Autocross Update: November 2023

Chesapeake Region

Autocross Update

By: Greg Hartke; Photos: Jim McKee

OK, I admit it. I must have jinxed us. I had been gloating recently about having nothing but dry weather for our 2023 autocross races, so of course the weather gods had to punish me for the affront. Chesapeake PCA Autocross #7 was held on Saturday, October 7th and we had some showers for this one, though fortunately it didn’t rain all day. Racing in the rain has its interesting aspects, but setting up and taking down all the equipment in the rain is a total PITA. The good news for the AX Team was that it started raining about 8:30 AM (after everything was set up) and stopped a bit after noon (well before we had to pack it up), so it wasn’t too bad. Interestingly, when I left our Sykesville home that morning, it was drizzling, but when I arrived at Prince George’s Stadium in Bowie at about 4:40 AM, it was clear and stayed that way for quite a while before the showers and clouds moved in. Could have been a lot worse!

This race was shaping up early to have a very strong attendance with a substantial waitlist. Unfortunately, the forecast spooked a few and we had some late cancellations that required me to do some fancy footwork to get folks off the waitlist and into the event. Sounds easy, but finding last-minute replacements is not easy and cancellations also require a close examination of the work and driving assignments to make sure the heats remain balanced and the skilled worker positions remain filled with the proper people. Come Saturday morning, we had 67 drivers registered (the registration cap is actually 65, but I make concessions at times and usually add extras to account for the inevitable no-shows), which looked like a healthy turnout for the last event of the year. In the end, we actually had 60 drivers show up to compete.

As usual, set up went quite smoothly with AX Team Members John Cho and Phong Nguyen helping in their usual fabulous way to get everything ready for the race. (Pinto Soin was sick and unable to make it to this one. He was not a happy camper and I certainly missed his help!) Co-chair (and course designer) Mark Hubley arrived with the trailer, dropped the cones on the course, then headed home with his truck to get his car while John and Phong put together the course and I got to work getting all the rest of the equipment set up. They were almost done building the course when Mark returned and he proceeded to go through the entire course to make sure it was set up the way he wanted.

Once Mark was done with the course and I got most of the equipment set up, it was time for us to do the

test runs to check the course for safety and flow. I ran us through the course slowly a couple of times and (amazingly) we really didn’t identify anything immediately that needed changing. That’s highly unusual and, in fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever done that before. I started picking up the pace with the test drives and we really didn’t find much – maybe we made a couple of tweaks, but generally speaking the course build was just what it needed to be. Cool! That saved us time because we always open the course for walking as soon as we’re done and this made it substantially earlier than scheduled – always a good thing, especially with showers coming in.

When I do the test runs, I’m not running flat-out (because I’m evaluating the course details), nor do I have the car configured the same as I would when racing, but I could certainly tell this was going to be a really fun course. I did the test runs before it started raining, so the driving experience was very different than it was for the actual race – it didn’t rain throughout the race, but it was wet right through to the end. This course held so much promise that Mark and I have already decided we’re going to reuse it next year on a dry day (keeping in mind that we’ve never reused a course before).

The slalom had an optional entry on this course (which means the driver can go either way to start the slalom) and while we were doing the test runs, Mark and I were really not sure which was best. When I got out there in the wet conditions, I initially started the slalom on the right, but it quickly became evident that because of the conditions, it wasn’t possible to take advantage of the faster exit from the slalom when done that way, so I switched to the left, which I think is what most of the fast drivers decided. That made for a slower turn-in at the corner near worker station 2, but it was a shorter distance, and when I did it that way, I picked up noticeable time.

It started raining lightly about 8:30 or so and it wasn’t too bad at first. Unfortunately, it increased to what I would call moderate rain and while driving in the rain isn’t too bad, standing out there shagging cones in the rain isn’t any fun at all. The drivers in the first heat were the unlucky ones – they had pretty consistent light to moderate rain for their racing, whereas it tapered off and stopped around noon or a bit thereafter during the second heat. That’s just the luck of the draw.

I won’t say I struggle racing in the rain, but considering how good I am in the dry, I’m not nearly as good as I should be in wet conditions. I went into this one remembering my foray in the rain at the last Potomac AX when I badly misjudged the braking points on my opening runs. Not a good thing to do when it’s wet, that’s for sure. For that reason, I started awfully conservatively at this race (probably too conservatively) and struggled to make up time. My last run was really good, but I ticked a cone with the rear of the car and that was that. Oh, well. Ask my buddy, Dan Ruddick. He kept hitting cones, too, which did not make him very happy, though he still put up a good early run to place very well.

The starting sequence for AX#7 was similar to that of AX#6, so I initially stayed in first gear through the first corner, but this course was sufficiently different (as were the conditions) that after a little experimentation, I actually seemed to do better by shifting earlier, so I went with that. After the first corner, I rolled on full throttle and eventually discovered that I didn’t have to lift for the little kink just past the first channel. I aimed down the right side of the channel, then edged left for a good entry to the kink (nearly clipping the last cone on the left in the channel) and kept on the throttle ‘til I braked for the big sweeper along the far-left edge of the course map.

