Pardon me for the following disjointed ramblings. I'm still coming off of this
week long high, and eventually I'll be able to make sense of it all. I'm going
to omit a lot of details.
SFR has at least two more national championships that I can think of. Forgive
me if I'm skipping anyone. First, Andy McKee won BS over Jason Saini, in a
victory that somehow establishes that Andy is driving in another dimension.
Then, an inspired Kevin McCormick came back from 8th to win his first national
championship in DS by .3 over Brian Fitzpatrick, a very hard earned and well
deserved victory. Our own Derek Butts finished in a very fine 3rd.
Arie Villasol moved another step closer to winning his first DSP championship,
leading after the first day in the Dwayne Komush Capri. Unfortunately, Steve
Hoelscher snuck by him on day two, leaving Arie in second by .2. I guess you
can't retire just yet, Arie!
Chris Cox and Ralph Elder finished 2nd and 3rd in FP behind Northwest Region's
Greg Fordahl, in a very close race. Chris told me that this was his easiest 2nd
place ever, a tribute to the fine crafstmanship of the car's developer, Craig
Nagler, but look at Ralph. With nary in the seat time in the car, he jumped in
like they were old friends.
Back by only a tenth was Pilar Miranda in BSPL to Angela Moffet, in another too
close of a race that actually came down to Angela's last run. Anyone that can
come close to Pilar is a champ in my book. Taking third in her first nationals
ever was our rising star, just out of the trophies, Allison McAfee.
Speaking of rising stars, Harold Olsen led BSP after day one, but slid down to
5th at the end of day two. Hey, if you can trophy in the very tough BSP, not
bad! That you can say you were leading day one, even better!
Also, great drives were made by Justin McAfee and Joel Villasol both at their
first nationals.
Oh yeah. We have a third national champion thanks to Jeff Reitmeir, who just, I
don't know, decided to enter SM at the last minute in Gary Richardson's BMW.
This was another come from behind victory, as the class was led after day one
by Corey Smith. What a comeback for Reitmeir, who retired from the scene a few
years ago.
Yours truly finished 4th out of 23 in DM, which was very satisfying, although
like many, I suffered from the red mist on my final run, and instead of
improving, I nearly spun out and allowed myself to move down a spot. Oh well.
I'll take it. I really must thank Eric Cheung and Rich Urschel for letting me
drive their cars this year. Eric's Honda S2000 helped me learn how to keep from
spinning, almost, and thanks to Rich, who let me drive his wonderful little
Elan about three weeks ago, I remembered that when you autocross, you have to
drive kind of hard. I nearly forgot. That's what helped me do as well as I did
in Kansas this year. Thank you!
Congrats to EVERYBODY who attended nationals this year. I realize I've omitted
many fine performances, so please add more details where you see fit.
-Katie Kelly
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