Ireland to hold 2^nd place for the day with Mark Andy in 3^rd and Randy Pearson in 4^th.

The breakout star of the tire index class this year by far has been Alex Artayet.  His consistent speed and high PAX finishes have become common this year.  But at event 7 he would put a feather in his cap by ending the day in 9^th overall in the PAX index, his first top 10 PAX finish for the year at SCR.  In 2^nd place we would see Thomas Hall’s Pontiac Solstice hold off John Ryan’s Subaru BRZ by a mere six hundredths.  A little further back one would see Rich Shank’s Miata holding down 4^th place, followed closely by John Fink’s C6 Corvette and Bill Schaefer rounding out the top 6 trophy spots of a strong 19 car class.

Another class which has steadily grown in size over the course of the year has been STX.  A unusual mix of Mustangs, VW’s, and other assorted compact cars made up an 8 car class.  Despite having a rough time at nationals, Mike Figliolia (Figs!) would hold off PJ Harris in his mustang to take the win for the day.  PJ Harris would be trailed closely by fellow mustang Matt Parson in 3^rd.  Over in STU Tim Ward’s STI would face a horde of V8 powered machinery to take the win for the day.  In some of the two person rivalry classes, Tim Vincent would again beat out Greg on the family shifter kart, just placing Tim out of the top 10 on the PAX index.  Steady improvements to Cory Black’s Corvair would see him win out over the SpongeBob Miata of Don Fazekas in XP.  And in ESP Paul Lynd would hold down the fort against the Chevy Camaro of Tom Buskey.

Our next event will be our last for the season at PittRace before the final two events down at Consol Energy Park.  Please come out and join us on September 30^th!

Thanks again to Ethan Connor (with some assistance from Tim Ward) on all of the pictures!

Here is some video from some of our competitors!

Sam Strano

Dan Ireland

Mark Andy

After a string of previous events where drivers were pummeled by heat and later pelted by rain, everyone finally got a break in the weather as Steel Cities SCCA event #6 got underway.  A cool spring day at Pittsburgh International Raceway set the scene for 63 drivers to take to the VDA.  The course design by Frank Gaus was eerily reminiscent of event #5 course with its center finish.  However it was run in the opposite direction around the VDA.  While being quite open in spots, the second half of the course really required drivers to “thread the needle” through some tight turns if they wanted to pull in fast times.  This event also marked the first time many drivers would log 6 events for the year.  Getting that 6th event in would allow them to be eligible for the points chase in their respective classes.   As well as contention for the driver of the year (DOY) battle that is brewing.

 
We’ll start off with the tire index class who on this day saw a whopping 16 drivers take part.  One constant in the index this year has been the SMF pairing of Alex Artayet and Nick Phillips.  The fast VW’s immediate took hold at the front of the class during the morning heat.  Nick would lead over Alex by just over three tenths coming out of the morning.  The pair were just around a second ahead of the next two fastest drivers, Brian Buchanan in his WRX, followed closely by newcomer Matt Shuble in his bright green Porsche Cayman.  Not far off the pace was Mark Sanner in 5th, followed closely by John Fink’s Corvette.  However as the afternoon runs occurred, everyone made jumps in time that put the morning standings to rest.  Alex beat out Nick by a mere three tenths to take home another win in the index class.  Matt’s green Porsche has been showing some real speed since its first appearance and passed Brian’s WRX to take over the #3 position.  Not to be outdone John Fink led his C6 on charge past Mark Sanner and Brian to pick up 4th overall.  Brian would manage to hold off a fast run by Sanner and keep his WRX in the top 5.

 
The Super Stock class was back to full strength with the return of Dan Ireland’s and Brian Huber’s corvettes from the Peru tour, with Travis Hill returning to the driver’s seat of Huber’s Z06 after recovering from injury.  During the morning session, a bid for fast time in the class meant running in the 37 second range.  Mark Andy would lead the way with a 37.510 followed ever so closely by Dan Ireland who was a mere five hundredths back.  Travis Hill showed he lost very little to his time off with a 37.809 placing him eight hundredths ahead of Randy Pearson’s Z06.  While Mark’s morning performance was impressive enough for 2nd in the PAX standings, the first place spot would go to Frank Gaus with his 36.612 in his ASP Evolution.  What was really shocking was Tim Vincent’s kart blowing away the rest of the field in the morning with a 33.832 putting him into the 3rd place spot overall.  Dan Ireland would occupy the 4th PAX position with Kristi Gaus bringing the Evo home in 5th.   Sam Strano showed up wielding his modified Scion FRS, and running under STX rules moved into the 6th place spot on the index.  While the morning results looked to be nothing to out of the ordinary, the afternoon would again mess with the standings.

