Autocross Update: June 2023

Chesapeake Region

Autocross Update

By:GregHartke;Photos:JimMckee

Last month I reported on the successful start of the autocross season with the Test & Tune plus the AX School, whereas this month, the racing season got into full swing with AX#1 on May 6th at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen and AX#2 on May 27th at Prince George’s Stadium (PGS) in Bowie. I’m relieved to report that both events featured fabulous weather and went very well.

There are pluses and minuses to holding events at Ripken Stadium. First, it’s a great venue because it’s a very large parking lot, thus allowing for a big course for racing. After all, long laps are always fun! Secondly, we always have a great turnout at Ripken, presumably because we attract so many of our more northerly Members who find it a little inconvenient to come down to Bowie to race. On the downside, it’s logistically difficult because it’s a long haul for our stalwart southern Members, for Co-chair Mark Hubley, who stores the equipment trailer at his farm and hauls it to every race with his truck. Ordinarily at PGS, Mark drops off the trailer, we drop cones on the lot, then he takes his truck back home to get his car. Unfortunately, he can’t do that for Ripken events since it’s something like a 2-hour drive from his farm. Instead, Mark (and AX Team member John Cho) drove up to Aberdeen the night before and stayed at a motel, then came over to Ripken to join the rest of the team (Pinto Soin, Phong Nguyen, and myself) to set up. Mark was then constrained to race with someone else’s car rather than his own. It worked, but it’s certainly not the most convenient venue for us!

I arrived as usual about 4:45 AM or so, with the rest of the Team right behind me. It was somewhat surprising to find that it was a chilly, foggy morning – so chilly that we needed gloves early to ward off the chill. It was sunny and pleasant once the sun came up and warmed us, but it was an uncomfortable start. Since we don’t race at Ripken that often, we spent a little time figuring out exactly where to place everything, but that was quickly determined and we began the set up for the event in good order. We were fortunate to have Doug Slocum show up early to help as well, which gave Mark one more set of hands to get the course built. It was a big course, too, so the extra help was especially appreciated.

We made some changes to the event schedule this year for greater efficiency to get started earlier than we usually do and Mark and I were quite happy with how that proceeded. We got ahead of schedule, but we forgot that the long course means we really needed to leave more time for the course walk so that drivers can become more familiar with the course.

One thing that drivers must realize is that a big course means there are a lot of cones out there, so it’s easy to get lost and go off-course. Even though Mark emphasized looking ahead and pointed out tough sight lines in the novice course walk, there were still a lot of off course calls in the first run. Looking ahead for the navigation aids and working hard to memorize the line when walking the course is the key and while veteran drivers generally didn’t have too much trouble, it was a bit difficult for the less experienced. The course wasn’t really all that complicated (see the map), but you really must pay attention on such a big course. The map doesn’t really do it justice. The course was big!

This race was unusual in that we had a huge number of people registered for the event. Ordinarily, I’m sweating the registration right up to the last minute, even though we always fill the registration (with a cap at 65). Not this time! We filled the registration weeks early and at one point had 40 people on the waitlist. 40! Unbelievable! In retrospect, maybe I should have increased the cap to 75, run three heats, and accepted a longer event. As it was, we did 6 runs and finished at 3:00 PM. The first heat finished right at 12:00 noon and the second got underway at 12:18, which means the heats were fairly long, kind of on the outside of what I want for how long the course workers have to stay out there. It was OK for such a pleasant day but could have been tough if the weather had been hot. Must think about that for next year when we race again at Ripken.

It's interesting how the S5 class has grown over the last couple of years with a proliferation of GT4’s, GT3’s, and model 982 S’s and GTS’s. Wow! These cars are the cream of the crop for AX and in the hands of good drivers are certainly making their mark. The fastest time of the day (63.489 dec) went to Michael Tavenner in his 2017 Cayman S, which made him tops in the very competitive S5 class. Second overall (at 63.862 sec) and 1st in P5 went to Rick Newman in his 2023 Spyder. Howard Leikin came up from Potomac to race with us at Ripken and was 2nd in S5 (65.321 sec), 3rd among the Porsches, and 6th overall. Dave Critcher was 3rd in S5 (65.462 sec), 4th among the Porsches, and 8th overall.

