The 2022 Spring Jefferson event was held over Memorial Day weekend at Summit Point Motorsports Park in Summit Point, WV.
Yes, I’m late posting this, what else is new? I actually have been working on this post for a while, but was intimidated by John Pitman’s excellent post about Carlisle. I will work on getting him to report on the rest of the events, but in the meantime, here is my take on Spring Jefferson.
Unlike last year, when it was unseasonably cold, the weather was close to perfect. Well, maybe except for the drive there on Friday, where most of us had to deal with torrential downpours. And well, maybe also except for the storm that passed through Friday night.
But by Saturday morning, the track was dry and it stayed that way for the entire weekend. Temperatures were near perfect as far as my car’s favorite running temperature, and also where its tire grip was concerned. It got a little hot towards the end of the day on Sunday, but was a great weekend.
Onto the event results. Mark Aubele took FTD in his 2003 Ford Mustang in SPO with a 73.465, which was also an SPO class record. His car unfortunately broke early on, so he had to stand on his first few laps on Saturday, but those laps were fast enough.
Bill Feist came in second overall with his 2006 Stohr F1000 FS car and was only .935 seconds out of first with a 74.400 (setting a class record in FS). Dave Cutchins was 3rd overall with his 2011 Stohr F1000 FS car with a 74.892. The competition in FS was fierce, and both drivers broke the previous class record set by Josh Reinard (76.093 in 2019).
Speaking of SPO, the previous record was held by Tom Vincent from 2020, and Tom beat his own record from 2020, so deserves mention even if Mark was faster.
In FSP, Dillon Axarlis broke his own record in his 79 VW Scirocco with a 90.979. Mike Axarlis, the car owner, also broke the previous record with a 91.473, but it wasn’t enough to win the FSP class from his son. Eric Johnson beat his own record in SMR with a 78.565, and Don Kennedy beat his own record in Rally Forced Induction with a 94.517.
The competition in Club Ford was even closer between Greg Hagan and Michael Company, who was defending his previous record set in 2020. While Michael beat his previous record, Greg was faster by .037 seconds with a 81.594.
We also were able to run SCCA National Time Trial Classes at this event since it was a Time Attack event, and 3 drivers took advantage. Welcome to Steve Hyatt in T5 with his 14 Mazda2, Chris Rawlings in M1 with his 90 Mazda Miata and Gregory Helm in M6 with his 03 Hyundai Tiburon GT. We hope you come back! I especially liked Chris’s chalkboard number plate.
Other cars that need to be mentioned are Brian Fritzler’s custom Fritzler Raven. It was great to see him back!
Big thanks to Kris Reid for her efforts in getting the pods set up in the pit lane. The event would not have run as smoothly without her. Most of the pictures I have of her are working the pits, but here she is on course killing it.
Michele Aubele was the fastest female driver in her new 2012 BMW 135i that she runs in SMR, placing 10th overall with an 80.301. I can’t wait to see what she can do once she gets used to the car!
It was great to see Tammy Oswald in her FV!
Lauren drove her mustang well!
Crystal Whisler, Emily Oswald and me were the other 3 women driving this past weekend.
This event had a low turnout, which is not good in terms of the future of the event, and I’m sure there will be discussion about this in PHA meetings going forward.
However, from a driver’s perspective, a ton of runs were offered on close to ideal course conditions, and I had a blast. There were twenty runs offered to be exact, which ties the record for number of runs offered on the long course! If you know me, you know I take all runs offered unless the car breaks, and this event was no exception. My last run of the event was my fastest, so apparently I could have used more runs.
A shout out to Steve Hyatt for taking all the runs also. I had to check to see if he had a VW, but it’s a Mazda, which is almost as reliable as VW. 🙂
I almost forgot to mention, most of these photos were taken by Don McLaughlin. He took many more — check out his complete album on flicker.
Wayne Domkowski also took a ton of excellent pictures. Contact Wayne at bdi.black.diamond.imaging@gmail.com with specific requests to see the pictures he took.