by Barry S chonberger
1990 Autocross broke from traditions
and brought competitors together on Friday afternoon at the Canadian
Forces Base, Toronto. The result was an increased number of entries
and an opportunity to present trophies and the Keith Porter awards
at Saturday's banquet. Nineteen cars took to the short course,
allowing for ten timed runs in five categories.
SSOCC members Ron Stein and Wolf
Kaufmann coordinated the site, insurance and pylon gathering.
Barry Schonberger and Jeff Jackson
provided final course design, setup, timing equipment and event
operations. The course started out from a dead stop with the timing
lights some twenty feet ahead leading into the only straight on the
course. A hard jab on the brakes and you were ready for a tight left
hand turn, followed by another chance for acceleration. Now, comes
the difficult part of the course with a 110 degree left hand turn
leading into a set of two chicans into the finish.
With the Sunbeam's handling
characteristics, those who charged into this corner found themselves
pushing to the outside of the turn and losing speed entering the
chican. Those who put on the brakes entered the corner wide and late
apexed the inside cone, found that they could give up a little speed
going in but gain a lot coming out and through the chican. The
finish called for a good line also. A little off and too fast would
cause you to hit a cone after the finish, resulting in a DNF for
that run. The early runs in all classes started out in the 14 second
range.
There was one exception, Wally Swift
turned in quick 13 second runs immediately. In the stock Tiger
class, Tom Stoyle, Tom Calvert, Randy Stenson and Bryan Cullingford
had all showed their teeth a potential challengers for the class and
for the Keith Porter trophies. In the end, Tom Calvert (13.467)
edged out Bryan Cullingford (13.503) on his last run by .036 of a
second for first place. Third went to Randy Stenson (13.635), fourth
to Tom Stoyle (14.283) and fifth to a gentleman who came out of
retirement and stated at the awards ceremony, "I'm back!"
Bill Barnett (14.375).
In stock Alpine, Rick McLeod (15.850)
drove Joanne Ehrhart's car to win over James McKinnon (17.07). This
was Jim's first Autocross, and he improved on every run to knock off
a total of five seconds over the ten runs. I'm sure we will see him
again.
As the event progressed, attention
was shifted to Modified Tiger and Modified Alpine. Henry (Hank) Ward
and Wally Swift kept exchanging FTD (fastest time of day) with every
run. At the end of eight runs, we took a break before we finished up
with two final attempts at the course. After eight runs, Wally Swift
had FTD with a time of 13.094. On his next to last run, Hand Ward
timed a 13.012. Wally responded with a 12.762, but he hit a DNF cone
after the finish. Hank dropped his time again on his final run for a
12.951 and first in the Modified Tiger Class. The pressure was now
on Wally Swift to repeat his time without a cone. All eyes were
focused on Wally as he attacked the course. Around the 110 degree
turn without a push, through the chican and across the finish line.
No cones, a clean run. There was silence as the crowd waited for the
announcer to read the time. Wally "Iceman" Swift had done
it under pressure with an even faster time of 12.595 for FTD and a
class win in Modified Alpine. Second in Modified Tiger was John
Lugan (14.306).
Saturday evening at the awards
ceremony, those who placed received their trophies, and Robyn
