Archive for year: 2025

Saturday, April 11th
at Moore Airfield in Ayer (Devens)

(THE Place for AUTOCROSS!)

Sponsored by  CONWAY MOTOR WORKS

The NER Autocross Team will be holding its popular Autocross School at Devens this year on Saturday, April 11^th. The format will be similar to prior years with driving exercises held in the morning, followed by lunch (Pizza supplied by NER), with actual timed runs on a full autocross course in the afternoon. We welcome all cars, and you do not need to be a PCA member to participate.

We will be pre-assigning students and instructors again this year, with one instructor assigned to a pair of students for all morning exercises to provide increased instruction and feedback on the students’ driving. 

While attendance at the school is not requisite for attending events during the season, it is highly recommended. Regardless of whether you intend to autocross or not, this is a fabulous introduction to the art of driving at a fraction of the price of most schools of its kind.

You must be a novice to attend this school.  Please don’t sign up expecting a Test n’ Tune.

Autocross allows you to learn car control skills in a safe environment. We are fortunate to enjoy probably one of the best venues in the area (Moore Airfield in Ayer (Devens)). The wide runways and ample open space allow participants to get close to or exceed the performance limits of their cars without risking damage to cars or participants – so you can see what your Porsche feels like when pushed like it was meant to be. The driving skills you’ll learn here are not just useful for autocross events, but also for DE events on the track as well as driving on the street. Plus it’s also a social event – you’ll have the opportunity to meet a friendly group of men and women who enjoy socializing with each other while

having fun with their cars, and working on driving skills together. We hope you’ll come out and give it a try! In the meantime, check out our excellent instructional videos produced by Autocross Team member Richard Viard. They will give you some good ideas on what to expect, how to prepare, etc. On the NER website at porschenet.com, go to “Activities” in the menu banner, then select “Autocross” to get to the Autocross Page. Click on “Autocross School” in the yellow banner and scroll down for the videos.  

Registration: You must register for this event in advance. Registration is currently open online at www.pcaner.motorsportreg.com. We have limited spaces, so register now to insure a spot. You do not have to be a PCA member to register.

Price: $60 (includes a free registration to one NER Autocross Event in 2024)

Eligibility: This event is for novice autocrossers only! To register, you must have participated in less than 5 autocross events in the past two years.  As always, special circumstances may apply, so contact Chris Ryan at [email protected] with questions.

Instructors: You must register for the event on motorsportreg.com as an instructor (you will not be charged) Please be on site at 7:00 AM.

Students: should plan to arrive after 8:00 AM but no later than 8:30.

For event and eligibility questions contact NER Autocross Chair Chris Ryan at [email protected] . For registration/payment issues contact NER Autocross Registrar Alan Davis at [email protected] .

Directions:  The event will be at Moore Airfield on Route 2A which is separate from the main Army base. The Google maps address is 90 Fitchburg Rd. Ayer MA.     From Rte128 or I-495: Take Route 2 West. Take Exit 38B (Route 111 North) for 2 miles. At the rotary, take Route 2A West toward Ayer. Stay on 2A as it turns right in downtown Ayer.  Follow Route 2A bearing left at the fork by Tiny’s Restaurant. Continue past the Shop & Save market on your left – the entrance gate will be on your left just after the railroad tracks with a sign reading “Moore Field”. Enter through the main gate, look for the “Autocross” sign and bear left up the hill to get to the airfield. At the top of the hill there will be someone to check you in, and greet you with instructions.

2025 NER AUTOCROSS SERIES EVENT #4

NER held its fourth Autocross event of 2025 on Sunday August 10^th. The event was sponsored by Herb Chambers Porsche of Burlington, and we thank them once again for their continued support.

We had 40 participating drivers at the event, including 10 novices out to try their hand at one of our events. By the end of the day, Jung Kim had taken first place in the Porsche Novice Class posting a 72.67 run driving his 2020 GT4. In the non-Porsche Novice Class, Jon Scott was the winner with a 77.15 driving a 2024 Subaru BRZ. Jung and Jon will be registering in their respective non-novice classes at future events.

