Da Groj

We wrapped up the season yesterday at Tampa Bay Downs. I've got the points updated. Now, it's time for y'all to let me know if I made any mistakes before we go ordering awards and stuff. Look over the latest 2016 Season Points sheet, let me know if you see errors.

http://drivefast.org/results/championship-points/

And, of course, we can talk about all the fun stuff that just happened, too! If you weren't paying attention, this last event might have seemed like any other, but there were a lot of classes that had some serious battles going on! Such as...

If Elliot Harvey had shown up, he could have taken 1st place in R1 away from Les Davis. That didn't happen.

M1 was a little weird. 1st and 2nd was a battle between Mark Hackett and Sean Schenck. Nobody else could touch them, and Sean gave it to Mark by not attending. But, 3rd place... that one was intersting. Phillip Russell, Dan Dejon, and Mark Russell were all in the hunt to possibly take 3rd place for the season. In the end, Phillip manage just enough points to tie Mario Knis for 3rd. The tie-breaker came down to number of 2nd place finishes. Mario came out ahead, even though he only attended the minimum number of 5 events!

M2 is always a madhouse! Of course, nobody was going to touch Drew Scoda with his massive points lead. But, 2nd and 3rd place were up for grabs between David Lineberry, Joe Brannon, John Evans and Ron Rice. This event was the decider, any one of them could have ended up 2nd or 3rd. Joe did all he could, pulling his first class win of the season at the final event by .017 seconds. Nobody saw it coming! Joe did his part! But, the rest of the class let Lineberry take second for the day, which gave him enough points to take 2nd for the season. That put Joe Brannon in 3rd, leaving Ron and John tied for 4th.

At a glance, M3 looks like it was locked down. First place certainly was, nobody could touch Joe Vance! But, 2nd and 3rd for the season only had 23 and 14 points respectively. And there were at least three other drivers in class that had 4 events and enough points to challenge 2nd or 3rd place! But, those guys opted to not attend, putting Tyler Williams in 2nd and Sara Tinsley in 3rd.

M4, yeah, we were pretty well locked in a few events back. Soraya has been amping up her game lately, but not early enough or consistently enough to gain her a position for this season. Maybe next season?

S0 was the showdown between Ken Marion, Tony Davis and Doug Adams. Ken went into the last event with just enough of a lead that he didn't need to show up. Nobody could even tie him, though they could get within a couple points. That left Doug and Tony to battle it out for 2nd, and that they did! Tony stunned everyone with a brain-dead DNF on his first run, and coned his second... but then he laid the smack down hard with a pair of runs that were each a solid 2 seconds faster than Doug. This gave Tony is his first class win of the season and made Doug the 2nd loser for the season.

Eva Chang had the lock on 1st in S2, with Doug Buckheim solidly in 2nd. But, 3rd place in this class was another one that could have gone very differently. In the end, Brandon Bess and Toby Head tied with 10 points each. The tie-breaker went to Brandon due to some higher finishes. But, there were 3 other drivers that could have stolen 3rd from either of those guys. Didn't happen!

S3 was another class with the top two positions already decided. Brian Meyers in 1st, Mike Murdoch in 2nd. 3rd could have gone to one of four people, but only two of them showed up. Nate Williams could have stolen 3rd place for the season, but Alex Ross took that position decisively.

S4 has been a tight battle between Philip Petrie and Jamie Sculerati for most of the season. That battle went right down to this last event where the two of them swapped the lead throughout their runs. Philip ended up with a solid lead, he did all he could do by taking first at this last event. But, the rest of the class let him down. Had anyone OTHER than Jamie finished 2nd, Philip would have won the season. But, Jamie pulled that 2nd place finish, making him the season champion, and putting Philip in 2nd place by a mere 2 points. 3rd place ended up going to Evan Warner, who we haven't seen since January! But, he did his 5 events to qualify, and racked up enough points to take it.

Loren,
Nice write up.
Double thumbs up for your ultra quick updates all season.
Doug

In the digital age, there's no reason not to keep things updated! People expect it... and should expect it.

Great season to all that help put on these events, super smooth as always. And yes people always want those quick updates. Congrats to Drew again for the overall M2 victory, I'll take some relief knowing I was the only M2 driver to finish no lower then 2nd all year. And Joe way to keep fighting all the way to the end! Well deserved 3rd overall!

"brain-dead DNF"

Exactly! But, I have to say...driving this car on that course was the most fun I've had autocrossing so far! Only more runs could have made it better...

TD

Loren wrote:Had anyone OTHER than Jamie finished 2nd, Philip would have won the season.

Have to add, that Tyler Sommer made some serious progress in figuring out his car, and kept both Philip and me watching over our shoulders...Philip hoping Tyler would catch me, and me working to make sure he didn't! No slack....

Loren wrote:In the digital age, there's no reason not to keep things updated! People expect it... and should expect it.

Am I the ONLY person to keep getting the IT guy who stutters in Pakistani?

Loren wrote:http://drivefast.org/results/championship-points/

How about that guy in M0! I guess he'll just have to quietly take his first place win.

