Report from the August 12th COMSCC Time Trial Event at NHIS on August 12
by Stephan de Pénasse
The story of my most recent racing event, the COMSCC Time Trial race at NHIS in Loudon on August 12th, is a bittersweet episode.
My Alfa GTV had just come back from Glynn Motorsports after a "clean-up job". The transmission had failed while I was on my annual pilgrimage to the Canadian Grand Prix Formula One in Montreal (June 9th). Since I’d lived in Montreal for almost twenty years and owned Alfas while residing there, I entrusted the job to my old mechanic, a decision I now regret. When I finally got the car back – almost a whole month after – I barely made it home: starter problems, throttle linkage bent, heater cable jammed, etc. and I quickly placed it in the trusted hands over at Glynn’s for a thorough clean-up.
Then on August 4th we heard the sad news that Rob Goldfarb, COMSCC president, was killed in a SCCA race at Pocono. Rob had been influential in assisting us with the proper connections for securing NHIS for the Autocross and Time Trial events for our upcoming 2004 AROC Convention. (This is not the first time I had people close to me die while racing. One such person of whom I believe most of you have heard is Ayrton Senna.) This gave me added reason to attend the COM event: to overcome a sad moment, to be able to comprehend, and to bring closure. "It is what they (Rob and Ayrton and others) would want you to do".
I remember once, when my brother-in-law flipped his VW bug while going too fast on a curve, the first thing he wanted to do was to get in a car and do that curve again. We cannot live by fear; we must respectfully overcome it.
Anyway, back to the Time Trail event. Extremely hot weather made the practice runs tricky and slippery. We needed plenty of fluid intake while grasping for better grip. All in all, the Alfa felt very good, nicely balanced (thanks, Glynn team!), and I was in the 1 minute 30-31 second range in my sessions in this chicane-to-chicane configuration. (The track record for the SSB [showroom stock] class is 1:28 on a very good day.)
The Time Trial race was more of the same, and my time was good enough for a second place finish, not far behind one of my old instructors, Fred Sanford and his Miata. Did he forget to teach me something just in case I would race in his class?
Roger Schleicher took the only photo of my Alfa from the event [the cover shot on this month’s issue]. Roger is a professional track photographer whom I met at the track. He mentioned that he had taken pictures for the Alfa Clubs in Florida and Georgia, so I will establish contact with him for our Il Ritorno event in 2004. In the picture, the headlights are covered with stickers containing Rob’s number 23 that were given out. So I dedicate my placing in this event to Rob with a note of thanks for his contribution to AONE for the 2004 AROC Convention.
I am also sad to announce that family matters have
forced me to put la macchina on the market and I hope that it finds a nice home
where it will be treated with continuous respect. 
