Well, we could not have asked for a more perfect day.
It was mostly sunny with a slight breeze, possibly in
the high 70's-mid 80's. The most important thing was
that it was dry.
DSP ran on the North course in Heat 3, approximately
10:30 AM. 30 drivers, 5 from SFR. The North course is
the faster, less technical of the two courses, and
rewarded you for good speed maintanence. It was also a
good course if you had alot of horsepower. So
basically, it was a good, old fashioned shoot-out
where all of the fast makes were pretty evenly
matched.
Neal Ryan's first run in the Capri at 50.7 was the
fastest scratch time at the time, but he took out 4
poor little cones, which were the most cones by any
DSP driver today. Neal was also the only DSP'er to
manage to DNF, but it really wasn't a DNF because he
looped back when he re-rentered the course (even at
National's workers make the wrong call). He managed to
clean it up on his final run with a 50.8 to put him in
15th, approx. .6 out of the trophies.
Speaking of bad days, Jeremy Rine had one too. He had
3 cones on his fastest run. He ended up in 25th
position today - just not his day. But it is his first
NAtionals and I know he is having a blast! If it is
pouring rain tomorrow, Jeemy could make his way into
trophy contention because Kumhos like rain better than
Hoosiers.
Ben Martinez had his best first day ever, currently in
fourth place with a 49.735. He coned on his first run
an was the only guy in the top four to improve on his
final run.
Arie(me) was leading after first runs. On our second
runs, multi-National Champs David Fauth (driving the
former Pete Mottaz '95 BMW 325is), and Steve Hoelscher
(Fiat X19)got down to a 49.057 & 49.195, respectively.
I got down to a 49.294 so I was sitting in 3rd. On our
final runs we all were dirty so we finished the day in
this order.
Lets see, who am I missing? Oh yeah, Don Lew! What can
you say about this guy? He has shown signs through out
the season of his skills. He smoked a 50.049 on his
ssecond run to put his Supra in 6th spot! Don and his
wife Allison are really great people and I'm glad that
I'm gridded next to them in that paddock(they always
have yummy snacks & drinks for us too).
It did rain tonight at 8PM, but looks like it might be
dry for tomorrow. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm
not sure if I'll have the energy after tomorrow to
give a final DSP report, but I will try for anyone
interested. Until then, I'm praying for no rain....
Arie
Acts 20:24/Komush Engineering Capri
PS. I'm not sure if you all know, but in Street Mod
Scott Fraser moved from 15th to the 5th trophy spot
with an awsome final run. It was very impressive.
PPS. The only bad thing about Nationals is that you do
not get to watch all the classes you want. Later!
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