14 minute read
Autocross Update: September 2023
Chesapeake Region
Autocross Update
By: Greg Hartke; Photos: Jim McKee
Ah, the racing life! You just can’t beat it for fun! CHS PCA Autocross #5 was contested on Saturday August 12th at Prince George’s Stadium in Bowie and I’m happy to say the weather cooperated and the event went like clockwork. Although I cap the registration at 65, at one point I had as many as 68 or 69 Confirmed for this event. That happens when special people and ardent supporters wind up registering late for one reason or another – I always try to accommodate our regulars if at all possible and I know there will always be a few late cancellations to bring the registration down to around the cap. Besides, how can I possibly not accept someone like PCA Executive Director Vu Nguyen when he finds he has an opening in his schedule and registers late? It’s tough on Vu because the PCA is a volunteer organization and he frequently has obligations to meet that might be anywhere in the country on the weekends because he’s working with people who have day jobs. I sure was glad to have Vu in attendance, too – haven’t seen enough of him out there racing with us this year.
Since we’ve been filling the registration early this year, it’s quite legitimate to ask why we don’t cap the registration at 75 or 80 (or more) and run three heats. (Three heats doesn’t really work with 60 to 65 drivers – there are simply not enough workers available for each heat.) There are multiple reasons, but the most important one is that Prince George’s County requires that if there are more than 100 people in attendance at an event at PGS, the organizers are required to hire Police for the event. That’s just too much for our modest endeavor, so we stick to a 65-driver cap to avoid going over the limit, which results (with spectators) in no more than about 90 people or so in attendance. Good enough for us!
In the end, we had 64 drivers with 31 Porsches for AX#5. The attendance of Porsches was a little thinner than usual for this one, but we’re happy to have everyone come race with us, no matter what they’re driving. A lot of those non -Porsche drivers are regular participants and good friends. In fact, some PCA members drive non-Porsches in our races for various reasons. It’s all good! In fact, Michael Ricketts came out with his 997, but had some car trouble and had to go back home to get his Volvo XC40 (an EV) in order to compete. He barely made it back in order to drive in the first heat, too. Now that’s dedication, but I would expect nothing less from Michael.
Set up went quite smoothly (as usual) with John Cho, Phong Nguyen, Pinto Soin, and Doug Slocum doing their usual fabulous work to get us ready. Co-chair (and course designer) Mark Hubley got back from swapping his truck (used to bring the trailer to PGS) for his model 981 Cayman GTS just in time to put the finishing touches on the course build. Marilyn also brought everything I couldn’t fit in my car for the event: 32 lbs of
ice we bought the night before, 4 cases of water, the 5-gallon water bottle for the chiller, as well as snacks and other sundries, then she stopped on the way in to get another 40 lbs of ice. I don’t know how I’d manage without her!
After completing the course build, Mark and I were ready to do the tests runs to check the course for drivability and safety. I first ran us through the course slowly a couple of times so we could identify any potentially problematic areas that might need amendment, discussing the course as we road along. We then got to work and added a few navigation aids, softened the exit from the slalom to make it safer before entering the first channel, softened the entry to the second channel for safety, and softened the finishing sequence to make it flow better. None of that took too long, so we were able to get everyone out for the course walk ahead of schedule, which we really like doing so we can get the racing started as early as possible.
The lower part of the course (lower left on the map) had some woody debris on it from the recent storm and while I noted it on the safety runs, I wasn’t planning to clean it up. Howard Leikin asked me to clean it up, though, and while I wasn’t enthusiastic about taking the time to do it, it was absolutely the right thing to do, so I got out there with the backpack blower and took care of it while Mark handled the driver’s meeting. Good call, Howard!