 
Dan Ireland was pushing hard in his attempts to get his Corvette to catch Mark Andy.  On top of this Randy Pearson was closing in on the low 37’s and ended up with a 37.154 on his final run.  Dan pushed the vette to the breaking point with a 37.012 which was good enough to stay ahead of Randy and put Dan into 5th overall and Randy in 6th.  However, Sam Strano had other plans and pulled a 38.608 to put him in 4th overall just head of Dan in PAX.  Mark Andy had put down two 36.6’s in a row and became the first SS car to enter the 36 range.  This would have been good enough to lead PAX, if it wasn’t for the fact that Frank Gaus landed a early blow in the Evo with a 36.387 on his first run of the afternoon.  However, in the very end it would be a Hail Mary pass from Cory Robb that would win SS and top the PAX index with blazing 36.570 just clipping the Gaus Evo by two hundredths of a second.  This is the first time all year a single driver would win PAX more than once.  Though as the year carries on other drivers are sure to claim the top spot.

 
Elsewhere in the top 10 several of the regions top drivers crawled back and held their ground.  Trevor Hill’s R32 shook off some bad morning runs to pull in a 38.857 and fall into the 7th place spot.  Trevor was followed by Greg Maloy who CRX broke the 38 second barrier with a 38.913 on his last run of the day.  Tim Vincent would end up standing on his very impressive morning runs to grab 9th overall.  And Travis Hill would move in with Brian’s Z06 round out the top 10.

 
The STX class was a little large going into this event with six drivers vying for position.  While Strano ran away with the class win in his new FRS.  Matt Parson’s Mustang would split Sam and his co-driver Raymond Hall who took home 3rd in the Scion.  Up in STR, Brian Depietro was co-driving with Steve Vyn in his S2000.  Steve would keep his co-driver at bay with a 39.694 to Brian’s 39.735 in the shiny black roadster.  In STU Tim Ward would take the morning lead in his new Subaru STI.  But while Tim broke into the 39’s during his afternoon runs, Jonathan Sierra came after him with a final run of 39.547 vs Tim’s 39.634 to take home win in STU.

 
Other happenings around the paddock was Megan Biddle co-driving Jay Gyger’s Porsche GT3 with much delight.  Ricky Shank rolling out his project CRX for a quick shake down before the Duryea hillclimb.  And news that Pete Kowalik’s Pontiac Vibe was going to stick around in SMF a little longer.  This is the last Steel Cities autocross before many of our members leave for the Solo National Championships in Lincoln Nebraska.  To those going we wish a safe journey and fast times!  We will see everyone back at PIRC on September 16th.

A onboard view of Sam Strano running Mark Andy’s Corvette on a fun run.

Photos for the day by Chris Carlisle.

Yes, this is the only picture we got from this weekend thanks to photo bug Ethan Connor and his phone!

The most adverse weather that local autocrossers have had to deal with this year was a few scorching hot days at Pittsburgh International Raceway.  But on August 5th, the sky’s opened and at times dumped almost biblical rains on the VDA.  The unfortunate weather, combined with the Peru national tour which several SCR members were attending, would result in a low turnout for event #5 with a mere 33 entries.  However this in no way impacted what was a exciting multiple driver chase for FTD as the day progressed.

The course, designed by Frank Gaus, was fairly simple and open with the finish of the course being skewed more towards the center of the VDA than off to the side.  The fast & flowing design was nothing unusual and even offered a bit of openness to drivers wanting to drive different lines.  This was key since the first heat drivers dealt with bucket loads of standing water.  Tire index went out first in a feeble attempt to establish a driving line.  In true miata owner fashion, Bill Schaefer lowered his top before taking his first runs on the course.  However shortly after leaving the line, the little red Miata pitched sideward in the famous “sandbox” turn where much of the water had gathered to drain off the VDA.  Bill’s slide sent a plume of water several feet into the air, but thankfully avoided coming back down in his interior!  The sandbox was the bane of many drivers up until the end of the day.  However there was hope.  Tim Ward was fresh off the SCR autocross school and had traded his WRX up for a STI.  Tim’s new Subaru made short work of the course running several times down into the 42 second range.  Other drivers in front wheel drive platforms made good on their times as well.  Greg Maloy’s CRX with its light weight and Toyo tires pounded hard though the rain to reel in a 43.844 and put himself near the top of the PAX chart.  In SMF Pete Kowalik is possibly nearing the end of his run with his trusty Pontiac Vibe since he’s rumored to move over to a new Golf R.  While the world’s fastest Vibe will be missed, this didn’t stop Pete from bringing down a smoking 42.894 to also send him to the top of the morning standings.  At the end of the morning runs, the junior karts were sent out to complete their full set of runs.  You have to give it to the kids as their karts offer no protection from the elements.   It was quite a sight to see the tiny karts throwing off four rooster tails from the tires much like F1 cars in the rain.  One noteworthy sight was number 24 Garrett Hill who was managing to do complete 360’s on the course and continue as if nothing had happened.  It was about to get weirder.  A flash of lighting forced a event shut down as the karts finished their final runs.  A decision was made to start the lunch break while waiting out the storm

