2014 Competition Wrap-up

[blindsidefive0]

The 2014 COMSCC season brought us 5 new Super Classes in replacement of the old Prepared and Street Prepared classes, we ran at 2 tracks/configurations that were brand new for the club, and not a single Touring class had a repeat winner from 2013. The Season Finale at NHMS-South Oval was a great way to close out the year with 4 Class Championships determined by a single Time Trial.

Not pleased with how you finished this year? You have 2 options:
1) Submit a rule change; we will be discussing rule proposals at the November 19th Board of Directors Meeting - link: https://comscc.carclubreg.com/comscc/Ru ... quest.aspx

2) Get faster; at the COMSCC Banquet (January 17/18) we will be hosting a 2-day seminar by racing guru Ross Bentley! More details to follow, but mark your calendars now!

NHMS-4 South Oval Season Finale:
While conditions were not quite as quick as the 2013 Season Finale, overall cool weather helped several competitors lay down some impressive lap records.

- Starting with Super Unlimited, Bill Washburn (1st) joined us for a TT in his purely awesome, totally custom 240RS Maxi

- Mike Fuchswanz ran in Super A getting the win and FTD with a blistering 1:08

- The Coutu father/son Porsche Cayman duo grabbed 1st (Nicholas) and 2nd (David) with James Laughlin finishing 3rd in Super B

- Gordon Andrade bounced back after a rough season to edge out Will Martins in Super C

- 3 solid laps from Greg Hosselbarth earned him a Super D victory

- In the Touring classes, Bob Cairns finished a fantastic season by breaking the 1:10 barrier (1:09.880) for the T100 win

- Donald Piette ran 3 laps within ~1/4s of each other, winning T90 with a 1:10.4, not far ahead of Laura Fleming's 1:11-flat

- T80 saw 3 finishers within 1s of each other with long-time friend of COMSCC, Mario Fallas, taking the class

- In T70, Nick Fontana broke his class record from earlier in the season with a 1:12.4

- Jared Saulnier earned his COMSCC License and first ever Time Trial win in T60 while running on street tires

- T50, aka "The Main Event", just a 1s gap between 1st-4th; Chad Fox was just 1/2s ahead of Dave Lemoine while Dave Wittmer (4th) couldn't quite catch Jeff Wasilko (3rd) after stealing his car

- T40, While Derek Tangard treated Dave Wittmer's whip like a parts-car, Paul Giurlando went grand theft auto on Julie Wasilko's car to lay down a 1:17 that was good enough for his first ever COMSCC Time Trial win; Derek Tangard just edged out Scott Rosnick (by just 22 thousandths of a second) with Julie Wasilko putting down an impressive 4th place finish to cap off a solid season

- Finally in T30, Stephen Hosker laid down a screaming 1:20-flat lap record to punctuate his 2014 T30 Class Championship

2014 Class Championships

Super Unlimited: Dan Darcy is your winner, but with only 9 total entries in 2014, COMSCC needs more formula/pure race cars to make this Class Championship official in 2015

Super A: Charles King had Super A wrapped up at Thompson-2, but there was a close battle for 2-3-4 with Mike Fuchswanz, Dana Johnston, and Bill McMahon finishing within 11 points of each other for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively

Super B: Cassie Johnston, 2014 Super B Class Champion; end of story

Super C: Will Martins ran away with the class, but Nick Leung's (2nd overall) late event surge (running almost every event with an issue while still finishing the TT) allowed him to fight off Gordon Andrade's (3rd overall) win at NHMS-4

Super D: Greg Hosselbarth needed all 11 points at NHMS-4 to do it, but he wins the tiebreaker over COMSCC President John Spain

T100: Thanks to Dan Baldwin and a good contingent of T100 competitors at Watkins Glen, Bob Cairns will be the official T100 2014 COMSCC Class Champion

T90: Fantastic year for Laura Fleming (1st) with 2013 T90 Class Champion Bob "Shake N Bake" Brooks finishing 2nd

T80: Only Fred Kim completed at least 3 TT's, making him the T80 Class Champion; Nick Derosa and Mick Demopolous shared the points lead

T70: Nick Fontana took 6 class victories (only Bob Cairns had more wins with 7 T100 victories) to win the T70 championship, but Stephen Tise Jr. made a good showing with 36 class points in just 4 events

