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Thompson Speedway DE Recap – May 2026

Event Highlights

Thank you for joining us at our recent event at Thompson Speedway! This year marked one of our most successful gatherings yet. Not only did we host an outstanding Driver Education (DE) program, but the club also organized two special events to enhance the experience for participants.

Friday Special Programs

On Friday, Tim Canfield and his team led a Car Control Clinic designed for beginner drivers. Students were introduced to the fundamentals of car control and took their first steps toward sensory driving, laying the groundwork for safe and confident performance on the track.

Additionally, Sally Bean and Kristin Larson conducted our second annual Track Primer program. This initiative provided students with three on-track sessions: one session riding in the right seat with an instructor, followed by two sessions where students drove the track at speed, with an instructor accompanying them in the right seat. This hands-on approach helped participants gain valuable experience and confidence.

Memorial Day Weekend Tradition

Since the event coincided with Memorial Day weekend, we continued the PCA NER tradition of collecting donations to honor fallen veterans. As he does each year, Stan Corbett shared heartfelt words that reminded us of the ultimate sacrifice made by many. Our attendees responded generously, making meaningful contributions in support of this tradition.

Words of Gratitude

We would also like to share additional words from Stan, expressing his gratitude for your support and generosity.

Drivers and Guests,

The Memorial Day weekend DE at Thompson will have a special place in my memory. Your response to the Memorial Day Poppy donations was outstanding! You took Paul’s challenge to heart and your contributions to the Poppy ‘Sale’, which honors all service men and women that made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, raised $1,250, second only to the donations for 2024. I’ll turn the money in at the Northborough American Legion Post 234 Sunday, June 7th at our monthly meeting. Each year members of the post congratulate me for doing so well, but it wasn’t me that did this, it was all of you. Thank you all so very much!

You folks are ACES in my book!

Thank you,
Stan Corbett
MSgt, USAF, Retired

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2026 HPDE Ground School Recap

On Saturday, March 7th, nearly 40 attendees, plus Track Committee members, gathered at HMS Motorsport in Danvers, MA to shake off the winter doldrums and talk about a couple of our favorite things: cars and driving them on the track!

After coffee and breakfast treats generously provided by David Peterman of Panera Bread, members of the High-Performance Drivers Education team, plus leaders from the NER Board, were present to discuss NER’s 2026 on-track activities.  The punchline is that there is a lot planned with something for everyone…even those who may opt not to drive.  This event, coined “The Ground School,” is the official kickoff to the upcoming NER driving season.

The Ground School focuses on the many opportunities available for new drivers in the Drivers Education program.

Led by Co-Chief Instructor, Tim Canfield, a lively conversation followed as each member of the Track Committee talked a little about their role and how they got “hooked” (addicted?! LOL.) on high-performance driving.  Thereafter, Cody McLean and Evan Polisky of HMS covered the all-important topic of driver safety equipment.

The group then broke for lunch and the rich discussions continued in a less-structured format, with lots of one-on-one conversations and dedicated Q&A.  Tasty pizza and soft drinks were furnished courtesy of HMS.  HMS hosts Cody and Evan provided personal attention for those looking to try on helmets or find the right size and style of equipment.

Many thanks to HMS for hosting the group and for their generous support of our High-Performance Drivers Education programming.

And for those who need a fast and “colorful” visual of the objective of the program, here you go!

Article and pictures courtesy of Michelle Wang and Darin Smith.

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Winter Warmer Social 2025

Need a mid-winter taste of your favorite car? Come to Herb Chambers Porsche of Boston!

 

 

Join us on Sunday February 9th starting at 10am and ending at 12pm (Address is 1172 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass.) for coffee and munchies and a whole lot more, courtesy of Mr. Chambers, Sales Manager Peter Wienstroer. Look at cars, meet your friends and, once everyone is there, we will talk about upcoming PCA events and we will catch us up on the latest Porsche news.

https://porschenet.com/events/winter-warmer-4/?swcfpc=1

And who knows what else? Weather permitting take a test drive.

The event address is: 1172 Commonwealth Ave. Boston. Please RSVP below so we can plan food (and, very importantly in January, we will have your email to contact you if the event has to be cancelled or postponed due to snowy weather).

Questions: contact Mark Shane at [email protected]

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Wet and Wild at Watkins Glen

It was the worst of times (Friday), it was the best of times (Saturday)!  Then Sunday was kind of a mix.  NER had its annual visit to your favorite track (at least it’s mine) and experienced a weather rollercoaster. We started off on the wrong foot on the Thursday drive out with a Mass Pike construction issue (to my observation the only thing being constructed was the delay) which cost an extra hour of travel time. Friendly faces and a beer at the Seneca Lodge righted that ship.

