by Steve Silverstein
AONE Director

Well, I was able to make it to the Bay State Corvette Club Autocross after all, but this time I was the only Alfa running! This Autocross was nice because they broke the open class up into two categories: those who have street tires and those who have "specialized" tires (this included the Corvettes that were on race tires). A number of AONE members showed up to watch, including Dave Pratt, Brian Shorey, and Rod Burdick. The Corvette Club is really doing an excellent job of organizing this event, so next June we will have to promote the event more and get more AONE participation.

As for my success... well, I came in fourth in the open class, just behind the two Audi TTs and the winning Honda S2000. Actually, I did beat one of the TTs but overshot the stopping point, which awarded me a DNF for the run.

During the first set of runs the session went like this:

Run 1: I turned a 61.47. I quickly realized that my tires were too soft and bumped up the pressure to 41 pounds in the front and 40 pounds in the rear.

Run 2: I turned a 60.64. I was really pleased to drop almost a whole second. Unfortunately, the two Audis dropped me to fourth place.

There was a lunch break, and that’s when most of the Alfa crew showed up to watch. Brian was driving his Maserati Bora, which is a really cool car. Brian also provided me with key advice - be smooth. The Autocross started again at 1:00, but it was going to be a long time before the open class was going to run. With the beginning of the afternoon session, almost everyone in the Alfa group had other engagements to get to. I have to thank those guys for showing up. It was nice to see a few Spiders in the crowd of Corvettes.

Run 3: I turned a 59.47, which was almost edging out the third place Audi (59.28).

Run 4: This was the run: a low 58-second run. It would have been my fastest time and would have placed me ahead of one of the Audi TTs. But, as fate would have it, I overshot the braking zone, which left me with a DNF instead of a third-place finish. I’d like to think that Brian would have thrown himself in front of my front wheel, assisting in my braking, had he still been there. However, his good advice was a contribution to the effort that was sufficient enough.