While Dr. Dyno is enjoying his well earned getaway at one of his luxury villas, we assembled some super articles. We cover everything from track maps to improvement scores to Porsche passion in Poland to a look inside the mind of Joe Weiderholt to Parnelli Jones’ connection with the POC. Along with Luis Vivar’s photography and Don Matz’s graphic images, you don’t want to miss this issue!
VELOCITY
Andrew
Art Director
Don Matz
Contributing
Don Kravig
Andrew Weyman
Paul Wren
Matt Hately
Steve Eisler
Contributing
Luis Vivar
Paul Wren
Matthew Hately
POC Board of Directors
John Momeyer President
Karen Robinson Secretary
Jim Salzer Treasurer / PDS Director
Joe Wiederholt VP Motorsports
Dwain Dement Chief Driving Instructor
Eben Benade Time Trial Director
Steve Town Sponsorship
Cover Image: Don Matz & Luis Vivar
Image: Don Matz
Joe Wiederholt
ANDREW WEYMAN
“Every time I go out on the track, I pinch myself. It’s not something a kid from Dubuque, Iowa would think he was ever going to do. It’s other worldly. That feeling has never gone away.”
Joe Weiderholt
Loves
Pork Chops at Chuckwalla
AW: Thanks for agreeing to be interrogated, I mean interviewed.
JW: I’ve been looking forward to it.
AW: How’s your back? (Joe was suffering from back pain and had to miss our event at Sonoma).
JW: I guess I should make up a story about how a guy took a bad fall and I caught him just in time and wrenched my back. But I was in the backyard watering strawberries with a hose and for some reason I either bent down or twisted or something and all of a sudden, I felt like I couldn’t move.
AW: That’s a boring story.
JW: When you’re young, if you injure yourself, it’s because you did something stupid. I’ve been on a real run here lately, but I guess that’s how it goes.
AW: Between your kidney stones, Covid and your back you’ve had your share.
JW: I suppose I could complain but other people have it worse, so….
AW: I don’t want to hear your complaints, anyway.
JW: That’s one of the things I tell Heidi (Joe’s wife). I go to the racetrack and people are nice but when you’re being a whatever, they’ll let you know. I like it because it’s a little more direct. There’s not a lot of tiptoeing around. Especially with Vali (Predescu).
AW: Ha! No such thing.
JW: I like that. It’s more the way I grew up. You say what’s on your mind and everyone deals with it. I think it’s kind of refreshing. A lot of times at work, you have to be so cautious about everything. I get tired of it. I like to be around a bunch of people that when you do something
dumb, they tell you that you were dumb and explain in great detail how you were dumb and five years later if you have a good day, they’ll remind you about the time you were really stupid. “Do you remember the time…?” And you’ll say, “Yes I do.”
AW: Speaking of work, tell me a little about your day job.
JW: I’ll do the quick version of…well I hope it’s quick. I started out as an Aerospace Engineer for about 10 years. I was working for General Dynamics and they sold a lot of their businesses and moved them out of San Diego. I kind of had to make a decision and I decided to stay with what remained of them because I liked living here. It was a different division, and we did more software work. I’ve been basically managing software development and systems engineers. I had no intention of doing that when I graduated from school. I certainly didn’t expect that I’d be managing a bunch of people. We had problems with a piece of software that failed testing. They started to invite me to meetings about things like that. They were talking and talking about how they were going to possibly fix this and that. I didn’t say anything in a room of people more important than me. At the end, I finally spoke up and said, “There’s nothing wrong with the software. What’s wrong is that you’re not testing it right.” I told them it will probably be hard to test it properly. I went into details on that. They all looked at me like I’d come from Mars or something. The next day, the guy who was Deputy Chief Engineer came to me and said, “You’re in charge of doing that.” And I said, “What? I don’t have anyone working for me…. He said, “Let us know what you need.” I told
him I didn’t know anything about organizing and budgeting and all that. He repeated, “Let us know what you need.” That’s how it happened. I’ve moved up the ladder and ever since then, I’ve been managing people.
AW: How did you get from there to the POC?