Following lunch some of the excess water had left the course, allowing for faster times than the morning heat.  Much of SCR’s bigger horsepower cars took to the course, often with comical results.  The SS class was reduced to nothing more than tip toeing around the course or spin off into the abyss.  One would think that Mark Andy’s choice of all season tires would have been a good one in such conditions.  But the overall speed of the vette was down compared to the other cars who stayed on race tires.  Randy Pearson managed a 41.711 in his big Z06.  Only bested in the morning by Chris Carlisle who luckily got a 41.598 out of the Jay Gyger GT3.  Ethan Connor managed to upstage the SS class in raw time with a 41.387 out of his D street prepared BMW.  Mike Ferchak took a stab at PAX with a 43.953 while drifting along in his 2.5 RS Subaru.  And the F125 kart of Greg & Tim Vincent made a splash (literally) with 36.277 from Greg and a 36.938 from Tim.  However the big news was the return of the rejuvenated Gaus Evo.  While still running a bit out of tune, the AWD monster stretched its legs in the rain and ran away to the top of the PAX index.  But the real story was the first driver to do it was not Frank with his 38.906, but rather Kristi who would walk away from the first heat with a 38.357 which was PAX lead.

With the early lunch break things rolled right back around to the first morning group taking shots at a now drying course.  The tire index class had a massive shaking up as drivers looked for emerging dry spots.  Usual tire index stalwart Alex Artayet was regulated back to 4th place in class with a series of cones on his last runs.  Taking advantage of the situation was newcomer Matthew Shuble in his bright green Porsche Cayman R into 3rd.  Another student of SCR’s first drivers school, John Fink put his skills to good use and brought his C6 Corvette up to take the 2nd place position.  However, it would be Bill Schaefer who would emerge victorious with his first overall win for 2012 in the index class.  Pete Kowalik would go ahead to take the win in SMF over Dennis Witt.  Will this be the last hurrah for the Vibe or will it appear once more at SCR #6?  Another very odd battle was brewing over in the XP class.  Trevor Hill found himself strapped into the V8 Spongebob Miata of all around good guy Don Fezekas.  Despite not being a good day to learn a short wheelbase, high horsepower V8 car.  Trevor took the fight to the Charnesky Z06 with a 37.286 to Chester Jr’s 37.718 thus letting Trevor take home the win.  Despite the last heat having the driest course, this wouldn’t stop Mike Ferchek from pushing his Subaru to a 5th place PAX finish with a 38.120 for the day.

The grand finale loomed as SS, ASP, and DSP all returned to do battle.  The course was mostly dry at this point, aside from spots were water had maybe dried and left a bit of excess dirt on the line.  Giving drivers something to think about as the grip varied along the course.  What happened next was a dizzying account of rapidly falling times.  The opening volley from many of the SS cars was met with spins and cones due to the unpredictable grip in spots.  Frank Gaus came out of the gate with a 36.881 and took the early lead.  What happened after that became a race down to the wire.  With the line clearing off Ethan Connor pushed his BMW down to a 36.596 much to the awe of a small gallery of spectators who had gathered to watch.  But the drops in time was far from over as the SS cars now gained their footing.  Randy Pearson’s 35.263 was followed by Mark Andy’s 35.531 as the Corvette’s were no longer traction hungry.  Kristi Gaus cracked off a 35.972 but just one cone tarnished the effort.  As the SS group prepared for their final runs, Randy pushed the corvette down to 35.236 which was a minimal improvement over his fastest run, but good enough for the win in SS.  Mark Andy coned early in his last run, but still had the time for 2nd in SS with a 35.531.  Followed by Jay Gyger bringing the Porsche GT3 in with a 36.757 to hold down 3rd in SS.  Ethan’s final run in the BMW would be no faster, but still good enough for a 5th place overall PAX finish.  Just ahead of Ethan would be Kristi with a 35.894 which placed her 4th in PAX.  Randy & Mark would round out the 2nd & 3rd place positions respectively.  So who won all this madness?  On his final run Frank Gaus pulled out 34.835 to take the PAX win for event #5.