In Class 1, Chris Darminio (1976 914) took first place, edging out Adam Small (1984 911) by .542 seconds. Lev Tabenkin was the winner in Class 3 with a 67.269 driving a 1996 993. Mark Skala took the prize in Class 4 posting a 64.143 in his 2014 Cayman S, which was also Porsche FTD for the event. Charles Comeau was the winner in Class 5 with a 66.168 driving a 2025 Cayman GTS. Class 6 saw Krishna Harpanahalli in his 2021 GT4 win with a 65.841.

For the non-Porsche classes, winner Ryan Casillo had a 66.453 (raw)/54.425 (paxed) in Class 8 – non-Porsche Street and Michael Reiser posted a 63.381(raw)/53.747 (paxed) to take the win. His time was also FTD overall for the day.

Full results can be seen on our Live Timing/Archive site by going to https://porschenet.com/ax, scrolling down to the date of Autocross #4 (August 10, 2025), then selecting the “Summary”, “Results”, or “Raw Times” reports.

We’d like to thank Herb Chambers Porsche of Burlington for sponsoring this event, and we look forward to seeing everyone at a future AX event.

NER AUTOCROSS SERIES EVENT #2

NER’s 2025 Season continued on Saturday June 7^th at Moore Airfield and was sponsored by our new Autocross sponsor SSA European Auto Repair. With the prospect of rain looming, we had a relatively low turnout. But we made a good day out of it with Ernie Grasso setting up a great up and back course with a fairly open design for rain. We opted to try a parade-style drive-through instead of our usual course walk (as employed by SVT and other Clubs). This served the purpose of giving us a relatively early start and with only 25 drivers, we were able to clock 6 runs by only 11:30. And the good news was the rain held off in the morning so that Ernie’s open course was especially fun for everyone. With rain approaching around lunchtime as projected, after lunch we did 3 more runs for a total of 9  and called it a day before the monsoons moved in mid-afternoon.

In the older air-cooled class, Adam Small in his ‘84 911 was able to get a win with a 54.42 over Chris Darminio’s 55.58 in his ‘76 914 beating him by only 1.1 seconds. Class 2 saw Bob Canter take the medal with a 59.71 after deciding not to challenge Adam and driving his 2017 Macan. In Class 3, Lev Tabenkin posted a 52.37 driving his 1996 993 – beating out two Boxsters driven by Alan Donkin (53.11) in his 2003 Boxster S and Chris Tuck who posted a 553.19. Mark Skala prevailed in Class 4 with a 49.47 driving his 2014 Cayman S, followed by Chris Ryan posting a 52.18 for 2^nd and Brian Szeremata in his 2013 911 with a 54.68. Mark’s time was Porsche FTD. Ernie Grasso in a 2024 Cayman GTS posted a 51.68 to take Class 5 over Jeff Johnson (2018 Cayman GTS) with a 53.36 and Shawn Anderson in his 2016 Spyder who put up a 55.50. Alan Davis ran unopposed in Class 6 and posted a 52.82; In the two paxed non-Porsche Classes, Yu-Chi Chen (2003 BMW M240) took first in Class 8 with a pax time of 44.09 followed closely by Matt Nieman in his 2023 Corvette (44.547) and Jason Costello in a 2018 Porsche Panamera Hybrid (he elected to run with the non-Porsches) with a 47.74. Chris Lindquist ran unopposed in Class 9 posting 40.918 (pax). His raw time of 48.945 was non-Porsche FTD.

In the Novice Classes, Joshua Reed posted a 56.24 in Class 10 (Porsche Novice) driving his 2021 Carrera S to take first and get himself booted out of the Novice class. Denis Shield took 2^nd driving a 2023 Boxster posting a 1:006. C=In Class 11 (non-Porsche Novice), Sims Simeonov posted a 58.002 in his 2024 Toyota GR Corolla.

Full results can be seen on our Live Timing/Archive site by going to https://porschenet.com/ax, scrolling down to the date of Autocross #2 (June 7, 2025), then selecting “Results”.

Thanks again to our sponsor, SSA European Auto Repair. Our next event will be on Saturday July 26^th  and registration is open on motorsportreg.com.