You’ve worked hard preparing for your race. You’ve watched videos, studied the track map, attended test days and talked with other drivers. Your reward? Velocity!
This issue is chock full of POC passion. Steve Eisler, Ryan Moore and Paul Wren recap our event at Spring Mountain. I talk with Gerrit Wesseling about his journey from TT to Red racer. Paul Wren finds his Zen, Steve Town checks in with Stand21 and Dr. Dyno returns from his luxury villa. Don Matz creates some mind-blowing images and Luis Vivar focuses his lens on all the action. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!
VELOCITY Staff
Editor
Andrew Weyman
Art Director
Don Matz
Contributing Writers
Andrew Weyman
Ryan Moore
Paul Wren
Dr. Dyno
Steve Town
Steve Eisler
Contributing Photographers
Luis Vivar
Don Matz
Paul Wren
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 Photo: Luis Vivar
Photo: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Charleston Peak
Bringing the Heat at Spring Mountain
Ryan Moore
Anyone remember the blistering heat we endured at Auto Club Speedway a few years back? The 114-degree ambient temperature will always be seared in my mind, but our most recent outing to Spring Mountain in September gave this writer some serious flashbacks. We were spared from the 110+ temps this time but many of the same struggles applied - radiators that couldn’t keep up, motors that blew, and cockpit temps that would make a lizard reevaluate their life choices.
As my wife and I began the drive from San Diego to Pahrump, I received reports from others that temps were over 116 in Baker - so just a little toasty. Passing San Bernardino, the familiar scent of wildfire entered the car, and we could see the actual flames of fires licking up the hillsides. Yes, this was going to be a hot weekend.
Before the race weekend had even started, Friday saw several cars run into heatrelated issues. Driving a racecar in this environment pushes the machinery to its limit, and often past it. With high temp warnings, limp mode breakdowns, and busted radiators, it was clear this would not be the easiest of weekends to survive.
For the first Orange qualifying on Saturday, our hometown hero Anders Hainer returned to action in Boxster Spec Racing and secured pole, followed VERY closely by Nick Khilnani at only a tenth of a second behind. The scene was not setting up for another Anders sweep, however he did manage to pull it out when it mattered and took the win in the first Orange race. Anders’s P1 was followed by Nick in P2
Photo: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
and then a welcome appearance in BSR from his daughter, Alex Hainer in P3. Alex has been recently racing in our 991.2 Spec class as well as participating in the GR Cup series outside of POC. We were honored to be blessed by her presence again in BSR! She quickly showed her experience and handled the majority of the BSR field with ease. I do have to mention Matt Hollander made sure that was no easy task, as I had a front row seat to an epic battle between the two of them lasting almost the entire race! Despite the hard-earned result, Alex was ultimately DQ’d due to being underweight which pushed Matt up to P3.
Speaking of Alex, she pulled double duty by racing the 991.2 Spec class in the Red race as well. Given the inhospitable temps all day, it was quite the feat to drive in not two, but three separate races on Saturday. And to top it off, she secured pole in Red qualifying as the fastest car overall. Not too bad! The battle between Alex and Mike Monsalve for the win in 991.2 was epic, with never more than a handful
of feet separating the two. Alex ended up finishing just over two tenths of a second ahead of Mike, but was ultimately DQ’d for being underweight again! Gotta stay hydrated in that heat! With the DQ, Duane Selby secured second in Spec along with Eban Benade in third. Also worth mentioning for the Red race was Darrell Troester finishing first in GT2 with Roland Schmidt in second, and Ana Predescu taking the win in GT3 followed by Darin Moore and then David Fabi, aka Dr. Fabi.
As the track went cold Saturday evening, a dust storm rolled through Pahrump which was quite interesting to experience. It was like Imhotep’s dust storm from the Mummy, but a lot less dramatic. It did however put dirt all over the track which
Photos: Luis Vivar
impacted quali times Sunday morning, with average times in BSR trending two seconds slower than the day before. However, by race time the track had been wiped clean from running cars and was generating similar lap times as Saturday.
Orange quali for Sunday went similarly to Saturday with Anders again securing pole, this time followed by Chris Bason and then Nick Khilnani. The Orange race once again saw Anders lead the field in first place, followed again by Nick in second, and then Chris in third place. Honorable mention for Alex Hainer getting fourth place in this race. The last race of a hot weekend like this one is truly a race of attrition, of which I lost. An unfortunate brake failure ended my race two laps before the end, and I joined several other drivers who were unable to finish due to heat-related issues.
Mike Monsalve was able to secure pole with Alex Hainer close behind in Red quali on Sunday. Duane Selby secured third in quali with a very competitive lap time less than two tenths behind Alex. Despite her valiant attempts, Alex decided to sit out this last Red race after competing in the Orange race earlier that same day. There’s only so much heat a person can reasonably tolerate. In the 991.2 Spec class, Mike took first place, followed by Eban Benade in second, and rookie Gerritt Wesseling in third. Darrell Troester once again won GT2 with Paul Barnes coming in second and Roland Schmidt in third. GT3 race fans witnessed Ana cross the line in first again, this time with Dr. Fabi taking second and Darin Moore taking third. Congratulations to all who managed to finish their races over the hellacious weekend as that alone was a mighty accomplishment!