When event 6 rolls around on August 12th and PIRC, many of the competitors will hit the required six events to trophy in a class.  But at this point in the year no single person has won PAX more than once.  Driver of the year is still anybody’s game.  Hopefully the weather is more kind out next event and we hope to see you out there!

SCR Solo would also like to acknowledge several SCR members who went to Peru this same weekend to represent the region.  Cory Robb, Brian Huber, Mike Figilolia, and Joe Montuoro.  And we would like to extend a big congratulations to Dan Ireland to getting his first trophy in his Grand Sport Corvette, nice work Dan!

The course from Randy Pearson’s Z06

And a bit of sliding fun from Mike Ferchek!

The Steel Cities region has long been known for its intense competition.  But how would drivers stand against intense heat?  That was the case as the season started off its first double weekend marking events 3 & 4 at Pittsburgh International Raceway Complex.  Temperatures soared into the 90’s both days as drivers fought to keep their heads in the game and their tire temps under control.  Several drivers who haven’t been seen around the paddock in a while also made appearances.  Even Karen Rafferty stopped by on her Harley Saturday just to say hello!  The course designs for both days were led by Chris Carlisle with support of Frank Gaus & Mark Andy.

-Saturday, Event #3-

One of the big stories from the weekend was former PA resident Darrin Disimo paying a visit to SCR driving Mike Ancas’s FSP Honda Civic.  Darrin immediately took the fight to the locals by putting himself in the top PAX position after the morning heats.  But as the case has been most of the year, the challenge to Darrin would come from the SS class.  During the humid afternoon session Cory would go on to take the 2^nd place PAX position.  While Mark Andy would take home the overall win in his Corvette.  With Darrin now in 3^rd place, 4^th would go to another SS competitor Dan Ireland who had a strong weekend.  Trying to break SS’s strong hold on PAX in the 5^th place position was Ethan Conner in his ever so quick BMW 328.  Randy Pearson would round out the 6^th place PAX position and the last trophy spot in SS for the day.  Super Stock cars clouded the rest of the top ten PAX positions with the lone exception Greg Maloy in 9^th who was pushing his red CRX to its limits.  And despite being out of his usual ride Frank Gaus still broke top 10 driving Randy Pearson’s Corvette.

Elsewhere another interesting battle was brewing in the tire index class as two long time veterans who have been off the pavement for a while met for the first time.  John Ryan in his BRZ squared off against Chris Kirkham in his Miata.  Both of these talents were running using a C-stock index in their respective cars.  The morning runs left Kirkham’s Miata a mere eight hundreds off the Ryan BRZ.  When it was all done in the afternoon, John’s BRZ would come out ahead by a just over three tenths to Chris.  However, the winner of the tire index for the day was none other than Alex Artayet.  Alex’s VW GTI has been relentless on the tire index this year.  Alex’s performance would be backed up by Nick Phillips who brought his SMF classed GTI home in the 4^th place position.

Turnout for the day was affected by the heat with 54 drivers on record.  Aside from SS and tire index the only other classes to have at least 3 competing cars would be ESP and STU.  In ESP it was a hill climber battle again as Paul Lynd’s WRX brought home the win against the Chevy Camaro of Gibby Bozicevich & Kris Reid.  While in STU Jonathan Sierra would fight off several cones in his EVO to take the win over Tim Ward in his WRX.

Several co-drives were occurring Saturday.  None though were more interesting than Dennis Witt getting behind the wheel of Don Fazekas’s Sponge bob V8 miata.  Don was happy to hold down the fort in his own car by a mere two hundredths of a second over Dennis.  Frank Gaus took a test drive in Randy Pearson’s ZO6 which he reportedly liked very much.  While Kristi Gaus started off in Trevor Hill’s R32 before a mechanical problem forced her to finish the day in the Andy’s Z06.  It’s worth mentioning that SCR’s kart rental program paid off for 4 individuals who decided to try autocross for the first time.  Scott Connors, Iggie Padilla, Justin Burdick, and James Holden shared a pair of Pitt Race rental karts for the day.  It was a good way for people new to the sport to try autocross with minimal risk to their own cars to see if it’s for them.

The day ended with high humidity and a looming sun as fun runs carried on.  Thunder clouds rolled in the distance as things drew to a close.  After a small dinner the course was flipped around and modified for the following day.

-Sunday, Event #4-

The threat of rain was reported for later in the day.  But aside from a brief afternoon sprinkle, 64 drivers enjoyed much improved weather conditions as they took to a slightly more open & backwards version of Saturday’s course.

