Category: Autocross - Page 4 - Northeast Region, Porsche Club of America

Special Autocross Event

PCA Northeast Region
Autocross Special Event
Sunday, August 15^th

at Moore Airfield in Ayer (Devens)
**(THE Place for AUTOCROSS!)**

Sponsored By

The NER Autocross Team has historically held an Autocross School at the start of our season. Last year, We canceled it entirely due to COVID. This year, we have decided to hold a different kind of event that will still allow people new to autocross to learn some driving skills and meet and socialize with our Autocross Community and have some fun. Perennial AX School sponsor Conway Autoworks is sponsoring this event, and perhaps we’ll see Kenny or someone from their shop bring something interesting to try a few runs around the cones in.

We will not run the event as a regular autocross competition – we plan to set up two courses – one timed and one untimed. The untimed course will be used as an exercise allowing novices to get a good feel for some of the basic autocross elements like slaloms or turns or veterans to fine-tune their technique through repetitive runs. And the timed course will allow everyone to gauge their improvement throughout the day or against their favorite autocross buddy – regardless of class. Instructors will be available to work with the novices.

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 at Fort Devens in Ayer, MA). If you’re new to the Club, or you’ve hesitated to try a motorsport event because you were intimidated by all the veterans driving faster than you or hurting your car – this is the event for you.

Registration

You must register for this event in advance. Registration will open soon at motorsportreg.com. Space may be limited, so register soon to ensure a spot. Everyone must register and pay for this event – sorry, no instructor freebies this year. Also, if you have registered for the season, this event is NOT included as part of your season pass, so you’ll need to register also. The price will be the regular event fee of $55.

The event will be open to Porsches only (with a couple of special exceptions for folks who do all the work behind the scenes). The Club will provide lunch.

Watch our website and email blasts for more details on this special event – and mark your calendars!

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

Directions to Fort Devens: The event will be at Moore Airfield on Route 2A which is separate from the main Army base. The Google maps address is 91 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 “State Police Driver Training”. 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, check that you’ve signed the e-waivers, or have you sign PCA waivers and greet you with instructions.

July 26, 2021/by Nick Shanny

Autocross, Porsche Events

7/24: Porsches in the Park Portland,ME

Date/Time
Date(s) – 07/24/2021
11:00 am – 2:00 pm

Join us on Saturday July 24th for a visit to Portland, ME where our friends in the Down East Region are hosting the annual Porsches In The Park fundraiser to benefit the Dempsey Foundation which provides free support services to anyone impacted by cancer.

Get the details and register here let the DER crew know you’ll be attending: clubregistration.net/events/signUp.cfm/event/11398

May 26, 2021/by Luis

Autocross, The Nor'Easter Magazine

NER Autocross Season Finale

October 14, 2017 – story: Chris Ryan – photos: Richard Viard (unless otherwise noted)

SPONSORED BY

PORSCHE NORWELL

NER’s fifth and final Autocross event of the 2017 season was run on Saturday October 14^th at Moore Airfield at Devens (results). The event was sponsored by Porsche Norwell to whom we extend our thanks for their support! Seventy-one drivers came out to enjoy what turned out to be a gorgeous fall day after a bit of a damp start to the morning. With heavy mist and light rain engulfing the field as we were setting up, it was looking bleak and the first run group did have to endure a wet track. Fortunately, things cleared up as the morning went on and as the track dried, the times for all the drivers started decreasing significantly. By the end of that first heat, the track was dry, the sun was out, and the rest of the day was much more enjoyable for everyone.

At the start of the event, several season championships (final championship standings) were still on the line to be decided. But first, congratulations go out to Tom Tate, Nick Durham, Bill Aubin, Noah Eckhouse, Chris Ryan, Aaron Walker, Ed Moschella, Suzy Kelley, Scruffy, and Rob MacAlpine for clinching season wins in their respective classes prior to the day’s runs.

Class 2S had a particularly interesting finish to the season with all three qualifying contenders having an opportunity to take the class as the day began with Adam Blauer, Georges Rouhart, and Neil Halbert all within 3 points of each other on the season. At the end of the morning heat, Georges was firmly in first place by about a second and he held that position into the afternoon. But on Run 7, Adam posted a 68.430 vs. Georges’ 68.558. All three drivers both posted their best times in Run 9, but with Adam ahead of Georges by .318 seconds and Neil meeting up with a cone, the race was Adam’s for the season. Congratulations, Adam!

Class 4S also saw two drivers, both relative newcomers to our Club in a position to take the season championship. At the start of the day, Charlie Sayers held the lead over Gareth Peters by 6 points. Gareth needed to take first place to overcome Charlie, which he managed to do by posting a decisive 67.384 for his 9^th run of the day besting Charlie by a little over 1.8 seconds. Congratulations go to both drivers for running a very competitive season and to Gareth on the win!

Class 6S had Rachel Baker and Nigel Fenwick within 2 points of each other at the start of the day, and Nigel gave it a good run but, in the end, fell short of Rachel’s best time of 64.726 by just over a second … maybe next year? Congratulations, Rachel!

And finally, with 3 points separating Jeremy Mazzariello and Rob Galejs, Class 7S was technically up for grabs although it would have taken quite an upset for Jeremy to lose, although stranger things have been known to happen …. Congratulations go out to Jeremy for securing the championship once again!

