AZPCA AUTOCROSS

Season EVENT #6

Frohe Ostern - Happy Easter

STORY BY Kenneth Mitchell PHOTOS BY Jennifer Reinhardt

The month of February was scheduled with an abundance of fun-packed AZPCA Region activities involving the use of your Porsche car that was not primarily for meeting other members just for eat, drink, and be merry. Yes, it is this writer’s understanding that you can’t help being merry when it comes to any activity with the Porsche car.

There were four driving events and one event where the Porsche car was not in transport. There was a fast-paced driver’s education event and a couple of not-so-fast paced driving skill events, a driving tour event, and one event where a private collection, of Porsche cars, was on display

Unfortunately, the Rook Y. Three Lakes Driving Event fell well within the prediction period of “six more weeks of winter” and had to be canceled due to extreme hazardous weather conditions being forecasted with winter storm warnings for the area of the planned route of the driving tour. It appears that the little furry guy with excess poundage from Pennsylvania was spot-on with his “six more weeks of winter” weather prediction.

The AZPCA Region 2022-2023 Autocross Season Event 6 was held on Saturday, February 25, 2023, at Arizona Motorsports Park (AMP) in Litchfield Park. The event was sold-out and the Autocross Chairs, Kim K. and Rick A., were able to accommodate five more cars beyond the maximum event capacity.

The weather was unseasonably cool but dry, and breezy, and forty-five drivers enjoyed a unique course design for this event. The course traversed in a counterclockwise direction with a series of slaloms and gates, a diagonal cross sector that went kitty-corner from one corner of the course to another corner of the course.

What was unique about this course, there was a “Fork-In-The Road”, as you would experience on a Car Rally or on a rural back-country road, but in this case, it was mandatory to take the left-fork road on the first approach and the right-fork on the second approach, which steered (kind of a pun) you to the start/finish.

The left-fork path directed you onto the diagonal course sector and through a five-cone slalom element. When you reach the end of the diagonal sector, it was mandatory that you traverse the same course path that led up to the “fork-in-the-road” but, you bare right and head towards the start/finish. Note – this was not a gimmick rally element, just something different in the course design.

The time spent on the course was longer than usual. For this event, the average lap time was approximately 23 seconds longer than the previous events course designs. The drivers drove three individually timed reoccurring laps in the morning session and two-timed laps in the afternoon session.

This event had a very low cone kill count of seven “kills”. In researching the Region Autocross Archives way back in time to the 2021-2022 season, there was only one other event with a low “Cone Kill” count. The September 2021 event also had seven cones that were displaced

There were fifteen Porsche cars, five-Type 911s (2-GT3 RS, 1-997 Outlaw, 1-Carrera 4S, and 1Carrera), and nine-Cayman/Boxster variants (1-Cayman GTS, 6-Cayman S, 1-Cayman, and 1-Boxster S), and one-968, that competed in Group “P”.

The top Type 911 drivers were Kim K., Eric S., and Joel S. Kim earned his top spot in his Porsche GT3 RS on his second timed lap from the morning session with a 71.890 second run. Eric S. drove his best lap time of 72.785 seconds on his third and last timed lap run from the morning session. The third best Type 911 driver was Joel S. in his 2020 Porsche Carrera with a 77.602 second run from his last time lap in the afternoon session

The Cayman and Boxster contingent was led by Martin R., Kenny M., Eric T., and Jennifer R. Martin earned the top spot with the family 2007 Cayman S with a 72.185 second run on his last lap run in the afternoon session. Kenny in his 2015 Cayman GTS also made his best lap run in the afternoon session with a 74.161 second run as Eric T., in his 2014 Cayman S, followed suit with a 75.441 second run. Jennifer drove her best run on the last lap run in the morning session with 75.958 seconds. Guys – better look out, one of these days Jennifer will leave everyone very embarrassed when she beats you all. It is not “if” its “when”, it will happen

In Group “X” there were only two AZPCA Region members driving in the non-Porsche car group. Jonathan B. drove to the top Group “X” spot with his 71.320 second run he made on his last lap in the afternoon session. This may be inappropriate to mention this in a Porsche Club Newsletter but, Jonathan’s time takes the event “Top Time of Day” with his Group “X” car but, at least the car’s origin is from Germany

Mathias A. followed Jonathan in his Group “X” car with a 74.135 second run that he drove on his last lap run in the morning session.

As previously stated, this event had a low event “cone kill” count of seven kills. The event top “Guy Cone Killer” was one of the Autocross Co-Chairs in his GT3 RS, Kim K., with two cone kills. Although, a cone kill count of two is not a significant high kill record but, it is still good enough to earn the Event Top “Guy Cone Killer” honors.

The other Autocross Co-Chair, Rick A., also met up with one cone along with Ginger W., Garry J., Joel S. and Scott K., each had a cone. Please note that the two Autocross Chairs were dirty and are “Guy Cone Killers” for this event.

Event #7 was held on Saturday, March 18, 2023, which was three days after the Going Places deadline for submitting articles for the April issue, “AND” two days after the “six more weeks of winter” prediction period. Details for Event #7 will be available for viewing in the May issue.

Event #8, the last event of the 2022-2023 AZPCA Region Autocross Season, will be held on Saturday, April 8, 2023, at AMP and registration is well underway with a deadline of Thursday, April 6, 2023, at 6:00PM (Arizona Standard Time). It is best to not procrastinate and end up on the waitlist hoping that someone cancels.

Frohe Ostern (Happy Easter) to all AZPCA Region members. Did you know that Ostern in Germany is a four-day holiday?

The Germans celebrate Ostern with food and delicacies such as, Ostereier (colorful hard boiled eggs), salzkartoffeln (boiled Potatoes), lammbraten (Lamb), along with a dish of grüne sosse (green sauce), and osterlamm (lamb cake) in the shape of a lamb for dessert.

Also, the German men give their women unique German ostern sweets. Don’t forget to give your special person some unique German Ostern Sweets this “Ostern”. It appears that the German men are always treating their special women with “Sweets”. Nice-Sweet!