Motorsport Club of Ottawa (MCO) Solo 2 - Event # 7

Motorsport Club of Ottawa (MCO)

Solo 2 - Event # 7- Aug. 26, 2001

Jetform Park, Ottawa

As some of you know, I wasn't at Cayuga for Events 11 & 12 of the Solo1 series this past weekend because my parents had their 40th Anniversary party in Brockville on Saturday (Happy Anniversary) and it was something that I couldn't weasel my way out of, oh well. So to make up for missing Solo 1 and PITTL, I decided to see if St. Lac or MSO had a Solo 2 event going this weekend. After a very brief search, sure enough the Motorsport Club of Ottawa (MCO) had event 7 of their series going on.

After checking out the competition on their web page, I noticed that a couple of the guys to beat were in B1 (they use the same rules as the regional's). So we packed up the CRX and headed off on Friday. We had a good time at the party on Saturday, my sister was here from Vancouver and most of the extended family were there, some of which I haven't seen in years. After the party and a family dinner was done, we headed off to Kanata to stay with a friend.

Sunday morning was threatening rain early. We managed to get find our way to Jetform Park, get ready, have the drivers meeting and start the first runs with dark clouds and a strong humid breeze blowing. There was about forty competitors, including Brad Mirkel and Mark (Neon ACR) from Solo 1, so I knew a couple of people there. The lot was a medium sized lot that was in the early stages of decay, with a few bumpy sections, lots of low spots, some cracks and eventually parts where the asphalt was starting to come up, and lots of dirt. Don't get me wrong, overall, the lot was not too bad....

Being an arrive and run "outsider" I was stuck with number 115 and the cars started running at number 1. The course was confusing for a lot of people because some gates were used 2 or three times with a figure 8 and loops as well as tight offset turning boxes. Running late in the order had a couple of advantages, the early numbers cleaned off the course and about 70% of the competitors went off course on their first run, so I learned from their mistakes. At my first run, it was just starting to spit a little so I knew that this was it, the only run, so I let it all hang out, sideways, screeching, flailing everywhere, grazing cones, dirt flying, lots of fun.

As we start the second run, some my class competitors are numbers 2, 3, and 6 so they get a second dry run then it pours! The rain continued off and on until the end of the day but there is so much standing water in some of the low spots, that no one can really improve their time, if they had a good first run. I managed to set the fastest time of the day on the first run.

MCO put on a good event. With the exception of some timing problems early on and then the rain the event went smoothly. The course layout only allowed one car out at a time so there was lengthy gaps between your runs. Overall a good day followed by a real long drive home from Ottawa to Toronto on Sunday night. I hope to make it back for another MCO event, soon! Thanks to Richard, Gord, Chris and a lot of other people I met through out the day.

For the official Motorsport Club of Ottawa (MCO) results, follow the link

This page was last updated on April 29, 2002