The events at Cumberland use two taxi-ways, a large paddock, and usually have the same general course configuration. The first half of the course starts with a tight area that leads onto a slalom that is followed by a hairpin and long straight. The overwhelming majority of cars at Cumberland are high horsepower cars thus the courses usually have an straight where they can open up! The difficulty with the Lotus at Cumberland is that the 190hp engine doesn't blast out of the corners like the Cobra's or Corvette's. They have to use the Lotus' handling and braking advantage to the extreme to make up the margin. This is what makes Cumberland such a great venue as they have to push the Lotus and themselves to the limit.
The course initially did not look like it would be a problem, but on their first runs they realized that it was a bit visually confusing. The combination of an abundance of cones and offset gates made picking up pointer cones a difficult exercise. Chris does believe that they could eliminate half of the cones on the course and make it quicker to setup, less cones to reset, and make it easier on the drivers. Regardless, it was a good course and had a lot of different types of corners. The lack of limited slip in the Lotus showed its head a few times on high speed offsets, which actually forced them to drive smoother to keep from losing time.
On Chris' third run, he got a 53.1 and was not able to improve on that time. He kept pushing the braking zones deeper and had three off course calls that eliminated the possibility of getting into the 52's. Loretta kept improving her time and got a 53.3 on her fifth run. She did get a 52.9 on her sixth run, but unfortunately had a cone. The time differences between Chris and Loretta is essentially nill now and who is going to get the fastest time is a 50/50 chance. Loretta has dramatically improved her driving this season and Chris is quickly trying to figure out how to match her pace. Chris and Loretta ended up second and third, respectively, in the Super Stock class.
Below are Chris' and Loretta's fastest runs and a side-by-side comparison of their driving styles.
Chris:
Loretta:
Side-by-side:
The next autocross is May 23rd, at the Mid-State Airport in Philipsburg, PA.
