NERDS RACING - North East Recreational Driving Schedule

The weather for the event was sunny, in the low 90s with some clouds and a nice breeze. Including the non-competition entries, the parking lot at Boeing (just south of the Philadelphia Airport) saw 135 drivers. The course was approximately thirty seconds long, and was shortened for safety reasons early in the second heat. Therefore the PAX results are estimated figuring the course was shorted by three tenths of a second. These figures are not being used for anything official, and for entertainment purposes only.

Top five PAX are:

1. 89/STS COREY RIDGICK      00 SUBA IMPREZA      (0.784) 19.700
2. 35/STS DAN SHALKOWSKI 99 SUBA IMPREZA      (0.784) 20.302
3. 319/STX TOM BUCKLEY       02 SUBA WRX             (0.798) 20.311
4. 37/STS JON RUSH, PHILL     98 SUBA IMPREZA      (0.784) 20.357
5. 12/ASP PATRICK WAYMAN 01 PORS 996 TURBO (0.846) 20.708

Course in Review:

Rob wrote:

When you lined up at the start, it was best to be at an angle to the right. That way you could accelerate without turning.

You wanted to go wide to start and late apex the cone at # 1. That would have set you perfect for the 3 cone slalom. If you were off that cone, you would have needed correction to get back on line and that would have slowed you down.

Once through the slalom, you needed to go to the outside of the course and cut back so that you late apexed the cone at # 2. If you did that correctly coming out of the sweeper, you would have been carrying a lot speed through the straight section.

Coming across the start, I aimed for the outside cones in the box. When I absolutely didn't think that I would make the turn, I stabbed the brake for a second, turned the wheel and got back on the power. This single turn was where most people gained or lost time. You
needed to be late on that corner cone to carry speed up into the next section.

From the radical maneuver at # 3, comes a subtle turn at # 4. I'm calling it subtle because the turn actually started at the previous gate and continued into the slalom at the top. Being steady on the gas here was important. When it was time to turn back to the right to make the second slalom gate was the proper time to brake, not before. [# 5] is where Grace [Huntzinger and David Hess spun, and where Matthew Reinsmith and a few others mowed down the grouping of cones].

Advanced technique: Braking during a quick transition is very hard to do correctly but is a must for good times on a tight course. I drug the brake through the transition and into the turn-in into the final right hand turn inducing some over-steer before getting hard onto the gas. This was the same thing that Steve did before losing control and going into the curb.

Personal Experience (my journal):

Dave wrote:

Boeing kicked [donkey butt]. I co-drove Grace Huntzinger's Type-R in D-Stock on Sunday. Grace, MarkYeck and I took the top three spots in that class, and I think we would have PAXed pretty decently if the course hadn't been changed. The course change was a major bummer to me in a selfish way, but even more of a bummer for those who encountered "unfortunate incidents".

This past Sunday was also most excellent because one of the first/founding NERDs has come out to three events recently. Joe Iovanisci is, in my opinion, a natural driver. He went with me to a FATT (Friday at the Track) [6/20/03], attended the GT3 gathering [6/28/03] and went to Boeing this past Sunday too. Nice seeing you out Joey, hope you can continue to come out to more events.

I also had the opportunity to ride along with Grace, Mark and Rob. Grace has gotten more aggressive and decided to get some valuable seat-time by registering for both comp. and non-comp. runs totaling 10 runs. My ride-along with Mark showed me a great improvement in his abilities, too. I still can't get over how well his GSX launches. My last ride-along was with Rob. I'm liking the Toyota, MR-S! It is a sweet ride in the hand of a competent driver, plus the power-on over-steer is something I don't experience often. Rob, thank you for the ride and the instruction.

Rob also rode with me on my 4th of five runs, and with the added bonus of borrowing Mark's camera, I have on video Rob's pointers, and my experience in Grace's ride.

Last but certainly not least I had a chance to meet some really nice people. For the very short time I visited with Matt, I did get a chance to give him a NERDS hat. Again Matt, thank you for all your contributions from photos and stories, to suggestions and ideas. The
hat is the least I could do.

Aside from the sunburn, the day was most excellent.

Kudos to the course designer, Dan Shalkowski, Rob Leone, and the other Philly region organizers.

How'd the NERDs do?

11. 98/CS ROBERT LEONE           00 TOYO SPYDER   (0.814) 21.029
15. 75/DS DAVE HESS                 00 ACUR ITR            (0.795) 21.250
39. 7/DS   MARK YECK                97 MITS ECLIPSE     (0.795) 21.969
54. 57/DS GRACE HUNTZINGER   00 ACUR ITR            (0.795) 22.558

57. 53/STS JOE IOVANISCI 02 ACUR RSX-S (0.784) 22.667

86. 61/CS MATTHEW REINSMITH 94 MAZD MIATA (0.814) 23.714

Robert Leone served us NERDs well giving us all pointers on how to improve our driving. The top three positions in C-Stock were filled by Grace, Mark and I. This was Joe's first autocross in quite some time placing very well in STS considering his car has only a short-ram intake. Joe put your stock box back on! ;) Matthew, well what can we say about Matthew, he was entertaining to watch and was definitely learning the limits of adhesion. Check out his video in the nerds gallery. Matthew and his wife also provided some photos. Thanks, I forgot to bring film... doh!

Because I'm horrible with names, I don't rightly remember the name of one NERD who drives a Mazda Miata, shod with AVS intermediates. I think his name was Chris or Nate or something. - Sorry about that. email me and I'll post your result up here too!!!

For more banter about this event and others visit the forum and/or join the yahoo group.

__________________________________________________________________

If you have any questions feel free to email me, or post your question on the NERDS_racing yahoo group.