For the wet conditions, I was tight on the first cone in the upper left corner of the map, then drifted wide under power to set up a late apex at the bottom left edge of the map, and finally rolled the power back on to head up towards the left-hander before the channel. That corner was much sharper than it appears on the map and I swung the rear around on exit and stayed down the right side to set up the left with a late apex that returned me to the channel. That corner was surprisingly fast for the conditions and I rolled on the

throttle to get it up to full as quickly as I could to go through the channel and enter the slalom.

I touched the brakes before entering the slalom on the left side, then trailed into the right-hander that took me to the finishing sequence. The next section was actually a little straighter than it appears on the map and I stayed right and went tight to the first cone on the corner, then back on the throttle to swing me out to backside the last cone of the bottom section so I could roll on the throttle fast and hard to kick out the rear and run to the stop box. It was a very fun course to drive and it would have been a blast in dry conditions.

First car was off at 9:33 (pretty good – the scheduled time was 9:30) and the first heat ended at 11:35 after 5 runs. I would have loved to have done 6 runs, but I couldn’t justify having the course workers stand out there shagging cones for longer than 2 hours in the rain. 6 runs would have been easy in dry conditions because the heat would have gone much more quickly, but we had to play it as it lies. The second heat got under way at 11:54 and was completed at 1:37. The second heat went more quickly because the Class S4 and S5 cars all drove in the second heat (they’re the fastest cars) and the conditions improved, with the rain ending sometime around 12:30 or so. The course never really dried out, but it became a lot faster once the showers ended, even if it was still wet.

I was pleased to see we had some different drivers in the top 10 for this race. The top 10 placing Porsches were:

1st overall, 1st in Class S5, 54.603 sec: Howard Leikin, 2021 718 Boxster GTS

2nd overall, 1st in Class P3, 55.677 sec: Michael Ricketts, 2005 911 997

3rd overall, 1st in Class I, 55.696 sec: John Cho, 2002 996 C4S

5th overall, 1st in Class S4, 56.092 sec: Mark Hubley, 2015 Cayman GTS

6th overall, 1st in Class S3, 56.132 sec: Michael Ignatysh, 2002 911 Carrera

7th overall, 2nd in Class S5, 56.270 sec: Bill Schwinn, 2018 911 GTS

10th overall, 3rd in Class S5, 56.663 sec: Ron Farb, 2011 911 Turbo S

15th overall, 2nd in Class S4, 57.055 sec: Dan Ruddick, 2015 Cayman

17th overall, 3rd in Class S4, 57.514 sec: Aaron Ross, 2016 Cayman S

18th overall, 4th in Class S4, 57.568 sec: Greg Hartke, 2014 Cayman S

Additionally, Darrell Pope was 1st in Class P1, John Jensen was 1st in Class P2, Greg Whitehead was 1st in Class P4, Doug Slocum was 1st in Class P5, and Parker Martin was 1st in Class S1. Particularly noteworthy was Michael Ricketts performance, 2nd place overall despite running in the first heat. He was bloody well flying out there and that might be the best driving I’ve seen all year. Congrats also to John Cho for a stellar 3rd place overall finish, using his AWD to the best advantage in trying conditions. I’ll also point out Aaron Ross’s top-10 finish, which is very impressive for a newcomer to AX racing. Aaron, Howard, Mark, and I all have Racing Yellow Boxsters or Caymans, so it was 4 out of 10 for the brightest colored cars at the event. And last but not least, Ron Farb was so excited at his first top-10 finish (and with good reason!) that he could hardly contain himself. ;)

Unfortunately, the rain caused some equipment problems. As it did last year when we had a substantial rain, the timing board went down and couldn’t be resuscitated. Grrr. More bothersome, the router in the trailer (which we were using for our network) died, which meant drivers couldn’t see any results at all. Fortunately, there were only about 8 cars to go before the end of the race, so it could have been a lot worse. All I can say is that it was a good thing this was the last race of the season – we have all winter to get the equipment working again. I’m not too worried about the timing board (having been through that last year), but I suspect the router will have to be replaced. I’m sure Phong and I will have an interesting time with that little chore.

This being the last event, I filled up Marilyn’s Subaru Forester with equipment to take home for the winter. The generator and blower have to be winterized, the gas and 2-cycle containers drained, and all the timing equipment (including cables) tested and prepared for next season (including buying a backup emitter for the timing gear). All that’s pretty much routine (it has to be done every year), but now Phong and I will have to deal with the router problem as well. I’m sure we’ll have all kinds of fun figuring out how to configure that baby. Good learning experience. ;)

Ta da! Another AX season is in the books! It was a fun season and I can speak for the entire AX Team

when I thank everyone for their wonderful support by coming out to race with us during 2023. We really had a blast and Mark’s first year as course designer seemed to go very well. I’m happy to report that we’ll all be back next year for a repeat performance. I’ve already started on a schedule for next year and will be submitting dates to PGS management soon, though I won’t have a schedule ‘til probably February. As soon as I get a schedule finalized, I’ll announce it and get it up on MSR so everyone can make plans. ‘Til then, have a great season and we’ll be looking forward to seeing you in 2024!

Greg Hartke CHS PCA AX Chair