Friday, however, we were back to unhappiness. It poured rain (internet said 3-5 inches) and only a few brave souls ventured onto the track. Unfortunately one brave soul hydroplaned into a guardrail on the back straight and the ground was so soaked that it couldn’t be restored.  For safety reasons the rest of the day was cancelled (too bad as the weather was finally improving).  While this was going there was plenty of time for socializing.  I met a nice new dog named Remy (I’m guessing on that spelling).

The weather improved in time for our Friday night social at Watkins Glen State Park. As in previous years, the food by Dinosaur Barbecue was delicious, the beverage choices were outstanding and a grand time was had by all. Thanks to the NER Track Committee Social team of Judi Mansing, Pam Mascetta and Jen Hall for all their hard work.

Saturday the weather was perfect – sunny and not too hot. Everyone went about their business without incident. There was a well attended track walk (once the swarm of Mini Coopers departed).

Sunday we were back to a mix of weather conditions – OK in the morning, some rain in the afternoon – but overall not bad.

This event had 155 drivers and was marked by attendance of a lot of out-of-region drivers – at least 12 states were represented. Two examples (pictured) are Sarah Beal from Kent Ohio (who co-drove a Cayman with her husband) and Mark from Jacksonville Florida (who was on a track for the first time in his NH cousin’s car). Nice to be able to host some friendly people (who, I might add, all had nice things to say about our hospitality).

Throughout the event drivers at all levels were offered instruction.  There was, of course, the usual crew of instructors helping the Green and Yellow drivers. (And, I note, these novices were actually very good, there were no trains and there were lots of promotions.) New this year is the “Advanced Driver Experience (ADX) Program.” Developed by Tim Canfield, Dave Berman and Bob Hollis, this program pairs advanced drivers with coaches.  Meeting in pairs (or in groups with others in the program), drivers discuss, set goals and then develop plans to achieve these goals.

Kristin Larson was a participant and here’s what she had to say about the program…

“We started with documenting our goals, strengths and weaknesses to our coach.  All the mini groups got together on Friday for a discussion on different ways to achieve these goals. Each coach rode in the right seat with their drivers with multiple check-ins during the weekend.  I got the extra benefit of riding with my coach, Alain, in his 2024 GT3 RS, so he could demonstrate the skills I was focusing on over the weekend – just a bit more horsepower than our 2011 Cayman S.  At the end of the day Saturday, we had our own track walk so the discussion could focus on what was implemented during the day. This is a wonderful program and a great reminder that the learning should never end.”

Look for more information about this program as it evolves!

So one more event this year for us – Palmer (the correct direction) on September 27-29 – and two more for our sister region NCR (Tamworth and the season finale at NHMS).

Promotions…

We welcomed two new instructors at this event Derek Mulligan and Roger Dumas! Thanks for your service.

Green to Yellow

Brian George

Yellow to Blue

Sarah Beal

Matt Grabowski

Michael Skinner

Blue to White

Timothy Flammger

Simon Kwok

White to Black

Sam Rauworth

Peter Dillon

Ted Geldmacher

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DE Crier Report: DE Season Kicks Off

“NER’s first Driver Education event of the season took place over Memorial Day weekend at Thompson Motorsports Park.  Apparently all of us Track Rats had been very well behaved because we were rewarded with absolutely perfect weather – dry, sunny, not too hot – perfect!”  (The preceding was copied from last year’s report – maybe we should have all our events at Thompson?)

The weekend was divided into two parts, as it was last year.  Friday was a solo driver only day so only three run groups and 2 hours and 20 minutes of track time for everyone.  In addition there were special skill development exercises focused on improving safety in unusual circumstances like getting a late point by or being forced to drive off-line – necessary skills for the expanded passing rules used in the Red run group.  Here’s what Bob Binder had to say about them…

“The driving drills on the advanced day were fun and very helpful. My experience is that there is a lot of emphasis on utmost safety for novice and less experienced drivers at the PCA events that I have attended. This necessitates teaching certain things early on that probably became over-emphasized in my mind: “always brake in a straight line” “always try to throttle in a straight line” ” ‘always’ drive the ‘line’ “. The Friday drills helped open my mind more to thinking outside the box and giving me permission to learn to drive offline while in a safe and predictable environment. I noticed after the drills that I felt a lot more comfortable driving side by side with another car and maintaining poise when passing (or getting passed) with a late point by that carried into the corner.”

