Saturday’s rain was a distant memory as the weak Autumn sun slowly burned the morning mist off the taxiways. The sun and last chance to dance brought out a sellout field of 101 timed entries. These included Brian Karwan, back to co-drive the sleek Fast Freddie’s Fabrications roadster.
For the last day of the last event of the year, Boggs shortened the longest straights, added a crossover, and changed the direction of the hanger turn, but otherwise did not mess with the previous day’s course. Underscoring that our autocross arena is really a working airport, a breakfast fly in attracted a gaggle of cool vintage planes.
The last driver’s meeting was the occasion for some very kind words by Big John Felten. Caught up in the moment of a near perfect morning, he said we should keep running till we ran out of light. Dave Williams recounted the events of Saturday’s tribute to the Pink Lady, tastefully allowing how Doc Mike was the last man to eat Donna Mae. Then came presentation of the 2009 championship Cups of three clubs, CACC, Steeltown Corvettes, and Team Ziptie. Honestly, there wasn’t much mystery when Wade took the honors for CACC, Jim Harris for Steeltown, and Joe “Mustang Boy” Oxenham for TZT. In a combined awards ceremony (mainly because someone forgot the CACC and Steeltown trophies someplace), the winners, all three undefeated champions from last year, mugged for a publicity photo, with the fabled (if somewhat unsanitary) Team Ziptie Cup. Ziptie also awarded the anti-Cup, symbolized by a “Slow Children” retractable cone, for the most dead cones in a season, to the lovely and talented Kate Mewhinny.
Enough talk. It was time to race. Although it seemed shorter, the additional crossovers made Sunday’s course run a tick or two slower than Saturday’s for most drivers. Brian Karwan, experimenting with some spring rate changes, flung the FFF Cobra with abandon around the course, dominating the first heat with his best pass of 48.6, placing him FTD and XP class leader as the first run group quit the field. Brian’s lead stood through the second heat, notwithstanding a solid 49.2 run by Dan Hill’s white Lotus Exige.
In third heat action, Chamberlain ended Karwan’s brief reign on the first run, posting a 48.1. Third heat was plagued by delays caused by suicidal course workers. One played matador with Wade, causing him to abort one of his runs. He would get a rerun.
Uneasy lies the head that wears the FTD crown, and Wade faced on onslaught of fenderless challengers in the final battle of the year. John Felten came hard at Wade Sunday, putting down a 46.2 his fourth run. Jeff Duncan’s Ultralight was close to that pace with a best of 46.6 on his final run. Chipper was right there with 46.83. Wade’s Harvest Moon nemesis Honeycutt, too, not wanting to risk another fourth heat cold front, ran his Reynard in the third, driving his times down to a 47 flat. By the end of his allotted five runs, the best Wade could muster was a 46.86.
But the Weasel is a dangerous rodent to trust with a rerun. On his last lap of the last race of the last event of the year, Wade went deep and ran an amazingly quick pass, on the ragged edge the entire lap. When the signboard flashed, it dashed the hopes of all Reynard pilots and Lotus jockeys, reading 45.9. Chamberlain had done it: a double FTD and XP class win for the 2009 Pumpkin Carve. A down to the wire clutch finish to an entire season of spectacular driving. The score was settled, with Felten settling for second overall and the B Mod class win, Duncan third, Gary Hughes fourth, and Honeycutt fifth.
Larry Casey pushing his silver bullet to the max, ran several dirty passes, until his last, a clean 47 flat, placing him 2d in XP and 6th overall. Doug Smith firmly cemented his position as one of CACC’s top drivers of 2009, pulled out a 47.2 on his last turn at bat, good for third in class and lucky 7th overall. A half second behind him was Fast Freddie, with a 47.7, placing him 4th in XP and 9th in the raw time standings. A radically prepped S Mod Celica running a 47.4 in the fourth heat dislodged Fast Freddie from 8th overall. Karwan’s first heat performance would land him 6th in XP and 12th overall. Other top 25 overall finishes by CACC included Tink Phillips’ 50 flat and Al Paca’s 50.1. I finished below the fold in 28th position with a 50.2, followed by upstart Dave T.’s 50.9. Bringing up the rear in XP was the Terry Holstein Daytona, who finished fourth heat with a 54.0 and Wayne Orchard, who logged a 55.2 best run.
Sunday ‘s fourth heat also saw the debut of the colorful “Vintage Street Tire” class, open only to original vintage U.S. iron running on street tires. As we packed up, we watched such beautiful rides including Tink Phillips awesome orange 1970 Boss 302 Mustang, driven by Ed Lutman, and a badass black lacquer 1971 Pontiac Trans Am take to the course. Perhaps fittingly, the class win in this brand new matchup was taken by Mike McCaugh, piloting the white 1957 Corvette fuelie which had, the day before, squired Donna Mae Mims on her last lap at Cumberland.
In the aftermath, Wade’s double FTD sent the NRA historians scrambling to record books to find a precedent. Indeed, it was a “double triple,” as Wade had swept raw time, PAX and class wins on each of the two days of competition. Archivist Scott Williams determined that Chamberlain’s “double triple” was only the second in CBE autocross history, the last one five years ago by GM factory racer Karen Rafferty, who swept fields of 87 and 77 cars to take FTD, PAX and class wins in the 2004 Summer Sizzler. That’s pretty good company, and hardly diminishes Wade’s extraordinary accomplishment.
So ended CACC’s 2009 Cumberland Airport Autocross season. It saw amazing cars, drivers, and fellowship. The best got better, and the margins between drivers at all levels continue to shrink. How fortunate we are to have such an arena to test ourselves and our machines. As sad as it is to see it end, next year is fresh page on which to write history. With luck, we will all be there together again. Thank you all for providing such drama and spectacle, truly worthy of recording. Thank you all for your skill in driving and building and improving our fantastic machines, truly inspiring. And thank you all for your friendship and camaraderie in which we share these glorious moments. If the Fates are kind, I will see you all on the grid for the 2010 Icebreaker.
