AZPCA Autocross Series

STORY BY KENNETH MITCHELL

Welcome to the new year, 2022. Hopefully, you made a new year’s resolution to do more Club activities for the new year like an autocross event, either as a driver or a “Taste of Autocross”.

This article is usually reporting the fun-packed details of the event that just occurred. With that being said, I elected to write about the first half of the exciting and fun-packed 2021/2022 Autocross Season for this Going Places issue. There is no doubt that the second half of the autocross season will be just as exciting, and fun packed, as the first half of the season.

There were a lot of AZPCA Region members attending an event for their first-time. There were also several PCA members visiting from other Zone 8 Regions. Several AZPCA Region members have shown a lot of improvement in their driving skills. The more seat time you get you’ll become better drivers, not only on an autocross course, but also on the streets.

Although we do not run an official season points program, for fun, let’s look at where we are at the mid-season point and see who has the least amount of time, in seconds, on course, and who and who has not hit those little plastic pointed orange objects, known as “Cones”.

First, we will start with combining the times of the first four events for the Group “P” Drivers. Although, there were several drivers that were in the hunt for the best lap time at the events, there were only two drivers that have attended the first four events. Kim K. total time for the first four events is 178.025 seconds and Eric S. total time was 180.353 seconds. The second half of the season will be exciting to watch and see if Eric can best Kim’s total time of the season by the last event in April.

There were four AZPCA Region members driving in Group “X”. Yours truly is holding down fastest combined time of 176.662 with Ealing J. on my heels holding the next fastest combined time of 179.551 seconds and Mathias A. is in third position and the final podium position with a combined time of 185.965 seconds. New AZPCA Region member, Brian M., is in fourth position with a combined time of 194.040 seconds. As for the “Cone Killer” statistics, Eric T. is in the lead with seven cone kills with William P. right behind Eric with 6 kills, and Marc T. with 5 kills. Each cone kill adds 2 seconds to their lap times.

At the mid-season point, there are several drivers that have not hit a cone, so far, not to jinx anyone. In autocross terms, this is called being “Clean” or “Not Dirty”. The list of drivers with clean runs so far this season are Dave M., James E., Justin B., Ken O., Kristopher H., Marc C., Mark S., Martin R., Michael C., Randall T., Robert V., Rodney D., Ryan H., Scott O., and Steve E. At least they are not spending any time in the garage with car wax to remove any evidence of those pesky cones!

The next event is Saturday, February 19, 2022. There will be three more events following the February event. The following three events will be on Saturdays, March 19, 2022, and April 9 and 30, 2022. The registration for the April events will be posted to motorsportreg.com shortly.

As these events are normally sold-out weeks before the event, it is best to sign up early as possible. You will need to sign-on to your motorsportreg.com account and select either driver or a “Taste of Autocross. If you want to volunteer and help out with the operation of the event, just send an email to the autocross chairs at autocross@az.pca.prg and let them know that you would like to volunteer.

The “Taste of Autocross” is for members to come out and be part of the event, without the driving part, to help decide if you want to drive your Porsche Car in an event. As a “Taste of Autocross” entry you will be allowed to ride with an experienced driver(s). Also, you will be allowed to work a course assignment. The entry fee for “Taste of Autocross” is only $15.00. There is no fee for volunteering to help with the event operation and many thanks for doing so.

Come on out and meet some really cool AZPCA Region members. Hopefully, we’ll see you at the next event, and don’t forget about Valentine’s Day.