Fun course. Fun course! Good one, Mark! The opening sequence was deceptive because the best line (at least for me, with my 981 Cayman S) was to enter that opening half-circle wide to keep from pushing out of the
exit. There was plenty of room to really throw the car into the next hard right and catch the oversteer, before pouring on full throttle to head down to that first sharp left corner in the lower right section. I turned hard, again catching the tail swinging out as I rolled on full throttle through that deceptive little snake section at the bottom right. I trailed into the following turn, transitioned off the brake, and rolled on full throttle as soon as I hit the apex and let that swing me wide to take me through the really fast sequence (full throttle all the way) up to the slalom entry.
On my last run (which was also my fastest), I was looking to roll on the throttle as quickly and hard as possible when I made that exit and when I did, I pushed so wide I actually came surprisingly close to the curb on the right side. That was certainly the fastest line – I don’t know how fast I was going at the end, but I must have been mighty close to the rev limit, which put me up close to 70 mph in my 981 Cayman S, then I braked hard into the slalom (again with a little trail) and was able to enter it fast and in full control. After a quick slither (the trail braking at entry helped me keep the car balanced), I was able to safely roll on full throttle surprisingly early right around the second cone of the slalom and roared through the channel, favoring the left side to set up the jog to the right and the following hard left. This hard left and subsequent hard right were interesting because while it felt as if the car wanted to understeer slightly, it actually reacted by wanting to slide instead of push and that was easier to handle and maintain speed. I discovered early that the car wanted to do that, so I just stayed with it for all my runs – made it easier to rotate the car into the line I wanted.
I roared up the far-left end of the course under full throttle and braked hard before throwing the car around the right hander and into the little slalom heading up to the channel. Had to be careful there not to enter the subsequent corner too fast and push wide. By finding the right line, I could roll on full throttle early and roar up through the channel, then brake hard to throw the car to the left (catching the oversteer) to enter the finishing sequence. When I did this correctly, I could roll on full throttle again heading into the last couple of gates and was barely able to sneak into the stop box on the right side. I was just sure I was going to catch a cone on the right side of the stop box entry on my last run (a decided no-no), but it was clean and I finished my best run of the day. Phew!
A lap on an AX course is short but really intense and you have to process the course and the feedback from the car with lightning quickness every second of the run to put up a good time. I’ve heard it said that
while driving the track in DE is like surgery, AX racing is akin to a knife fight. True ‘nough. And the best part is that you have more fun than you can imagine with your car while not hurting it at all – you’re just wearing the tires and brakes a bit more than usual.
The course had some really fast sections along with some technical sections and there were plenty of opportunities to toss the car around and tax your tires. As has been the norm lately, we had quite a few Taste of Autocross participants (6 that day) who had a blast taking hot laps with our corps of dedicated Instructors. Again, a round of applause to our Instructors for agreeing to take out the ToA participants to give them a fun time!
The early crossover also meant that we could get the second car on the course really quickly, which in turn meant that each run in the heat went pretty quickly. We could have done 7 runs, but due to the heat (it was low to mid 90’s F that day), I kept it to 6 runs to avoid overtaxing the course workers. We made sure we had plenty of water and ice and the chiller continues to be an excellent addition in our effort to keep everyone in good shape on a hot day. Even so, AX stalwart Lisa Gritti was feeling the heat after working grid in the first heat and elected to sit out the second heat instead of driving. The good news is that Marilyn was there (as usual!), so she and Lisa sat in the shade and had a good time chatting and listening to announcer Chris “Crash” Nolan describe the action. Those of us working in the trailer had the opportunity to enjoy Lisa’s homemade chocolate chip cookies while we worked, too. We’d be lost without this bit of fortification to our spirits! Thanks, Lisa!