Photos: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Photos: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Photos: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Photo: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Photos: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Photos: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Photos: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Photos: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Charleston Peak
Photos: Luis Vivar
Charleston Peak
Photos: Luis Vivar
RECORD TEMPS AND TIME TRIAL RECORDS
STEVE EISLER
On the last weekend of October 2022, POC was the first club to race on the new Charleston Peak track at Spring Mountain. I was in the first group out on Friday, and we waited on the grid for 20 minutes before everything was ready for racing. The Tower, bathrooms and other facilities were under construction, the track was green, and the fastest driver in every class set a track record. The 34 Time Trial drivers competed on the North course which shortens the track to 2.76 miles by eliminating turn 12. After events on the Full course in 2023 and February of 2024, POC returned to a very warm North course on September 6th.
I have driven at Lagua Seca when the temperature was 106 degrees, at Auto Club Speedway at 109 degrees, and Chuckwalla when the thermometer read 113 in the shade. At Charleston Peak, Kathy and I spent a lot of time on Saturday in the Tahoe with the air conditioning running. We saw a high of 115 on the outside temperature gauge! I never saw a checkered flag all weekend. After 6 to 8 laps the temperature gauges in the Boxster had reached their maximum. I tried to run a cool down lap which lowered the temperature, but it spiked again as soon as I returned to racing speed. Despite the shortened sessions, I did drive almost 200 miles and managed to improve my best time on each of the three days. Even with a blow-out on a trailer tire just before the junction at Shoshone, it was a successful weekend.
There were 25 Time Trial drivers this weekend, but only Bob Gartland, Nathan Apelbaum, Terry Van Noy, Curt Richardson, Vivek Hazari, and me had returned to challenge the North Course for a second time. Gerrit Wesseling, GT1, had the TTOD both days with a 2:00.088 on Saturday and 1:58.550 on Sunday for an RBIS score of 34.06. Jack Apelbaum, Modified 3, was second on both days and improved from 2:04.988 to 2:04.041. He scored over 100 RBIS points on both days since his times were faster than the record set in 2022. Will Wattanawongkiri, GT3 – 2:05.947, and Ruben Raveendran, GT2 – 2:05.995, were the other drivers to go faster than a 2:06 on Saturday. On Sunday, Paul Wren, GT3, joined the under 2:06 group with a best time of 2:05.780.
In the Blue (point by passing) group, Terry Van Noy, driving a Modified 2 car, led the group with a 2:10.813 on Saturday and 2:10.205 on Sunday. Blaine Krasky, GT1, was second on Saturday with a time of 2:11.292, and Peter Su was the only other Blue Group driver under 2:15 with times of 2:13.228 and 2:10.431 in class Modified 2. Calvin Park was faster than the existing track record in Class GT7 and Yasin Almadani established a new Modified 5 track record with a time of 2:37.635. I had been working with Bryan Van Noy of Full Throttle Driving Academy before the event to find areas where I could improve my time. I made some big improvements during the Friday practice session, and then dropped several more seconds after reviewing my Garmin video with Bryan. The biggest changes were down-shifting to second at turns two, five and eighteen to gain more
acceleration out of these turns. I really enjoyed the transition from turn 10 to what was labeled 11C and then to turn14. I am still having problems getting through turns 14 to 18 smoothly and with enough speed to get a good run down the main straight away. I’ll have to wait for next year to figure out that section of track!
There were four drivers in the Performance Driving Series (PDS) who were learning to control their cars as they increased their speeds on a track built to insure the safest possible racing experience. With the help of our experienced POC instructors all of them had a great learning experience. Students were Bojan Blazevik, instructed by Curt Richardson; Steve Sidhu, instructed by Kunal Hinduja; and Dustin Durant with Steve Town in the right seat. With the help of Matt Hately, student Yasin Almadani set the track record for Modified 5 cars!
Due to the heat and lower car counts on Sunday, the Yellow (PDS) and Blue (Point by Passing) groups were combined to shorten the day. We decided to do the practice run on Sunday morning and the first timed run at 11:40. If I got a good time, we would load up and try to make it back to San Diego in the afternoon. Diane Cafferata and I had been matching times all weekend, and we both did our best times in the first Timed Run. Diane returned in the third timed run to improve again and end the weekend 0.065 seconds faster than me.
Following
are
the Record Based Improvement Scores
(say R-bis) for the Time Trial drivers. The table shows best times, place in class, seconds improved (positive numbers), and seconds slower (negative numbers). The RBIS score is a ratio of the amount of improvement in seconds compared to the number of seconds the driver would have to improve to equal the track record for their class. The track records used were those set in 2022. The next time we use the North course, improvement scores will be based on the new track records. This system is explained fully, with an example, in the last issue of Velocity.
For a quick explanation, look at Vivek Hazari’s data. On 10/29/2022 his best time was 2:16.622 and placed second in class. Since it was his first time, there was no improvement. On Sunday he started the day 3.677 slower than the track record and improved by 2.0 seconds. His improvement was more than half of the 3.677 needed to equal the record so his score was 54.36. On 09/07/2024 his best time was slower, so the chart shows a 0.00 RBIS and -0.96 seconds slower than his previous best. On Sunday morning his best time was still 2:14.622, about 1.6 seconds slower than the record. Although his improvement was only 0.44 seconds, it was about 25% of the room to improve, which resulted in a score of 26.28.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the RBIS system, please contact me at seisler@ cox.net. I will bring a printout of the RBIS scores for Buttonwillow configuration 1 to the track in October. See me if you want to see your previous times and previous improvement scores.
