Friday, August 06, 1999

Engineer finds fun in serious driving

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BY JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        Steve Attwood invites me to go along with him on a Sunday drive. Fine, I say. So we strap on crash helmets and secure ourselves in seat belts in his 1991 Nissan Sentra.

Everyone has a story worth telling. At least, that's the theory. To test it, Tempo is throwing darts at the phone book. When a dart hits a name, a reporter dials the phone number and asks if someone in the home will be interviewed. Stories appear on Fridays.

        Even though the temperature outside is soaring into the 90s, he cranks the car heater up to the max so as to draw heat away from the all-important engine.

        A moment later he inches the red car beside a guy holding a green flag. Steve shuts off the heater. The guy drops the flag. And our Sunday drive through a Sharonville parking lot begins.

        Steve hits a maximum speed of about 55 mph, but with tires screeching, engine revving, and the car skidding around orange traffic cones, it feels much faster.

        In fact, I figure this is what it's like to be a Hollywood stunt man filming a car chase scene. But Steve Attwood is no stunt man. He's a single, 32-year-old electrical engineer from Woodlawn, who a couple of years ago found a fun way to spend Sundays.

        Mainly, it involves accelerating, braking and steering through a series of tight turns, including a slalom. About two-thirds of the way through the course he mutters something, obviously displeased.

        I don't say a word. What I'm thinking is:

        Watch out for those cones! You're gonna hit those cones!

        He never does.

        It's over in less than a minute. Or 55.503 seconds, to be exact.

        This is autocross, a contest of driving skill. One at a time, drivers negotiate a challenging course laid out on a flat, paved surface. Cars are timed to the nearest thousandth of a second.

        “It's a good way to get out, meet some people with a like interest, and pretend you're Jeff Gordon or Mario Andretti for a day,” Steve says.

        He has always been a sports buff. Besides playing soccer, tennis, golf and baseball, he enjoyed watching auto racing on TV.

        But he figured car racing was a rich man's sport. Then he found a Web site and learned he could compete in his 8-year-old Sentra, which has logged 170,000 miles.

        His first autocross was two years ago in Toledo. “Kind of a humbling experience,” he says.

        “You see a new driver come out here and he thinks he's pretty good. And you realize the skills maybe aren't there. Then you realize everybody else out on the freeway is in the same situation — they think they're better than they are.”

        For Steve, the challenge was to improve, and he has. He typically finishes in the middle of the pack in his class at local autocross events. He competes about twice a month.

        Two Tristate clubs offer autocross on selected weekends. The Cincinnati Sports Car Club uses the parking lot of Scarlet Oaks campus of Great Oaks Institute of Technology & Career Development in Sharonville. The Cincinnati Region of the Sports Car Club of America runs at Campbell County High School in Alexandria.

        Cars are grouped into various classes and categories. Steve has modified his car's suspension and intake and exhaust systems; he also uses performance tires to compete in what is called the “street prepared” category.

        At autocross, you see drivers in family sedans and in cars that look like they belong at Indy. Even a taxi cab has been known to show up.

        “It's kind of neat to be able to take what looks like an everyday Sentra and go out there and beat the occasional Corvette or Mustang,” Steve says.

        He's seen a few mishaps, such as cars rolling up against a curb. But he adds: “People like to think that it's safer driving out here (on the autocross course) than it is on the street. For the most part, I agree.”

        Before they compete, drivers are permitted to walk the course, which changes from week to week. They plot strategy, knowing that if they knock over a cone, 2 seconds will be tacked on to their time.

        Steve doesn't hit any cones on the run in which I'm a passenger, but he makes a mistake on a corner.

        “I came in too hot,” he says. (Translation: He went too fast.) “I scrubbed a lot of speed trying to slow down.” (The car slid a lot.) “Then I was not set up properly for the next corner.”

        Steve's a nice guy. He could have just blamed his bad time on the extra weight he was carrying.

        All told, he makes six runs this day. He saves the best for last: 53.199 seconds, good for fourth out of seven cars in his class, and 12th out of 62 cars overall.

        Then he peels the magnetic No. 7 from his car, changes his tires, and drives home.

ON THE WEB
        Check out www.burkeracing.com

       

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