T60: Howard Roundy hung on to the class championship after opening up 2014 with 4 wins in the first 5 TT's; Sarah Fuchswanz found some pace in 2014 to tie Sam Webster for 2nd in the class

T50: Chad Fox completes an excellent season with 5 hard fought wins; Jeff Wasilko put on a show but fell short by 6 points (note - no other 2nd place class finisher had more points than Jeff); your 2012-2013 COMSCC Driver Champion Dave Wittmer finished in 3rd place just ahead of Dave Lemoine

T40: Derek Tangard didn't get the win at NHMS-4, but it was still enough to edge out Scott Rosnick for the T40 championship with Julie Wasilko in 3rd

T30: 2014 was Stephen Hosker's year with 5 wins and a commanding class championship; John Riopel's 2nd place at NHMS-4 helped him tie Barry Gammon for 2nd overall with 2013 T30 Class Champion Peter Perrault just 2 points behind them in 4th

Driver Champion:

4 drivers (Fox, Cairns, Fleming, Wasilko) across 3 classes fought at all 8 events this year, but it was Chad Fox's NHMS-4 victory that solidified his 2014 Overall Driver Championship. This year Chad won 5 out of 8 events, setting 4 lap records in the process (NHMS-Chicane: 1:20-flat, NHMS-South Oval: 1:15.4, Pocono SE Opt3: 1:39-flat, and a Watkins Glen record of 2:16.4 that could frustrate T50 competitors for years to come). No longer the dude with the Subaru that could use some more boost, Fox's 2014 season solidifies his spot as one of the best drivers in the club, especially considering he is the first COMSCC Driver Champion in 10 years to run a FWD setup. Congratulations, Chad, you've earned it!

2014 Top 5 Season Highlights (that didn't really come through with the "box score"):

1.Girls Rule - Cassie Johnston (SB) and Laura Fleming (T90) took class championships with Sarah Fuchswanz (2nd, T60) and Julie Wasilko (3rd, T40) both earning podium positions in their respective classes, proving that racing is not just a man's game; watch out for these 4 (and others) in 2015!

2.Never give up - Derek Tangard (earning TT points at NHMS1 courtesy of Mark Swinehart's Sentra) and Nick Leung (in particular, running without 3rd gear in the rain at Thompson) fought through adversity and it paid off, earning them 1st and 2nd place class finishes in T40 and SC, respectively

3.Chad at the Glen - In case you missed it, here's the video of the most-balls out 2014 track record set by your 2014 COMSCC Driver Champion: http://comscc.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... 841#p39191

4.Pocono kind of life - only ~30 people showed up, but this was a unique, laid back, and enjoyable event. A handful of guys enjoyed renting a vacation house, and with a return to Pocono looking unlikely, everyone just appreciated the moment...and the insane oval...and the unlimited track time

5.Variety is the spice of life - there were no "perfect seasons" (meaning every class had at least 2 event winners), no particularly dominant "manufacturer's champion" (Class Championships by vehicle: NA Miata-4, C5 Z06 Corvette-2, Lotus Exige-1, Lotus Elise-1, BMW e36-1, BMW e30-1, Subaru-1, Integra-1, Silverado-1), and no repeat class winners (new Super Classes with no Touring repeats) - who knows what 2015 will bring?!

We wish everyone a great off-season and hope to see you at the January 17/18 COMSCC Banquet featuring a 2-day seminar by Ross Bentley (http://www.speedsecrets.com/ross-bentley/). Remember, what good is a Class Championship if you can't gloat about it in front of your fellow competitors!?

[Bobc]

Thanks for the great wrap up! Nick
Congrats to all the winners!!
Laura and I had a great season and a lot of fun thanks to everyone.

Laura will kill me for posting this but, I felt so bad when I heard this I had to
Laura Fleming's 1:11-flat at NHMS 4 was done with her left pinky finger broken at the base of the knuckle and displaced....in other words broken clean off...
I told her when she fell "it didn't look too bad" and she never got it looked at till last friday, They had to rebreak it friday and again on monday to get the set right. So I guess she is tougher than I thought..
Bob

[jeffw]

Ouch. Her hand looked pretty bad in person. She's a trooper for driving that way. Hope she heals quick!

[offcamber09]

Sounds like the inspiration for an award: something like "gut-check" moment of the season.
I wonder how fast she would have been with ten fingers?