JW: From about age 15 to about 50 I raced bicycles. It was my true love. As I got older, my knees were shot. I had to stop. My doctor said, “If you’d like to continue walking, I suggest you stop biking.” So, I did. I missed the camaraderie and the competition. I’m a better version of myself when I have a hobby. I’ve always been a big Porsche fan. I used to think about the sound of a 917 going down the Mulsanne Straight. My first car was a Volkswagen and that’s as close to a Porsche as I could get. When I could finally afford it, I bought myself a Cayman. I was driving and I remembered what Jay Leno said about driving and sex. “Just like sex, everyone thinks they’re a good driver.” I always liked driving in a spirited fashion and the car seemed so capable. I was afraid because I didn’t know what it would do when it wouldn’t do what I asked. I was looking for ways to learn and PCA had a local performance driving school in the parking lot of what used to be called Qualcomm Stadium. I did that. It was two days of threshold braking, lane changes, a lot of autocross kind of stuff, soapy water skid pad…and I was just like pigs in slop enjoying it. I came away so excited. They told me they have big track events. “You mean I can drive my car on a track?!” So, I did Chuckwalla with PCA. While I was there, I was talking with a guy who thought I’d like to drive with this other group, the POC. They race. So, I registered for a POC event. There were two things I got out
of it. I saw the racing and it was cool! I thought I wanted to do it, but I was a little scared. Will Marcy was my instructor. I know every instructor is different but when I went to the PCA event my instructor was a super neat and tidy guy. He was like the Alain Prost of instructors. Everything was like don’t over do it, don’t get the car out of shape, just learn the line, gradually pick up speed. Everything had to be ‘perfect.’ It was fun but…that was his style. At Chuckwalla, I was a few laps in, going through the Bowl, and I was little too enthusiastic, and the car got crossed up. I caught it and I kept going and I said to Will that I was sorry. “Sorry? Why are you sorry? How are you going to learn what the car can do if you don’t make it do what it’ll do?” I was like, ‘oh, this is different.’ It was very freeing. Will sent me out by myself a few laps later. Two people spun in front of me. I reported back to Will. “Two people spun in front of me. I almost collected one guy.” Will said, “But did you?” “No. I got around him.” “Then you did good!” Then it hit me. Oh, this is supposed to be fun! It was a really good day. It didn’t feel so butt-clenching. It wasn’t that you have to hold your pinky up when you do this or that. No. Have fun. You’ll learn. People screw up and get on with it.
car. I felt like sooner or later something was going to happen. He said you should probably get a track car and suggested a Spec Boxster. I researched it and it seemed to make sense. I had one built. It would have been better to just buy one from somebody, but I didn’t really know anything, and I didn’t know anyone.
AW: What year did you join the POC?
JW: 2014.
AW: And when did you earn your Cup license?
JW: 2016.
AW: That was pretty quick.
AW: Those are two very different experiences.
JW: From then on, I went to every POC event. When I talked to Will I told him I really didn’t want to push hard. I didn’t want to wreck the
JW: I would have liked to have done it a little sooner, but a couple of things happened. I missed one Racers Clinic. I had been karting at one of the San Diego tracks trying to get more seat time. Someone messed up and I stopped but the person behind me didn’t, and I got rear ended. I broke a couple of ribs and there was no way I could drive. At the time I looked at my lap times compared to the race group. I thought I needed to be driving laps that put me somewhere in the middle of the pack in order to be able to pay attention to others around me. For me, it was the right thing to do. Not rush it. The first race I did was at Laguna Seca. I had never driven the track before. I called Dwain (Dement). I told him I wasn’t sure I should race. He told me I could start in the back if I wanted. “Don’t sweat it. Get through the corners. If you lose some spots, you lose some spots. Don’t do anything
Photo: Luis Vivar
you don’t feel comfortable with.” I put together a pretty crappy simulator and I drove hundreds of laps. When I went to the track, I was pretty comfortable. I had a really good weekend. No incidents. In some ways, it was easier than driving the SIM. Especially the Corkscrew.
AW: I found the same thing. It’s easier to get the timing in real life.
JW: Your body picks up all the cues. The bumps. The timing. On the SIM you don’t have all of that. It was a good weekend. I was hooked. Every time I go out on the track, I pinch myself. It’s not something a kid from Dubuque, Iowa would think he was ever going to do. It’s other worldly. That feeling has never gone away.
AW: What have learned about yourself through racing with POC?
JW: (Pause) I guess one thing would be that everyone needs to approach it in a way that
gives you the most satisfaction, the most joy or fun. That can be anything from ‘I’m super serious about it’ to ‘I mainly like hanging out in the paddock and shooting the breeze.’ For the first couple of years, I was very serious about it. I tried to improve, and I did. Then I found it was a lot of pressure. I had to prep before the race. I studied my track map. I drove the SIM, practiced, and reviewed my video. I had to improve my Qualifying times. I did everything I had to do to improve. After a few years I found that that was more pressure than I wanted. I wanted to enjoy it more. I stopped worrying about it so much. Now I can put in 50% of the effort and get 80% or 90% of the results. I enjoy it more and I stopped worrying about if I finished 3rd or 4th. I’ve found a happy place where I’m maximizing my enjoyment and not stressing so
AW: I feel the same way. I have a great time every second I’m on the track.
JW: It took me a little while to come to that realization. One of the things I love is being part of the group and knowing people, all the camaraderie. That was also true during my years of cycling.
AW: What do you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses on the track?
JW: I think I do a good job of preparing for each track. I know I just said I do less of that, but it doesn’t mean I do none of it. I’ve always been a pretty good qualifier when I can focus on just one lap. I’m generally not at the same pace during the races so I usually have someone on my butt. I’m not always good at handling that well. You have to have this blend of focusing ahead but having an awareness of the guy
in your rearview mirror and managing them. That’s a difficult balance sometimes. It’s easy to get into a downward spiral if they get past you and somebody else gets by you then. I’d like to be mentally stronger when there’s pressure lap after lap. I always tell myself not to think that I have five laps to go and 14 turns. I try to focus on the next corner and then the one after that. I have very good races when someone is pressuring me and I’m able to handle it one corner at a time. Sometimes that’s very difficult to do. Other times it’s easier. For a couple of races, I did the whole Ross Bentley visualizing thing and how to get into the right mind space for it. They were a couple of the best races I ever had. I spent a lot of time doing that. After that, I felt like that was a lot of work. It goes back to what I said before. It was more than what I wanted to put into it. It became another
I always tell myself not to think that I have five laps to go and 14 turns. I try to focus on the next corner and then the one after that.
