These pictures were taken at an autocross at Metro Zoo on June 10, 2000. I'd like to thank my sister Rosemary for taking them. It was a bit of a surprise as I didn't know she was taking a shot at almost every corner of the circuit. Thanks Mei! Each image is about 35K so give it a second to load as there are 14 pics. Sit back and I hope you enjoy!


This is the pre-stage line. It's just a gratuitous Z shot!


Here we are fully staged, waiting for the "go" signal.


"GO!"


It's almost a straight shot to turn 1 but you have to shift to second and then hit the brakes hard.


A quick go through a very slow slalom.


Getting ready to make a u-turn, shift to first and fight the push.


Big cars don't like to do this sort of stuff!


Hard on the gas and back on the brakes for an upcoming slow right.


Back on the gas, hard!


Shift to second and hope you make the turn and the one after that!


Made the turns, now hard on the gas and stay out of the puddle!


Hard on the brakes for the upcoming slalom.


And then right, left, right and back on the gas!


Hard on the brakes for a quick right, left and then gas it to the next turn as it's fast and now and the last right before the finish! Hey, that's Steve in the foreground driving the other Z28 in the FS field!


Too bad there isn't a shot of the finish line as it brought a lot of drama. The finish was maybe the fastest straight in the circuit and had the least amount of space to stop. Quite a few cars ended up spinning when the brakes locked. Truth be told, it was the reason I got the trophy in FS. My closest competitor ran a faster time (-1.1 seconds) but ended up hitting two cones at the end which adds two seconds per cone to his time! Even so, I feel like I accomplished a lot. This was the first event in which I was consecutively faster every run. I also didn't get any more cone marks on the paint which the car seems to appreciate! The other obvious reason is that I won a first place trophy and wound up only .2 of a second behind Joan Clark who shares the car with Steve Burger. Steve had the misfortune of only having one clean run and the quick run as I mentioned was ruined by cones at the end. Why did Joan run quicker and not get first in FS? Because she drives in the ladies category. If you've stereotyped women as passive drivers, you've made a big mistake with Joan. At least once to my knowledge, a fellow seasoned autocrosser let her drive his car at the same event. She beat his time by a tenth or so in a car she was just getting used to!
Check out a couple more pics from the event. Down below is a picture of Armando and his new M Roadster in action and another shot of the 1LE Z28 I hope to catch. What the hell, I'm putting two more pics of the Z at a speed trial that I finished second in the novice class.


Hey Armando, I'm still faster than you are!...na, na, nana, na!