Damon Lowney had a good day in his modified 2007 Cayman (with the modifications chronicled on the PCA website!) and was 1st in I Class (65.876 sec), 5th among the Porsches, and 10th overall. Dan Ruddick is campaigning a 2015 Cayman GTS for the first time this year (Dan’s a relative newcomer and raced a Miata last year before deciding to go all-in with a GTS) and was 1st in S4 (66.533 sec), 6th among the Porsches, and 11th overall. Ken Wojcik came up from Potomac in his 2011 Turbo and was 4th in S5 (67.054 sec), 7th among the Porsches, and 13th overall. If I’m not mistaken, Ken only just started racing last year, so he’s really coming along great!

Unmentioned so far in the Production classes are Darrell Pope, who was 1st in P1 (69.443 sec) in his 1989 944, Samuel Vassallo 1st in P2 (68.379 sec) in his 2004 Boxster 550, and Greg Whitehead 1st in P4 (73.620 sec) in his 2014 Cayman S. In the remaining Stock classes, newcomer Fadil Santosa was 1st in S1 in his 1996 911C2, Leslie Flanagan was 1st in S2 in a 1990 911 Cabriolet, and Michael Press 1st in S3 in his 2014 Boxster. Special mention for Potomac AXer Chris Markwood, who was 1st in P3 (69.075 sec) in his 2007 997 Carrera but had his car break on the last run when a shifter cable let loose. What a disaster! Poor Chris had to have his car taken away on a flatbed, which was particularly nasty since he lives in Virginia. Fortunately, fellow POT AXer Bill Schwinn was there to give Chris a ride home. These things can happen!

We certainly had a very enjoyable event and the course was lots of fun, particularly for those of us who are experienced AXers. It featured some technical elements, wide sweepers, a non-circular skidpad (which some might consider somewhat diabolical ;) ), and a long, fast slalom. Fun stuff! This was Mark’s first Ripken course design and was a good one.

After AX#1, we had a three-week breather to get ready for AX#2 at PGS on May 27th. Again, we hit the registration cap very early and had a large waitlist. I accepted a few extra drivers for this one to cope with no-shows and wound up with another full event with 65 drivers competing.

Race morning was again quite chilly, but the weather forecast was excellent and it quickly warmed and was pleasant once the sun made an appearance. At our last event at PGS, management had forgotten to plug in the extension cord to provide power for our equipment and the Amazing Pinto had to climb the security gate to find somewhere to plug it in. This time, however, everything was in readiness and Pinto didn’t have to risk a security breach to get us going. Bloody good thing. I did not enjoy the prospect last time of seeing Pinto’s likeness on a poster in the Post Office. ;)

The crew (Mark, Pinto, John, Phong, and I) was there at the usual time and being well-versed in our roles, quickly got to work getting set up. Cones were dropped on the lot and Mark went off to get his car while John and Phong built the course and Pinto and I set up all the equipment.

Doug Slocum was planning to be there early to help, but he got halfway to PGS only to find a badly leaking valve stem, so he had to give it up. What a disappointment for Doug! Curiously, he wasn’t the only one with a tire pressure problem. CCA (Corvette Club of America) AX regular Bob Atwell only managed two runs in the 2nd heat in his Vette before he had a puncture and had to retire. Fortunately, he was able to plug the leak and pump up his tire so he could drive home, but it took him out of the racing for the day. Bummer!

I was worried about AX#1 (and AX#2, for that matter) because Marilyn was on travel for both events, so I had no backup if I forgot anything. Gulp. That’s certainly a demonstrably dangerous scenario. Fortunately, I seemed to have my act together this time and managed to cram everything in my car that I was supposed to bring to the event. Well miracles never cease. ;) Marilyn arrived late in the morning (she had been visiting family at the beach) and picked up ice on the way in to augment what I could fit in my car, so we were in good shape on that score for the day.

Mark had designed an interesting course for AX#2 and one of its features was an early clearing of the first car to allow a second car to be sent out on the course quickly. For that reason, we got done somewhat early, even though it was a longish course. This course was much more technical than it appeared from the map, with drivers almost constantly maneuvering. When the fast drivers were on the course, there was certainly a lot of tire squeal-

ing going on, but you know the old saying (at least among AXers): a squealing tire is a happy tire! ;) Interestingly, more than one driver had motion sickness problems due to the constant high-g reversals on this course. Hmm. I should mention that we had 8 Taste of Autocross participants for this race and they had an absolute blast. Many thanks to our corps of Instructors for giving rides of the ToA folks!