So ends another exciting NER Autocross Season at Devens. In our first season as AX Registrar and AX Chair, I think Jeff Johnson and I managed to keep things running without getting into too much trouble (thank you, Jeff!) and we certainly hope you all enjoyed yourselves as much as we did!

Following the event, we held our now annual end-of-season AX Party over at Billiards Café in Ayer where we enjoyed a buffet dinner, beverages, and announced the season winners. Season trophies will be awarded at NER’s annual banquet to be held once again at the Museum of Science in Boston. We hope to see all of you there as well as back at Devens for next year’s NER’s 2018 Autocross Series.

Photo by Anker Berg-Sonne

Photo: Anker Berg-Sonne

As always – questions, comments, and suggestions can be sent to AX Chair, Chris Ryan, at [email protected] or AX Registrar, Jeff Johnson, at [email protected].

October 21, 2017/by Sterling Vernon

Autocross

Around the Cones – 2017 PCA Zone 1 Autocross

[ story and photos by Anker Berg-Sonne ] What better way to spend a weekend than threading your Porsche around cones at the Moore airfield in Ayer? Add to that the perfect weather of the 2017 PCA Zone 1 autocross, run by NCR and chaired by Joe Kraetsch. A total of 78 participating drivers from Green Mountain (1 driver), Niagara (1 driver), Northern New Jersey (1 driver), Connecticut Valley (3 drivers), Hudson Champlain (15 drivers), Metropolitan New York (16 drivers), North Country (17 drivers), and Northeast (23 drivers) competed for the region team trophy. Hudson Champlain was the best dressed team with matching T shirts.

Saturday the course was laid out to run counter clockwise as a fairly technical course with some tricky sections. The ones causing the most trouble for drivers were an offset slalom with 5 cones, all with double pointers, and a V box with two clam shells bracketing it. Each of the two run groups got 5 runs morning and afternoon. At the end of the day North Country was in the lead with 80 points. After the Saturday session there was a barbecue at the Springhill Suites.

Sunday started out with heavy fog that made the new course – this time going counter clockwise – difficult to see for the early course walkers. The tricky sections were retained, but this time in the opposite direction, and a new one was added on the main runway with a sharp left around a cone shortly before getting to the offset slalom. The final section was initially laid out to be an almost straight run to the timing gate, but was modified to slow it down after the safety inspection. In order to get visitors on the road at a decent hour the decision was made to run just one group in the morning and switch over lunch to the other group.

You would have thought all drivers would have figured out the tricky sections carried over from Saturday, but they still vexed several drivers. Jeff Johnson managed to hit cones in the offset slalom in four out of his 6 Sunday runs. Partway through the afternoon session Neil Halbert’s cooling fan decided to chew through a cooling hose, which put his 944 out of the action for at least one run. Fortunately he was able to get a spare from another driver so he could drive it home.

At the award ceremony at the end of the day North Country took the trophy with Northeast in second place. Trophies taken by Northeast members were in IO1 1st for Mark Skala in IO1 in his blue 1970 914-6, and 2nd for Bill Aubion in his 1984 black 944; in P1 1st for John Goudreau in his silver 1973 914; in P3 1st Adam Small in his bronze 1984 911, and 2nd Robert Canter in his black 1984 911; in P4 1st, Nick Durham in his black 1991 911 C4, and 3rd Georges Rouhart in his black 1993 968; in P6 Robert Galejs in his black 2014 Cayman S; in P7 2nd Chris Lindquist in his white 2009 Carrera S; in S1 1st Adam Blauer in his gray 1994 968, and 3rd Jim Fox in his white 1994 964; in S2 4th Anker Berg-Sonne in his silver 2004 Boxster S; in S3 2nd Jeff Johnson in his gray 2009 Cayman S, and 4th Chris Doty in his gray 2014 Cayman; and in S4 4th Alan Davis in his blue 2015 911 GT3. Looks like NER will have to do better in S2, S3 and S5 classes to beat NCR next time.

Personally I had a great weekend. I have new rubber on the rears after finally, and gladly, wearing the old HTR IIs down to the wear strips. The new rubbers are HTR IIIs, not ideal AX rubber, but a fair compromise as long as I only have one set of rims. In spite of the tires and the nut behind the wheel, I ended up with a fourth place in S2. Even beyond the compromised tires, I know there are several more seconds to gain with more practice. I am having a lot of trouble with tight turns and need some instructor help with those. I feel good about my slalom performance and getting the wheels where I want them, maybe even getting a bit too close. On both of my fastest runs I hit a cone and had those times ruined. I do hope to find a set of 17” Boxster rims before next season that I can put 200 wear tires on for AX and DE.

FUNTOY, the 2004 Boxster S that my wife and I bought exactly a year ago, has been a wonderful car, great on the track and around cones, but also a joy to drive around with the top down. We even took a trip up to the Nova Scotia and PEI that added another 5K miles to the 104K that the car had on it when we bought it. It is amazing that a 100K-mile-plus, 12-year-old car can be in such great shape. This is my first year autocrossing with NER and it has been a blast. I am getting to know and finally learning the names of the regulars at our events. The AX school at the start of the season was terrific and the instructors have been extremely helpful.