Congratulations to Darren Foo!

[fc-racer]

I just got word on the times for E/SP and from my calculations here, I think we finally have an E/SP Championship to call our own. Congratulations to Darren Foo for once again pulling out the required run on his last run and nailing that elusive championship. Having been Darren's teammate all year long, I can say with authourity that he has been driving his butt off and has been a real force this year.

These are preliminary results and only the top 6-7 are 100% accurate, the remainder might change once the final runs comes in, but this is what E/SP looks like:

[ September 22, 2002: Message edited by: fc-racer ]</p>

[Bigger is Better]

I also want to congratulate Darren, he drove a great season. Pretty good when you were supposed to be the secondary driver

The battle in between Darren and Oliver towards the end of the season was great with it all coming down to the last runs on of a seven event series (only a 0.8% total differnce over the seven events). I think it would also like to congratulate Oliver for his great run, he almost took it with basically a superstock mustang (so much for my horsepower theory ) The pair of them put a fair spread on the rest of the ESP field.

There is a bunch of new guys in the trophies this year (Darren, Rich, Carl, Farz and maybe Andre) and ESP continues to be the most competitive in all of Canada. I love it and hate it at the same time (I got bumped two spots down just by today's event! Damn that last cone!).

See you all at the CACC Banquet!

Johnny
130 ESP
1980 Pontiac TransAm

[Yarko]

WAY TO GO DARREN!! we were all cheering for ya buddy! VCMC!!!!!!

[SkinnyG]

Way to go Darren!

Farz:

Oh look! 5 of 9 are BCMA members

Greg "OASC" Wellwood

[Cliffy]

The results are even more impressive when you consider the following;

This, IIRC is Darren's first full season competing in a single class. Before he jumped between A/SS, B/SP etc.

ESP was won w/ a 4cyl. 'hair dryer' foreign car that is nowhere near being fully developed....brake issues and all. For the pony car guys, that's gotta hurt.

Congratulations Darren, you and a few other VCMC superstars have earned your place in the instructors pool for Velocity in 2003.

-c.

[ September 22, 2002: Message edited by: Cliffy ]</p>

[obrett]

I also want to congratulate Darren on the win. He drove great all year.

I knew it was going to be tough to catch him. I calculated I needed 1.4 seconds on a 55 second course to claim the title, next to impossible to accomplish if Darren remained clean. As Johnny said, the season came down to Darren's and my last runs of the 7th event in a 7 event series. What a nail biter.

I also want to congratulate Rich Fukui for his year. If he hadn't had a mechanical problem with his car the night before Champ #2 (forcing him to miss the event), he would have been in the hunt as well. Look out for him next year.

Finally, I have to say that part of my competitiveness this year is as a result of having a co-driver last year. If anyone is offered an opportunity to co-drive, take it.

What a year, can't wait for 2003!

Oliver B.
28 ESP
90 Ford Mustang
2002 BC Autoslalom Champion, ESP
2nd place, ESP, 2002 CACC Solo Championship

[obrett]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>
ESP was won w/ a 4cyl. 'hair dryer' foreign car that is nowhere near being fully developed....brake issues and all. For the pony car guys, that's gotta hurt.
<hr></blockquote>

Not really, 'cause my 'Stang is a 3 point car. Yup, 3 points. For the 15 point guys, that's gotta hurt!

...and I have an ESP legal OEM rad.


T Frost

[Sead]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by titanium frost:
I have to say that part of my competitiveness this year is as a result of having a co-driver last year. If anyone is offered an opportunity to co-drive, take it.<hr></blockquote>

I second that!

[autobacs]

Congratulations Darren!
I always had fun watching the E/SP gang out on the course throughout the season. Thanks to all of u for putting on a great show!

[RATED_SiR]

That was an awsome season guys. Congrats to a great win Darren!
Thanks for a really good show!

[Race Miata]

Congrats to Darren! Both Farz and Darren has put on some really good shows this season and rewritten some textbook pages on what a fast autocross car should be!

[cbeere]

ESP was won w/ a 4cyl. 'hair dryer' foreign car that is nowhere near being fully developed....brake issues and all. For the pony car guys, that's gotta hurt.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not really, 'cause my 'Stang is a 3 point car. Yup, 3 points. For the 15 point guys, that's gotta hurt!

...and I have an ESP legal OEM rad.

Yes, Very well done Darren, and I sincerely mean it, But really if anyone is a "superstar driver" it most definately is our Solo Director, Oliver Brett!! While huge amounts of money have been put into the Talon this year, and it's prep. points are pushing the 15 allowed in SP, that darn uncompetitive 3 point mustang that I sold Oliver a couple of years ago somehow got really quick without him spending any more money on go fast stuff!!

So remember kids, you don't always need a 'hair dryer' foreign car to be fast cause a tired old 190 000km stock 5.0 with stock headers, and SA konis (Hey Look Ma! No Coilovers!!!!!!!!), did win the BC Championship and very nearly the Solo Championship!

