Dennis Grant, in a flame where he even accuses me of drooling, asks:
<<<3) How many Nationals have YOU been to Paul? When was the last one?>>>
I have been to one. It was Salina '89 at the end of my 3rd year
autocrossing. I was usually a second behind Jim Martin at local events but
he was on good tires and I wasn't so I thought I might have a chance to do
well. My NA 944 was being moved the next year to CS where I'd be running
against Jeff Reitmeier who regularly cleaned my clock in his 914 so I knew
it was now or never.
So I made the 1500 mile trip from San Francisco in two days both directions
driving alone with a car packed with my autocrossing stuff and an Apple
Macintosh so I could download all my runs from my g*Analyst. Nobody even
knew I was coming besides Jim Martin. John Kelly had a column in "The Wheel"
that listed all the SFR competitors at Salina that year (minus one).
I had never competed on concrete before in my life so I was in for a rude
awakening on the South Course. It was Karen Babb's infamous "Death by
Slalom". Until that day I always shuffle-steered but her slaloms with
mini-sweepers taught me to 9-3 from then on. But that day I hung on and
tried my best.
The first run was dog-slow. I just couldn't find the limits. The second run
I spun and nearly stopped. The third run I got right until the very last
cone that could mean anything that was actually after the lights. I hit it.
But even with the 2 second penalty it was my fastest time by half a second.
I was so discouraged I only walked John Kelly's excellent North Course a
couple of times because I knew I could not trophy. It was a long drive to do
so poorly. I ended up in 26th place out of 37 drivers. I still think that if
I had missed that cone I could have trophied.
Not that any of this matters one bit to our thread....
Paul Foster
(The appointed "enemy" of SM)
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