The 2022 Fall Shenandoah Track Sprint Event was held September 3-4 at Summit Point Motorsports Park in WV. While it was a little hot, it was dry for the entire event. We were offered 18 timed runs for the weekend, and that’s a record (previous record is 13, set in 2021).
Jon (Kurt) Eikenberg took FTD in his 1994 Cheeta SR1 that he runs in Special 1 with a 86.611.
Bill Feist was only .112 seconds behind in second place, with a 86.723 in his 06 Stohr F1000 that he runs in Formula S.
For those of you following the PHA season, you are probably wondering what happened to Mark Aubele, as he has been taking FTD at every event up to this point. He unfortunately had an incident at the Flag Rock Hillclimb the weekend prior to this event, and he doesn’t anticipate being able to repair his Mustang before the end of the season.
That’s definitely a bummer, as Mark was on track to have FTD at every event. The closest anyone has come before to a “perfect season” before was Bryan Fritzler in his 73 Tui BH3 in 2021 — Bryan had FTD at every event in 2021 except Giants Despair, where George Bowland was faster at Giants Despair by .03 seconds in his 03 BBR SR1!
Back to this event, Mark co-drove Michele’s BMW, and while he did set a class record in SPO with a 95.923, the car broke on his second run, so he and Michele only were able to take one run. Here is Michele Aubele getting ready to take her first and only run.
We had 54 timed entries, with 6 novices and eleven class records set. The final results can be found on the Current Schedule/Results page.
I ran my backup car, the FSP 1987 16V Scirocco, aka the black car, as my GT3 car is done for the season (needs a motor). The last time I had the black car at this event was in 2019, and I ran a 116.773. This time I ran a 119.429, which was a bit disappointing. I was really surprised that I wasn’t faster, as I really felt like I was driving well, and the conditions were close to perfect. I can say that I enjoyed every run and it was so much fun to get this car to a track where it can be driven the way it is supposed to be driven (without getting a ticket)!
I also had a great time hanging out everyone in the evenings. Given the date of this event, we did have a sobering conversation about 9/11. And we talked about Joe DeLuca and Linda Gronlund, who were on flight 93. They were Northern NJ SCCA Members, and Joe was the author of Raymond the Cat.
http://scca-nnjr.com/index.php/about-us/raymond-the-cat
Then a friend said he was in 4th grade when it happened. I mumbled something like “I was not even still in school, never mind 4th grade”, and the mood lightened.
Here are some pictures of the event. Don McLauglin took the bulk of them, and here is a link to his pictures:
And a gallery, where I stole a bunch of his pictures, and added a few more.