Time Trial Record Based Improvement Scores (RBIS)
Time Trial Record Based Improvement Scores (RBIS)
Photos: Luis Vivar
Photo: Luis Vivar
Driving on the Surface of the Sun
Paul Wren
Having grown up with East coast winters I’ve always made it a policy to never complain about the heat or how bright the sunshine is. But rolling the dice on Spring Mountain in September really tested that resolve. I agree that everyone is in the same boat and we’re all dealing with the same conditions...but the fight-or-flight mechanism provided to us by evolution cannot always be ignored. If your mind really starts to think you might burst into flames at any moment it can be distracting!
Mother Nature takes particular pleasure in torturing racers. I know this from many years of bicycle racing...when you make plans months in advance and invest a ton of energy in training and logistics, you’re not going to quit just because of the weather. Like any good sadist, Mom knows that the only way to really effectively torture someone is when they can’t just walk away. Once you make the commitment to be there...she’s got you and she makes the most of it.
Driving up on Thursday we saw 118 crossing the desert and I’m really glad that all the automotive engineers (shoutout to Ford truck division! Nice job guys!) do their hot-weather testing in the Mojave, because we’re all definitely skating on the edge of disaster crossing 75 miles of Death Valley with no cell coverage, and just an air conditioner and radiator standing between us and a near-death experience. All good all done, arrived at the track and enjoyed an air-conditioned dinner out...then setting up the Airstream in the paddock, it was still 97 degrees at 9:00 at night! Another shoutout to the engineers at Honda for creating a suitcase-size genset that can power a real air conditioner!
Of course in addition Murphy’s Law had provided that my new car would not make the event (gremlins...) so luckily the old car had not sold yet (Where is everyone? Doesn’t anyone need a great GT3 class PDK car really cheap?) so we put it on the truck with two old sets of Hoosiers from the last couple events and it fired right up. In another life-saving move (and another engineer shoutout!) we fitted the Cool Boxx system to the car...absolutely highly recommended. No worries about getting ice cubes, and within five minutes it circulates 40-degree water through your vest. Just about the best feeling in a very hot race car. They even make a helmet-air accessory, and you can bet I’ve already ordered one for next time.
Friday practice was exactly at forecast...mid 90s in the morning and brilliant sunshine. First session almost ended my weekend when I got way too ambitious after Danna had let me pass her Cup car... couldn’t slow down and annoy her, but instead over the zero-g lift of Turn 6 I lost the rear end and slid off-track in a giant dust cloud. Luckily there’s nothing to hit out there so no harm no foul...but it made for some chicken pace for a few sessions as I learned to trust the car again.
Charleston Peak
After reading Steve Eisler’s great article on lap time improvement metrics, I had looked up the previous track record for Charleston North in GT3 so the target was clear. Way way off during Friday as I recovered my mojo and learned how to drive the old car again, and as the temperatures went up to 106 and 108 the pace dropped off anyway, and most of the time was spent managing engine temperature by short shifting. Not the way you want to run a race car...but steady improvement throughout the day and glad to skip the last session when I couldn’t even get out of the car without gloves the previous session, because all the metal on the car (roll cage, etc.) would burn bare skin.
Saturday dawned with some very welcome cloud cover! Temps just getting to the 90s for the warmup...and actual rainfall on the windshield! PTSD from February’s conditions reared its ugly head, particularly since I definitely had not brought rain tires...but at these temps the rain evaporated before it even hit the ground pretty much. Times came down and I started trusting the Hoosiers again...a welcome surprise was that the ultra-smooth asphalt and high temps were acting like a perfect tire reconditioner...I might almost think it was re-vulcanizing the surface. Two to three very hard laps would machine off all the old rubber and expose a fresh gooey new surface that gripped like Velcro! What a great feeling. That’s the best part of racecars, when things start to click and you can just hammer, and you feel like the tires have got your back. Lovely.
In the timed session I had the lap record as the target, and by the third or fourth lap after clearing traffic there it was! Done and done. Pulled in quite happy with myself...but then race hero stats started to roll in, and it turned out that yes, I had come in under the previous record, but so had two ringers that beat me (no shade, all’s fair, but grrrrrr). As the temperatures went up in the second session there was no way to repeat a competitive time, but I had a lot of fun knowing that this well-worn set of tires was done for so I could just keep pushing and grind off as much rubber as possible...the better to condition the track for tomorrow!
Afternoon was spent hiding in the trailer with full-blast AC...the paddock was a ghost-town. If you peered into transporters you’d see ghoul-like gatherings at the back taking advantage of whatever AC could be provided. It was almost a sci-fi dystopia, the last humans alive on a warming earth, struggling to get through the heat of the day. I could not even go near my car. Dark gray and black are not the right colors for the desert. The whole thing was approaching nuclear fusion temperatures. Temperatures eased just barely into the double digits for a fantastic dinner at the Clubhouse. Certainly, the best big-group meal I’ve ever had...the idea of serving family style was the perfect solution. Any
buffet gets gross and no good chef can respect themselves for very long making troughs of food. And single serving is just too slow and labor intensive...plus the timing means that the food is inevitably not hot when you get it, typically. But this time with family-style bowls or platters brought to each table was the perfect Goldilocks solutions. Kudos to the crew. Didn’t hurt that they also threw in a great Tomahawk steak...sometimes there’s no substitute for cubic dollars.
