March 17, 2008 - Team Autoxrs Headquarters

After a six month long hiatus, Team Autoxrs was back on the road at this past weekend’s March Madness Autocross with the Southern West Virginia Region of the SCCA.  Roy Wendell took the win in the team’s #48 STS2 Honda CRX Si, with team owner Sean Banerjee close behind in second place.  Wendell also went on to take the PAX adjusted win, while Banerjee was 11th in the PAX times.  Wendell also finished an impressive 4th in RAW times as well, a second behind the FTD SM EVO and two SS Corvettes.  The weekend presented a huge unknown for team owner Banerjee after the team had decided to switch to the faster Bridgestone RE-01R tires from the Falken Azenis RT-615 tire in the off season.

Banerjee opted to take the opening run to ensure the car was not presenting any problems, a cautious but dirty run yielded a time of 40.964 and a pylon.  The team quickly evaluated the run and realized that traction was at a premium after overnight rains had left the track surface wet in many places and this meant a hard launch would not be possible.  It was decided to keep the RPMs down to 2000 at the start to ensure a steady launch.  Wendell took his first run and soon set the stage for what would be a stellar performance through the day.  Wendell posted a run of 38.524 that put him into the top spot in the STS2 class.  The second run for Banerjee was also dirty; a braking miscue into the transition after the start straight away brought forth a huge slide that he managed to save but ended up knocking over 4 pylons.  Soon after the run the team had to extract a dislodged pylon from under the car.  Wendell’s second was over 2 seconds faster than his first as he quickly began establishing himself as a threat to the PAX fastest time.  In the third run Banerjee posted a much cleaner time, albeit 4 seconds slower than the fastest time in the class.  “The long off season has not helped my driving.” commented Banerjee after the morning heat.  Wendell’s third run was a blinding 35.230, but a late cone call thwarted what would have been FTD after the morning session.

The evening session brought forth a much more controlled performance from Banerjee.  His 37.625 run put him within a second of Wendell’s time.  But, Wendell responded with another quick time to extend the lead to 1 second.  Banerjee’s fifth run brought him to within 2/10th of Wendell’s time but he quickly responded with a 35.747 second run.  The sixth run brought another clean run for Banerjee, but a braking miscue by Wendell on the back straight resulted in a DNF.  Going into the last run Wendell held a one second lead, but a blistering 34.865 second run vaulted him to the top spot in PAX time and sealed the victory by just under 2 seconds.  In the post race debrief both drivers agreed that the car had performed flawlessly despite being unable to generate heat in the tires with the low 40 degree weather.  Further development will be made prior to the next race, including replacing a torn tie rod boot and realigning the car.  The team is currently working on developing a better exhaust system to reduce cabin noise during transit to events while providing a quick connect to remove the system prior to a run.    

Guest driver Wendell began ice racing in 1994 with his Ford Fiesta and soon afterwards began attending autocrosses with the Black Hills Sports Car Club.  Due to many nagging issues with his Mazda RX2 he chose to focus on helping with event administration and timing and scoring.  Over the years Wendell has driven everything from a CM Formula Ford to a Prepared class Corvette.  In 2004, Wendell introduced Banerjee to autocross and has played a role in developing the CRX for STS2.  Wendell will continue driving the CRX through the summer, before returning to McMurdo Station in August.