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Autocross

2003 Results

**2003 Season Wrapup**  Bauerspeed Racing has brought home THREE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!!

The Pro Solo Finale was held September 6th and 7th in Topeka, Kansas at Forbes Field.  Ron and Annie both came into the Finale with perfect points are were looking forward to doing well at the Finale.

 Ron was again up against Kevin Youngers and Matt Grainger who also had perfect points coming in.  Basically, the year end Championship would be determined by who won the Finale.  Kevin was able to take the early lead, and keep it through through Saturday.  On Sunday morning, going into the final run, Kevin had a 0.046 lead.  The two drivers were up against each other for this final run, and Kevin was able to pull off a left side time that was quickest in class by 7/10ths of a second, while Ron's car popped out of 2nd gear halfway through the course. 

Annie started well on Saturday, but thanks to some dirty runs, was a ways back in the pack in the morning.  Saturday afternoon found her running quicker, and she was able to move up to 5th.  Coming into Sunday morning, Annie realized she had her work cut out for her, as she would need to run times that were very close to Ron to give her a chance to win.  Ultimately, she put down times on her final 4 runs that put her just 1.1 seconds off of Ron's time and that was good enough to give her the 2nd spot position at the Finale.  More importantly, she was able to beat Meredith Brown to take the overall Championship in L1 for the 2003 season!

Next up was the Solo II National Championships.  Ron and Annie ran on Thursday, September 11th and Friday, September 12th.  Ron was in the 2nd Heat, while Annie was in the 5th.  All week the weather forecast was showing thunder showers for Thursday.  True to form, the rain started early in the morning on Thursday.

By the time Ron ran in the 2nd Heat, the course was completely wet, and on 1st runs, there was much standing water.  Ron had full tread Kumhos on the BMW, but due to the amount of standing water, Kevin Youngers, who was on full tread Good Year Eagle F1s in his BMW, was able to run a full second faster.  The rest of the field was quite a ways behind these two drivers.  By the time 2nd runs had rolled around, the rain had died down, and the standing water was lessening.  Kevin picked up 1.5 seconds, and Ron followed shortly just 0.027 behind him.  On 3rd runs, the rain had not returned, so Ron's Kumho's came on strong.  Kevin slowed down, while Ron was able to pick up 8/10ths.  Shawn Mundis in his Type R took advantage of a rerun to end the day in 2nd, just 7/10ths behind Ron. 

The rain stayed away a good portion of the day, so by the time Annie went out in Heat 5, she had a mostly dry course with just a few sections that were wet.  Her main competition would come from Patty Evans out of Reno, NV in her Subaru WRX.  Right off the bat, Annie would be faster, as she ran a 64.2 while Patty DNF'd.  2nd runs had Annie speeding up to a 62.6, while Patty ran a 62.9.  As it turned out, these would be the last runs in the dry, as a storm came through dropping inches of water in just minutes.  Being the troopers that they were, everyone took their final runs and slowed down 16+ seconds.  It was hilarious to watch, as they almost needed rudders to make their way around the course!

When Friday rolled around, the weather was overcast, but dry.  The courses were able to completely dry out, so the competition would be more equal.  The pecking order from Thursday seemed to continue, as Ron, Kevin, and Shawn were all running in the 52 second range.  As Shawn was dirty on his first run, Kevin was able to move up to 2nd place.  2nd runs, would have Shawn cleaning up, but running a couple of tenths off of Kevin, who had a 52.3.  Ron was able to pick up time to get down to a 52.2.  As it turns out, Ron's first run of the day was good enough to take the National Championship, as both Kevin and Shawn would need to run a 51.6 in order to take the win away.  Kevin's final run was a 51.9, while Shawn's was a 51.8. 

Next up would be Annie, to see if she too could win the National Championship.  As Annie had an almost 3/10th's lead from Thursday, Patty would have to run fast to take the win.  1st runs showed both drivers running 53.8's with Annie's run quicker.  2nd runs, Annie went out first and laid down a great run with a 52.8, but unfortunately hit a cone!  Patty was able to run a 53.3, but she too was dirty.  This brought this contest down to the final run.  Annie was slightly more conservative to get a clean run, but was still able to run a 53.2, meaning that Patty would need to run a 53.0 to take the win.  Patty's run looked real good, but her time of 53.4 wasn't fast enough for the win, so Annie took the Championship!

Click here for some pictures of our National Championship runs at the 2003 Nationals!

Copyright 2002, Bauerspeed Racing                                                    This page last updated January 12, 2007