Sunday dawned clear and sunny, mid-90s by the warmup but that ominous feeling that the blowtorch was just starting. The warmup was kind to my car, tires scrubbed in nicely, times came down steadily and after just six laps was just on the edge of my target time. Bring it in and hold it, try to maintain the mojo while hiding in the AC and crossing all fingers and toes that nothing would break. First timed session, temps approaching 100 and the inevitable delay of following a race session so we sat on grid while they towed someone in. Engine temp steadily rising but the Cool Boxx was almost making ice cubes it was so chill and lovely. On-track before any problems, had my nemesis behind me based on grid times, and a 755hp Corvette in front of me that could just about stay away given the double horsepower advantage. Tires came in like butter, temps staying steady even at redline...bang bang bang and it was done, beat the pro’s time from yesterday. Took an easy lap then thought it was worth another go...Garmin said I was 0.3 seconds to the green with four corners to go...BLOCKED at the next to last turn by someone pitting. Gah! The hero-to-heartache arc is very short in racing. No worries... already had the lap in the bank.
Done for the day...no way I was going back out in higher temperatures. Seemed like everyone had the same idea, when I looked at race hero there was only one car in the next session! Kudos to the club and the track workers for providing the opportunity...despite the stress of driving on the surface of the sun it was a good time! See you all at the next one at Buttonwillow...and get yourself a Cool Boxx!
Image: Paul Wren / Don Matz
Photo: Luis Vivar
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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.
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The Porsche Owners Club R ecognizes Stand 21
as a Valued Sponsor
STEVE TOWN Sponsorship Director
Happy fall to all of you in the POC world and may this fall season bring us all lower temperatures, faster laps, and good safe races. This month, for my series about our sponsors, I interviewed the two leaders of the Stand 21 company in the American market, Clément Chaudonneret and Badr El Maadoudi.
On behalf of the POC membership, a big thank you to Stand 21, Clément and Badr, for your generous sponsorship and continued support of the POC. Clément was kind enough to say this about the POC and why it’s important for Stand 21 to be involved with the club as a sponsor: “The POC is at the heart of our customer’s focus as it represents the grassroots of highly educated drivers who want to learn everything about racing and enjoy it as long as they can. Overall, we believe the U.S Motorsports market benefits from our expertise in safety from a European standpoint, as it is a highly regarded issue, I think more than in the U.S. market.”
Since its founding by Yves Morizot, in 1970 in Dijon, France, Stand 21 has been a unique company in the motorsports industry. It was confirmed first-hand when I visited the Stand 21 US headquarters in Huntington Beach a few years ago. Inside the office and warehouse was a soft and hard gear Porsche equipment paradise, much of which could be ordered customized to your body, and produced in France by Stand 21. It’s a little bit of the old saying, ‘like being a kid in a candy store!’
Clément describes the Huntington beach office as fully owned by their headquarters in France and operated fairly independently. Their focus is to increase Stand 21’s presence in the United States. For a company with fewer than 150 employees worldwide, the teams and drivers Stand 21 products have adorned over the years is impressive. A big advantage of their products is that
you can custom order many of their suits, gloves, shoes, and helmets to your fit. Drivers using Stand 21 products have earned some very prestigious victories including more than 10 Formula 1 World Championship titles, five Indianapolis 500 wins,15 Le Mans 24-hour wins, five IndyCar Championship titles, two NHRA Top-Fuel titles and several world championship titles in rallying and touring cars.
For a little more product and market specific background, I asked Clément about their safety gear offerings, to which he said, “We
target the racecar driver’s safety equipment from head to toe, aiming at GT racing primarily in the US market. The company’s focus is both the European and North American markets, but with many other small clusters around the world.”
Both Clément and Badr have interesting backgrounds and stories about how they
came to be the US reps for Stand 21. Clément told me, “I started as a car body technician in France, then I went back to school, got a master’s degree from a French business school and also a M.B.A from Texas A&M, then to Stand 21.” Badr went to school to become a mechanical engineer then after university decided that it was not for him. He changed his field while attending French business school and got his master’s degree in international business. Badr described his photo as, “It is with my very first safety supplier ever, Stand 21. This is how I started working for the company in 2007.”
Clement Badr
Clearly both gentlemen have education nailed, so I turned more toward the racing side of their backgrounds. Clément told me, “Growing up I spent a lot more time on two wheels than four, but I did spend time racing 125 cc Go Karting in France. The photo of me is my ‘a picture worth a thousand words’ moment. It was at Laguna Seca doing laps in the Porsche 935 that won Le Mans in 1977.” Badr had a lot of karting success and pushed to the top of the French karting world. He shared, “On the motorsports side I started racing karts in 2006 and stopped in 2012, with the usual budget issues a problem, like what many aspiring pros deal with. But when I won the French Cup in 2011, what an amazing moment!”
On a more personal note, Clément said “My wife and I moved to California about four years ago, a lifelong dream come true! We got married in France and we now live here, but no children yet.” Badr told me, “I have been in the US for about 6 years. I always wanted to be in this
amazing country, the land of opportunities. My wife is from California, born and raised here, and we have no children at the moment.”
