OOOOwww-D takes 'em to school in KY... A MUST READ!!

[Steve Verona <vrona@infinet.com>]

I swear I will try to keep this short... it will be difficult.  This past
weekend there were two events run in Richmond, KY, a fun /warmup race on Sat.
and a regional CenDiv Championship points event on Sunday.  The CenDiv events
are one step down from national level races.  I had the greatest competition
ever at this event in my class; 8 cars, 1 national champion, 1 3rd place
National finisher, and 1 trophy runner at nats, all in "the hot cars" for the
class, Celica's and MX3's.  The Paseo I beat at the last race is gone.  John
sold it for an MX3 because he almost flipped it trying to catch me;-)

Anyway, Saturday I ran pretty bad.  Basically I raced with my head up my @#$!
 I had very little sleep all week and I was distracted all day long.  Even
with my problems, I took 3rd out of "the fast four" in HS less than a second
behind the race winner, former Nat. Champ, Jack Burns.  I felt pretty good
being within a second.  On a decent day I could have run with him and on a
good day I know I can beat him.

Then it happened, at 5am on Sunday I woke up my wife and said "can you hear
that?" and she looked at me and said "what, the rain?", I said not only the
rain "the sound of victory!";-)  From 5am until about 3pm it rained so hard
that rivers formed on the track.  All morning people were commenting on how I
had the advantage over everyone else.  They keep forgetting that there are
other 4wd cars at these events too.  Also, I was starting to feel the
pressure from everyone.  Honestly, I was concerned about embarassing myself
since I have only run the car in the rain one time.

I was the first car on the course and I took it VERY easy as I was nformed
the lot is like an ice rink in the wet.  I turned in a 68.xxx time.  Then
Jack went out and ran a 72.xxx, I guess I was faster than I thought.  Then
John Fessler ran his MX3 with a time of 68.xxx, one tenth faster than me and
he was very excited.  Everybody looked to me to see my reaction.  I just
smiled because I knew I could go at least 3 or 4 seconds faster.  On my
second run, I put it ALL together!  I knew it was a fast time as I came
across the line.  I had my fist in the air when the anouncer asked "is that
time correct?" and the scorer said "yes".  Then Loyd said "Are you ready for
this?  Steve Verona has responded to the pressure with an unbeleivable time
of 62.4xx seconds!!!"  Everybody went crazy and my hands were shaking... what
a rush.  It is amazing how fast the quattro can run in the wet in a four
wheel drift;-)

Nobody was able to come close in any class for the resr of the heat.  On my
thrird and final run, I goofed around trying different things and ran a high
60 something lap.  I am sure the car could have run 2 or 3 seconds faster
than my best time, but I showed soem mercy;-)  The closest competitor in my
class was almost 5 seconds behind me.  That was John Fessler, a very fast
rain driver.  The closest car in any class at that point was over 4 seconds
behind.  This is truely a HUGE margin in autocross.

As the day went on lots of people came by to congrat me.  The anouncer was
having a ball with the fact that nobody was even coming close to my time in
the "slowest class", H Stock.  Even the formula cars on special rain tires
were 4 seconds behind me.  It was looking like a sure bet that my time would
be the Fastest Time of Day, FTD.  This would be a record, an HS car setting
FTD at a CenDiv event!

Then the party came to an end as the sun came out for the last run group of
the day which included the B Modified cars, Formula Atlantics, Formula
Continentals, Sports racers, etc.  As the track dried, the times came down
dramatically.  The fastest cars, the BM cars, came within a second of me when
the track was 95% dry.  Everyone was amazed that they still had not caught
me.  Then for the last 15 cars of the day, the track was not only dry, but
hot.  The B Mod cars beat my time as well as two other cars.

Everybody knew I would have had FTD by several seconds had the rain not gone
away or even if the track was damp.  I got a tremendous round of applause
during the awards presentation.  The anouncer said that they just wittnessed
one of the greatest drives ever. Now they know why the quattro's are banned
from Trans Am;-)

Are we having fun yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steven Verona

Next race is the National event in Pittsburgh this weekend... pray for rain!