February Autocross Update

Autocross Update

By:GregHartke

As usual, things have certainly been hopping here at Autocross Central! December is really the only slack month because even during the off-season there’s always so much to do with all the planning and equipment work. Schedule is paramount and 2 days after I wrote the last AX article for the Patter, I was contacted by the Prince George’s Stadium (PGS) management about the proposed schedule I had sent to them in November. As expected, I couldn’t have all the dates I wanted, so had to rework things a bit from my original proposal. Because PGS is our major venue, I normally see what dates I can have there, then when something doesn’t quite work out, I look to Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen to fill any dates we can’t have at PGS. It was a little dicey getting a date at Ripken this year – it’s a popular venue and by the time I heard about my schedule request from PGS, it was rather late to be scheduling at Ripken, but I’m happy to say I was very fortunate to fill our schedule perfectly with the one date I needed at that venue this year.

The good news is that contracting process is now complete and this is the final schedule for the 2023 CHS PCA AX season:

I really like this schedule. There are no events in March, which I consider to be a big plus because the weather can be decidedly iffy at that time. We have 2 events in May with good spacing throughout the season and due to the scheduling constraints at PGS, AX#1 will be held at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. We even finish our racing season in early October, which is great because it can get chilly out there on the course by the end of the month.

Of note, when PGS contacted me about my requested schedule dates, they also informed me that they were raising the rental rate for the venue by $500 per event this year, necessitating a $5 across-the-board increase in the AX entry fees. I wasn’t happy about that at all and consequently, we’ll be considering holding more events at Ripken next year. In fact, I already discussed that possibility with the Ripken management, and they’d be very happy to have us run more events there. Wanting to start the scheduling process at the best possible time (so that I have a good choice of dates), I asked them when I should begin for next season (answer: September, as soon as the MLB schedule is announced), so I’ll probably work multiple dates at Ripken next year early in the planning process and fill in with PGS dates as required. Still TBD, but this seems a likely course to pursue at this point.

With the schedule set, planning for the CHS Introduction to Autocross (aka the AX School) is foremost on my mind. The most important planning aspect is recruiting instructors for the event because the number of

students we can take is twice the number of instructors. I budgeted for 30 students, now all I must do is get the needed instructors. I’m working on it! Invitations have been sent to the instructors and now it’s just a matter of seeing who among our loyal corps is willing and able to come out and work a long (and rewarding!) day. Stay tuned for news – I should know by next month.

In other CHS AX news, Brad Martinez has stepped down as Co-chair, citing work and family commitments. Totally understandable, of course, and shows that Brad has his priorities straight. ;) Brad told me he’ll still attend and help at our events during 2023 whenever he’s available, but he can’t commit to attend as many events as he should to continue as Co-chair. Brad did a really great job as Co-chair and I’m certainly very sorry to see him go (actually, he wishes he could continue and so do I), but he’s leaving the position for the best of reasons. Brad was Co-chair with Pat Walker before I came on, so he’s been at it even longer than I have. (This is my 5th year.) That’s a long time to be involved with something like AX. Thanks for the dedication, Brad!

As it turns out, Meilyng Wigney -Burmaka is also stepping down as AX Registrar, which will certainly leave a big hole in the AX team. Meilyng did spectacular work as AX Registrar, a job more complicated and difficult than you might expect. Meilyng handled (among other things) the MSR postings and answered registration questions, but more importantly put together the event-day driver and worker assignments as well as getting out all the pre-race correspondence to participants. She then followed up after each race to make sure the lap times were all properly posted online. It was a lot of work for each event, and she did it really well for the last 4 years. Amazing! Thanks so much for the hard work, Meilyng!

With Brad’s departure, a new Co-chair was needed and after considerable thought, I asked Mark Hubley if he would be willing to take on this responsibility. Happily, he agreed, and Mark is now the new AX Co-chair. Mark, of course, has been heavily involved with CHS AX for many years (we keep the trailer full of AX equipment at his farm) and is well known among the CHS AX regulars. He will now take over Brad’s duties. Welcome aboard, Mark!

In the past, Brad has been the lead in building the course before each race and he’ll continue to do that whenever he can, but his availability will be much more limited hereafter. Because Mark has to go back home to get his car after delivering the AX equipment trailer, he won’t be available to build the course, so with

Brad’s departure we were shy one person in our early morning prep crew. Happily, Phong Nguyen has agreed to join us (along with our ever-helpful crew of John Cho and Pinto Soin) to help prepare for each event on race day. Phong has been a tremendous help at events for several years, but I really appreciate him stepping up and joining us in the wee-small hours on race morning to get ready. Thanks so much, Phong!

