Mark Smith extended his lead with a 69.373 on his second run that no one
else could match. Craig Wilcox
coned away his quickest run, a 69.1,
and could never get back to that
time, settling for his own 69. 3.
Muresan clouted five cones over
his first two runs, both 71sec on
the clock. Undaunted, he ran a
clean 69. 7 on his last but it wasn’t
enough. Ma’s final-run 69. 7 had a
cone attached.
The heat’s announcer could hardly
believe what he was seeing: an Audi,
of all things, leading D Stock? And
where were all the Acuras, absent
from the trophy list until Muresan
overcame his pylon problems?
Smith, with quick time both days,
won at 135.841, or 0.441sec ahead of
Wilcox. “I worked hard on making
the nut behind the wheel better,” he
said, “as well as a lot of development
and improvement to the car.”
Paul Dornburg
E Stock Ladies
ESLtook to the East Course on Tuesday for the middle heat,
glad to have had the delays of a
scheduled course walk period and
some timing cable repairs, as that
allowed the course to be nearly
completely dry before they
turned a wheel.
After years of deep competition in
the class, veteran Tara Johns was
faced with a seemingly easier task,
with only two other competitors,
both Nationals rookies. Then the
MR2 shared by Taylor Jordan-Towns
and Alison Hill decided not to start,
experiencing the distributor failure
that seems to be par for the course
when an MR2 reaches 160,000 miles
E STOCK
1. Bartek Borowski Chi Mazda Miata 134.703
2. Scott Thursby NEng Mazda Miata 134.981
3. Jerry Jenkins Ore Mazda Miata 135.333
4. Eric Chiang NEng Mazda Miata 135.474
5. Hubert Borowski Chi Mazda Miata 135.602
6. Bob Davis NEng Mazda Miata 136.151
7. Zach Heidepriem SanF Mazda Miata 136.193
8. Billy Davis NEng Mazda Miata 136.477
9. Wes Jenrich Chi Mazda Miata 136.781
10. Brandon Lavender Indy Mazda Miata 136.997
11. Tom Horvath/NNJ (Mazda Miata R); 12. Grant Winston/NNJ (Mazda Miata R); 13.
Chris Bailey/Milw ( Toyota MR2); 14. Tom Weaver/Fing (Mazda Miata); 15. Michael
Grosenheider/LnSt (Mazda Miata); 16. Aaron Buckley/NCar ( Toyota MR2); 17. Greg
Janulis/Chi (Mazda Miata); 18. James E. Malone/Chi (Mazda Miata); 19. James Harn/
Chi (Mazda Miata); 20. Dan Wheeler/KC ( Toyota MR2); 21. Bryan Hertweck/BlRg
( Toyota MR2); 22. Jeff Hurst/N Y (Mazda Miata); 23. Emanuel Martin/CIll (Mazda
Miata); 24. Derek Loree/Ore (Mazda Miata); 25. Donnie Bartalone/Chi ( Toyota MR2);
26. George Schmitt/SBnd (Mazda Miata); 27. Bud Bohrer/Nwst (Porsche 944); 28.
Daniel Cummings/CIll (Mazda Miata); 29. Curt Pressner/Chi (Mazda Miata); 30. Kent
Edmondson/KC ( Toyota MR2); 31. Stephen Ducharme/Neb (Mazda Miata); 32. Jeff
Janulis/Chi (Mazda Miata); 33. Aaron Dewey/Neb (Mazda Miata); 34. James R.
Malone/Chi (Mazda Miata); 35. Michael White/Neb (Mazda Miata).
E STOCK LADIES
1. Tara Johns Tenn Mazda Miata 140.497
2. Taylor Jordan Towns/Ala ( Toyota MR2); 3. Alison Hill/Atl ( Toyota MR2).
or so. A replacement required a trip
into town and ESL was set to run, so
Chris Bailey offered his similar car to
save the day.
All three got a bit cone-happy,
each with only one clean run. By
second runs their times were set:
Johns lead at 68.575 with Jordan-
Towns almost three seconds behind
and Hill another 1.8sec back. Each of
the three would have improved on
her third run, but all knocked over
either the third or fourth cone in the
opening slalom.
Johns’ first two runs on the tricky
West Course produced a major show
of oversteer on her first run, then a
spin at the finish on her second.
Jordan-Towns seemed to be more
comfortable back in the repaired
“I WOULD NOT HAVE HAD A CHANCE AT HE CHAMPIONSHIP” Heather Everett
E S TOCK
Bartek Borowski
Chicago Region
Mazda Miata
E STOCK LADIES Tara Johns Tennessee Region Tweakit/ABC Plumbing/ Prudential Mazda Miata
MR2, and was quick and clean on
her first two runs. Though she
couldn’t overcome that huge deficit
from the first day, her 73.0 to the
73. 6 of Johns showed she had no
plans to give up. On her third run
she showed off some excellent car
control skills drifting the car around
the Electric Banana. Johns, right
behind, finished some 20sec later
with a class-best 71.922, totaling
140.497 to extend her winning
margin to 4.055sec.
Johns said the only pressure she
felt in her quest for a second
championship was to set fast time in
class both days, not to have to fall
back on that big first-day lead.
