Wins, Losses & Excuses
2004
3rdth Place Solo II Nationals
1st Place Southwest Divisional Series
1st Place Texas Spokes Championship Series
2003
4th Place Solo II Nationals
1st Place Southwest Divisional Series
2nd Place Texas Spokes Championship Series
2002
Solo II Nationals
Unable to attend.
1st Place Southwest Divisional Series
2001
4th Place Solo II Nationals
A Tough Day to Race
September 11th was supposed to just be the first day of competition
for the 2001 Nationals. It ended up being the only day. I started hearing reports of
things going bad in New York at about 8:30 as I was getting ready to take the car
to grid. By the time we were supposed to start running, the shit had fully hit the
fan and we had heard that the towers had fallen. We were also hearing many other rumors
about the Pentagon and other targets that turned out to not be true. So with all of that
happening, we climbed in our cars and started running. It's amazing what a mind eraser
autocrossing can be. For about 1 hour I almost forgot what was happening. I really wanted
to finsh in the top three but fell short. I finished 4th. I was .8 seconds off of 3rd and
.4 ahead of 5th, so I haven't made it to the tier one drivers. I would like to achieve that
goal someday and will continue to work towards that, but in hindsight we all got a big
reminder how unimportant this event really is.
2000
6th Place Solo II Nationals
The SportsCar Curse
I was picked by SportsCar to win the whole enchilada, but I
knew that that selection was based on a lack of insight into the new FP where I
was expecting Greg Fordahl in the “new” 914 and perhaps Craig Nagler in the
BMW. I had no real delusions that I would win, but I definitely wanted a
trophy. My first day raw times were within 2/10ths of first place and the run I
lost due to a timer malfunction had to potential to take the lead. I’ll never
know. Sitting in 5th place kind of broke my spirit going into day
two on the North Course. I got off to a slow start but built to a respectable
raw time on my final run, only to have it dashed by a cone… I’m not even sure
where. So, rationalizing, without the two 3rd run cones (I just
BARELY hit ‘em) I would have been in 4th and the run that got away
COULD have moved me into 3rd. While disappointing at the time, it
was perhaps a stronger performance than ’99. It’s definitely got me pumped up
for 2001.
3rd Place Southwest Divisional Series
My tire strategy for this year was to have new tires at the
Fort Worth National Tour and in Topeka. The Divisionals would be run on
seasoned rubber… Unfortunately Peter Fehn and David Butler had committed to
running on fresh rubber at all major events. I’ve heard rumors of 5 sets of tires
this year. That may or may not be true, but I do know that their primary tires
were well maintained between events. For the third event this year I was back
on the tires I ran the ’99 Divisionals on. Oh well… there’s no Divisional
contingency money or tires to be had. I do have to give my applause to David
Butler for winning the series, because he was consistently fast at all three
events and incredibly fast at third event.
1st Place Fort Worth National Tour
As I said above, I was going to have new shoes for the Tour. A
win there would pay me back with two free tires. I knew Fehn and Butler would
make me work for any win, but as luck would have it, they had car trouble all
weekend making for a fairly easy cruise to the win.
1st Place Texas Spokes Sports Car Club
Championship Series
Done! I even gave Troy an even chance. We both drove my car in the morning and his car for the afternoon runs. I beat him in both cars! Old age and treachery win out again!
1999
4th Place Solo II Nationals
That was a Cinderella event for me… My goals were: 1) beat
David Butler 2)win a trophy. If my memory is correct I don’t think I had
defeated Butler heads up all season. He either beat me, had car troubles or
didn’t attend the events that enabled me to win the Divisional Series and the
Tour. I wanted to beat him! Day one in Topeka started out raining. The weather
forecasters had blown it. It was SUPPOSED to be sunny all week! Several people
had rain tires but most of us were on slicks. The rain was light enough to
where there was very little standing water so I just went for it as best as I
could. Somehow or another I ended up as the fastest car on slicks and was
pretty solidly in 4th place. I was beating Butler AND I was in the trophies.
Day two had Greg Fordahl in his borrowed ’97 911 RSR continuing to blow the
class away. The weather was perfect and I was holding on to 4th but
the pack was closing. Prior to my third run I went over to check the results
and realized that Butler had closed the gap to come within about 1/10th
of me. I become completely psychotic. I was NOT going to let him win. I went
back to my car nailed a great run. Butler was right behind me and unaware of my
run. He drove hard and went out and
turned run that would have put him into to 4th, but my final run was
better! I not only held on to 4th, but added to the margin . Butler
finished 5th. That was sweet!
1st Place Southwest Divisional Series
1998 and
beyond
Uhh… too much beer since then, I’ll have to get back
to you on that one