On Sunday, I wake up early, pack myself a small lunch and head down US-131 towards Martin, Michigan. The sky had been clear when I had left but now it keeps getting darker and rain begins falling as I drive through Grand Rapids. A blue 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix passes me driven by Furrin’ Group Speed Chair, Curt Rosentengel. Curt pretty much single handedly coordinates all the Furrin Group autocross events. He has a couple of cars he runs at local events. His Grand Prix has shown up a lot in STX and his Triumph Spitfire has run in H Stock and Vintage class.
I pull the SC2 into the gas station at the Martin exit and look for a rain poncho. Of course they don’t have any. Martin isn’t exactly a tourist Mecca of West Michigan. I buy a bottle of generic Pepto Bismo, as my stomach doesn’t feel well.
I drive into the Knoll Gas US-131 Motorsports Park and past the empty entrance booths--evidently the park management hasn’t bothered to come out in the rain. Very few people have arrived, but it is only around 8:30 am and registration isn’t scheduled to start until 10. The rain lets up enough for me to put “11 HS” in white duct tape on both doors. The tape actually sticks great on wet cars.
I am surprised when one of the next cars to pull up is another Saturn Coupe. Not only is it another Saturn, but it is the same year and model—it even has “11 HS” written on a sheet of paper in the rear window. Mr. David Reed’s Coupe is the mid-nineties dark green with tan interior. I am not fond of dark green Saturns, even though I now own my second dark green 1995 Saturn, but dark green actually looks nice on a 1995 SC2. Maybe it’s the only color that really works with the Coupe’s factory gold stripe.
David had seen [url= http://sccaforums.com/forums/permalink/238471/233905/ShowThread.aspx#233905]some of my postings on here about running a Saturn in H Stock[/url]. His SC2 is also running the 205/50R15 RT-615s. At registration I find out that I am actually pre-registered as “9 HS”, so I change my 11s into 9s, only to find that Mr. Reed had added another 1 to his 11s. At least we both have unique numbers now.
I spend most of the morning sitting in the SC2 with the heat and A/C on trying to dry out, but during one of the brief lulls in the rain I get to walk the course a few times. The autocross course doesn’t actually use the dragstrip. It uses some of the staging area, some of the parking lot and a small loop around part of the paddock/camping area. We had run an autocross at this site last November. The Storm GSi had needed a shift to third on the fastest straight section.
Today’s course design is pretty haphazard, but it basically consists of a whole bunch of slaloms—at least five distinct slaloms. There are two optional elements, but one impacts the other making four distinct possible paths. I stick with one path for my first three runs and try the other way around the loop on my forth and final run. This final run is my best time but I hit 3 cones. My first run time ends up being good enough for third out of 8, which earns me my first trophy teeshirt in the SC2. Considering this was only my second autocross trophy ever, I was happy.
I manage to get a covered location to stand for snagging cones for the second heat, and the weather also mostly clears up. Overall it is a fun event, though my lack of driving progress disappoints me. The SC2 handled the wet course well, but clearly the Azenis aren’t the best tire for wet grip.