OOOOWWW-D .... Oscoda CenDiv

[vrona@ix.netcom.com (Steven Verona)]

Hello Audites,

I raced the OOOOWWW-D in the CenDiv Championship series race in Oscoda, 
MI this past weekend.  Overall it was a great sucess with a dose of 
dissapointment.  My only competiton was from a Mazda MX-6 prepped like 
Andy Hollis' car.  The driver has 7 years experience in autox and beat 
me badly a few months ago at the pro solo in Toledo.  I was glad to 
have the chance to run against him again now that I have more 
experience and the car has been improved.

On Saturday we ran neck and neck through the first 3 runs. I was 
already pleased to be within 1/10 of a second of him ... quite an 
improvement over the past months.  I knew my car had a lot left in it, 
I just needed to smooth things out.  I was having trouble left foot 
braking due to all the shifting that was necessary on this huge course 
with 75 second laps.  He said his car was maxed out already, maybe it 
had a tenth left in it.  On the fourth and final run he went slower and 
I went 1.1 seconds faster!  I had the lead heading into Sunday by 
almost a full second ;-)

On Sunday it rained early in the morning and I got all excited!  I 
would finally have a chance to run the OOOOWWW-D in the rain.  
Unfortunately the rain stopped and the track dried a bit more with 
every run.  I hate it when this happens because then the only run that 
really counts is the last one when the track is dry.

Anyway,  I beat him on all three runs going into the final one.  The 
"line" was almost totally dry for our last run except for a few 
puddles.  The pressure was on since we both knew that this was 
certainly going to be the fastest run of the day.  My car had been 
oversteering so I let out 3 lbs. in the rear tires.  The car ran better 
but was understeering a bit.  Then it happened .... I spun the car 
forthe first time!!  I was so upset with myself, I blew it.  I had a 
great run going whenthe car pushed off line a bit and hit a puddle and 
did a snap spin.  He ran clean and took the win ;-(

I went back and watched the run on video and subtracte the spin time 
from my overall time and I would have run over 2 seconds faster than 
him.  Oh well, such is life.  Like I said earlier, overall it was a 
great success.  The guy in the MX-6 couldn't beleive how fast I went on 
Saturday and that I had him covered on Sunday until the spin.  The 
improvement over the past 8 weeks has been phenominal.  This guy beat 
me by almost a second/lap back then and now I am beating him by at 
least that much.

One last thing, if you ever go to Oscoda, MI do not stay at the 
Wolverine Resort and Hotel!  It is a dump.  But that is a whole other 
story .... a funny one though.  I knew I was in for a treat when I 
realized we had no AC and it was 105 degrees.

Steven Verona
Going to the Nationals!