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Since no one seems to have noticed her performance. No, she didn't bring home another jacket this year, she just nudged over a cone on her winning time run and ended up 3rd, 0.211 out of first and .038 behind her co-driver in 2nd place.
Even with the penalty I think she drove very well in a car she had only driven once before at the 05 Championships and never before on asphalt. (and due to illness only competed in a total of 6 events in 2006)
Jeff Jacobs and I couldn't provide much insight on how to drive the courses since we ran first "heat" (a real misnomer!) each day with temps hovering around 40*F on a surface that was covered in sand blown in by each night's 15-25 MPH "breezes". I was 3rd car out each day and was mostly concerned with just keeping the car pointed in the right direction and warming the tires for Jeff (Even with all the slipping and sliding they never got much above lukewarm)! The weather was much improved and the course cleaner by Donna's 4th rungroup attempts so her major concern was trying to find the quickest way around the courses in 3 runs. She almost succeeded.
Next year we plan to have her in a competitive car of her own again so she will have the comfort and experience of driving the same car for a full season before going to the 07 nationals.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

Congratulations! Donna always represents us well.

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Rubbin' is Racin'

Damn I missed that! I had heard you guys left early nursing a busted transmission home.

Congrats!

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02 Focus SVT
STF 9

We stayed all week and drove the Celi back and forth from room to site but didn't race it again after the first day of the Prosolo Finale. We then nursed the tranny home on Sat-Sun and it made it. Thanks to Adam B. for checking on us along the way and a BIG thanks to Keith and Donna Marx from VMSC for toting our tire trailer home for us in their trailer as well as checking in on our progress along the way. They even offered to let us drive their Z06 home and put the Celi in the trailer! The bearing got somewhat noisier by the time we reached home, so it's got to come out again.
The girl, Chrissy Weaver, that won HSL wasn't even on anyone's radar but she pulled one out of her butt as Emmie would say, on her last run on day one to jump .2 sec over Donna who had a healthy lead up till that point. Chrissy herself said that she pushed out on the first turn and figured it was a lost run so she just Banzied the rest of it and surprised even herself.
She and Donna kept trading the lead back and forth on day two. The raw time on Donna's coned run would have won it for good but she ran over the base with a rear wheel and just tipped it over...
Heather Everett, Donna's co-driver with coaching from Donna Jeff and I was able to go just a tick faster than Donna's clean run to squeak in between her and Chrissy.
At least Donna has kept the pattern going: 3rd in 02, 1st in 03, 3rd in 04, 1st in 05, 3rd in 06. LOOK OUT 07!

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

Chuck, I feel Donna's pain. I remember the final Laurinburg event last year where I coned away first in ES -- twice -- and I was on Azenis with a blown left rear shock. It's a bad feeling for sure knowing that you should have whooped up on the competition.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Now add to that pain also losing out on 2000.00 in Mini Contingency money, a set of tires from Hoosier, 100.00 from GRM, and the supreme pleasure of getting the champion's trophy and jacket...
She did take it better than I would have tho.

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SPIN or WIN!
there's no glory for going slow.

OK. I didn't even know that Chuck posted this, but...

It was Kristi Brown who finished first in HSL. Crissy Weaver won FSL.

Kristi ran in 2005 too, and ran very well. I just happened to be ahead the first day by around 2 seconds and had to pedal it the second day to not cone away all three runs...dang, kept hitting the same slalom cone until someone told me which one it was and I purposely ran a slightly wide line around it to make the final run clean! Kristi has improved a lot this year by taking Evo schools and remembering last year!

We all hugged and laughed together after it was over. Heather had not run a national in some time and probably would have done better the first day if she hadn't been so darned nervous. Kristi said that I scared the crap out of her, I told her that she always ran me hard and kept me on my guard/toes. Vicki kept putting herself down for finishing last so we had to joke her out of it and cheer her on. Gretchen was the only one who got upset and promptly disappeared when we all got back. I think she wants to go back to her prepared car instead of the mini.

Yep...a new car next year...now if I can only make up my mind on what...

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GO FOR IT! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

How about this?