As we wound down our conversations, I asked both Clément and Badr about their interests off the track. Clément smiled. “Is there anything else in life?” Enough said. Ha.
Badr told me, “I will have to say football, the real one. I grew up watching games as my dad was a pro referee in France in the past.”
Thank you, Clément and Badr, for your time and letting the POC know more about you both personally and about Stand 21. We are looking forward to Stand 21 joining us at our December event at Willow Springs. Come by their tent next to the grid and see what Stand 21 products work for you right off the shelf or have them custom create one or two!
Have a great weekend at Buttonwillow!
Gerrit Wesseling
Photos: Luis Vivar
Gerrit Wesseling is competitive, focused and determined. After attending only one Racers Clinic he’s becoming a Red Group racer to be reckoned with. He’s blazingly fast in his 991.2 Cup Car. I spoke with him prior to the Spring Mountain event where he would be Cup Racing for the first time. Here’s what he had to say:
AW: Thanks for agreeing to do this. I thought you’d be interesting to talk with.
GW: That’s pretty cool.
AW: You’re currently running in Green Open Passing Time Trials, right?
GW: I’m actually going to be running in Green Open Passing and Red Race Group at Spring Mountain.
AW: Oh, really!? Because you have your half-dot?
GW: Well, I did a 1:22 last time we were out at Willow. So, I was kinda flyin’ fast. I came up on a group of slower drivers on the front straight near the start/finish line. I had exited T9 and caught them before T1. I kind of spooked myself. The closing speed was just too disparate. I came off the track and was talking with Eben (Benade) and we were joshing around. He said I couldn’t run with that group anymore. I was too fast. I paused and laughed, “Yeah, you’re right.” I scared myself out there. Steve Town came over to us and asked, “So, when are you going to race?” I said if Eben would let me move up, I’ll join the race group at Spring Mountain. Then Eben and I
were talking for a little bit, and he said, “I’m going to talk with Dwain (Dement). Eben and Dwain met, and they decided it was appropriate to move me up. They made an exception. I don’t know if that’s appropriate to include.
AW: I think it absolutely is. Everyone is observing everyone else and looking out for one another. There’s a safety factor involved here. It’s great that Eben, Steve and Dwain recognized your abilities. From the moment I first met you, I felt like, wow, this guy’s got it. He’s got what it takes to be a serious racer. That’s why I kept kidding you about taking the Racers Clinic before you finally did. I was so happy to discover that you decided to follow through. Your overall approach to racing has been exemplary.
GW: Not to toot my own horn or anything…
AW: Toot away.
GW: Eben told me only two people have been allowed to move up so quickly, and I was the third one. He was the second. After he gave me the speech about how to approach all this, he warned me, “Don’t screw up. I’ve taken a risk on you. Don’t go out there and cause a problem.”
AW: You definitely have to prove yourself worthy of his endorsement.
GW: Exactly. He put his reputation on the line for me. You have to respect that. People in the club are willing to do that when it’s appropriate.
AW: What kind of track experience did you have before you joined the POC?
GW: I had a Porsche Boxster and a buddy of mine had recently purchased one. We would go out and run Thunderhill, at most, once or twice a year. It was over a ten-year period, so it was never really serious. Mike, my buddy, was a racer. He would be in the car with me. When he drove the Boxster, he would catch GT3s. It was with NCRC (Northern California Racing Club).
AW: I might be mistaken but I think that’s a group that was spun off from POC many years ago.
GW: It was a cool experience. There were a lot of Porsches. Quite a few guys were running the 991s. I didn’t even dare to look closely at them because there was no way I’d ever have a car like that.
AW: In film script terms, “Cut to…”
GW: (Laughs) Exactly! You make good decisions in life and at some point, and you’re thinking I’ve been working really hard and maybe it’s okay to spend some money on something for yourself. Parents pass away. Life is short. You don’t want to have regrets.
AW: Agreed.
GW: So, I went out with my buddy Keith Hnatiuk in my Boxster and he had just purchased his 991 GT3. I had outfitted my Boxster with a 3.6, a transmission cooler, a limited slip, JRZ Pros, rollover bar, new wheels and tires. I wasn’t very fast. I spent way too much money on the car.
AW: We all seem to do that at one point or another.
GW: We we’re running at Buttonwillow and in the fourth session, I came over Phil Hill and the engine just stopped. There was no apparent reason for it to have stopped. It hadn’t over-revved
or anything. I was able to coast around, and I got to the sweeper (Riverside). That was the end of that car. Soon after that, Keith started talking to me about the GT3. He’s smarter than me. He started with the 991 and moves all the way up to the .2RSs. When you come back down to the 991 you’re like, ‘that doesn’t sound so bad…I could probably do that.’ It’s like you talk yourself into it. I ended up buying one. The first time I went out in that car was with POC at Chuckwalla in 2021. That’s a really long way of saying that’s when I got serious. I was in the PDS group and after my second lap Steve Town pulled me off-track and told me I wasn’t doing everything I was supposed to be doing. We talked for a little bit. I had passed on the righthand side. I was pointed by but I still shouldn’t have done it. It was against the rules. After some more talking, I was moved up to the open passing group. From there, I kept getting just a little bit faster every weekend. Chuckwalla was the first time I got to run three days in a row. It’s just an amazing progression when you get that much concentrated track time. That’s what I’ve been trying to do for the past almost four years. I’ve been running both the Time Trial groups to maximize the time I can spend in the car. Get a feel for the car. Where the limit is. Where my limit is. It’s usually my limit, not the car’s limit. And just continue to push.
