Team WTF?! went to Assachusetts again for the 2008 Devens National Tour.

You know us.  You know how it turned out.

We left it to the others to claim the pot of gold.

Maybe details later.  Maybe not.

Cya in DC!

Photos are available (1,153 photos from morning session only)
Videos are available

After a weather forecast that would have led one to believe that a repeat of the practice event or WDCR #1 was going to play out, it was a pleasant surprise (not something that we're too familiar with in Team WTF?! land) to find such nice weather all day.  Sunny, warm, breezy.  Wow.  So, of coruse, not everyone from Team WTF?! got to drive.

A Team WTF?! effort was made to replace the clutch in Bren's A Stock 1989 Corvette the day before the event.  Unfortunately, there was no plan to replace the cluth slave at the same time.  So, the car spent the event day being pushed around on a hill, off a trailer, and put up on jackstands.  Alex showed up Sunday to take photos (see 1,153 photos from the morning session) of the morning session and then headed on out.  Bren stayed home growing his mullet.

The Corvette issues left a void in A Stock that John V quickly filled on his first run of the day.  After first runs, John V held a two second lead over the rest of the class...including his cone.  When it was all said and done in A Stock, John V won A Stock (10th PAX overall of 222) with a 1.4 second lead over Ken in second place (24th PAX).  Clyde took a rather disappointing 5th of 17 (56th PAX) in A Stock due to a continued cone plauge straight out of the Team WTF?! Bible. (Read more about Clyde's issues.)

Our favorite Team WTF?! carwhore/mascot/superhero, Guido, couldn't find an A Stock ride, so he went the other way... E Stock and did well, finishing first of 9 drivers in class (22nd PAX).

Nick made a return to A Street Prepared in real Team WTF?! style in a 2002 BMW M3 (no SMG II this time, thank you very much) shod with ST* class tires and, um, anything?  Bueller?  Anyone?  You could say that he took second place in class.  Or, you could say that he took second.  Or, you just might say 160th PAX.  The choice is yours.

In Ladies Class, Mrs. Ken took the win in the Team WTF?! Boxster S.  Her indexed class leading run would have been good for 5th place (and just a whisker out of 4th) in the open A Stock class.  Proving her Team WTF?! credentials, Mrs. Ken forgot to turn on the camera for that winning run, but did manage to capture her celebratory drifting exhibition on her fourth run.  Welcome to the team, Mrs. Ken!

So, a funny thing happened for Clyde in the wake of his 5th of 17 place finish in A Stock at the 2008 WDCR Event #2 last week.  In a storyline grabbed straight from the Team WTF?! Bible, we've come to realize that Clyde has extended his streak of consecutive dirty runs to 21.  This spans all six event days dating back to the 2007 Solo National Championships Test & Tune/Warm Up.  In fact, if we do a careful statistical analysis, we'll see that Clyde has hardly been able to buy a clean run since he and John V moed from the B Stock 2004 RX-8 to the A Stock 2000 Boxster S at the beginning of the 2007 season.  Since the switch, fewer than 11% of Clyde's non-Pro Solo runs have been clean.  He's averaged 0.94 cones hit per run over that time (not including any cones hit on runs scored as DNF, of which there have been more than a few).

The WDCR event last Sunday was no different: 6 cones hit on 4 runs (none clean).

What is interesting to note, though, is that covered up in the cone penalty padded times is that Clyde's scratch times have crept back into the boxseats of the competitiveness ballpark.  Where last year, Clyde cone issues were just icing on the slow cake, he's now just hitting cones.  While his scratch time was still considerably off of John V's 58.016 vs 57.626, analysis of the on car video showed that Clyde lost all of his time and then some to John V in what was basically a single element. For those that were there, Clyde used all of the available rope for hanging himself in the big open right turn at the top of the hill. Through the rest of the course, John V and Clyde were essentially neck and neck, trading a tenth back and forth here and there.  Clyde may have picked up some time coming down the hill to the finish that could have given him the edge over John V had he not toasted himself early in the run, but either way, Clyde's driving (or luck) seemed to be vastly improved over last year.  Final results from last week's event show Clyde 5th place in class (of 17) and 50something in PAX, the scratch time would have been good for second place in class, a full second in front of 3rd place, and 12th PAX of 222.  We'll see if he can keep climbing back.

