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DE Crier: Thompson Report

It was a long winter but clean living prevailed, and we finally got on the track. The NER season opening DE was over Memorial Day weekend at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park:  three days of rip roaring fun for novices and veterans alike. 

On Friday there was special attention paid to drivers new to DE and to the track.  After a classroom session by Ed Mansing and their first on-track session, the Green and Yellow drivers (two novice run groups) were sent to a big parking lot for braking and cornering exercises.  Autocross Chair Chris Ryan and his AX crew led the drivers through two sessions of exercises which included a wet skid pad.  (The skid pad was left open during the day for anyone to use.)  There were also classroom sessions for Advanced drivers led by Peter Tracy and Kevin Gross.

 

Friday saw a little mist in the morning but the day stayed dry.  Not so on Saturday where the afternoon was pretty wet (great opportunity for learning!).  Sunday was beautiful and the reduced turnout allowed combining run sessions so drivers could wear out their tires to their hearts’ content.

Saturday night there was a track social that featured a nice selection of your favorite beverages and a catered dinner.  Thanks to Judy Mansing and Pam Mascetta for their usual fine job.

 

As has become the tradition for this event, there was acknowledgement each day of the purpose of Memorial Day with a moment of silence for those who lost their lives in the service of their country. Stan Corbett distributed flags from American Legion Post 234 that had flown over the graves of fallen heroes.

Turnout for the event was a little disappointing and the current signup for the second NER DE at Palmer is also below normal levels.  What are you folks waiting for?  All those people I talked to at the Ground School, where are you?  C’mon and signup!  Here are the counts from Thompson…

Total attendees: 90

Green (Beginner): 17

Yellow (Novice): 13

Blue (Solo): 7

White (Intermediate): 9

Black (Advanced): 16

Red (Instructor): 28 

Note that 10 attendees had never been to a DE before and an additional 10 had never driven at Thompson before.  Speaking of people who had never before attended a DE, one who fit this description was Bill Miniscalco of Sudbury who came with his 2018 Boxster.  Bill was having a great time and encouraged anyone who was on the fence to give it a try.  I asked him what if anything surprised him and his reply was “what a wide variety of cars and levels of experience there are.” Everything from completely stock cars driven by those with no track experience to PCA club racers driving dedicated track cars. And all were very friendly and willing to help and offer advice when asked.

So thanks to co-track chairs Adam Schwartz and Charlie Kenney for running a great event and to Stan Corbett for all the work he does as Registrar (assisted by Paul Skinner and Judi Mansing).  There was a bit of last minute work shuffling as the Covid took out two Chief Instructors (Dave Berman and Tom Buckingham – leaving Mike Woodward in that role). And thanks to Instructor Development Chair Matthew Wallis who is hard at work molding the more experienced drivers into instructors. Our sustainable future depends on attracting new drivers – and in order to host Green and Yellow students we must have a strong cadre of Instructors.

And speaking of moving on up, here are the promotions that occurred at this event…

Green to Yellow:   Patrick Bergstedt and Benjamin Zendejas

Yellow to Blue:  Ana Malone Oliver, Duan Yutong and Diou Shi

Blue to White:  David Timberlake, Jeff Croteau, Ana Malone Oliver (she advanced 2 run groups at Thompson)

White to Black:  Dan Zal, Bobby Jacobsen (NER Region President)

New Instructor:   Michael Bodden

 

Finally, on a personal note, I was there on Sunday with no car – planning to drive Dave Berman’s car after his generous offer.  But Dave was down with the Covid. Up stepped Bob Binder and Chris DeGrace (one of the PCA club racers!) to graciously allow me three sessions of driving. You know the saying:  “It’s not just the cars, it’s the people!”

-Bill Seymour

 

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NER AX Report #1 Report

NER Autocross Presented by PCANER and Porsche Norwell

NER opened up its 2022 Autocross competition season on May 22. Porsche Norwell was the sponsor of the event, and Nick Vullemier and Brian Leonard were on hand from Norwell, driving a 2018 718 Cayman.

Rob MacAlpine set up a great course using the Miata Club’s larger cones. His club had been running the day before, and I had stopped by the airfield to check in, and we decided to leave cones in place and reuse portions of his course for our event to save setup time and make a little less work for Rob and his helpers in the morning. The plan worked out well – especially as we were facing temperatures in the upper nineties.

After cancellations and no-shows, 58 drivers participated in the event. We had an unusually large number of dual drivers, so we split most of them into separate run groups to simplify grid management. We also had 23 novices, 10 of whom had just participated in our Season-opening Autocross school two weeks prior.

The course was fairly technical but loosened up a bit to help minimize cone hits and reduce the workload on the course workers in the extreme heat. We had plenty of water on hand, and it all worked out well. A slight breeze throughout the day was a lifesaver.

 

By the end of the day, seven drivers had posted times below 70 seconds; Rob MacAlpine posted FTD at 66.850, and Ollie Lucier posted Porsche FTD at 68.353.

Chris Darminio took Class 1 unopposed in his 1976 914 with a 73.884. Class 3 saw the return of old friends Adam Small and Christine Skaubitis, giving Bob Canter some competition and adding to the representation of air-cooled Porsches. Adam took the Class with a 72.802. Neil Halbert edged out George Rouhart in Class 4 with a 73.882, and Dan Gramm took Class 5 in his 97 Boxster with a 77.515. Class 6 fielded seven drivers, and Devon Yablonski took it with a 69.989 in his 2014 Cayman S, narrowly beating Mark Skala to do it. Glenn Champagne was the class winner in Class 7, posting a 76.339 in his 1999 996 Carrera. Henry Wu prevailed in class 8, posting a 69.770 in his 2014 991 Carrera S frustrating Jeremy Mazzariello and Erick Aubin, who were right behind him. Nigel Fenwick was the winner in Class 9, co-driving Bill Aubins 2020 GT4 with a 69.433. Ollie Lucier’s 68.353 took class 10, and Rob MacAlpine’s 66.850 topped Anthony Nunez’s 67.112 to take Class 11.