AW: That’s super. You’ve got the right attitude. How did you find out about the POC?
GW: Keith had been running with you guys at some events in his BMW. It was just happenstance. I got the car, and it was ready for the Chuckwalla weekend. Keith was going so I registered for the event. The camaraderie was really cool. When the track went cold, the beer and cocktails came out, everyone’s talking and teasing one another. You can feel the friendship. It’s not just about racing each other and holding grudges. There’s an appreciation for each member. You all want to race hard against each other and then go into the paddock and say, ‘hey, your move was great’ or ‘what the hell were you thinking?’ It all adds to the bond of the group.
AW: I so agree.
GW: I could see that the first day. I was welcomed in. It was really, really cool.
AW: I’ve had the same experience. It’s an incredible club. Total non-sequitur. What’s your daily driver?
GW: My ’07 Toyota Tundra with 328,000 miles on it.
AW: It’s going to be real hard to kill that thing.
GW: At 200,000 miles I was repairing the front seat for a second time and I got to the point where I wanted leather in it. So, I put it in. The guy at the shop thought I was pulling his leg. When I came to pick it up, he looked at me and said, “You weren’t kidding!” Now I’m 100,000
miles past that. My Tundra has a modified suspension so it rides a lot flatter than a standard one. As things wear out, I put better parts in.
AW: What, if anything, have you learned about yourself through your experience on the track?
GW: (Very long pause) You’re getting serious on that one. I’ve got to think about it…. What have I learned about myself? Hmm. (Pause) It might just be an affirmation. I’ve always been a selfmotivated person. No one is harder on me than I am. My father might have been harder on me but…. I got really good grades at school. I went to UC Santa Barbara, made it into law school and passed the bar. It took a lot of endurance. It’s all marathon work, pushing to a goal that’s all the way out there. Later in life I got into cycling and did five Death Rides. It took a lot of training. Always pushing. In some ways there’s a similarity. It’s a journey. You go out onto the track and do laps. You have to maintain a focus. You need to be thinking at the same time. T7 doesn’t feel good at Chuckwalla. When you come in off the track, you talk to someone. It might be you or whoever is around and doing it right. You can learn the pieces…. I’m not answering this question well at all.
AW: I’ve posed this question to a few others and there’s always this long pause before they answer. They’re not sure how to respond. After thinking about it for a little bit, it’s like, “Oh, wait a minute. Ya know….” You kind of answered it. It’s an affirmation. You skirted it a little. I think you’re afraid of the question.
GW: (Laughs) Ask the question again.
AW: What, if anything, have you learned about yourself through your experience on the track?
GW: What have I learned about myself? Hmm. (Pause) There’s a piece of fear in there. A sense of self-preservation. How can I slowly turn that off? How can I get comfortable with greater risk?
AW: Ross Bentley says you need to learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
GW: That’s definitely part of it. Sometimes it’s even scarier than that. (Laughs) We make mistakes and end up well into the dirt. When you’re out of control and going backwards with cars speeding by…. Again, I’m kind of skirting your question.
AW: For me, it was about risk taking and risk/reward. It’s more important to me to have a good, fun time racing. I don’t need to finish first. It would be nice every now and then, but it’s not my primary reason for being on the track. I’m competitive with the drivers around me and have a great time out on the circuit. There are drivers who are willing to take more risks than I am and there are times when I go balls out and no one can catch me.
GW: I’m still working on that. In a way, I’ve been cheating. I’ve been driving a very fast car. In Time Trials, you line up and don’t typically pass another fast car. You pass slower cars, usually with less horsepower. Sometimes they catch you in the corners. It’s like cheating to have a GT3 in Time Trials. Moving up to racing is a serious step. I know I have no race craft. To go out wheel-to-wheel and make a pass on somebody…wow. It’s something you guys have been
doing for a while. It’s a whole new chapter in the book. Probably multiple chapters!
AW: Race craft is a whole new world. Knowing you can make it or break it at the start when that green flag waves…learning the skill levels and reputations of those around you, who you can trust and where you can trust them. It’s a process. It’s thrilling.
GW: I’m looking forward to it and a little bit scared of it. It’s going to be interesting at Spring Mountain.
AW: One last question. I remember that day you volunteered to stamp Boxster Spec tires at Willow Springs when we needed help. That told me a lot about you and that you want to be more involved. Are there any other ways you feel you’d like to volunteer?
GW: I like to help. Anytime I see someone struggling, I ask if there’s something I can do to help. It’s in my nature. I used to work for a big company. We built homes. When I started as an assistant, a mentor told me that we’re the lube that makes the machine work. It’s always stuck with me. I like to be the guy who facilitates things. I’m more than willing to help the club along. Being in Reno I’m pretty far away but if I can gain the respect of everybody, a leadership position is a definite possibility.
AW: I know you’re going to be successful. I’ve seen many people come and go in the years I’ve been with the club. You’re one of the guys who stand out. You’re going to be just fine.