Well, I'm happy to get a first place in the class this year, but to get another first place next year, I think we have to get a car for S5.

Oh well, there's always a T-shirt for perfect attendance...

A big thanks to all the FAST organizers and workers. Events are always well-run, with a lot of thought and planning behind what appear to be simple little things.

puncturina wrote:Well, I'm happy to get a first place in the class this year, but to get another first place next year, I think we have to get a car for S5.
.

The SCCA 2nd "current proposal" sends your car to DS which keeps it right where it's at in S2. The scary part is the Porsche to move from BS to CS. Sorry Charlie. Unless you have the trunk kit you are pretty much acupunctured. The S2 2016 Miata is being bought by people which will stay in CS. Oops. The only thing to stop progress is "perfect attendance". Good work there. It's all about the points. It's always been about the points with FAST Maybe you can rent a spot in the Fastiva and trade your used "loser" to Soraya? Always a solution. Ask me how I got so many t shirts In so many different cars

Rawkkrawler wrote: How about that guy in M0! I guess he'll just have to quietly take his first place win.

Mike, you know how tempting it is to run MO next year with crazy wide tires and "NOT" get a wet ass? You're the man. Brass balls. Topless. No one can take the heat you put out!! Almost a guaranteed 2nd t-shirt?? Damn. Can I just co-drive that awesome car 5 times when it's not raining?

Thanks for the kind words, folks. Steve and I, along with the rest of the regular FAST Crew do put a lot of effort into running consistently smooth autocross events. We're glad people notice!

You know, Doug... if we weren't so lazy and cheap, we could put the FASTiva in M0. 1.8 swap, turbocharger, limited slip, fully stripped interior with lexan windows... we could have a 1600 pound car with a tractable 200 horsepower and show Mike who's boss. It ain't gonna happen. But, we could.

Loren wrote:Thanks for the kind words, folks. Steve and I, along with the rest of the regular FAST Crew do put a lot of effort into running consistently smooth autocross events. We're glad people notice!

You know, Doug... if we weren't so lazy and cheap, we could put the FASTiva in M0. 1.8 swap, turbocharger, limited slip, fully stripped interior with lexan windows... we could have a 1600 pound car with a tractable 200 horsepower and show Mike who's boss. It ain't gonna happen. But, we could.

I'd bring some tools over for that build, just say the word!

It is nice to take a first in M0 but it would be nice to have someone in the class that makes it a whole season and adds a little competition to it. For now, I'll just try to stay ahead of Jason, because I'll never hear the end of it once he beats me. I say once because the Taunton's and that little Miata are getting faster and faster. Oh, and I'd like to give Mark and that S2000 some competition.

Drew ought to be bored with M2 by now. Maybe he'll run M0 with you?

It's weird talking about "next season " soon already, the other clubs I'm regular with it's basically half way done in July and FasT season restarts on sept 1.

So that said, what is S1 looking like next season? I'm sad moving out of the competition of M2, been fun being apart of that crazy class.

RedBRZ80 wrote:It's weird talking about "next season " soon already, the other clubs I'm regular with it's basically half way done in July and FasT season restarts on sept 1.

So that said, what is S1 looking like next season? I'm sad moving out of the competition of M2, been fun being apart of that crazy class.

Simply change your springs and move to M1 (or just move to where your car is where you feel competitive and do nothing). No one will miss you and I'll save money on wheels and tires in S1. Thanks. I haven't had a 1st place t shirt in awhile. Carl, Dave and I will be perfectly happy to share those t shirt honors with you. I will probably be a tire warmer in S1 next year too with the Stig which will make your life more exciting as those electronic payments spit out of your modern blue tooth from the Old Country?

**Drew would have won by a large margin with my S2 car in M2 after only 3 runs only two events ago. 238HP, 140Torque. Run what you brung. You should have let him run the MoFo the last event

Doug

Loren wrote:Drew ought to be bored with M2 by now. Maybe he'll run M0 with you?

If Loren still has his last pickup? That would be a crazy fun M0 vehicle. He can rent out the Fastiva to people who "think" they can drive.

The FoRS will be stock on stock tires for a while, so I'll have to make due in S1. (It won't be as fast on grippy surfaces compared to TBD) AWD and dirty surface minimizes the advantage of the "quick tires"

RedBRZ80 wrote:The FoRS will be stock on stock tires for a while, so I'll have to make due in S1. (It won't be as fast on grippy surfaces compared to TBD) AWD and dirty surface minimizes the advantage of the "quick tires"

You will be very competitive in S1 in any case. You have skills, well set up cars and quick reflexes. We have a lot of fun just keeping our cars out of the grass. S1 started out with a lot of different cars and then they stopped coming out leaving Carl almost alone - then S0 started to fill up the last 1/2 of the season At least we should be starting out with a great mix of cars in S1 this time. Dat came out 3 times and won by a significant margin near FTD. So far no other person has dominated the class.

Will be interesting to see how you sort that car out over the season. Since it's so new I doubt there's much info out there yet?

Soooo... nobody has found any issues with the final points? Everything looks correct?