Besides lots of planning, there was equipment work to be done during the off-season. AX#4 last year was the event I keep calling Drenchfest because its everlasting poured rain during that race. Towards the end of the event, the display board which shows drivers their lap time quit working. I assumed the rain killed it and I would have to send it back to Race America for repair, but not without doing some diagnostic work on it during the off-season before sending it back. (I didn’t have time to work on it during the racing season.) After a couple of days of work studying documentation, repairing, and building cables, and fiddling with the hardware in my test setup here at home, no one was more surprised than I was to find that I actually got it working again. Fancy that! I deem that a minor miracle. ;)

Another item on my to-do list was to examine the backpack blower we use to clean debris in the racing line because the throttle stuck open when I used it for the last AX of the season in October. It wasn’t nearly as miraculous as getting the timing display working again, but the backpack blower now works properly, and I also bought hearing protection for anyone who uses it – a safety measure I consider to be quite important.

With this and other work done, I wanted to return all equipment to the trailer, so I arranged a meeting with Brad and Mark in Bowie to discuss the season, loaded up my Cooper S to the gills with equipment, tools, and diagnostic gear, and drove down to the meeting, after which Mark and I went to Mark’s farm to run a full system test of the timing gear at the trailer to make sure the trailer wiring had not contributed to the timing display problem. In a rather amusing turn of events, I discovered that despite checklists and checklists of everything I had to take down to the trailer, I had neglected to bring the battery packs for the timing transmitters. No problem. I had transmitters powered by AA batteries that I could use. These had tested fine when I bought new transmitters four years ago, but wouldn’t you know it? They didn’t work. Arrgh! Yes, I had fresh batteries, but the bloody things seemed to be kaput. The #1 rule of checklists: they only work when every

item you need is on the checklist. Gotta remembers that. ;)

Nothing to do but head home (a 75-minute drive) and come back the next day, which I did. The good news is that everything worked perfectly when I came back with the battery packs and did a full-up system test with everything wired as it would be for a race. Our timing display is now back in business! This also gave me the opportunity to check the generator after I took it home and winterized it, and happily it started on the first pull. That was important because we’d be up that-well-known-creek without a paddle if the generator didn’t work properly for AX#1 at Ripken.

Since I was down in Bowie, I stopped by PGS before the meeting to drive around the lot and check its condition. The surface looked great (as expected), but what I was really interested in was how much debris there was on the lot. It wasn’t bad, but it was more than I’d like given the fancy price we’re paying to use the lot, so I wrote to PGS management to see if they’ll clean it. The year before they repaved, the lot was in really rough shape (the surface was badly deteriorated) and I managed to get them to agree to clean it then. We’ll see if they’re game to do it again. I haven’t heard from them yet on this subject, so they haven’t rejected my request out of hand.

Tires: a subject near and dear to every AXer. All the research I’ve done makes it sound as if the two best tires for AX these days for our P-cars are the Yokohama ADVAN A052 and the Falken Azenis RT660. I ‘ve been hesitant with the Yokos because I hear they like lots of width and lots of camber and since I have a stock setup (no camber plates), I wondered how they’d do. Mark H. drove Yokos this year with his 981 Cayman GTS and he really liked the tires; they did very well for him. Danny K. also told me how much he liked the Yokos on his GTS and Danny is always worth heeding with his wealth of experience and AX success at the National level.

Keep in mind that Mark and I have both had our alignments done by Bob Miller of At Speed, so they’re not stock, but neither of us have had any changes to the hardware, just to the settings. Having Bob do the alignment was quite cool because I told him it was for AX and he tweaked the alignment ‘til it felt sharp and suitable for my use. Bob is a professional driver, so really knows what he’s doing – he wouldn’t give the car back to me ‘til he was satisfied with how it felt. When he was done, the car drove better for AX than it had

previously, so I was very happy with the result.

The Yokos demonstrably work well for our cars in AX, though they’re hard to get. As a counterpoint, Kevin K. (who is an excellent AX driver) ran with the Falken Azenis RT-660 tires last season and he told me they were great. (Kevin also drives a 981 Cayman S.) I recently ordered a set of Yokos for my car (expected to ship in late March – we’ll see how that works out) but might have gone with the more easily available Falkens if they were available in the sizes I need – my car has 20” rims and the Falkens only have sizes for up to 19” rims.

FWIW, I think the bottom line is that you can’t really go wrong with either of these tires. They’re both excellent on our P-cars for AX. I should note that there has been some success at the National level with the new Bridgestone RE-71RS tires, but I don’t know anyone personally who has used them. What I’ve read suggests that they’re a more track-oriented tire and might not heat up quickly enough for our AX needs, but they have had success at the National level in AX, so I’m not sure what to make of that assessment seen in reviews. I’m intrigued by these tires and might have tried them myself, but they don’t have the sizes I need yet. They only have one size for 20” wheels and while that would work perfectly for my rears, they don’t have the size I need for the fronts. I’ll keep an eye on these for the future, though. They’re bound to expand the available sizes eventually.

Keep in mind these tires are suitable for those of us driving our “mundane” Porsches. Those of you driving more exotic versions like Turbos or GT3s (not to mention electric versions and SUVs) are in a whole ‘nother category. I’ll leave you to your own tire problems. ;)

Only a couple of months to go before racing activities crank up again. That’s certainly great! I’ve been in withdrawal. ;) Still lots to do to get ready for the season, but we’ll get there. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon at the races!

Stay well!

Greg Hartke

CHS AX Chair