Autocross April Article

Autocross: Test & Tune Results

By: Greg Hartke

We’re off and running! On Saturday March 30th, we held Instructor Day (in the morning) and Test & Tune (in the afternoon). Because this is a double event with both morning and afternoon sessions, it makes for a very long day for those of us involved with both, but we were rewarded with lots of fun driving.

Instructor Day is a big thank you for the Instructors who work at our events and at the AX School. Basically, we invite them to come out, break them up into two groups, and drive for a couple/three hours on the course that’s being used for the Test & Tune with timing set up so they can see how they’re doing. We had a good turnout of Instructors this year, but even so they got lots of runs and had lots of fun. It was a great way for everyone to knock off the rust and prepare for the season.

The Test & Tune event for the afternoon is designed for experienced AXers who want to come out and practice or set up their cars for the season.

Besides the practice time, this is an opportunity for drivers whose cars have adjustable suspension components to get ‘em tweaked and ready for the competitive racing season.

I had brought a lot of equipment home for winterizing and repairs during the off-season, so my car was packed to the gills when I left home for Prince George’s Stadium (PGS) in Bowie. ‘Course, there was plenty more that had to go (timing equipment and display, backpack blower, gas cans, water, snacks, etc., etc.), so my self-proclaimed “AX soccer mom” Marilyn (who was coming down later) had her car full of gear, too. I’d be lost without her!

I arrived at PGS around 4:45 to discover that there was a utility truck sitting with engine idling down in a corner of the lot and the driver napping inside. Hmm. Not the first time that’s happened and I’m sure the driver was a bit surprised when he finally awoke to find all the activity on the lot. He eventually snuck out, but he had to move cones to do it because we block off the entrances to the lot. That’ll larn him to pick a better spot to nap! ;)

The rest of the fabulous AX Team (Co-chair Mark Hubley, John Cho, Pinto Soin, and Doug Slocum) arrived shortly thereafter, with Doug showing up in his beautiful newly-acquired Ford GT. Do you think that baby drew a lot of interest during the day? Betcha dupa it did! Everyone had to take a look. The GT is a fab-

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ulous and very rare car (I’ve seen a few, but not many), but not too well suited to AX, so Doug planned to not push it too hard when he was out there that day.

Dedication. You want to hear dedication? Let me tell you AX Team member Phong Nguyen discovered a coolant leak in his car the previous day, so he couldn’t drive it to the event (and that car is his daily). Did that stop Phong? No way! He actually took an Uber from his home in Hanover to PGS so he could be there to help out. Unbelievable! I took Phong home afterwards, so at least he only had to Uber one way. Thanks, Phong!!!

Keep in mind also that this is an opportunity for us to test our equipment and procedures because a Test & Tune is not a competitive event. It’s practice for experienced racers who wants to register to come out and drive. This is an excellent way to start the season and we get a lot of nonPCA members anxious to come out and get their season started, too. We were using the same course for the day that we did last year, which is a slightly modified (i.e., a bit more complicated) version of the AX School course and participants agreed that it was a lot of fun to drive.

Last year, we had problems at AX#7 with rain killing the timing display. I resurrected the display over the winter and determined to do a better job of waterproofing our equipment. I modified an exterior outlet cover to protect the power and ethernet sockets on the back of the display and made a new shroud out of 4 mil plastic sheeting to cover the entire display with everything sealed so that no rain could get to the display. I also bought clamshell cases to cover the plugs to the main power supplies and hopefully all this work will put an end to our equipment problems in the rain. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and it was dry all day for the race on Saturday, but I’m confident that our rain problems are a thing of the past.

When I arrived at PGS, it was about 34 or 35 F, which is quite chilly for racing. (It takes time for the tires to get any heat in them and develop grip.) Mark came back with his car after dropping off his trailer tow vehicle and went out to get the course into its final shape after Phong, John, Doug, and Pinto put all the cones in their initial places. Just about the time I finished getting the equipment at the trailer set up, he finished his work, so he and I were off to do the safety checks on the course in my car. It was immediately obvious that the cold temps were causing me to have no grip and the car was sliding all over the place, so I had to be quite careful. Mark had done a great job with the final configuration of the course with the result that I think we only moved one cone to open up a corner for better flow. That was it. Sight lines were good and IIRC, we didn’t even add any extra pointer cones to provide navigation direction. Good job, Mark! As soon as we completed the safety runs, we opened the course for walking and shortly thereafter, got the racing underway.

