It is ironic that I ran my first autocross in 30 years on April 6 and a week later was at the Porsche Club of America Zone 2 Presidents’ Meeting near the Penn State Campus in State College, PA.
You see, I nurtured my interest in sports cars as a college student and member of the Penn State Sports Car Club. It was there, in the shadows of the football stadium, that I scored my only sports car victory in the legendary Snowfall Gymkhana of 1966.
Because Mother Nature had deposited about a foot of the fluffy white stuff on our parking lot the night before, we divided the participants into three classes: front engine/rear drive, front engine/front drive, and rear engine/rear drive. A Porsche 356 took FTD (of course!). My friend Stan Smith bested several Saabs in the front drive class in his trusty Citroen 2CV, and I took honors in the front engine/rear drive class in my Sunbeam Alpine, edging a Corvette and an Elva Courier. Those familiar with these now obscure makes can guess at the conditions we faced that day.
I bored Zone 2 delegates with tall tales of my exploits at Penn State, including the night the cows nearly ate my car, so I might as well bore you as well.
Anyway, I ran an autocross or two in the late 1960s with my ’59 Alfa Guilietta and Simca 1000 coupe and reappeared at another autocross or two in the mid-70s in a Fiat 128. Then I ran a few more in the early 1980s in my Plymouth (Mitsubishi) Champ.
After that I entered a three-decade autocross drought.
This brings us to April 6 when I woke from my Rip-Van-Winklesque slumber and journeyed to Verona, VA for the Shenandoah PCA Autocross School.
The fact that a County Mountie clocked me at 63 in a 45 on the long trek to the Valley may have dampened my spirits a bit, but strengthened my resolve to Carpe Diem. It also reminded me that the only way to enjoy your Porsche at the ragged edge and not risk your license is at Autocrosses and DEs.
PCA Autocross guru Rick Ebinger asked how many of us had never run an autocross before. Several hands shot up, and I gave him the “one-half” sign. Afterall, a lot of rust can accumulate in 30 years.
We divided into groups and were shown how to go through the first and second thirds of the diabolical course Rick designed in the Augusta Government Center parking lot.
When I took my first run in my 30-year-old 944, I discovered I had forgotten all of the words of wisdom Ebinger attempted to drill into my thick skull, especially around the tricky pylon turn and Chicago box.
Click photo to enlargeI reverted to my old bad habits of flinging around my Guards Red Coupe with youthful abandon and paid for it with some abysmal times. (It was great fun, though!)
It was a school and introduction to the sport to begin Shenandoah’s autocross season, and hopefully my times will not appear on the website.
But it did whet my taste for more.
Maybe next time I will check my tire pressures and appear with a set of tires manufactured in this millennium.
And pay a little attention to what the experts tell me.
Greg Glassner is Vice President of the Shenandoah Region PCA.