Photo: Luis Vivar
job. I won’t criticize any driver whose sole focus was doing that. Fine. That’s the right headspace for them.
AW: Here’s a little gear shift. You’ve been Motorsports Director for a long time. When did you join the Board of Directors?
JW: In 2018 or 2019, I’m not sure. Ron Palmer had asked me if I was interested in getting more involved with the club. He asked me to handle the stuff in MotorsportsReg and suggested that I run for the Board. I lost by one vote. It didn’t surprise me. I didn’t know that many people. John Gordon left the Board and Ron asked me to take over all his motorsports duties. I did, and then I ran again and got elected. I think it was due to the fact that many more people knew me.
AW: I know you missed the last few races, and you had a grand plan to coincide with your retirement. You were planning on making Sonoma your last race and wanted to continue your participation with the club on some level. Correct?
JW: Yeah. I wanted to end on a high note at Sonoma. I really like the track and my wife was going to attend. But sometimes things don’t work out as planned. I want to continue to work with the club, as long as I’m enjoying it. Two months? A year? Five years? I don’t know. I’ve never been in this situation before. It’s so great to have met people who all do all sorts of things. At work, everybody basically does the same thing. I know jobs aren’t everything about somebody, but I enjoy being with people who have different life stories other than just engineers. At the track, most of the time, you’re not racing. You have time to sit around and talk or put stickers on Branimir’s (Kovak) or Nigel’s (Maidment) car.
AW: Since you’ve given up cycling, do you have any other hobbies?
JW: I enjoy working in our garden. I like the feeling of doing something and seeing that it looks way better. You get immediate feedback. It’s very gratifying and very simple. I recently started gem cutting. Not a diamond but something that faceted like that. Anything but diamonds. That’s a whole different thing. I love things that take a lot of skill, like driving. You have to learn it, try to master it, and never really will.
AW: How did you find gem cutting as something to do? That’s so far out of what I would think of doing.
JW: As a kid, and even into my late teens, I collected rocks and minerals. I always thought it would be really cool to learn how to cut gems. I never really had the chance and I didn’t have the money to buy the equipment. There are faceted stones like sapphires and more rounded stones called cabochons. I want to cut them perfectly. It’s enjoyable. To get it just right…you get in the zone, start cutting and it’s very peaceful. There are other things I’d like to do, too. My wife and I are going to travel. We’re going to Alaska to see the Northern Lights and then to Daytona for the 24 Hours. Next year we’re going to Scotland.
AW: You’ve given me a lot to work with but is there anything you’d like to add?
JW: Just that my tradition at Chuckwalla is to eat pork chops with my hands. Every year, Ana (Predescu) takes a picture of me eating a pork chop with my hands. They ran out of plates and utensils one year and that started it. It’s silly stuff, especially if you’ve had a Scotch or two. I love it. It’s just one of the things that makes our events so special.
Photo: Luis Vivar
CreatingYour Ideal Track Map
you want to create an accurate, detailed drawing with your own hands, not using someone else’s image.
Images: Paul Wren
Paul Wren
Some people think that the printed diagram that is handed out by the track is a track map. This is not even close to true. To fully explore the limits of a car on a given track, you need much more information than can be provided by someone else’s tracing of a line on paper.
The goal is to reach the ‘flow state’ in your driving, where you have no doubts or questions about what comes next, and your entire focus is on maximizing the fine details of extracting minimal lap time. This means you must have an excellent mental image of every nuance of the track, along with experience with the behavior and limits of your particular car on that track, in conditions matching the day of your event.
To develop your own personal track map, you can start with the printed image provided by the organizer or the track, but that is only the beginning. You should also look at a closeup view in Google Earth, which will give you some indication of elevation, banking, the accumulated rubber of other people’s lines, the location of any candy-stripe curbing or wide runoff areas, as well as the location of corner worker stations and significant buildings, walls, trees, pit entry and exit, and even the direction of sunlight.
Get yourself a large-format sketchbook. An art store is a great resource for a spiral-bound notebook in 11x17 or 14x22 or so. You definitely want something bigger than 8.5x11 but not so big that you won’t take it with you to the track or be worried about carrying it around with you.
Draw your own map of the track and use two lines for the entire track to show the left and right sides everywhere. Pay attention to the actual width of the track. Note the curbs and runoff areas you can see in Google Earth. It might take several tries or starting with light pencil sketch and filling in with marker, but you want to create an accurate, detailed drawing with your own hands, not using someone else’s image.
Once you have that drawing, go to YouTube and search for other people’s driving footage of that track. Many people freely post excellent footage taken from the Garmin Catalyst, or better yet from the AiM system, that show the view of the track along with the speed of the car. The bonus on AiM data is brake and throttle application as well as RPMs so you can see shifting.