When I’m confronted with a course with which I’m a bit unsure, I always take an instructor for my first run (and sometimes my second) to keep me on course and I make sure I tell them that navigational help is exactly what I want from them. When I do that, I’m not pushing the car like I normally would and my goal is simply to learn the course. It works. You can’t go fast if you’re going OC all the time and at our events you typically have the luxury of 6 runs to get fast. Paradoxically, this course wasn’t especially confusing, but there were a lot of turns to be negotiated and you really needed to look ahead. In AX, you always have to be looking ahead if you have a hope of being fast, but a course like this really separated those who can do that from those who have trouble with it.

We started almost on time (9:36 AM) with the first heat completing at 11:50 after 6 runs for everyone. Heat 2 started at 12:06 and we finished up at 2:13. Nice! I like to finish 6 heats at a reasonable time so that participants still have time for other activities with their families in the afternoon. Even better, we were packed up and ready to leave by 2:45.

1st overall and 1st in Class S5 (60.715 sec) went to Dave Critcher in his 2016 GT3. Dave just put this car on the road last year and he certainly looks as if he’s having a blast with it, though there are days when he seems to pine for his modified 1996 993. ;) 2nd overall and 2nd in S5 (60.925 sec) was Patrick Gaffney in his 2022 GT4 in beautiful Martini livery. 5th overall, 3rd among Porsches, and 1st in Class I (62.723 sec) was Damon Lowney in his modified 2007 Cayman. (You just can’t go wrong with a Cayman! Superb AX cars!) 7th overall, 4th among Porsches, and 3rd in the killer S5 class was Scott Borden in his Carmine Red GT3T. No shame in coming in 3rd in class to Dave and Patrick, that’s for sure!

9th overall, 5th among Porsches, and 1st in S4 was Dan Ruddick in his 2015 Cayman GTS. Dan has PDK and the X73 suspension in his car, so he’s really prepared to race and is doing a great job making the most of it! 10th overall, 6th among Porsches, and 4th in S5 was Potomac AXer Ken Wojcik in his 2011 Turbo, again going a great job for a relative newcomer. 11th overall, 7th among Porsches, and 2nd in S4 was Mark Hubley in his 2015 Cayman GTS.

Among the classes not mentioned so far, Potomac AXer Jim Musgrave came out with us again after a lengthy absence (good to see you again, Jim!) and was first in Class M (his car is set up for the track, not AX) in his 2009 Cayman S (65.431 sec). Tops in P1 (66.320 sec) was Darrell Pope, who was (as always) driving the wheels off his 1989 944. 1st in P3 (64.256 sec) was PCA Executive Director Vu Nguyen in his 1999 996 Carrera. (Great to see you out with us again, Vu!)

1st in P5 was Tom Divilio in his beautiful Chalk 2019 Turbo Cabriolet. Sadly, Lisa couldn’t be with us for this race because of a sick pet, but she was kind enough to send along some of her wonderful chocolate chip cookies with Tom for the AX Team. Lisa is so-o-o-o-o thoughtful! Thanks, Lisa! Long-time Potomac AXer John Clay came out in his older car for this race (1986 944) and was 1st in S1, having a blast tossing that baby around on old tires. Michael Press was 1st in S3 in his 2014 Boxster with a more than respectable 65.818 sec.

We closed out a really fun month of May with two great races to start the season. As I write this, there’s more than three weeks to AX#3 on June 24th and the registration is already full. I’m hearing that this is a common occurrence among the clubs running AX this year. Events are filling up early, so if you want to participate, make sure you register early. All the CHS AX events are up on MSR, so there’s no excuse for missing an event due to being waitlisted. In addition, if you’re interested in coming out to see what AX is like, you can always ride along with our Taste of Autocross program. You can register at the event link, or even show up on event-day and we’ll certainly take care of you and give you a thrill!

Looking forward to seeing you soon at the races! Greg Hartke CHS AX

Chair