The San Diego region put on a great event. I live in Maryland, but I was
visiting my dad in So. Cal. so I decided to try and squeeze in the NT at the
end of my visit. Randy Chase graciously let me drive his car. The courses
were long and very fast with most stock class cars using 3rd gear in a
couple of places. Judging by how long it took me to jog the courses, I'd
estimate that they were about 3/4 mile long. There were some very long
sections with just slight kinks in them. They could be taken flat out in
most cars, but it took a lot of courage to do so, especially for those of us
used to postage-stamp sized lots where we never get out of second gear.
Since it was my first event since at least October, and since I was driving
someone else's car, I rarely had the courage to keep my foot planted the
whole way.
In CS, the Hernandez 924S did really well. It was the type of course where
it could really use its horsepower advantage. The Porsche was blowing away
the field on Sunday until Kevin Bailey finally got tired of doing reruns and
put down a very fast clean run.
In AS, the Z3 coupe proved to be very competitive. But the MR2T, 944S2, and
M3 were right there too. Still a very diverse and interesting class. Tom
Harrington (I think that's the last name) and Takahisa Aono showed that the
'93+ MR2s can be competitive, which I've been saying for years. Most folks
think the '91-92 is way better.
The new Nagler-built M3 won the first two spots in AP. That car is really
cool. (But it would be difficult for me to take a $40K+ car and cut it up
and built it into a non street legal autox car.)
Like others mentioned, I also feel like I've been run over by a truck. And
I regularly do triathlons and marathons and mountain bike racing. I figure
it was from standing all day, especially working the course during that
really long 4th group, plus lack of sleep, plus a long red-eye flight back
to the east coast.
Thanks again, Randy, for letting me drive your car. The Toyos worked great.
Good luck at the San Berdoo Pro. And I hope your wife has a speedy
recovery.
Brad Burns
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