August 2004: Parade Autocross
In the past year we have had several Tech-of-It articles
about preparing your car for both Autocross competition and track adventures
such as PCA Drivers Education. Many of our members this year went to Parade
having prepared their cars for both and had a resounding good time in each of
these events. In this issue of the Injector
Mike Kennedy has reported on the Driver’s Education so I have the opportunity
to tell you what the Autocross was all about.
Our Maverick Region friend, Charlie Davis, designed this year’s Parade
course and a fine one it was. We captured Charlie in his 914 on the streets of
Figure 1: Charlie Davis at
the 2004 Parade
Joani and I helped Charlie and the Maverick bunch set up the course Tuesday morning for entrants to walk Tuesday afternoon. As an autocross entrant I was not able to ride with Charlie to test the course but Joani did and evidently had a fine time doing it in Charlie’s wonderfully prepared 914. He and the rest of our Maverick Region hosts ran a professional and truly fun 2004 Parade and the autocross was no exception!
It was a big course and full of rather strange visual cues and plenty of high-speed elements to stretch our Porsche-car legs! Figure 2 shows the layout of the course, which was built in one of the parking lots at Texas Motor Speedway and each dot is a cone. Run at the same time as the Driver’s Education inside the track, Autocrossers were able to run their cars on any one of three days. As you can see, the course was held on a lot that was 1027 by 570 feet. That’s a big piece of real estate to navigate but it gets pretty small when you are trying to go smooth and fast while missing all those cones!
Figure 2
The course looks deceptively simple since there are only seven major elements but if you noticed both Arrowhead and the Buzzard’s Egg had to be circled twice. The trick is to start at the top of Figure 2 and follow the path to the right FAST while missing all cones. Of course one must reach perfection by the third run after being started by Joani Mott, who worked in the timing crew on Wednesday and scanned every car as they staged for the start. Figure 3 shows Penelope (my car) and me after Joani scanned us into the starting computer. We can’t leave the gate until the green light shines.
Figure 3: Penelope at the
starting gate
There were lots of us participating in the Parade AX this
year. Tony Hallak, Tom Oxner, Paul and
Lucy Robinson, John Swanson, Bruce and Rana Ward and myself
all got a chance to shoot it out in
All of us bettered our early times and made great runs. What a fun time that really started for us in October last year at the Hot Springs Autocross in an autocross put on by the 914 Special Interest Group at Magic Springs. Some of us have been campaigning our cars now and again in the local SCCA autocrosses and the practice shows in smoother driving and faster times. Keep it up Ozark racers!
Figure 4 shows Penelope and me slowing down after executing the “Ambush” feature on our last run of the day. You can see the orange cones in parts of Ricochet and the Buzzard’s Egg in the distance. Even though the green cones are only prior to the start timer and after the finishing timer taking one down will cost you 2 seconds anyway. That means you can’t relax until after you have exited the course.
Figure 4: The slow-down after
Ambush
If you talk to any of our Parade competitors this year let them tell you some stories! They will all have some with excitement in the preparation and running of this autocross. It was an extremely safe course considering that the speeds were quite high, especially in the straight line between the second time around the Buzzard’s Egg and the entrance into the hairpin turn within Ricochet.
Every afternoon when the competition was complete Michelin and Porsche sponsored Fun-Runs on the course using Pilot Sport Cup tire mounted on Original Equipment wheels provided by Porsche AG. All you had to do was present $10 to the Michelin guys at their trackside tractor-trailer rig and that bought you two laps on the autocross course. The coolest thing was that not only did all the proceeds go to a local charity, but I was able to take Joani out on the course as well. The tires were brand new and after spinning out on the third run I actually ran a better time than I had during the competition on tires far less sticky than my track tires. Seat time is good. Joani even seemed to like going sideways now and then! Speaking of family drivers, how early should we be teaching our kids to run in autocrosses?
Let me think…. 10 years old seems OK.
Figure 5: Julianne and friend
Jenna practicing in Penelope
Keep the shiny side up!
Ron