July 26, 2008 - Team Autoxrs Headquarters

The Team Autoxrs Honda CRX was back racing at the Cumberland SpeedWeeks autocross held at Cumberland Airport. Sharing driving duties would be car owner Sean Banerjee and Roy Wendell. The team's objective for the weekend was to evaluate the new alignment and suspension settings.

The changes proved to be fruitful as Wendell went on to record his fifth class win of the season with Sean hot in his heels in second place. The fast flowing course allowed the drivers to get deep into third gear, something that is generally not a norm at the other events.

On Friday before the event the team decided to head to the alignment shop to verify the alignment readings. The pre-alignment results were shocking, the rear camber was completely out of spec and the rear toe was in on one side and out on the other. The fronts were no better as the car had major toe in and the caster readings were also off. After spending a couple of hours on the rack the team managed to get the car back to the original specs except for the rear camber which will need work as the Ingalls adjusters are frozen.

The run format at Cumberland is based on heat structure as opposed to class. The team rolled the dice and decided to have car owner Sean run in the first heat while Roy worked and then have Roy run in the second heat while Sean worked. This would allow ample time to pack up the car before the team had to drive north for Sunday's event with the Steel Cities Region.

Sean's first run was a conservative 56.062 second run, the course was fast and flowing and the decision to leave the car in second all the way through proved to be a bad one. The second run was much faster but dirty as Sean clipped a cone in the fast sweeping back straight. Sean's third run was even faster with a 54.392 second time, but a slide in the transition filled back section meant he was marked as off course. With only two runs remaining it was time to set a clean and fast time which Sean did with his fourth run that was went into the time sheets as 54.269 seconds. Sean's final run was fast, but a slide in the finish spoiled what could have been a 52 second run as he ended the day with a fast time of 53.573 seconds. With limited time between the heats the co-drivers didn't have much time to exchange notes. Sean on his runs was opting for third gear down the back straight and also third gear heading out of the final 180 degree turn.

Roy's first run was resulted in a spin and a cone as he stopped the clocks at 61.906 seconds. Roy's second run was much cleaner as he dropped down to a 55.261 second time. Roy's third run once again was littered with slides and spins, the fast flowing course required precision to keep the car in control. With two dirty runs out of three runs time was running out to register a clean and fast run. Roy's fourth run was dirty again as he went wide on the same transition Sean was marked off course at. The clock stopped at 52.863 and this scratch time meant Roy was one clean run away from taking the class win. With just one run remaining it was time to tighten the harness and get a good run in. Roy's final run was perfect as he stopped the clock just over a second faster than Sean at 52.465 seconds and took the class win.

As the drivers began packing up they discussed their personal strategies. Roy decided to go lower on the rear shock settings to help stabilize the car. "The car was wicked loose, going into the fast sweeper it just didn't want to stick so I decided to go down a turn on the rear Konis." said Roy after the event. Roy also opted to leave the car in second instead of third after the final 180 degree turn, which probably saved at least a second. The team was thrilled with their performance at an event that generally favors the high horse power cars.

The team would once again like to thank Mark Connolly and everyone at McB Autosport for their continued support of the team. We'd also like to acknowledge the support provided by Jon Kofod/Team Flatoutracing and Curry's Auto Service.  The team would also like to thank Super Street Station in Carmichaels, PA for their help with getting the car aligned.