Watch the footage from several different drivers and cars if you can. It’s excellent if you can get both a Spec Boxster, and a Cup car recording. The Cup guys tend to have the most complete telemetry, and you can particularly learn a lot by watching their throttle and brake application. Guys like Jack Olsen or Bryan Van Noy publish footage that includes commentary so you can understand their approach and how they think, which is awesome.
As you watch the footage, note the speed of the car at three points of every corner: max speed at entry, minimum speed at apex, and track-out speed entering the next straight. Also note their positioning on the track. Sometimes they might not use the entire track at entry or exit in order to link to the next corner. Many corners on a track do not stand alone but are part of a sequence.
Note which corners are followed by a straightaway or a long segment at full throttle (since even curves can be taken wide open at many tracks). The most important factor in lap time is to take full advantage of the actual straightaways by using a late apex at the last corner before the straight to get to throttle early. Other corners can be sacrificed if they are low speed or part of a sequence, because it is not that important to carry speed, and it is often more important to conserve your tires and keep a smooth line rather than maximize speed at every instant.
Also, once you have the entry speed and apex speed for every corner, make hash marks beside the track to denote how severe the braking for that corner is. It may be that turn one after a long straightaway is taken at 60mph, but the car was going 140 before the brake point. That’s a huge braking event and you need to be aware of that. Other corners might not have any braking at all, just a lift or a brush of the brakes to set the front end. Note that as well. Also note the turn-in point used by different drivers you see on video. You can tell when a corner is late-apex or not, which indicates how that driver felt about the importance of straightaway speed on the following straight.
Beyond the one-page drawing of the whole track, use several successive pages to draw a closeup of the important corners. This might be just a couple important corners, or it might be every corner on the track. On the enlarged version, note any features that you notice either from inspection of the track, or later while driving. This could be slippery spots, bumps or cracks that disrupt grip, dark or light spots that denote significant points in the corner, or banking, or off-camber sections. Note what you’ve observed about braking points, braking severity, apex location and track-out for each corner. Linked corners should be drawn together for context.
Once you have your track drawing and detail pages that give you all that information above, you’re ready to go and drive the track. Ideally you want to do several things to perfect your understanding of the track (but clearly you might skip some of these by necessity):
1. Go to an open track day in the best-handling but slowest street car you can find. Ideally it’s an old air-cooled 911 that is properly suspended for balanced handling but has entirely manual steering and brakes and has so-so street tires without much grip. This way you can feel the track and limits of the turns without going tremendously fast. Make sure you have a Garmin Catalyst set up for recording your laps. After a day’s running informed by all the mapping and analysis you already did on paper ahead of time, analyze your best lap or two and write down the corner entry, apex, and exit speeds for every corner, along with your braking points and where you can get back to full throttle. Compare them to the Spec Boxster and Cup car that you watched on YouTube and reflect on it. Obviously, your speeds will be lower but the relative speeds can be illuminating. Knowing you are in a slow car on slippery street tires takes your lap-time ego out of it and that can provide the freedom to think more openly about the line and the conditions of the track.
2. Sign up for a driving school at the track, but this time bring a high horsepower street car with decent street tires. Arrange for there to be a snowstorm the night before with a freezing cold morning and rain throughout the day. Turn off traction control entirely and drive with an ex-Le Mans winning pro in the right seat to observe. Feel the track and explore the limitations of grip, while also exploring your understanding of the line and taking the input of a pro that knows much more than you. Realize they are going to tell you things that they think you should know, but they are also NOT going to tell you things that might get you in trouble or get them in trouble in the right seat. This may seem like an artificial setup, but bizarrely enough, is exactly what happened to me. Snow at Willow Springs! Rick Knoop in the right seat!
3. Sign up for another driving school or private coaching day at the same track. (I am absolutely a fan of Martina & Dwain’s DK Racing School at Willow.) Bring a prepared race car or borrow a Spec Boxster from the driving school. Watch the video that the school sends you illustrating the track. Show up early and do the track walk with the instructor(s) and listen carefully to what they say (and don’t say). Ideally get more than one perspective. Drive as many sessions as possible with high quality and focus. Run side-by-side sessions with other cars so you learn what happens off-line, and drive with an instructor in the car who can comment intelligently on your driving. Don’t necessarily believe everything they say, but take all input and understand it, and have a rational reason why you do or don’t follow it. Learn, memorize, experience, and write it all down on your track map and additional pages. Pay particular attention to how your braking points, turn-in and throttle application differ from the slow street car, and from the fast street car.
4. Participate in an organized Time Trial with POC, using the best-prepared race car you can arrange. Know exactly what your setup is, use new tires or known used tires, be well rested and focused, grid early and meditate on all you’ve learned to date. Pay particular attention to one of the most valuable laps you will get all day: on new sticker tires, or cold used tires, explore each corner on your first outlap and see what the car does when the tires are like ice. Notice exactly what changes as the tires come up to temperature. Set one or two fast laps and then also notice what happens as your tires get too hot. If you really drive at 100% on a properly set up car with the right tires, they will get too hot and go off but that is also excellent learning for car control and car behavior. Write it all down on your track map or additional pages.
