Just two short weeks after the previous event, we were all back at Firebird for another race. The course is different every time so that it stays interesting, and this day's course was a pretty simple setup which appeared to allow higher speeds. I liked this, because it meant I could get up to a high enough speed to use 2nd gear without bogging down.

I showed up early to this event and I was totally prepared. I had my new Yokohama A509 195/65-HR14 tires pumped up to 42psi up front and around 36 in back, and I was feeling confident that this would be a good event. Only one problem. I was entered in Novice II again, meaning I'd be running against cars a zillion times faster than mine again. Doh. Minor mistake, but it didn't really matter much anyway. Myself and all the other HS cars ran in the first run group, and by the fourth or so (of six) it had started raining so most of the faster Novice II cars had to drive in the rain. Here's how it turned out.

Novice II Class Entries: 9 - Total entries in all classes: 108 (Many went home when it started raining)

Pos	Class	Driver	Car	Fast Time	FT#	PAX Time	PAX#
1	GS	Marc McCombs	96 Camaro V6	36.653	18	29.102	5
2	ES	Doug Rowse	91 Integra	38.066	39	30.110	17
3	HS	Brandon Smith	97 Civic HX	39.046	54	30.768	27
4	CSP	Tage Evanson	95 Integra	38.269	42	32.529	57
5	GS	Mark Rebilas	95 Camaro V6	41.940	91	33.300	74
6	CSP	Ben Benavides	97 Nissan 200SX	40.785	80	34.667	89
7	DSP	Aaron Jacobs	90 Toyota Pickup	42.689	97	35.517	95
8	CSP	Louis Anaya	97 Nissan 200SX SE-R	42.109	94	35.793	100
9	CSP	JR Bowyer	90 Nissan 300ZX	45.316	106	38.519	106

So, I did pretty well again, but this time it rained out a number of the other cars in the field which may have beaten me. Tage, for example, has a wickedly fast Integra GS-R that almost certainly would have taken third or possibly second place if he'd been able to run in the dry. Fortunately, I won't have to race against any of these cars again because I'm going to stick to H Stock. So lets look at how all the HS cars did, since we all ran before it started raining.

All HS Cars, regardless of Class entered

Pos	Driver	Car	Fast Time	FT#	PAX Time	PAX#
1	Brandon Smith	97 Civic HX	39.046	54	30.768	27
2	Judy Schrum	65 Corvair	40.157	73	31.644	42
3	John Byrne	98 Chevy Malibu	40.663	77	32.042	49
4	Heidi Kmetz	94 Saturn	41.158	85	32.433	54
5	Greg Schupfer	64 Corvair	41.296	87	32.541	58
6	Brad Penrod	88 Acura Integra	41.815	90	32.950	65
7	Chris Oliver	90 Plymouth Laser	42.024	92	33.115	70
8	Warren Schluter	96 Ford Taurus	42.088	93	33.165	71
9	Allan Terrien	70 Fiat 850 Spyder	45.170	105	35.594	98

Now if there's anything that would convince me that I'd found my calling in life, the above table would do it. As I had observed, this track was extremely well suited to my car. It's one of the more powerful ones in HS, but the gearing is just all wrong for autocrossing. This track however, worked just fine in 2nd gear. I'd like to call it beginner's luck that I did as well as I did, but seeing the gap between me and the next closest HS car, it's hard to say it was all luck. But, just to prove to me that some tracks work for me and some don't, I have posted my results from the Tucson autocross as well. It wasn't such a happy story compared to the two races at Firebird.