GW: Thank you. I have six races to go and keep myself out of trouble. There’s so much to learn. I’ve got to work on my race craft.
AW: You have a very healthy attitude. The race craft will come.
GW: By the way, Keith (Hnatiuk) told me to ask you how you make yourself so difficult to pass.
AW: Elbows out, baby. Elbows out. No blocking. Just look ahead. Check your mirrors and look where you want to go.
GW: I’ll remember that.
AW: Anything you’d like to add?
GW: The club is super welcoming. Every single member has something to teach you and sharing what you’ve experienced helps you to affirm what you’ve learned. It’s just great.
AW: Thanks again for the chat. Have a great time at Spring Mountain!
Post script: Spring Mountain results show Gerrit finished 4th in 991.2 Spec on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday.
With all appropriate apologies and credit to Robert Pirsig, whose “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” was absolutely one of the formative novels that I read and reread growing up, I find parallels and meaning in setting up and perfecting the act of racing a car on the track.
ZEN and the
Pirsig used motorcycles as a jumpingoff point for an exploration of the concept of Quality. People much smarter than me have written hundreds of pages analyzing his philosophy so I won’t try to go into depth, but the analogy for the all-encompassing meaning of “Quality” that stuck with me best was that of a long freight train, with hundreds of cars loaded with all manner of goods. Wheels, suspension, brakes, connections between cars, and several engines at the front and back that combine to move thousands of tons across great distances. The train represents all of reality. Quality then is the imaginary two-dimensional zero-thickness surface that exists just in front of the train, the thing that instantiates and brings into being all of reality. Of course, all philosophers go after the “big questions” but this is a breathtaking scope for that one word.
Every millisecond we all bring into being our own reality, and Quality determines the nature of that reality, whether it is positive or negative for you. Much more prosaically, when we set out to do any task, we are creating a new sub-train in our world and we determine the quality, the leading creative edge of that thing through our decisions and our work. Specifically now, you can find that the engineering, creation and decisions made to construct a racecar and drive it so that it accomplishes the goal of fastest lap-time or race position is an entire Quality-fronted train of its own.
It has been said that the cruel thing about the sport of fencing is that the subtleties of technique take so many years’ experience to master that by the time you’re truly great at it you’re getting old and losing reaction time. So, it’s a race that you can never win, you can only try to reach a peak apogee that is the best combination. It’s also a metaphor for a lot of
Image: Don Matz
Art of Racing Cars
things in life, specifically today the combination of factors that go into setting a perfect lap of the track. You don’t know what you don’t know, and by the time you find out it might be too late.
I know, trivial right? Been solved a million times yawn, next, everyone is a race driver. But if you believe that you’ve never tried it for very long in real life, with real budget constraints, year-onyear wear and tear and the logistics of finding help with the inevitable brute-force tasks of setup, takedown and maintenance. Again... sometimes a great metaphor for most of life. You are not born knowing how to do it, and before you can truly understand the issues you have to make any number of mistakes for yourself.
We can start with the easy questions: do you already own a car? How many track days have you driven? Can you decide on racing yourself, or are you in partnership with others, and require their input and approval? Do you have any fabrication or engineering knowledge or skills, or will you need to hire them? What is your budget, because the real world will absorb any amount you are willing to spend and it’s getting worse. Have you seen that they are now using AI as a pricing consultant to tailor pricing to each individual? No price tags...just a judgement by an omniscient being as to your capacity to pay. Chilling. What is your location, and assuming Southern California, what is your access to workshop and storage space, and how far is it to the tracks you want to race? What organizing body are you familiar with, and do you have any contacts there or friends that are currently racing? How much of the year do you expect to race, and will you try to join a championship points series that requires a certain
PAUL WREN
number of events? If your racing is seasonal, where will you store the racecar, trailer, truck and tools in the off-season? Can you manage all those logistics or do you need to look into a managed program where you can arrive and drive?
What is your aesthetic? Do you want to come into racing on the scruffy and inexpensive end, with a strict stock series and cost controls? Or are you more aggressive and interested in performance above the baseline, with full slicks and paddleshifted transmission and monster brakes? Are you happy with a lightly modified car or do you like to go all-in with a true racecar build? Do you care about appearances so your car will have to be gleaming and slick? Would you rather buy something already done or be involved with the decisions of all the systems? Do you have the mechanical skills to build the car yourself, or do you need to work with a race shop? How many buddies to have that are willing to help you with pit crew? Do you have a significant other that will be with you at the track, and need care and feeding and air conditioning to be happy? Have you ever driven a really big RV and what did you think? How much towing have you done before, and have you ever been on the side of the road late at night in godforsaken Nebraska with a shredded smoking tire, wheel and no spare?
Do you have or know a full-service race shop that you can afford to pay to take care of the everything, or will you need (or do you want) to do it yourself? In Pirsig terms, are you the BMW owner that recoils at the idea of changing your own oil, or the main character who critiques the shop mechanics and factory technicians, and tears down their own engine to solve issues? And
in either case, which one would you rather be if you could? Now is another opportunity to decide for yourself.