With 6 runs, we took a bit less than two hours per heat. First car was off at 9:30 and the first heat finished about 11:15. The second heat started at 11:28 and we were done at 1:11, then packed up and ready to leave around 1:45 thanks to the gracious help of the participants in getting the equipment back to the trailer and ready to store. Pretty good! I’m also pleased to say that we had no timing problems whatsoever the entire day and no reruns. Very professional! That also helps the course workers because it’s bloody well miserable standing out on the course with no action on a hot day while we fix any timing problems. Timing is actually very intense and difficult work and we had an expert crew working timing for this race. Because we had plenty of Instructors, I could assign Chris Markwood and Bill Schwinn (who are both Instructors) to do paper timing and these guys are very experienced and really good at it. With Phong, Stephanie Reuer, and me working timing as well, we had the top crew doing the timing work for this one and it showed.
As usual, Classes S4 and S5 were highly competitive and tightly contested, thus crowding the top of the leader board. The top 10 placing Porsches were:
1st overall, 1st in Class S5, 49.477 sec: David Critcher, 2016 GT3
2nd overall, 2nd in Class S5, 49.613 sec: Michael Tavenner, 2017 718 Cayman S
3rd overall, 3rd in Class S5, 51.742 sec: Howard Leikin, 2021 718 GTS
5th overall, 1st in Class S4, 52.829 sec: Greg Hartke, 2014 Cayman S
7th overall, 4th in Class S5, 52.672 sec: Ken Wojcik, 2011 Turbo
8th overall, 2nd in Class S4, 52.904 sec: Mark Hubley, 2015 Cayman GTS
9th overall, 5th in Class S5, 53.021 sec: Scott Borden, 2018 GT3 Touring
10th overall, 3rd in Class S4, 53.451 sec: Dan Ruddick, 2015 Cayman GTS
11th overall, 4th in Class S4, 53.454 sec: Aaron Ross, 2016 Cayman S
15th overall, 1st in Class P3, 53.790 sec: Vu Nguyen, 1999 996 Carrera
Additionally, John Cho was 1st in Class I, Darrell Pope was 1st in Class P1, John Jensen was 1st in Class P2, and Luigi Crespo was 1st in Class S1.
I want to point out the proliferation of Racing Yellow Caymans among the top 10 Porsches on the leader board: Mark Hubley, Howard Leikin, Aaron Ross, and me all have Caymans or Boxsters that sport this obviously strikingly fast color. ;) I started the trend in 2016 when I bought my car at a time when it was practically the only one out there (POT AXer Eric Core and I were the only ones) and now they’re all over the place. I’m certainly quite the trendsetter. (Ahem.) Just ask anyone who knows me. I’m sure they’ll give you quite an earful. Ignore them when they roll their eyes. ;)
Unfortunately, we had no photographer at this event because CHS PCA President Ron Farb had stolen both Jim McKee and Ryan Boxler for his Allegheny Tour, so the accompanying pix are actually from AX#4. Ron even gloated about stealing the photographers. Bad Ron! Bad! I’ll get you back when you come out to AX#7. Just wait to see what your work assignment is going to be for that one. ;) Actually, I was originally going to bring my own camera, but my track record of actually doing anything with it is totally pathetic because I’m so busy during the race, so I just left the bloody thing home and admitted defeat.
Actually, we’re really lucky to have Jim and Ryan as our official Club photographers. Those of us who run events love it and they do a really great job. Believe me, it’s not as easy as you might think and no matter what we may believe, few of us have the eye of an experienced photographer. At the last AX, Jim told me he had 5700 pictures from the event. Can you imagine??? He then had to go through all of them to pick out suitable images for publication, then blank out the visible license plates because that’s what National requires us to do. I then provide these pictures to the participants and select (and modify) a few of the images for the Patter. It all takes more than a little bit of time and work for our volunteer photographers!
Anyway, AX#6 (Saturday September 2nd) will be coming up just before this edition of the Patter is published. Even if you’re not racing, stop by at our last event of the year (AX#7 on Saturday October 7th) to say hello. I’m sure you’ll find the action interesting and feel free to corner one (or several) of us and we’ll happily answer your questions. Taste of Autocross is also available to the adventurous among you to see what a hot lap is like and maybe get a bit of a thrill. ;)
Looking forward to seeing everyone again soon at the races!
