--- washburn <washburn@dwave.net> wrote:
>> Nice job on the site and the pics. (Thanks for the pictures...don't try
>> this at home)
Thanks Pat!
I assume your "don't try this at home" comment is in reference to your
School Bus as Car Transporter conversion? I did overhear one witness
describe Pat's arrangement as "an impressive, yet -somewhat- questionable
feat of engineering." But in Pat's defense, I am extremely impressed with
the amount of thought and engineering effort that went into this
conversion. If you doubt that assertion at all, I'd like to point out
that *I* was *INSIDE* Pat's Neon when he winched it up the ramps and into
the bus following Nationals competition. If that isn't a vote of
confidence, then I don't know what is! (No smart alek remarks please,
geesh!)
>> Most of all, congrat's on trophying on your first trip!
THANKS!!! I have received numerous congratulatory comments and emails
from countless friends and competitors. I appreciate them all ememsely.
If you'll allow me the use of a little bandwidth, I'd like to share a
short story (ok, maybe not that short) and thank some people directly.
First a few thanks...
With a name like "Solo" I am consistantly surprised at how much of a
team/group sport this really is. While my Nationals performace was
probably my best few autocross runs of the year, there are a number of
people that made that specific performance possible.
1. Vehicle preparation. My compliments go to Jim Waleke (1st year SSC
racer, occaisional autocrosser, and Erich Heuschele protoge). I've been
running Erich and Jim's roadrace alignment setup all year. While some may
argue that this isn't the optimal arrangement for Solo, in my opinion,
these guys know more about Neons than just about anyone else on the planet
and I trust their input. Jim spent probably 20-30 hours with me the week
prior to Nationals ensuring everything on the car was aligned, optimized,
adjusted, torqued, etc. We replaced the front brakes after discovering a
cracked rotor. He helped me fix all the things the dealer screwed up when
replacing my struts under warranty (springs on the wrong sides of the car
and jounce bumpers on upside down for example). All this for the cost of
a Subway sandwich.
2. Tire pressures. I had been running 42/40 (front/rear) in my Kumhos all
year. On the trip down I caravaned with a group of friends from Chicago.
We talked on walkie-talkies all the way to Topeka. One of the individuals
in the group was Jean Kinser. She recommended using 50/30 front/rear with
bleeding down after each run. I was cautious for the Friday Neon Super
Solo and used my old pressures. On Saturday for the warmup event, with
the encouragement of Rick Scalzo, I used Jean's pressures. The Saturday
event used the same course as Friday's Super Solo. On my first run I had
three cones because the turn-in was so much quicker. The next run I
trimmed over a second off my best Super Solo run. Needless to say, I used
these pressure settings for the Nationals competition!!
3. Course analysis. With DS running late in the week, I had a lot of time
to talk with people from other classes that ran the courses earlier. Jeff
Cashmore provided the break-down, cone by cone of Friday's course and what
he did where to Pat Washburn. Pat shared this information with me.
Patrick also gave me a lot of assistance analyzing the courses from a Neon
driver's perspective. Other "good guys" that gave a lot of course
analysis help were Jim Harne and John Tak. Thanks a lot guys!
4. Encouragement and mental support. Too many people here to list. It
really was the two events Alan Sheidler and I co-drove together earlier in
the season (a local event and the Cendiv Championships) that emphasized
the mental "hurdle" I had to overcome. If I am too focused on the
competition and trying to win, I have a dificult time performing. If I am
just focused on having fun and driving for the thrill of it, I tend to
surprise myself (and apparently others too). Throughout Nationals I was
constantly being reminded by other folks just how much fun I was having.
This kept me from getting swept up in the distracting pressure of
comptetion and performing at or near my full potential.
And in retrospect, I am flabbergasted at how close the DS competition was.
It wouldn't have taken hardly anything for my finish to be out of the
trophies. And I don't discount that fact one bit.
But boy, that was a fun time!
Now the story...
Shortly after my final DS run on Friday morning, Bud Collins came over to
me in grid and said, "Congratulations on your trophy finish." This caught
more than a little off guard. A trophy finish wasn't a possibility I had
even considered. That couldn't be right. I'm not a contender. I hadn't
heard any anouncement to that fact from T&S, and refused to believe this
was true until I heard the results for myself.
I stood there for a few minutes tensely waiting for the results to be
announced.
Soon a friendly voice I recognized from home, Jim Crider, began reading
off the final results for our class. When I heard that I had in fact
finished 10th, I was floored. I couldn't believe it... it was like I just
won the lottery! The joy swelled up inside me and I lept into the air!
Apparently I wasn't the only one who was excited by the news. Within
-seconds-, *ALL* of my D-Stock friends from the Central Division, and
many competitors I had just met that week, were there to congratulate me.
Rick and Tammy Scalzo along with Tammy Vandermey embraced me. Bud gave me
a pat on the back with a, "told ya, good job". Bill Hughes shook my hand
and Pat Washburn let out a howl that would make any Green Bay Packers fan
proud. Mark Darby gave me the most enthusiastic hand shake I have ever
received, and Kent Hamilton humourously reminded me that I was the -first-
finisher in double digits.
All of these people had just completed their -extremely- respectable
individual performances, and here they were congratulating -me-. Rather
than celebrating their own victories, or cursing their -perceived- short
commings (all are winners in my book!), here they were enthusiastically
celebrating with -me-. Little ol' me in 10th place. How cool is that! I
can't begin to describe how special that made me feel! The sportsmanship,
comraderie, and *friendship* that was displayed in those few moments is
absolutely without a doubt the highpoint of everything I've experience in
Solo.
You guys are the best! THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE AND SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!
--
Steve Couture
#57 DS Neon ACR
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