How do you like to learn? Would you rather do track days yourself and make all the mistakes but learn gradually what it takes to go fast? Do you appreciate the input of a professional that can coach you and analyze your driving? If they tell you something you don’t want to know or you disagree with, can you handle that without digging yourself into a hole by giving either them or yourself a bad attitude? When you do make a mistake can you let it go on the next lap and not get distracted? The great thing about racing is that every weekend, every day, every session, every lap, even every corner you get a new chance to do things right. Are you going to take advantage of that and make progress? Have you fully worked out your issues with your Mom or your first-grade teacher when things didn’t go well? You’ll be surprised what gets dredged up when things get hard and you have an off-track excursion that flashes your life in front of you.
Do you know all the wear-items that you depend on to drive your car at the limit? What is the expected lifespan of each of those parts? If there is a failure of one connection or one part, is there redundancy that will allow the racecar to function, and for how long? How will you find out that a part of the racecar has failed? How often will you inspect each component, and how? When you hear a noise in the middle of the night do you go find out what’s going on or do you roll over and assume it’s just the raccoons? No judgment implied by any of this...there is no right answer to your own philosophy of Quality but the complete process of your racetrack experience will make you decide many things.
How long is a long time? Do you see yourself racing this car or this series a year from now? Five years from now? Ten? What does your significant other think of your plan? Do you have progeny with designs on your collection and do you plan
to hand over any of this to them? If your example motivates your child to race, are you comfortable with that? Will you pay for it? What if they have no interest at all...will you be offended? Do they know that? Have they learned all your answers to these questions? Do they have different answers? How many other types of racing have you done before, and do you have a progression in mind to move up the ladder? What does your estate-planning lawyer think of all this? Your life insurance agent? Do you care?
What kind of race organization will you choose, and will you switch or race other series going forward? Do your friends also race, and is there a mutual support system that solves some of these problems? How do you share responsibility, cost, risk, and maintenance? If there is a crash or an off-track excursion with real consequence, can you walk away from your investment glad your safety equipment worked? What about your friends? When push comes to shove and you’re following the ambulance (or helicopter) to the hospital, are you prepared and comfortable with your decisions? If your buddy crashes a car you prepared, are you sure it won’t be a problem with your work? If she says she’s leaving is there any way back from the precipice and will the racecar have any meaning? If your doctor gives you bad news and you’re three time zones away, who will take care of the shop? (“If your funeral was tomorrow, wonder would they even call, when the music stops?” -- M. Mathers)
As with all of life, you will have your own perspective on the validity of these questions, and you may have other questions. For many if not all of them, there is no right answer but it is important and/or critical that you have thought through the answer that makes sense to you, and you can believe or justify your own answer and back it up with your actions. What were we talking about again?
Image: Don Matz
r2endalz.org
Ask
Advice to Keep You on Track
Dear Dr. Dyno,
When giving a point-by is it appropriate to use your middle finger?
Wondering in West Covina
Dear Wondering, No. Good sportsmanship dictates the use of the middle finger is for freeway driving.
Dear Dr. Dyno, Why do people park their cars at gas pumps when they’re just going into the mart for Doritos and not even buying gas?
Outraged in Oxnard
Dear Outraged,
As we all know, Doritos are amazing, but they tend to make people stupid and selfish. Did you know one portion is 12 chips? Gimme me a break.
Dear Dr. Dyno,
I love to drive flat-out. It’s my thing. I found that PDS is tailor made for me. Flat-out, but with rules. I feel safe out there and I’m having a blast. A big flat-out thank you to the POC!
Thrilled in Temecula
Dear Thrilled,
First, stop saying, “Flat-out.” Second, I’m happy to know you’ve found the place to drive fast, safely. Think about ways to volunteer and give back to the club. You might also think about stepping it up to Time Trials. No pressure. Just know that it’s available to you after you prove yourself on the track.
Send your questions for Dr. Dyno to: POCVelocityEditor@gmail.com
Inspired by the precious Porsche News
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Together with Porsche Asia Pacific, the Sonderwunsch experts at Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur have created an extraordinary Taycan Turbo S. A special pigmented paint gives the fully electric sports car its incredible look. The colour shifts with the light and from different angles.
Fascinating metamorphosis: In the depths of the Earth, a miraculous transformation takes place that produces the precious gemstone of jade. Over thousands of years, minerals in the Earth’s crust heat up and are subjected
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Inspired by this precious gemstone, the Taycan Turbo S Celestial Jade, an extraordinary one-off, was created through the Sonderwunsch programme.
Together with the Porsche Asia Pacific team, the designers and paint experts at Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur sought to reflect the vibrance and innovation of the Southeast Asia in their own craftsmanship, paying tribute to this important region with bespoke touches and mythical symbols.
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
No v 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
3rd BJ Fulton 6th Michael Johnson
1st Michael Johnson 4th Ian Roche
2nd Ezra Kelderman 5th Michael Bolten 3rd BJ Fulton 6th Dylan Scott
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.
Monza
Laguna Seca
SIMRACING
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
Buttonwillow
October 12-13, 2024
Let’s go Clockwise at one of our favorite tracks. The weather should be a lot cooler than “last month” so sign up soon, set those tire pressures, gas up and let ‘er rip!
Register Today!
Chuckwalla November 2-3, 2024
Last year was a hoot in the low desert on the newly resurfaced track. Let’s do it again! Get in on the fun early... Gonna be a lot of cars!
Registration Open Soon!
SIM RACING
October 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.