On Saturday the instructed students joined us.  Charlie Kenney (Track Chair) continued the very helpful practice of having each run group meet up after the driver meeting.  Meeting the folks with whom you will share the track is both nice socially and also promotes courteous driving. There was also the usual moment of silence to recognize our Fallen Heroes. Stan Corbett (“Registrar Emeritus” and member of the Northboro American Legion Post) brought poppies and miniature flags which had flown over the gravesites of veterans.

On Saturday night there was the usual beer/wine social in the garage (IPA aficionados were impressed by the carefully curated selection of good beers!). This was followed by the usual buffet dinner but this year it was in the garage rather than at the golf clubhouse tent (take that duffers!).  Thanks to NER DE Social organizers Pam Mascetta, Jen Hall and Judy Mansing!

The rest of the weekend involved lots of great weather and lots of track time. Attendance was better than past years: we had a total of 113 drivers.  Chief Instructor Dave Berman did his usual masterful job of herding students, instructors and arranging check out rides – there were a lot of promotions…

Placements (drivers who haven’t ridden with us before but had experience elsewhere)  

Ron Carver – White

Zhiping Wang – White

Jason Settineri – White

New Instructor

Thorsten Becker

White to Black

Jason Loy

Scott Stawas

Blue to White

John Woodward

Yellow to Blue

Jeffrey McKinney

Ben Forman

Stefan Vorndran

Green to Yellow

Bob Baynes

David Klimavich

Corain McGinn

Bill Aubin

Nick Craig

Written by: Bill “Father Time” Seymour

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2024 NER DE Season Dates:

The PCA NER track committee has been hard at work this fall getting us all ready for the 2024 season. More details will follow next month, but please be sure to mark your calendars for the 2024 DE season. NCR dates will also follow shortly. For those asking about our Canada trips. We are looking to co-sponsor a date at Mont-Tremblant with another PCA region. For the Calabogie event, we need at least 30 committed sign-ups to allow this event to happen. Again, more to follow on all of this.

Please note that all track days run for 3 days, the ground school is returning to its Original format at the HMS motorsports shop in Danvers, this event is for folks who have never been to a track day, but all are welcome. It will include a classroom session with breakfast and lunch served. 

Event LocationEvent Date
Ground School @ HMSSaturday, March 9, 2024
ThompsonFriday, May 24, 2024
Palmer CWFriday, June 14, 2024
CalabogieWednesday, July 3, 2024
Watkins GlenFriday, August 9, 2024
Palmer CCWFriday, September 27, 2024

Keep an eye out for more details in the following weeks. We look forward to seeing you at DE in 2024!

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Palmer Goes the Proper Way

NER’s final DE of the season took place September 23-25th at Palmer Motorsports Park (our home track). This time we went counter-clockwise as god intended. Your loyal scribe (the job is called “DE Crier” like “Town Crier”) was there only on Friday (he is on the PUP list) but his spies filled in the details of the whole weekend.

Friday, the day I attended, was for signed off drivers only and featured two special training exercises plus a classroom on proper passing technique. The purpose of these exercises was to get people comfortable driving off line, handling late passes and passing in the corners.

The first exercise involved pairing up drivers who then drove the course at 50-70% speed but side by side maintaining a distance of no less than 4 feet between them:  the inside car would hit each apex but will not track out at all. The car on the outside would stay wide at the apex and maintain the 4-6 feet distance between the two cars.

The other exercise, also with drivers paired up, was taking late passes. Again cars were paired up but now with one in front and the other trailing.  The front car would give a late point by (late meaning towards the end of each straight). As usual, the car giving the point would stay on line and the car taking the pass would go off line. Typically, that means the overtaking car is on the inside of the turn. Because the pass is late, the overtaking car will hit the apex and then stay tight to the inside of the track. Once the overtaking car can clearly see the other car in their rear view or side view mirror and verify there is plenty of room, they can get back on line. The car being overtaken stays wide of the apex.

All of those I spoke with thought the exercises were well designed and useful. Thanks to Dave Berman and Charlie Kenney for putting this together.

As usual your Crier chatted with (and probably bored to tears) a number of participants in order to get some human interest stories. Oddly enough all of these involved folks not driving Porsches.  Eric referred to his Corvette as “a poor man’s GT3” and I think he may have a good point. Brand disloyalty aside he was very complimentary of the organization of our events, saying they were better managed and organized than DE’s by other clubs.

Ana, who drives a track prepped VW GTI, seconded Eric’s comments. She has been doing DE’s for three years and has moved up the ranks quickly – was getting check out rides for promotion to Black. She particularly felt our educational work (classrooms, the training exercises, run group system) separated our program from others, particularly the SCCA Track Nights in America which lacked our structure.

