The Rocky Mountain Division is going to begin a periodic practice of talking with the top drivers after our events, and finding out "How did they go so fast?". Hopefully, we can all learn a few things from these speedy folks, and give them a better run for their money the next time 'round!

This month, we begin with an interview with Michael Feldpusch, 1,000 point winner on Sun, Jan 23, driving a '97 C5 ASP Corvette in X Class. In future columns, we will also talk with drivers from other classes, not necessarily just the 1,000 point winner.

"Wow, Michael, that new car sure suits you!" Congratulations on being the 1,000 point winner. Can you share with us some of your 'secrets' for going so fast yesterday?"

I don't have any secrets...tho if I had them...and told them.. then they wouldn't be secrets.. would they Paul ? :) Basically the goal for me at this event was to get used to the car. The last time I auto-crossed the vette was at Nationals 2004...in the rain (day2). And this was the first time, obviously, where I was actually driving and owning the car. I'm pretty aggressive and having spun that car 13 times prior to my purchasing it, i know the boundaries pretty well. But I guess I could let ya in on a little secret... just relax. I also do thank Jake Latham for starting this car and selling the car to me. It made sense for me on a national level, and I think competing in X class...is just like attending a national event.

"Were there any changes made to the car recently that you thought helped?

Yes, I did make some changes to the car. Mainly the suspension settings. In short I softened the suspension in the rear which seemed to allow the car to settle better around the sweepers. And to prevent the rear-end coming out and spinning...tho Jake did spin it once.

"Was there any particular area of the course that you thought you had figured out, allowing you to gain (or not lose so much) time?"

I think the long right hand sweeper into the slalom which came out into the offsets is where I gained the most time. I was "throttle on" the whole slalom and was traveling pretty fast coming out of it into the offsets. I also think that keeping the car in 1st gear through the bottom half of the course helped greatly.

"How about anything different that you might have done from previous events? It seemed that you really stepped it up yesterday."
Well thats an easy question Paul. I had a car that was better prepared for the class. I love the M3, but there was much that needed to be done to that car before I could even think about points over 990. Prior to this 1k, my highest point day was 961.

"Anything else you'd like to add?"

I hope to perform as good at the next event in February.

Thanks to Michael Feldpusch for being our first guinea pig in this experiment!

-Paul Leonard