NEWS

Autocross Driving Clinic: The second autocross driving clinic was held on a sunny July 13 at the Augusta Government Center. Clint Shuler (owner of the dark green 1967 911S) provided these two photos, which you can click to enlarge.

Porsche Parade 2008: Shenandoah Region members at Charlotte, NC for the 53rd Annual Porsche Parade. From left to right the front row subjects are Teresa Hanger, Tana Raefer, Gail Smith, Phyllis Scrogham, Bobbie Powers, Ginger Elmore, Jeffrey Elmore, Jill Sanders, and Bill Sanders. On the back row they are Scott Raefer, Johnny Johnson, Thomas Bridgers, Alex Smith, Dave Lawrence, and Herb Distefano. Not pictured are Kerrigan Smith, Weldon Scrogham, and the Cole/Suanne Scrogham family. Technically Scott and Tana Raefer had not become members at time of photo but promised to soon. Bill and Jill Sanders provided more photos of the Parade.

Herb took these at the parade:   

RPM 2008: The Shenandoah Region's 12th annual RPM began with a concours at the spectacular James River property of Howard & Leeanne Faunce. Following lunch at the "Cafe Carrera" there was a driving tour of horse country northwest of Richmond and a tech session on tires and brakes at Euroclassics Porsche. PCA national secretary Manny Alban told us about national goals after the awards banquet. More photos... See also more photos by FSR member "Carrera Mike" Tungol on the FSR forum.

With clouds looming over the autocross racers on Sunday (just what the doctor ordered for that black-top skillet), Southside yielded yet another good day of round track fun. Southside Speedway is a one-third mile paved oval with banked turns. We were able to make a faster and still safe course that challenged traction and the nerves of the contestants. Twenty-one racers took on the walled challenge of Southside Speedway, running six timed runs, and the entire field fit under the one minute time, a first for one of my courses. It was the same distance as usual, but we opened it up and it got a lot quicker. Safety wasn't compromised, and we only had two heavy spins with immediate stops when the cars crossed that point of no return. I was happy with the different feel for the course because we always like new and different challenges, even if we only come to this site once a year.

Well, we'll start with FTD, fastest time of the day, and again Bobby Smith took top honors with his race-prepped 914. Bobby told us he was going to the Parade this year, and we'll see how well he stacks up against those regulars from around the nation. I am looking forward to seeing how he places. Others had fun with the course, and the usual battle between Alex and Bryce came on again, with Alex prevailing again, but not by much. Bryce was an owner of one of those spins I had mentioned earlier, but I was impressed that he was as close as he was to Alex with only one event a year under his belt. Good job, Bryce, and good to see you out there again. Rick Kiser made it a bit late with his three-wheeled car trailer, but he managed to pound out a 4th overall and first in his class with his race GT3. Jeffrey Elmore has added a few more tricks to his 2000 Boxster S and it did well, moving up the food chain to 8th place. Jeffrey added exhaust, and it did change the power bands a bit, probably from the back pressure. The car has a trait that I love on all good cars, neutral handling and enough power to get in trouble, at least in and out of the turns. Paul Sponseller, driving his second autocross and at 77, our most "experienced" driver, is moving up the list, and unfortunately I heard him say he was conservative when he bought his Cayman and maybe should have considered the "S" version. Sorry about that Paul. Seat time will be the biggest help, but the extra 52 HP would not hurt either. Keep up the good work. Frank Ameri joined the fun for the first time and drove around his beautiful Black Cab. Mike Kilmer ran very well with a good time in his Targa, and John Kessler put down a very fast time with his daily driven 86 911. Here are the final results.

Thanks to all of those who participated and a special thanks to Kerrigan Smith for course setup and help. Another successful day in Richmond, and a perfect close to a great weekend of fun, fellowship, and auto enthusiasm. Thanks everyone.

