AZPCA HPDE AT THE INDE Motorsport Ranch

STORY BY SCOTT FARIS PHOTOS BY PHIL VEITCH

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OnMarch 25 and 26, 2023, the Arizona Region held its second time trials sessions at Inde Motorsports Ranch near Willcox, Arizona.

This event was well subscribed to with 15 entries in the time trial sessions that ran on both Saturday and Sunday. As is typical of two-day events, some folks tend to leave a bit early on Sunday afternoon, so our fourth session was more lightly attended. But I think I can say with confidence that everyone who joined the time trial sessions found them to be fun and worthwhile. Having now run three of these events, our process for doing them is becoming pretty well defined, which should breed some familiarity and comfort among the participants.

The weather was quite compliant over the weekend though it tends to be windier in the afternoons at Inde, given its wide open location in the hills around Willcox. The wind might have had a small impact on navigating the circuit, but it was mitigated by running the track clockwise on Saturday and counterclockwise on Sunday. This also meant that newcomers had to essentially learn two tracks over the weekend. To keep things interesting, the corners are not only reversed, but some are added and some are deleted from the other-direction running.

As with other two-day events, the drivers were able to take advantage of their better time between two sessions each day resulting in two chances (Saturday and Sunday) to be crowned king (or queen) of the mountain in their respective classes. For the purpose of classifying cars, we divide the Porsches between Cayman/GT4 and 911/GT3 groups. Of course, not all Porsches are strictly in those categories, such as 944’s, 914’s and 928’s, but if we divide the entire group too finely, we could have single-car classes which kind of defeats the purpose of having bragging rights. (Although when I was racing a sports racer as a mid-pack racer, being the only driver in my class was a great way to get a trophy for winning the class so there are some benefits to single-car classes) All non-Porsches were classed together in one class.

Irrespective of class designation, all participants could easily see how they stacked up against each other. Also, part of the fun of keeping track of lap times is to try to set a personal best time. This happened twice during the weekend to the driver of a Toyota GR Supra and he was a very happy participant as a result. It also happened to the driver of a Mercedes AMG GT S. We want to congratulate the winners of the events, whose identities and times are shown in the tables below.

We again want to thank the many people from the Club who volunteered their time and the folks at Inde Motorsports Ranch for their excellent work and cooperation in staging this successful weekend.

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