Season Opener - Competition Update

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The 2015 season is underway! After an endless freeze over the winter, we seem to have skipped spring and gone straight to mid-summer in Loudon. NHMS-1 (Chicane/Chicane) was hot and humid with the slower track and weather conditions resulting in only 2 new lap records. Enough about the weather, though… After just the first event of the year, 2015 looks like it could have some very interesting story lines. "Just give me the numbers"...fine, here are the results: http://comscc.org/events/results/view/?id=2015-05-10. And here are the new track records: http://comscc.org/events/track-records/.

Touring 30 - Apparently this guy is a threat to FTD at Devens on street tires, and he certainly put down an impressive new lap record at NHMS: Brew Charles with a 1:25.8 in his new 320i street car at the top of T30. Steve Cohen and Mikhael El-Bayeh both achieved the podium with Michah Spielvogel picking up the Most Consistent award with 3 laps within 0.103s of each other. Big questions in T30 – will Brew Charles stick with his street car? Will 2014 T30 Champion Steve Hosker return to defend his title at Palmer? What about 2014 runner-up John Riopel – can he bounce back from a mechanical to score some points? Don’t overlook T30 in 2015.

Touring 40 – last year it was Derek Tangard (2nd) with the last laugh, but this year Scott Rosnick took down the season opener with an impressive 1:23.3. Tom Cannon (3rd) rounded out the podium in his new class. The battle in T40 is just beginning and should start to take shape at Palmer.

Touring 50 – Jeff Wasilko took T50 to the wire last year, and just edged out Dave Wittmer (2nd) to win the season opener. Dave Lemoine (3rd), Troy Velazquez (4th), and Matt LeBlanc (5th) were within 26 thousandths of each other. T50 is always a good show…but where’s 2014 Driver Champion Chad Fox?

Touring 60 – Heath Speckman earned his first COMSCC TT career win with Roe Cole less than 1/2s behind. 3rd through 6th were not far off and all within 1s of each other: Emilio Arce (3rd), 2014 T60 Champion Howard Roundy (4th), Sarah Fuchswanz (5th), and Nelson Barros (6th) in his first COMSCC TT. T60 could easily become one of the more hotly contested classes in 2015.

Touring 70 – Stephen Tise was all smiles as he set the pace with a low :19. Erik Harris (2nd), Norbert Martel (3rd), and Peter Rokel (4th) all earned trophies. Can Stephen Tise follow-up a solid 2014 (2nd place T70 Championship) and stay up front all year? Maybe former T70 vets DJ McArdle and Jon Cowen will come out of the woodwork for Palmer?

Touring 80 – Mario Fallas put in a solid 1:18, but it wasn’t quite enough to edge out T80 newcomer Nick Fontana. Apparently Mario is heading back to Lake George for the summer as usual, but maybe someone can convince him that T80 will be more fun? Chris Parsons and Mick Demopolous will be back for Palmer. Nick Derosa, where are you?

Touring 90 – what a sandbaggin’ bit… again!? Laura Flemming, 2014 T90 Champion, opened up the 2015 season perhaps stronger than any other incumbent, throwing down a 3+ second margin of victory. She may not be 100% thrilled though…more on that later.

Touring 100 – T100 might be COMSCC’s version of a Road & Track Comparison Test. Donald Piette took his GT-R to FTD and a new T100 lap record. Bob Cairns was about 1/2s off, but more go-fast parts are on their way…I think…it’s hard to tell which vette Bob is talking about with that rolling GM dealership that he calls a tow rig.

Super D – Greg Hosselbarth was in the zone; 3 laps within 1/4s of each other were good enough to win it by a comfortable margin. Greg took the 2014 Super D Championship at the final event, but COMSCC President John Spain was on the wrong side of the tiebreaker. John, wherever you are, if you have internet access, now would be a good time to return to New England before Greg runs away with it.

Super C – 2014 Super C Champion Will Martins was out in front to start 2015, dipping into the mid-:18’s, again dueling with fellow Miata competitor Gordon Andrade. These 2 will obviously fight it out as they’ve done for years. However, look for Nick Leung to finish his Integra build and for Peter Fontana to pick up a dyno sheet, mixing up Super C in 2015. Oh, and this just in: Peter McParland plans to run the black s2000 at Palmer.

Super B – David Coutu’s beautiful Cayman S was singing as David put down a 1:18 for the win. Daniel Preston (3rd) is jumping his 370z from T80 to SB and finished behind temporary SB customer Peter Fontana (2nd) who is driving Nick’s e36 M3 in 2015. Cassie Johnston, why are you not defending your 2014 championship?

Super A – A couple NASCAR-looking things fought it out in Super A. However, 2014 SA Champion Charles “Butch” King took his “Chevy Silverado” a bit faster than Geoffrey Howe’s Impala. Wait, why is there only one Fuchswanz in this entire update?

Super Unlimited – Thomas Greer won COMSCC’s top class with a car that used to be a Miata. Dan Darcy finished 2nd in what is supposedly a T50 car. Allegedly, Dan will be bringing a “real” Super Unlimited car to the track in 2015…looking forward to it.

Driver Champion – Just kidding. Settle down…it’s too early for this sort of thing! However, keep your eye on American Iron. I’m guessing there are some mixed emotions coming out of one yellow vette – won her class, earned American Iron points, didn’t “achieve her goal” (i.e., kick Bob’s ass).

Well that was fun…what’s next? Palmer! Yes, it’s finally open, and COMSCC is going in less than 4 weeks (SATURDAY and SUNDAY, June 6/7)! In case you haven’t heard, this track is INSAAANNNEEE!!! Video evidence here:

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Registration is open now on the COSMCC Motorsportreg.com site: https://www.motorsportreg.com/events/pa ... VCjsvnBzGd