St Petersburg College, St Petersburg, FL - The final NASA-X Florida event was a nice low-key event. Forty-four drivers turned out to run a technical course with a little something for everyone. Several of us, having worn out this season's race tires, took our runs on street tires. The combination of hard tires, the technical course, and an unusually grit-covered, slippery surface threw in a little extra challenge, especially for the first run group -- right-foot discipline was essential to avoid overdriving the corners. Event chairman Steve Frank (in a lightly modified '94 Miata) and I had been engaging in some friendly trash-talk over the previous two weeks, and initially he jumped into the lead as I had problems with cones. We swapped places midway through the runs as I found the rhythm, although he almost pulled it out at the end...we finished 55-thousandths of a second apart, 2d and 3d in the 12-car class behind FTD winner Bob Tamandli (who hadn't used up his sticky tires quite yet), and 8th and 9th of 44 overall. A satisfying end to the season
Click here for class results
Click here for overall results
For next year, the club severes its relationship with NASA and goes independent -- some minor management changes, but the same full schedule of challenging, fun events at Brooksville and St Petersburg. See you next year!
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