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Group
A Competition Scores & Season Points
As usually happens;
the competitors and organizers got together and decided on a reverse
course layout for the competition which was to start just before the
Sweeper Exit and conclude at the exit of the Chicane. Judges scored
the competition from two separated locations and culminated points
in order to determine the final score. From the “hard charging”
and fast viewpoint of the Sweeper the runs had looked fairly equal
with all competitors scoring within five points of each other so it
was expected that it would really be down to the slower and more
technical points of the off camber to decide the winner. The second
half of the competition is a cresting, tight, off-camber turn and a
chicane, which is a narrow, left right-handed series of turns (in
order to execute this section properly is comparable to threading a
needle with a nylon rope). Eventually it turned out to be a
one-point difference at the Sweeper that decided the winner.
Denny
Cabal and Royce Fujimoto failed to line up at the starting line at
2:30 and so the stage was set for the eight remaining competitors,
three of who ended up scoring 0 due to some error or other. The
scoreless runs weren’t without their merit, however, as each of
the runs of Shane Oliberos, Shige Hirabayashi and Jenson Kona scored
well through the sweeper section, but had over-driven slightly once
entering to the technical section of the track and causing spinouts.
Ending up in 5th place, with a score of 76, was Gene Cho.
Gene is a favorite of many of the spectators and fellow drivers due
to his pleasant disposition, but was unable to score with the top
finishers when it came to the sweeper as he didn’t get quite the
entry speed and missed the apex by a few feet. In the Off Camber he
was a little conservative and was reported as being a bit too
sideways at one point. A surprising 4th place went to
Barry Wong with a score of 79. Barry scored as well as anyone in the
Sweeper even though having to lift a bit at the apex, but lost a
number of points when bogging down in the chicane and thus the
Championship has now been whittled down to a tie between himself and
Steve Oliberos. 
3rd
place was the result of an impressive run delivered by Keoni
Rodrigues. Keoni had missed the warm up lap prior to the competition
and had requested an opportunity to break in his new rear tires, but
organizers stuck to their rules and so Keoni was forced to make the
best use of the ¼ mile approach to the sweeper instead.
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough time to heat the rear tires and
this may have contributed to the slight under-steer he experienced
throughout the Sweeper. Keoni was flying through there, I must
admit. He recovered somewhat at the exit and maintained good speed,
but had to lift in order to keep from drifting too wide at the exit
and experiencing a similar situation as to that which Royce had.
Keoni also got marked down slightly for not connecting all of the
Off-Camber/Chicane sections smoothly, but should feel proud of his
consistency and score of 82. 
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