P.S. Our second annual car-control clinic will be held July 13th. We will not be bringing out the timing gear and focusing on technical parts of the course and what you might run into in a Erik/Rick autocross. The focus will be on high-speed turns, hard braking, slalom rhythm, and putting it all together for a great run. We will have open dialog and lots of Q&A. If you are interested in autocrossing, have a spouse that has always wanted to try, but didn't want to hold others up or be embarrassed, this is the even for you. Even if you have experience, you can always learn and add to your talent in an event like this. We even plan on putting together the skid pad again, or like some of you renamed it, the donut hole. Mark this on your calendar, it was a blast last year and should be again.

Happy motoring, and keep your shiny side up.

Rick

FSR DE at VIR: A strong contingent of Shenandoah Region drivers showed up for the three-day (May 23–25) high-performance driver education (DE) event sponsored by the First Settlers Region (FSR) at the Virginia International Raceway (VIR) near Danville, VA. Except for a brief shower on the morning of the 24th, the driving weather was perfect. Jim Condon and Sherry Westfall shared their one Porsche, as did Greg and Susan McGee after her new Porsche was destroyed while being trailered on an interstate. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. David and Erin Israel have his-and-hers Porsches. Harry McGovern drove his 1977 targa in the green group, and Scott Leopold drove a 1996 993 GT1R in red. John Kessler came with the yellow 911 shown at the left. Steve Sarfaty's cabriolet doesn't have a roll bar, so he brought a BMW M5 to the event. Mel Brannan drove his white 964, and he was Sherry's instructor. Both survived. More photos...

Autocross at Augusta: For our first autocross in Verona, we ended up with a perfect day for the event. Early in May is always a guessing game to the type of weather we may get. We have been very wet in the Valley this year, causing everything to be green and wonderful for those who wish to grow and build landscapes, but not always for auto events. We even have cold spells and not so great weather, but this day was not one of those. We had sun, warm weather, and a dry track; a good day for an event.

We had 16 drivers, with about half being of the Porsche persuasion. We had a lot of the regulars with some new blood mixed in. Paul Sponseller came out for his first autocross with his 2008 Cayman. Paul did very well, shaving off at leat 13 seconds over the period of the day and ended up with his last run, run #6, being his fastest. We also had a very nice lady from Lexington with her original 944 that she bought new with 74,000 miles, and she was putting it though the paces. I instructed both and they really had a lot of fun. The 944 was an automatic and a different animal for me to ride/drive in, but once you locked it in "1", it made the power to run and it was really neat to see the original car with owner. I still will always say you ride in an automatic, but you drive a stick. Sorry tip owners, personal preference. No time on the car, but it was fun to get the new drivers acquainted with such an event. Thanks for coming out, newbies!

The old crew also came out, with Howie, Jeffrey, and Mike running their usual good runs. Howie left the 944 and came back with Chess's 930. It was good to see the car (and Chess) again, and the big surprise was the car drove home. (Had to do it, Chess) Good to see that. Jeffrey ran the Boxter S up to within 1.3 seconds of Erik in the 911. That car/driver is getting much quicker. Thanks Chess for selling the race tires to him; we all appreciate it. I got to run one time in Erik's 911; still waiting on the body man for my car back. All the parts are gathered up, including a 3.2 liter, but they need a new host. Trust me, I do have a 914 somewhere out there. Hope to make it to a PCA event sometime this year. I probably just jinxed it; kind of like when they say "this guy never misses a foul shot". We'll see.

With the 16 runners, all had six judged times (results), with a ton of fun runs and time after the event. We still got out in the 3 PM hour, so lots of fun and lots of fast time on the track. We squeezed out a new design and had lots of high 2nd and 3rd runs, with some fast drift corners. I liked the set up and will look to do a spin on this again for our Driving school and our later events later this year.

Our next event is RPM and with a great banked oval in Richmond, Southside speedway, we should once again have a great day on the pavement. Please come out and participate, you will have fun and learn a lot about you and your car. I promise. Until then...

Rick

This photo shows Amanda Ousley at the sunny helm of a white 1992 Mazda Miata. More photos were provided by Brian Cassidy and Amandy Ousley.

Spring Driving Tour: Bob and Joan Duntley led this April 19 event to Scotchtown and Hanover Tavern. The photo below is from page 6 of the May 2008 issue of The Heat Exchanger.