5. After each on-track session, find a cold drink and some cool quiet shade and watch your Garmin footage of the session. Take note of where you hit or missed your target line and your target speed in each corner. Then close your eyes and replay your best lap in your mind and be honest with yourself as to what went right or wrong and where you could have gone faster. Review your track map with the lap fresh in your mind. If you can, have a driving instructor review your video footage and ideally compare it to footage of themselves in a reference Cup car (I highly recommend Bryan Van Noy’s Full Throttle Academy service for this). Again, realize that there will be differences and most likely your driving flaws will stand out in glaring relief, but again, it’s helpful to get your ego out of the way. Write down what you learn on separate sheets of paper and make notes on the map itself of any modifications of what you think you knew about the track and the line.
Steps 1-5 above can be repeated to refine your understanding, because it is unlikely you will be perfect. Driving faster or slower cars, if you can arrange it, is invaluable to understanding the details of the track. Following a better driver or being chased by a better driver is also invaluable toward elevating your focus away from tiny details and forcing you to coalesce everything you’ve learned to just drive the car as well as possible, rather than obsessing over minutiae. Following a rookie driver is also illuminating because you will recognize mistakes you have made and will more quickly erase bad habits if you watch someone else fall into them.
Now…you have your personal track map. Keep it safe and before each visit to that track, read it again and try to replay the ideal lap in your mind. Write down what you can do differently next time to improve, including ideas for car setup, tire selection, preparation and mental focus. Make changes to the things you can control to get closer to your ideal vision. As time goes by you might realize that things you thought were true about the track initially have changed and are holding you back. Conversely you may discover that something you initially ignored, or thought was irrelevant turns out to be very important.
The true flow state will occur when you have completely internalized the information you have in your track map, so you are never in doubt about where the track goes next, what happens if you brake or accelerate at a given point, or where you can push or not for a given temperature or tire condition. When you’re certain of all the basic facts, the real variables that occur at the limit become your entire focus, and when you can put all your energy into the smallest details of tire behavior, slip angle and ultimate line, you will have your best lap.
Most of all have fun out there and enjoy the process as well as the result. Here’s to setting personal bests and knowing how and why you did it. When you really get it right pay it forward by publishing your footage to YouTube so that someone else can possibly learn from it.
Photo: Luis Vivar
RECORD BASED IMPROVEMENT
During my second Driver Education weekend, my instructor, Dan Chambers, told me, “If you’re not working on improving, you’re just driving around in circles.” Club racers, Time Trial competitors, and first time PDS drivers all want to improve, but quantifying that improvement in a meaningful way is a challenge.
Red and Orange group racers can measure improvement in their qualifying position, by finishing higher than their starting position, and, of course, by their overall finish results. Moving into the top half of the race results, the top 10, or making the podium are all valid measures of improvement. New best times are important, but not as important as how you finish compared to the other drivers that regularly qualify with times near yours.
This is different for TT and PDS events where results are measured primarily by the best time of the day. As a Club, high school, and Master’s swim coach, I have been measuring and recording my athletes improvement for over 30 years. It was obvious that a 5 second improvement by a swimmer in their second meet was not as significant as a 0.5 second improvement by a swimmer who had been competing for several years. The newbie starts with a slow time and has a huge room to improve. The veteran has been swimming the same event for years and has improved at many meets so her/his room for improvement is limited. The question is how you quantify how much you are improving and, if you are interested, seeing how your improvement compares with other competitors. The Record Based Improvement Score was developed for swimmers, modified for use by high school football players to measure their improvement in the weight room, and now being presented to you as a possible motivational tool for Time Trial and PDS drivers.
The key is to establish a fixed, achievable goal for the drivers in each competition class. If we know the goal time, we can determine how many seconds a driver must improve to reach that goal, her/his ‘room to improve’. If they improve in their second event the amount of improvement divided by the ‘room to improve’ results in a percentage of improvement. Rather than deal with percentages, I multiply the percentage by 100 to get a positive point value that quantifies improvement progress toward a set goal – the Record Based Improvement Score, RBIS!
For our group the goal time is the POC track record for each class at each of our racetracks. Here is what the scores would look like at an imaginary SpringWalla track for GT3 cars. The track record is 1:00.000 or 60.0 seconds.
Steve Eisler
IMPROVEMENT SCORES
The New Driver in his first day at SpringWalla has a best time of 1:40.000. There is no Previous best time, no change and no Record Diff compared to his Previous best time. On Sunday he improves to 1:35.000. His time in seconds is 95, his previous best is 100 seconds, and his change was a positive improvement of 5 seconds. At the start of the day, he was 40 seconds away from the track record, the Record difference. Dividing his 5 second improvement by the 40 seconds ‘room to improve’ yields 0.125 or an RDIS score of 12.5 points.
Now let’s look at our TT Veteran. On Saturday, her best time was 63.000 seconds. Her previous best time at this track was 64.000 seconds for a positive improvement of 1 second. Her previous best was 4 seconds from the track record. Dividing her improvement by her difference from the track record yields an RBIS score of 25.00. On Sunday the TT Veteran did a best time of 1:03.300 since we never improve on every track day. Her time in seconds, Previous best, and track record are shown. The Change in seconds is shown as a negative 0.3 seconds. Since the time is slower than her best time, there is no need to calculate the Record Difference and there is no improvement score.
