This is the 3rd year the annual Sonic Car meet was in Morgantown, PA. However, it's not just hillbilly's and pickups blowing by Amish buggies. People from NY, NJ, DE, MD, etc come to this meet and it keeps growing every year. We finally had good weather and totally packed the parking lot at Sonic, and all the other stores - Walmart, Lowe's, the shopping mall, and more! I estimate well over 1,000 cars, maybe 1,500 or so.

The Reading crew of about 10 cars met up before the meet for the mini cruise down to Sonic. We took the back roads this year as traffic can be a mess. I heard there was a 3+ mile backup on the turnpike for the Morgantown exit. All in all it was a good day for checking out different cars, talking to friends, and have a few brews while we walked around. There was certainly an interesting mix of cars and people.

Here are some of the pics I took, as well as others I got from various websites. Also be sure to check out the video of the moron who couldn't help but do a burnout in front of a cop. Winning!

Burnout!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQef4fKJnNw




OFFICIAL VIDEO of the Sonic Meet

TST Sonic Meet 2011 (Official Video) from Kenny Cano on Vimeo.

A friend of mine Robert's photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61060145@N04/sets/72157626625011376/

I competed in my first autocross event of the year at Citizens Bank Park in Philly on 4/10/11. I got my summer tires put on a few weeks ago, along with a new lightweight Lithium battery. It only weighs 8lbs which saves about 26lbs of weight on the battery alone.

Dan co-drove my car for the event and helped me through the course the first time as I was lost. I got better each time though the course and ended up with a solid finish. Here is a link to the results. My best time was 80.86 seconds which put me in the middle of the SM (Street Modified) class. My car is a little under-classed for the SM class, but I ran it since most of the Evo's were in that class.
http://www.phillyscca.com/solo2/results/2011/SO041011.shtml

Here are a few pics. Dan is driving with the #1 on the car, and I am driving with the #31 on the car.

From Evo 2011

From Evo 2011

Chad and I went to an auto-x in Hershey. It was held in one of the parking lots at Hershey Park. The lot was big and the course was fast. I was able to improve every run of the day and wound up running a best time of 74.6 seconds. Chad also did fairly well and ran a best time of 77 seconds. He struggled with traction..I wonder why...and will only improve with another set of tires.

He did get the award for the Most of Control Car, Not Out of Control. Here is a video of Chad's and my best runs. It was his 3rd run, and my 4th. Thanks to Jocelyn for coming out and getting some good video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvziX2DkrMw

The results are in. I am happy with my finish. I placed right in the middle of the pack of about 120+ drivers. So for my 2nd event ever, I am pleased.

http://www.scca-susq.com/results/2010/10-10-24-axresults.html

Here is a map of the course.

From Hershey Auto X 102310

Pics of Chad and I racing.

Masano Mitsubishi of Reading, PA held an owners day for all Mitsu owners. It was held at the dealership and had about 30 cars attend. Food was provided by Hooters and prizes were given away for loudest exhaust, best wheels, and overall Best of Show. While I didn't win any prizes I still had fun meeting and talking to the other owners.

I hope they will have this event again next year.

From Evo

From Evo

From Evo

This would be my last time for drag racing for the season. I was running low on gas, so instead of filling up at the local Sonoco, I decided to fill up at the track. I decided to put some 112 octane race gas in for a bargain $8 per gallon. I put in 2 gallons and had maybe 2 gallons of 93 octane already in.

With this new gas, I was able to up the boost about 2psi and make some runs. The result was a personal best of 12.79 @ 110mph. This beat my prior best of 12.89 @ 108mph.

From Evo

I haven't been out drag racing much for the past month or so, but that all changed Friday. There was hardly anyone at the track. I had 3 runs in the first 25 minutes! I could of had 2 or 3 more by 6pm, but decided I should park it after the first 3 since I didn't want to overheat the clutch. My 3rd run was a 13.08 and was happy with that to start the night. I got back in line shortly after 6pm and got two more runs before I left. On my final run I got a 13.009 @ 107.9 mph and missed 12's by 9 thousandths! I knew if I would of stayed I most likely would of been able to pull a 12 as the temp was getting cooler. Earlier it was mid 80's which didn't help the horsepower.

I got a new toy - a small video camera and tied it to my passenger seat for some "in car" video. Here is a video of my first run. The bummer is I don't know what my time was because the timeslip printing machine wasn't working.

A few friends have been bugging me to do an auto-x for some time now. And after competing in one for the first time Aug 15th, I don't know what took me so long! It was a very well run event by a local Porsche club at the Reading Airport. It was a limited entry event to guarantee all racers 6 runs, 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. There were of course plenty of Porsches, but also many other cars including 6 Evo's, WRX's, BMW's, Mustang's, Corvette's, etc.

I started off by taking it a little easy my first run as I was just getting a feel for the course and my car. I had a chance to work the first session so I got to see the cars go around the track numerous times before I had to try and duplicate. My first two runs I actually went off course, but not by much, I just missed this one set of cones after coming around a sharp bend. Not to worry, I put together a nice run my 3rd chance (check out the videos). It was my best dry time, 58.9 plus 1 second for the cone I hit, before the rain started in the afternoon.

I was a little concerned about driving in the rain since I didn't know where the limits of my car were in the wet conditions. I took the first lap of the afternoon a little tentative, checking to see if I would slide or not. I made it through with a 62.1. I figured I would let loose a little more since I didn't have any trouble on the first run. I thought I almost lost control on the back slalom stretch, but the car came through and I finished with a 59.9, and the first car to hit under 60 sec in the rain! I couldn't believe it myself.....this is my first time doing this and all. Someone else did get under 60 before I went again, so I needed to get my title back. I went a little harder again, and feeling more comfortable with the course helped. I bested my time again and went 59.5 for my last and final run, finishing with the best time in the wet.

During the morning runs, the paper was looking for someone local to the Reading area to interview. I stepped up to the plate, and sure enough my picture and a few quotes were in the paper come Monday morning. I had a blast for my first time and look to do more of these events in the future. It's much different than drag racing, but I feel that even helped me in this event. Thanks to Jason and Jen for coming out to watch and taking some video.

Final Results / Total - http://home.ptd.net/~steinvb/Evo/AutoX_2010_raw.htm
Final Results / By Class - http://home.ptd.net/~steinvb/Evo/AutoX_2010_fin.htm

Reading Eagle Article - http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=241865

Run 3 Video
1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6RaYTP9CwQ
2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08VmSi5ESt8

Event Recap Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBmNldKMLaI

A few of us from the Reading area went on a cruise last fall. We went down past Maple Grove and swung around to Exeter Community park. A few of us decided we weren't done yet, and headed out to the Pagoda. Mike turned his video camera on, and up the hill climb we went...twice!

Let me tell you, those turns are no joke! Gotta love the tires squealing!


Run #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuoxwyGaBIE