Iowa Region SCCA had an AutoX this past weekend at Hawkeye Downs. There was a water feature at the finish, luckily it did not impact the course at all. It did lead to some awesome photos though! Plenty of jokes of an Iowa Grand Prix with John Boats instead of Yachts parked in the “marina” haha.
The weather was phenomenal outside of a bit too sunny and a bit too windy, course design at Hawkeye Downs is pretty standard but we do try and do some small variations. This event we did a slightly different exit to the 1/2 mile oval which was very well received. The course was fast with some people hitting low 70mph going into the outer loop but still very technical (as shown by the cone happy pro class).
Thank you Nick for the photos!
We had a strong showing in the newly created Novice group, some notable references are Bill in his Corvette shaving 20 seconds off his time from first run to his 6th! Jen in her Veloster dropping 10 seconds off her first run to her fastest clean run! Big shout out to Justin in his S2000 with the win in Novice.
Our Pro class is new for 2022 and had 13 drivers signed up, with only the first three runs counting the pressure is really on to get a good fast run put down. I should include clean in that requirement. Fast and Clean! With over 30 cones hit in the first 3 runs staying clean and fast wasn’t easy. I personally scratched a 1 second faster run by being a little too greedy on the out loop pinch points. Based on the chatter in the paddock, I wasn’t the only one to center punch a cone from being a bit too greedy. haha. Jeremy in his DM pulled off the win with his 3rd run.
We had four father and son teams battling each other. Ryan and Eli in STH, Chad and Luke in STS, Brent and Emery in GS, also Jeff and Jeremy in DM. In STH the father pulled off the win, in STS the son was able to hold off his Dad, in GS the son not only pulled off a win over dad but he also got fastest vehicle with doors and in DM the son inched out a win as well. It is awesome seeing father and son co-drivers battling out in some friendly competition.
Results: https://iowaregionscca.org/IAR/results/
Couple videos from the event are below!