Showing the seconds slower than a driver’s best time lets the driver quickly see how close they were to their best and can be helpful on weekends with poor track conditions to compare how others were affected by the track conditions.
Image: Don Matz
RECORD BASED IMPROVEMENT SCORES (CONT)
There were no TT/DE events in July and the June event at Streets of Willow had a low turn-out and only one day of competition. Since we ran counterclockwise, nine of the drivers did not have a previous time for comparison. The GT3 drivers had previous times, but they were slower in June , which left the Streets results with little improvement activity. The exception was Paul Wren who set the GT2 track record for this direction while improving his time by 1.621 seconds. Since his previous time was only 0.130 slower than the record, the RBIS was 1.621 divided by 0.132 for a huge score of 1246.92. If a driver ties the track record the score would be 100 points and new track records usually show scores between 100 and 150 points. Since there were so few results for the Streets event, I included the results for Big Willow on May 25 and 26 so you can get a better understanding of how the RBIS system evaluates improvement. Note that the driver’s Place In Class (PIC) for each day that they competed has been included.
8/11/2024
TT/PDS data since the start of 2021 has been collected, verified, and formatted so that a variety of reports can be created. We can see the data from one or two events, all the events for the year or from selected tracks over varying time periods. After our trip to Spring Mountain, I can show data from all three Charleston Peak events, so drivers can compare their dry and wet track times. Data can also be grouped by Driver and show each driver’s scores for an event, a series of events, or a time range.
Previous articles have included a table showing best times and Place in Class for the top three competitors in each class. Is this expanded coverage over-kill, TMI, or interesting information that you would like to continue seeing? If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments you can contact me at seisler@cox.net, or you can contact our Editor, Andrew Weyman, at POCVelocityEditor@gmail.com. You can also share your ideas at Spring Mountain in September.
Road Trip!
Or...
How Delivering Medical Supplies for Ukraine Led to Meeting Some Very Cool Porsche People in a Post-Industrial City Located in Poland
MATTHEW HATELY
Rewind back to summer of 2022. A few months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Car & Driver published an article about a non-profit called Ukrainian Action that drives trucks and supplies to Ukraine from the UK. That article really resonated with me. I’m Ukrainian on my mom’s side and was raised with many Ukrainian traditions. News of the war hit me hard.
I continued to support the non-profit organization, Ukrainian Action as well as other causes, but I felt a growing need to do more, especially as the war continued and media coverage waned. Last year, I reached out to volunteer to drive on a mission, and after a vetting period and a waiting list, I got the call to join Convoy #58. That’s how I found myself driving an
extended high-roof manual-transmission right-hand drive Sprinter van with a suspect turbo full of medical supplies from London through the Channel Tunnel (on the commercial side – a very cool experience), being detained by French customs for 4 hours (long story), and on to an undisclosed location in Poland, to be picked up by Ukrainian volunteers and driven to hospitals in Kyiv and the front-lines. That’s also how I found myself meeting some very cool Porsche people and visiting a shop I’ve been following on Instagram for years.
After the mission, I decided to stay a few days and head to Warsaw. Being Gen X and raised in the duck and cover era of the Cold War, seeing Warsaw was a must. Plus, they have pierogies.
Photo: Matt Hately
The drive to Warsaw was going to have me passing through Łódź, which, like many Polish words to English speakers, sounds nothing like it looks. Pronounced something like “Woodge,” it’s a former industrial city in Poland and home to several textile factories in the 20th century. Łódź is roughly 85 miles outside of Warsaw, a distance you can cover quickly due to the 140km/h speed limits on the Autobahnsmooth motorways. It just so happens that Łódź is the home of CarBone. CarBone is what you get when a graphic designer and photographer are bored with their IT business and start a Porsche parts business in a town with a rich history in textiles and fabrics. It turns out that a love of Porsches transcends borders, because it wasn’t long into my visit that I was getting the full shop tour and sitting down with founder Paweł Kalinowski to talk about how they got started, and how the company has evolved over its 10 years in business.
Paweł and his business partner Przemek got their start in the Porsche aftermarket selling restoration stickers. Paweł bought a 911 SC to rebuild, and being a graphic designer, the first thing he encountered was a lack of accurate, high-quality engine bay foil stickers. Knowing he could create better ones, he sent some designs to a printer, who said “Paweł,
I can’t sell you just a few stickers. You’ll need to order at least 500 of each”. So, he did. After using what he needed in his restoration, he posted the other 499 of each on Pelican Parts. They sold out the same day. He immediately ordered another run, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, they still sell stickers for restorations, including stickers for RUF Automobile, which orders their stickers from CarBone.