The SS class would once again prove competition improves the breed as the class stormed the top 10.  The morning runs would once again see Mark Andy taking the lead in his Z06.  But the surprise came from Dan Ireland in his Grand Sport Corvette.  An alignment adjustment on Dan’s Corvette gave it a new found sense of speed as it landed a time of 34.931, just nine hundredths off the Andy Corvette.  Thundering on into the afternoon, Dan continued the charge with an opening run of 34.384 to take over the lead in SS.  But on the 5^th round of runs, Dan’s C6 would be bested by the fellow C6 Corvette of Randy Pearson with a 34.382!  Going into the final runs it became a dogfight between Ireland, Pearson, and Andy who had been steadily keeping pace just behind the two C6’s.  Dan’s final effort was marred by a cone hit so he would remain standing on his first afternoon run.  Randy however was far from done and delivered 34.290 placing him at the top of SS & PAX.  The only car left to take a shot at Randy was Mark’s Z06.  However on Mark’s last pass an early cone hit sealed the deal and Randy Pearson would pick up his first SS & PAX win of 2012.  There was one more surprise as Laura Andy jumped ahead of much of the SS class with a final run of 34.885 becoming one of only 4 drivers in the class to break the 34 second range on Sunday.

While SS once again tried to block off as many of the top 10 PAX positions as possible.  Long time autocrosser Trevor Hill made sure nobody forgot his R32.  While the blue VW was out early on Saturday.  It roared back on Sunday with a 3^rd place overall PAX finish.  After some rear suspension tuning, Greg Maloy made huge gains in speed and landed himself a 6^th place finishing spot.  Mike Ancas once showed what he can do when he is on real tires and landed a 9^th place PAX finish.  And despite being dispossessed from her own car, Kristi Gaus would bring Trevor Hill’s R32 home in the 10^th place spot.

A whooping 19 drivers showed up in Sunday’s tire index class.  While John Ryan & Chris Kirkham were noticeably absent, the VW pairing of Alex Artayet and Nick Phillips were still present and making headway.  However a 3^rd VW came out to join the fray.  Alan Eisenreich showed up after a two year hiatus in his brand new Golf R to see how his new VW faired against the competition.  In the end it would be Alex’s GTI that would once again claim the top stop.  Fighting on stock all-season tires and an impeding traction control system Alan made an afternoon dash to put his new Golf into 2^nd place just three tenths off Alex.  Nick Phillips would complete the VW show of strength with a 3^rd place finish.  Long time competitor Ted Weidner pushed his E-stock Miata into the 4^th place spot.  John Fink who is a relative newcomer to autocross put on an impressive drive and earned the 5^th place trophy spot in tire index.  Followed by Brian Vondran taking 6^th in his D-stock WRX.

One class that ballooned in size on Sunday was Street Mod front wheel drive.  It was four Honda Civics vs. the lone Pontiac Vibe of Pete Kowalik.  From almost the start of the day, Steve Mullet laid down times in his new civic hatch that would go unanswered. Mike Ancas described Steve’s civic as “Angry” and not nearly as easy to drive as his FSP Civic.  Steve’s final time of 36.1 was a full eight tenths ahead of the next closest civic of Steve Palmer.  Palmer was followed very closely by Dennis Witt who was one hundredths off 2^nd place in his own hatchback.  Pete Kowalik’s Vibe and Jammie Anderson’s Civic coupe would round out the rest of the SMF standings.

Across the grid in another modified class.  We saw the supercharged Miata of Dan Ennis split the co-drivers of the Charnesky Corvette in Super Street Modified.  In good old Street Modified the Mustang of Robert Turberville would come back from a very close morning battle with Andrew Hankawitz’s EVO to take the win by a mere tenth. Paul Lynd had much less breathing room in ESP where Gibby Bozicevich would sneak within two tenths of Paul’s 36.495 on their second day of racing each other.  Speaking of WRX’s Tim Ward would move on to take the win in STU on Sunday, followed by the GTO of Brian Buchanan.

Our next event is August 5^th at Pittsburgh International Raceway.  Pictures shown are from Saturday’s event courtesy of Chris Kirkham.

Sundays course from inside Randy Pearson’s Z06 Corvette. 

Who’s ready for a full weekend of Solo?

This weekend at PittRace (7/7 & 7/8) is the first of two double weekends on the Solo schedule this year (the other is the Wounded Warrior Project benefit autox on 10/13-10/14 at Consol).  Each day is a regular event, so don’t worry if you can only make one of the days.

We’ll also have an informal & unofficial cookout Saturday evening after fun runs up by the Andy motorhome.  Everyone is invited to come hang out, just bring along something to throw on the grill.  Post up on  RacePA if you’re planning on coming!