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by titanium frost:
I have to say that part of my competitiveness this year is as a result of having a co-driver last year. If anyone is offered an opportunity to co-drive, take it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by Sead:

I second that!

--------------------

As far as the Co-driver thing, Well It didn't do me much good this Year!!!!!

Congratulations to all the winners regardless of what club you represent!! Now I got all winter to work on the Neon so I can make it a competitive DSS car!!

Chris Beere

[Sead]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by cbeere:
Now I got all winter to work on the Neon so I can make it a competitive DSS car!!
<hr></blockquote>


DS...........P?

[fc-racer]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by cbeere:
Not really, 'cause my 'Stang is a 3 point car. Yup, 3 points. For the 15 point guys, that's gotta hurt!<hr></blockquote>

Oliver, it doesn't hurt at all actually. We must remember that the #1 priority for the Talon was to do well in a hillclimb. From day one, every component was chosen to excel in the higher speed environment of a hillclimb. Considering that the 15pt Talon was a full 10 seconds faster than the 3pt Mustang up the mountain, in a novice hillclimber's hands at that, goes to prove that our goals were met.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>While huge amounts of money have been put into the Talon this year, and it's prep. points are pushing the 15 allowed in SP, that darn uncompetitive 3 point mustang that I sold Oliver a couple of years ago somehow got really quick without him spending any more money on go fast stuff!!<hr></blockquote>

No doubt that Oliver drove his butt off this year and he deserves a real pat on the back for winning the BC Championship event. However, as you are aware since a thousand or so went your way of that "huge amounts of money", most of the expensive parts went towards making the car a hillclimb safe and legal car.

The reason why I write this is that the Talon, to be completely honest was a nightmare to drive in an auto-x. The key to that car's performance was Darren's performance and his drive to keep pushing the development of the car over the year.

We had three people/companies that helped us along the way:

Lowell Foo at L&R Racing. We all know that every chassis problem, every braking problem, we were able to drive around using the massive horsepower that Lowell's engine gave us.

Frank Micucci at Driver's Edge Autosport. He got all of our safety gear in a moments notice and the fact that we haven't had to do anything with our gears goes to show that it is high quality. The seat fits and looks superb.

Don Nimi at PDM Racing. Don tried his best to help salvage our poor suspension pieces. Even with a blown shock absorber that plagued us from day 1, he was able to corner balance and align the car to make it driveable. Once he does his magic on it next year with a new set of shocks, the car should really come into its own.

In conclusion, we've had an amazing year of success that I attribute to Darren pushing the development of the car and the three vendors that were always there to assist us in any way possible to ensure our success.

In 2002, the Talon achieved:
ESP CACC Championship - Darren Foo
SP-2 Knox Mountain Class Record - Farzaan Kassam
SM NT Podium Finish - Farzaan Kassam
SM NT Trophy Finish - Darren Foo
ESP VCMC 20th Anniversary 1st - Farzaan Kassam

Thank you Lowell, Frank and Don for making the car's debut year an amazing one.

fc-racer

[BaD KaRmA]

Thanks for all the kind words. It's more of a relief than anything now that the season's finally over. Can't believe it came down to the last event and last run, what a fun year it's been! Oliver definitely drove great this year, he smoked me last weekend. And Rich is driving great as well!

On another note, E/SP seems to get a lot of limelight probably because of how large it is and how much trashtalking there is in this class, I'd like to encourage others to come join E/SP, next year Chickenman will be back, and I hear Campbell will be working on a new ride? I'd like to see the class come closer to the faster smaller non-slick prod cars. Compared to some of the faster classes we're not too far behind but there's definitely some room there for growth.

Congratulations to Chris in C/SP, he's been our benchmark to see how fast we should be shooting for (a second back or so =) and also to Sead in D/SS. The owner of that neon was driving really well last weekend though, ChrisB looked really smooth out there. And a big congrats to Darryl Ho, I'm guessing he's taken Rookie of the Year, and F/S and 2nd in Top Gun? That's amazing Darryl, first year out.

Huge thanks to Lowell and Tommy at L&R Racing, no one knows DSM's like these guys. Without their support we would have never made the season or Knox! Frank at Driver's Edge, always ready to help us with OMP gear at a moments notice, thanks for all your help. And finally, thanks to Don over at PDM Racing, sourcing parts and suspension tweaking.

Above all thanks to my co-driver Farzaan, who's always pushed me to go faster and never failed to help me with my driving. Without his help I probably wouldn't be racing right now actually.

Now that the season's over we can try and fix what's wrong with the talon and hopefully make a run at Canadian Nationals and maybe Kansas. On a sidenote, discussing with a friend for plans for running One Lap of America or Open Track Challenge next May. Either way, not sure if I'll be able to pass up such an opportunity.

PS. Johnny, how come I don't hear anymore trashtalking? Last year all I heard was how you were gonna kick my a$$, etc. I should go back and find some of those emails... =)

[ September 25, 2002: Message edited by: BaD KaRmA ]</p>