Given the history of textiles in Łódź, they soon branched into designing and selling interior parts. Paweł describes their design approach as retrofuturistic, which is an apt description. They try to think of how a designer in the 1970s or 1980s might design new aftermarket parts. The result is something that’s an improvement over already quality Porsche parts yet feels period correct. Their design aesthetic is winning fans in the US, and in SoCal in particular. Magnus Walker is a fan, and the first time they visited the Rennsport Reunion, they sold out of everything –not only the products they brought to sell, but the banner they brought for their display as well. Paweł was a skateboarder in his youth, and his business partner a BMX racer. That aesthetic, combined with his background as an artist, is infused in everything they make. In their project cars like Criollo, a 911 SC Targa, they incorporate patterns inspired by Unism,
Pawel Kalinowski
an artform that originated in Łódź in the 1920s, and that takes abstract art to its fullest – Unistic art has no discernable forms like people, buildings or landscape – they are completely abstract, organic patterns.
The passion for Porsche is obvious the minute I pulled into their lot. Located in a non-descript industrial park, the first thing you see are their development cars. Inside their office sits REDRUM, an olive green 964 on Rotiform VCE wheels with a custom interior. Throughout the office and shop are a whole host of Porsche posters and memorabilia, and Paweł is wearing a Luftgekhult shirt. He’s a regular now at California events, and he helped organize the first Luft in Poland this year. Like many of us, Paweł’s love of Porsches started with family. His older brother loved cars and instilled in younger Paweł that the Porsche 911 is the best car in the world. When you’re six, and your brother is 12, you hang on his every word. From six years old, the 911 G-model was Paweł’s poster car.
By now, I’m sure you’re wondering where the name came from. CarBone is a play on words, alluding to lightness (Carbon) of the parts they create, and a love of cars – in Poland they have a saying about things you’re passionate about being “in your bones.”
There’s a racier version of the meaning, but this is a family magazine. Founder Paweł Kalinowski loves playing with words and has a name for every one of their project cars. He also names many of the products, like their upcoming Drummer door cards.
“Everyone wanted us to copy Singer door cards, which we refuse to do. Instead, we came up with our own design and called it Drummer” says Pawel. He gave me a preview of their new door cards, and the quality is exceptional – the stitching, the leather, the soft and satisfying snap the door pocket lid makes when you close it exudes Porsche-ness.
Today, 10 years later, CarBone is a manufacturer of world-class interior and exterior parts for Porsches and a full-service restoration shop, drawing customers from around the world. They are clearly just getting started, as the flow of new parts covering the 356 through water-cooled Porsches doesn’t ever seem to slow. You can see their whole lineup on their website at www.carbone.pl, and on Instagram at @ carboneliveries. Be warned though – they ship to the USA, and you’ll soon be ordering parts, or even talking with their team about designing a bespoke interior.
And if you find yourself in Poland, or anywhere else in the world where there’s a Porsche shop, a local club, or an event, reach out. You might be surprised by the warm welcome and the people you’ll meet.
If you’d like to contribute to Ukrainian Action, a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) non-profit, head to ukrainianaction.com. To date, Ukrainian Action has delivered and donated 298 vehicles in 58 humanitarian convoys from the UK to Ukraine. They also support reconstruction projects in Ukraine, and help injured soldiers and veterans in rehabilitation in the Carpathian Mountains.
Photo: Matt Hately
Image: Don Matz
Parnelli Jones and the POC
Don Kravig
Rufus Parnell “Parnelli” Jones died on June 4, 2024, at the age of 90. He was one of the greatest race drivers of the 60s and 70s. He was nicknamed Parnelli by his boyhood friend Billy Calder, who hoped that the Jones family would not discover that their son was racing cars at 17-years-old. In 1962, Parnelli was the first driver ever to qualify at over 150mph at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What you may not know about is his connection to the POC.
Parnelli came out of the southern California hot rod scene and won a couple of Sprint championships in the early 60s. He was an ardent observer of the sport and a keen analyst of techniques and lines. He visited Indianapolis to watch a race, showed up the next year as a driver and damn near won it. His career at Indianapolis could’ve been seven straight wins with a little bit of luck.
He won three Baja 1000s and five Baja 500s. His famous 1968 Olympia Bronco recently sold at auction for ridiculous price. During the late 60s and into the 70s, he was known as a fierce competitor in the Trans Am series. Driving a Bud Moore prepared Ford Mustang, he won the 1970 Trans Am championship with teammate George Follmer (POC 1966 Driver of the Year) ahead of Mark Donahue.
During the final race at Riverside Raceway, Parnelli came from fourth place after a shunt that damaged the whole side of his car. He was anxiously watched by the Ford brass as he touched the left side of his car at the turn nine wall over and over, lap after lap, and finally caught up to George Follmer. The Ford execs watched those two beat on each other for several laps and were worried about a two car crash that
would knock them out of the championship. Finally, Follmer‘s shift linkage failed and Parnelli sailed onto the win. After a hard-fought race between the two teammates at Watkins Glen, Follmer famously said that Parnelli was almost impossible to pass. “How the hell does he do it?”
Most of you know that early POC members Dan Gurney, George Follmer, and Ross Bentley also competed at Indianapolis. Did you know that the POC has had literally hundreds of members compete in IMSA as well as Trans Am, Grand Am, Le Mans etc?