 

As a BMW E36 driver, I had to drool over Christophe’s heavily modified example (engine from an E46 among other goodies). He also was highly complimentary of our DE program (although I suspect he showed his heels to a few GT3 and GT4 drivers). He runs with other PCA regions and likes us best.

 

And certainly one of the highlights of the weekend was our club’s participation in the Just Hands Foundation program (https://justhands.org/.)  As per their website…

“The Just Hands Foundation will give anyone who uses hand controls to drive (usually people in wheelchairs) the opportunity to get on to a track with an instructor!!

Few (if any?) sports give the disabled the opportunity to compete with the rest of the world. Yes, we can ski, do marathons, play basketball, and myriad other sports. But unfortunately we are held to a small group we can compete against. More so, options like arrive-and-drive and racing schools only have pedal cars. 

Motorsports makes everyone equal, no matter what appendages you use to drive!!”

Just Hands brought a car for Carol to drive.   With support of the “pit crew,” Carol was able to drive a 2015 Cayman for her first event.  With the help of Kristin as her instructor, she was driving consistent laps by midday on Sunday.  The smile at the end of each run session says it all.

 

Finally, the mandatory dog picture – our ambulance crew from National Ambulance (thank you for your service and thankfully you were not needed!) Brie and Liz with the Binder’s dog Blue.

And promotions…

Green to Yellow

Lev Tabenkin

Jim Martin

 

Yellow to Blue

Kyle Seaman

 

Blue  to White

Scott Stawas

Stephen Hall

 

White to Black

Ana Malone Oliver

Paul Skinner

 

 

 

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NER’s Annual Trip to Watkins Glen

 

Greetings track fans and those who live vicariously in their easy chair. The words you are reading are from a pinch hitter for your DE Crier Bill Seymour who is unfortunately nursing a bad back and was unable to attend the Watkins Glen event this year. I know this was a big blow to this “seasoned” track driver as this is his favorite track (as well as mine). It is a hike to get there for my wife Pam & I but the seven and a half hours it takes us to get there hauling the trailer is worth every mile. We actually had one of our first dates in 1973 coming to WGI for the Formula One. This year may be the exception as our car broke on Friday afternoon of the three day event. Despite that disappointment, we were able to spend time with many of our dear friends that we have met over the years participating in this unusual way to get an adrenaline rush. And, of course, a night at the “world” famous Seneca Lodge restaurant and bar. A must see attraction every year for us. We missed our good friend Stan Corbett this year who was having cataract surgery so he could drive faster! He has been a fixture at this track ever since I started doing DE events. He’ll be back at Palmer.

 

As it turned out, despite an iffy forecast, the weather was great for all three days. As a regular participant at this event this is not the norm. The only session affected by the weather was the last session of the day on Sunday when the track shut down due to lightning in the area. The NER track committee did it’s usual fantastic job of organizing and running the event with all it’s moving parts. The Saturday evening dinner at the Iroquois Lodge in the state park was amazing. The social committee, Judy Mansing and Pam Mascetta delivered once again with a fabulous meal catered by Dinosaur Barbeque from Rochester NY. They brought in their big trailer and smoked ribs, brisket and chicken wings for 7 hours on site. All who attended left with full bellies and smiles.  

 

Other shoutouts go to Dave Berman and Tim Canfield who ran three classroom sessions addressing 1) General Safety, 2) Passing Etiquette and 3) Better Braking. These efforts reflect an increasing emphasis on providing not just good in-car instruction but also general knowledge for all driver levels. Dave also led a well-received track walk on Friday night. Oh, and Charlie did a good job too.

 

A number of drivers were promoted over the three days and two new instructors were brought into the corps. Chris Braun and Buzz Bean are now going to wear red wrist bands and impart their knowledge and experience onto novice drivers for years to come. It takes years of DE experience and passing a rigorous development program to reach this goal. Congrats! More instructors mean we can accommodate more drivers in the novice run groups. If you aspire to become an instructor seek out and talk with Bob Hollis and/ or Matthew Wallace to be put on their radar.

 

Advancing two levels, Yellow to White 

  • Matt Murphy
  • Chris Kanner

White to Black

  • Jesse MacKoul
  • Stephen DiCato

Blue to White

  • Brandon George
  • Benjamin Zendejas
  • Raphael Kouyoumdjian

Yellow to Blue

  • Catherine Monoxelos
  • Ted Nivison
  • Suhas Chavannavar
  • Joseph Groom

Green to Yellow

  • Ian Forman
  • Michael Skinner
  • Rafael Jennings
  • Jim Freiman

Dennis Mascetta

Temporary DE Crier

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