Clyde has long repeated a mantra of "Cones don't matter" (as well as "Fuckfuckfuck! Goddamnit! You stupid idiot!" being much easier for course workers to hear from the open topped Boxster).  If your scratch times weren't any good, why do cones matter, was the question he would ask.  Perhaps, maybe, cones now do matter for Clyde.

What will happen next for Clyde?  Stay tuned here for continuing coverage of this cone packing saga!

It rained.  It poured.  The sky flashed with light.  Mother Nature said, “In Summit Point, Team WTF?! does you!”

The 2008 road racing season is off to a start.  For Team WTF?!, later than normal due to scheduling conflicts.  But it is off and running.  After a fine finish to last season there were high hopes for the SRF road race side of the Team.  But that was then, this is now.

About 900 photos are here.

It rained.  It poured.  The sky flashed with light.  Mother Nature said, “In Landover, Team WTF?! does you!”

2008 is off to a start.  Sorta.  Kinda.  For some folks.  For others, like most of Team WTF?! and many of you, we’re still waiting.  The WDCR Practice event earlier this month came and went without any photos, so who’s to say that it actually took place?  The 2008 WDCR Championship Series kicked off with a sputter and clap of thunder the other day with only about half the competitors taking their runs.  The rest?  Hah!

The rest got to stand around in occasional rain for a while, then get poured on at the beginning of the fourth heat, then told, “Pack your crap and scram!  No autocross for you!” after the event was cancelled due to dangerous weather conditions.  Some of them were also yelled at by a testy Worker Chief just for trying to check in for working after being told to do so at the Afternoon Driver’s Meeting.

Miraculously, despite being treated like a pile of steamy doggy doo-doo by forces outside their control, over a quarter of the affected competitors (those being the ones that got to do all the bad autocross stuff like standing around in the wet; changing tires, multiple times in many cases; get yelled at for doing what they were told to do; and then go home without 4 minutes of precious early season seat time) have graciously refused to accept a refund for their event entry fees.  Some might say that they’re nuts.  We say that they’re Team WTF?! and deserve the respect of the community.  For without people like that, the WDCR Solo program would be a shadow of its current self.  Basically, without selfless, understanding, and fun-loving competitors like them, events would suck more than Don Koharski, Paul Devorski, Mike Hasenfratz and Don Van Massenhoven combined.

For Team WTF?! proper, there were some interesting storylines.  All those that showed for the event were scheduled to run in the afternoon.  We know the bottom line…no results to report.  However, it’s more interesting than that.

One Team WTF?! driver called his codriver early in the day (during the first lightning delay) and said, “If you don’t want to show up, I wouldn’t blame you.  I’m not even sure that we’ll get to run.”  The response to which was, “You’re probably right, but I need my daily self-flagellation fix, and I’m not going to get that sitting dry and warm on the couch at home.”

Another Team WTF?! driver thought that a puddle of water under his codriver’s car was something bad.  Uh, rain.  Puddle.  Go figure.

Of course, those two pairs of codrivers put on their dry weather race tires in grid while waiting for the fourth heat to begin after debating whaich tires to go with all day. :banghead:  It was cool, though.  John V ultimatley wound up changing two tires on the Old Yeller Boxster S between Mrs. Ken and Clyde’s first runs while Clyde stayed dry inside the car…albeit with many admonishments from John V to “roll up the f’ing window, a-hole!”  Which was fine with Clyde, as he was able to take copious notes about where the plethora of leaks from the car’s new top were coming from.  Just for ka-ka and giggles, Clyde kept the notes to himself.  For his efforts, though, John V did not go unrewarded.  Someone called him a “cheater” before that person got to work on changing tires on his own car (also being driven by someone else).

Bren, sitting in the #95/195 Team WTF?! C4 Corvette saw John V changing tires and immediately thought, “Where’s my tire changing bitch?  Bitch! Where are you?”  Never did hear how that one quite worked out.

Ken, Guido, Bren, and Alex all got to take Team WTF?! a run in A Stock for naught.  JST might have dones something in his G Stock 2008 MINI, but no one is sure for sure.  We suspect he just got wet.  Clyde was the third car from the line when the lightning flashed again, sending the event into a delay, and eventually cancellation.  He had street tires on one side, race tires on the other.  And then he didn’t get to run. What are you gonna do?

*Team WTF?! Note 2008-001: There will be no self-scoring Team WTF?! Challenge this year.  Perfectly normal Team WTF?! circumstances are the culprit.  There may be something good.  Or there may not.  We’re watching all.  We’ll see what happens.  Stay tuned.