So, here’s a Baja 1000 Parnelli and the POC story. During the 1970s Porsche six-cylinder engines began to appear in unlimited buggies in the Baja 1000 as well as the 500. One of the early builders of these engines was John Nelson. Some of you may remember John’s place in Signal Hill. He was an early POC racer famous for working on four cam Carreras. While at a checkpoint halfway down the Baja Peninsula watching the buggies and Broncos, etc. John described Parnelli coming down a hillside in the dark where at the bottom of the hill he had to drop into a riverbed approximately 300 yards across and then come up the other side to pull into the checkpoint. “He came down the hillside in the dark at full throttle didn’t see the drop into the riverbed, flew the Bronco off the side and into the bottom, endo’d it at least four times finally landing on its wheels. He drove up the other side and into his pit with the engine, still running. The remarkable thing was while the car was flipping, he never let off the throttle.” That was Parnelli.
You may have noticed that Karen Robinson’s Boxster “Bob” is sporting new duds these days.
Karen is raising money for Alzheimer’s research and family care.
Now all Bob needs is your loved one’s name.
If you have someone in your life with dementia whom you’d like to honor, add their name and hometown.
It’ll decorate Karen’s car, but it will also appear on our No. 43 Porsche in major national races for the rest of the season.
Every $250 contribution is matched dollar for dollar, and every penny goes to the cause.
Click this ad to donate.
Bob thanks you. And so do all the families you’re helping.
Maybe even your own.
I want to help.
Note: This article is a reprint from our February 2024 issue. Since it was first published, I’ve started wearing hearing aids due to hearing loss. Protect yourself!
Did You Know
… noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) is a track hazard? You can suffer irreversible hearing damage if you don’t protect your ears. Noise levels of 130dB are commonplace at race events. Compare that to the sound of standing next to a jackhammer or being 100 yards away from a jet taking off. They’re about equal. They’re loud.
I’m not an audiologist but I’ve done some in-depth research on this subject. Sensory neural hearing loss, simply explained, is damage to the nerve cells in the inner ear that cannot be repaired. Repeated and/or prolonged exposure to loud sounds is a recipe for deafness. Countless rock musicians can no longer hear the music they used to play.
Wear ear plugs at the track. Over-the-counter foam plugs have noise reduction ratings (NRR) of up to 33dB. They’re inexpensive and readily available. Custom fit plugs are another option. Listen to me. Don’t let this information fall on deaf ears.
ANDREW WEYMAN
911 Design is a full-service repair and restoration facility located east of Los Angeles in the city of Montclair.
In addition to offering standard service, repair and restoration for all Porsche® models, we are known for and specialize in custom fabrication, design and performance upgrades.
All of our services are vertically integrated which means we keep all repair, fabrication and auto-body in-house.
New 911 Turbo Porsche News
Porsche 911 Turbo
50TH Anniversary
08/16/2024 Monterey, California
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 911 Turbo, Porsche is celebrating with an exclusive special edition of the sports car icon.
The Porsche 911 Turbo (Type 930) redefined what was possible when it was first shown in 1974. It brought turbocharging technology – which Porsche initially used in race cars such as the 917/10 and 917/30 – to the roadgoing 911 along with a unique design and an almost unparalleled level of daily
unveiled at Monterey
usability for a sports car. The 911 Turbo 50 Years is based on the current 2025 911 Turbo S and pays tribute to this achievement.
Technologically, the Porsche 911 Turbo 50 Years is based on the current 2025 911 Turbo S. Its 3.7 liter boxer engine with VTG-twinturbocharging produces 640 hp and 590 lb.-ft. of torque. Based on a curb weight of 3,649 lbs., this results in a power-to-weight ratio of 5.7 lbs. per hp. The 911 Turbo 50 Years accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds.
SIMRACING 2024 Season 2 Schedule
2024 Season 2 Results
July 15 Sonoma
July 29 SPA
Aug 12 Road America
Aug 26 Nurburgring
Sept 09 Monza
Sept 23 Laguna Seca
Oct 07 Belle Isle
Oct 21 COTA
Nov 04 Interlagos
Nov 18 Road Atlanta
Dec 02 Hockenheim
Dec 16 Virginia
Dec 30 Willow Springs
1st Chris Walsh 4th Michael Johnson
2nd Sagar Dhawan 5th Michael Bolten
3rd AJ Roper 6th BJ Fulton
1st Sagar Dhawan 4th Jad Duncan
2nd BJ Fulton 5th Dustin Heindl
3rd AJ Roper 6th Dylan Scott
1st Ezra Kelderman 4th Dylan Scott 2nd Dustin Heindl 5th Michael Bolten
All club members with track experience or online sim racing experience are invited to participate – however, you will need an iRacing Membership and a simulator.
Nurburgring
Now you can order your favorite POC garments and other specialty items “Online” simply by clicking on any one of the above photos!
UPCOMING TRACK EVENTS
Spring Mountain September 6-8, 2024
Let’s go at it again in Pahrump! Charleston Peak has become one of our fa vorites. Be sure to register right away to get your Early Bird Discount!
Buttonwillow October 12-13, 2024
Great track with some challenging twists and turns Open to all series PDS, TT and Cup. As always, be sure to register early to get your Early Bird Discount!
Registration Open Soon!
SIM RACING 2024
Be sure to keep up with all that’s going on in this exciting series where members like you are competing against one another on some of the greatest tracks in the world. Check Website for Schedule!