There were 24 Instructors registered for the morning session (though one couldn’t make it and Phong didn’t have his car – he had a good time taking rides with a variety of other Instructors), so I split the morning session up into two groups of 11 drivers. We drove our butts off! Some of the Instructors must have gotten 15 runs or more. I know Chris “Crash” Nolan had even more than that. He’s amazing. He just wants to drive and drive and drive.

We started around 8:40 or 8:45, so I allocated about 75 minutes for each group so we would finish in time for the Test & Tune participants to arrive around 11:30. It was no surprise that with so few drivers and a fast pace (remember, these were all experienced and very good drivers), the racing in each heat petered out before the 75 minutes was up because everyone had had enough, so we ended the morning racing with time to spare.

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The course was straightforward (though not without its subtleties) and lots of fun to drive. The slalom was quite fast, as was the finishing section starting above and to the left of Station 4 and continuing through the channel.

Howard Leikin, Mark Hubley, and I were all frustrated by our inability to get out of the 48’s for our run times. On the other hand, Kevin Keaty managed one time in the 47’s when he clocked a 47.6 sec. Kevin told me he only did that when he stayed tight in the figure 8 and ran in 1st gear all the way to the slow corner down by Station 1. Hmm. I think that highlights the big mistake I was making that was keeping me out of the 47’s. I let myself run wide in that lowest section of the figure 8 to set up the sharp corner to turn back to the top of the figure 8. It never felt fast on that line and I stupidly didn’t try the tight line, despite lots of runs to do so. Idiot. ;) Kevin also downshifted in the slow corner down in the lower left of the course map, but he has PDK, so he can do that without penalty. I saw Kevin’s video of his fast run and I was taking the same lines as he was except for the lower portion of the figure 8. Oh, well.

At least I was doing the slalom right. That was fun because I could roll on the power to full throttle coming out of the top of the figure 8 and set it up so that I didn’t have to brake ‘til I was approaching the second cone of the slalom. I was then rolling back into full throttle as I approached the last cone of the slalom and carried a lot of speed down the hill to the chicane.

The sequence heading out of the tight corner in the upper left was also gangs of fun. I was rolling on the throttle at exit and quickly was up to full bore to snake through the gates, never needing to lift ‘til I got to the offset cone just above Station 3. I probably could have taken the sharp swing into the stop box faster, but I was aware of my old tires and slightly cool temps, so didn’t push that as hard as I might have. In the afternoon, someone went overboard at that sequence and wiped out a bunch of cones in the stop box twice. Very spectacular, but no big deal, really, because the timing equipment was untouched. The driver got DNFs for those efforts because we never allow anyone to even touch a cone in the stop box. ;)

Danny Kao was FTD for the morning session with a 46.4 sec, followed by Dave Critcher with 46.5 sec and Dean Moheet just a tick slower than Dave. Fast times, to be sure! Great to see Dean coming out to race with us again, too. He bought POT AXer Eric Core’s Cayman S when Eric was forced to retire from racing for health reasons.

After we finished racing in the morning, we had some free(ish) time, so PCA National Executive Director (and AX Instructor and enthusiast!) Vu Nguyen and others organized a photo shoot to show what the cool kids are driving. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out which picture that is. ;) The drivers are Dean Moheet, Howard Leikin, Mark Hubley, and myself. Yes sir, coolness personified. Or something. ;)

It was great to see Vu out there – he’s frequently busy with PCA stuff on the weekends and can’t attend races, but he certainly comes out and tears it up when he can. He caused that day pandemonium when, in conversation with others near the equipment trailer at the end of the morning racing, he said, “I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Greg wear so many clothes.” In my own defense, it was chilly that day. ;)

As usual with the afternoon Test & Tune, registration was full. (In fact, it filled weeks in advance and had an extensive Waitlist.) I capped it at 40, accepted 42, we had 2 no-shows, and 2 folks from the Waitlist showed up on the off-chance that they might get in. Perfect! Participants were very happy because we gave them 7 runs (which is good; AXers are always happy with lots of runs) and with two heats of 21 drivers each, we spent just about 90 minutes on each of two heats. Racing completed at 4:06 PM and the participants were extremely helpful in getting all the equipment up to the trailer for us to pack away. We were all done by 4:45.

