Local Boys Nationals results

[washburn]

In addition to Dave Morton's results that Phil posted, here are a couple other local guys:

Adam Ansorge 30th out of 43 entrants in GS

Salah Khuhro 23rd out of 39 entrants in GS

Wish them luck in tomorrows runs!

Pat (Camping out at Bob Fogt's house on my way to Topeka) Washburn

[psundberg]

Here's the Solo 2 final results as of Wednesday 9/11:

Dave Ortega, SS: 35 out of 52 in his Z06
Bill Hoxmeier, SS: 45 out of 52 co-driving Dave's Z06
Dave Morton, AS: 14 out of 21 in his C4
Salah Khuro, DS: 21 out of 39 in his Integra Type R
Adam Ansorge, GS: 29 out of 43 in his CRX

I believe Pat Washburn runs Thursday & Friday in C-Mod in his Swift DB-1.

[rdub]

Pat Washburn is in 24th spot after thursdays runs
but has another shot tomorrow to improve.
goodluck to PAT
and congratulations to all the guys who did Nationals this year.
You guys put yourselves out there,and will come home with good memories,and your driving skills will have improved just by working that hard!
It took me about 5 trys to get my trophy outta that place!

[washburn]

Wow, I didn't suck, I blew! My first attempt in 1997 aside, (with Randy W.) this has been my worst performance at Nationals. Yes, there are some well thought out excuses! :)

Day one was cold and we ran first heat. I had done extensive tire testing in Peru, IN on some similar concrete (or so I thought) and the Goodyear tires proved faster. We slapped them on and soon found that this was a bad decision. We didn't account for weather. The highest Goodyear finisher after day 1 was last years National Champ in 9th place. Too cold, no grip. Anywhere. The car was a pig and it threw me off my game bad. I stood on my first run time having coned a decent second run, and DNF'ing my third. Hello P-24!!

We put the Hoosiers on for the next day (yeah, I had a set with me). The car felt much better. This course was super fast with me seeing fourth gear in the Swift. With nothing to loose, I pushed hard on my first run and spun it to a halt. No problem. Run #2 was clean, cautious and not a bad time. Run 3 was smoking, fifth fastest of the day, but again I found a cone. GAAA!

The only way I find something good to feel about as I drove home was to hypothetically eliminate those cones. Without the cone on day #2, I would have jumped up 10 positions. Without the cone on Run #2 from Thursday, I was trophying in 7 th place. Who knows how well things might have gone had we put the Hoosiers on the first day. (Realistically, I felt that I threw away a 4th place finish based on my prior experiences with my competitors.)

Shoulda, woulda, coulda,.....that is Nationals. Congratulatinos to all the local guys who made the trip. (Sorry for missing the SS guys) Nationals is brutal. Just going there and competing puts these guys up on top of the heap. I always say this each year when someone says "boy you only finished in XXth place?" *They were there.* That makes them top competitors in my book, no matter were you end up. I feel terrible about where I placed, but I was there, enjoyed a fantastic experience like no other, had a wonderful time, and am looking forward to redemption next year!

[SalahK]

The level of competition at the Nationals is something that has to be experienced to be believed. You are out there competing against the country's best amateurs as well as plenty of professional race car drivers. Some of the Professional drivers who show up frequently to the Nationals include Scotty B. White and Randy Pobst from Speedvision World Challenge GT, Neal Sapp & Shauna Marinus from the Speedvision Touring Car and TC Kline who is a former professional driver. The fact that these pros get regularly beaten by the top amateurs is an indication of the talent out there.

As Adam and I learned the hard way, it is very important to optimise your car even in the stock categories. I was running 2 year old 205/50 Toyo's while the tires of choice for a Type-R are brand new 225/45 Hoosiers. Adam's CRX had alignment settings that induced massive amounts of oversteer during trail braking manuvers. The fact that you can gain 10 places out of 40 by improving 1% (0.5 seconds on a 50 second course) is a testament to how close the competition is.

All in all it was a blast. I will definately go again.