Several of the Instructors hung around after the morning session to help with the afternoon racing, which was great because although this event is supposed to be for experienced AXers only, a few beginners showed up as well. Lisa Gritti was flying out of BWI in the early evening, but even so, she showed up to help work as Gridmeister for the first heat, which was especially helpful because with the limited registration, we were a bit short of workers and especially for the skill positions. Lisa also brought her fabulous chocolate chip cookies to help sustain the crew through the long-running event. Thanks, Lisa!

Afternoon racing started at 1:10 PM, which was slightly earlier than scheduled. Everything proceeded nicely with minimal delay and no timing problems. The fastest time of the afternoon session was turned in by Lenworth Woolcock in his highly modified 2005 Mazda RX-8 at 48.328 sec. Second was Mark Eller, returning to AX again this year in his 2023 GT4 (Class P5) with a time of 48.510 sec. Third was POT PCAer Ken Wojcik in his 2018 GT3 (Class S5) with a time of 48.575 sec. Ken surprised me in two ways. He registered his other car (a 2010 911), but forgot he’d done so and brought his GT3. (That was pretty funny!) Secondly, the GT3 is new to him. I would have expected that his “other car” was the 2011 Turbo he raced last year. He really threw me!

Fourth was Mark Hubley in his 2015 Cayman GTS with a time of 48.748 sec. He might have been a little faster in the morning, but that might be expected since we were hot-lapping in the AM, which keeps the tires toasty (thus more grip). Fifth was Tom Carroll in his modified 1990 Miata with a time of 49.174 sec.

It was a great day and though it’s always tough to tell, it seemed as if everyone had a good time. I am soo-o-o-o thankful that the weather stayed dry for the day, too. Phew! I won’t say the forecast was ominous, but it was such that I was a bit worried.

We had one smudge on the day. Marilyn and I were really pleased with our use of the chiller in the trailer to supply cold water last year (reducing our need for one-use plastic water bottles), but a serious problem arose with it on race day. After we connected it to the 5-gal water bottle, I came back to the trailer to find water all over the place. I had lots of fun mopping out the trailer and while I did that, the guys opened up the chiller to see what was going on. Apparently, the pump was the culprit, spewing water all over the place, and it did not look repairable. Drat! Marilyn and I are now considering other inexpensive ways to provide chilled water without relying on one-use bottled water.

As I write this, the CHS PCA Intro to Autocross is only 10 days away. The registration is full (happy about that!) and we have a substantial Waitlist. This is a big and complicated event for us, but we’re ready. I’m complicating things slightly because Marilyn and I are going to Ohio this weekend to give ourselves an opportunity to see the eclipse within the path of totality, so I’m certainly hoping for clear weather (or at least, clear enough) on April 8th. We’re driving back on Tuesday the 9th, which doesn’t give me much time to put everything together for the AX School. I’ll manage, though. After all, I’m retired now. Why would I need sleep? ;)

Don’t forget about our Taste of Autocross program! If you’d like to see what AX is like, show up at one of our races (no registration necessary), pay a nominal $5 fee (mandated by PCA National), and we’ll arrange for you to go out for multiple rides with our Instructors during their competitive laps. Those who have taken advantage of the opportunity in the past tended to come away with big smiles. ;) Just look for me or one of the AX Team (Co-chair Mark Hubley, Pinto Soin, Phong Nguyen, John Cho, or Doug Slocum) and we’ll set you up. We’ll be happy to have you!

Here we go! Looking forward to seeing you soon at the races!

Greg Hartke CHS AX Chair