In the Novice Class, the top 6 drivers posted some pretty respectable times, all below 78 seconds, with Brian Nett posting a 73.838 to take the Class and getting himself booted out of the Novice category.

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 #1 (May 22, 2022), then selecting  “Results.”

Thanks again to everyone for coming out to our first event of 2022. Our next event is on Sunday, June 19, and registration is open on motorsportreg.com. I hope to see a good crowd out there for that date!

-Chris Ryan

 

The Day’s Results

 

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NER Autocross School 2022

 

PCA NER Autocross 2022

After a COVID-induced absence for a couple of years, NER held its Autocross School again this year on May 7th. The event was sponsored once again by Conway Autoworks in Hanover, MA. (Thank you, Kenny!)

This year’s event attracted 45 students, all eager to see what Autocross is all about and to learn more about what they can do with their cars. Twenty-eight of our veteran autocrossers came to instruct and help out with the event.

We held the usual chalk talk at the beginning of the event, and students had been advised (prior to the event) to watch the 3-part NER Autocross Video produced by Richard Viard to get some background for the day. Most of the students complied, and during the talk, Ed Moschella proceeded to describe the finer points of oversteer, understeer, the friction circle, driving lines, as well as the importance of looking ahead while driving, and how to work the course.

We modeled our school event on the setup used very successfully by our fellow autocrossers in the BMW and Miata Clubs. The key difference for us was to pre-assign instructors to students for the exercise portion of the event, which greatly eliminated some of the logistical issues we had had in the past with different people jumping in and out of cars and slowing down the whole process. Three exercises were set up consisting of a series of offset clamshell elements which helped with course-reading, getting a line, braking, and turning; a kidney-shaped exercise which provided more braking and turning practice; and a slalom exercise. There was only one person (starter) running each exercise.

The students were assigned to two different run groups, and each group was divided into three color-coded subgroups. The first run group cycled through the exercises with their assigned instructors, while the members of the second run group worked (shagged cones) along with each exercise. Then the run groups switched, and group 2 had their chance to cycle through the exercises. By the time we completed the exercises and broke for lunch, everyone was ready to try out their new skills on an actual timed course.

Students were driven around the course in their own cars by their instructor at a moderate pace to get familiarized with the course and a driving approach. Then, each student was given a chance to do four timed runs with their instructor riding along. For the fifth run, instructors drove the students again, but this time at a full autocross pace. This opened the students’ eyes as to what they and their cars could be expected to do. In hindsight, we probably should have done that after the second run, then let the students take their last two runs after having seen that. Something to consider for next year …

A look at the posted times for the day shows most of the students managed to improve their times considerably over the course of their four runs showing that they must have learned something during the day’s activities. Full results can be seen by going to NER’s Live Timing site at https://porschenet.com/ax, scrolling down to the date of the Autocross School (May 7th, 2022), then selecting  “Results.”

We wrapped up the day by reading everyone’s posted times and awarding the students with a Rookie (“I Survived Autocross!”) trophy glass for everyone to remember the event by. We trust that they all had a lot of fun and learned something about their cars, what they are capable of, and what the sport of Autocross is all about. Based on feedback we’ve received, we expect to see a number of these students showing up for an autocross event soon – in fact – for our first event this year, 10 of the 23 Novices that registered had attended the school. We hope to welcome even more of them to one of our upcoming autocross events soon!

-Chris Ryan

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NER Autocross #4 September 4th, 2021 – Report

KMC

Saturday the 4th was a great day to be out at Devens engaging in cone-dodging … the skies were clear, the air was dry, and temps hovered in the 70’s all day. The timing tent sported a Kachel Motor Company banner, a new autocross sponsor this year. Brendon Miller and Dave Seavey were at the event representing KMC.

We had 70 people register for the event, but after several cancellations and a few no-shows, we ended up only fielding 58 drivers for another lightly attended autocross. But we saw a large novice contingent (20), which hopefully bodes well for the future if these folks get hooked.

Tom Tate represented Class 2 in his trusty 1972 911 with the Martini Racing stripes. Bob Canter finally got someone to race against in Class 3 when old friend Christine Skaubitis showed up with her cousin Lauren Firnstein driving her beautiful RS America 964. Neil Halbert finally had his car back and used it to beat Georges Rouhart in Class 4. Most of the other classes saw the usual winners take the prize, although Dave Seavey, co-driving Walter Lunsmann’s GT3 came close (within .2 seconds) to beating Walter in his own car – a definite no-no. Walter also had Porsche FTD posting a 68.863, while overall FTD was claimed by Frank Bayliss driving his Exocet with a small block V-8 coming in with a 65.951.

And speaking of KMC, in the Novice Class, Brendon Miller posted a 82.295 putting him in the top 50% of the class for the day – certainly a respectable showing for a relative newcomer. Nate Geyer took the Novice class overall with a 75.997, booting him out of the Novice class a moving him to Class 11 the next time he shows up.

The day was slightly marred for a couple of drivers when Anker Berg-Sonne’s Caterham started emitting smoke from a valve-cover leak and he had to stop running. And Rob MacAlpine’s trusty Miata had a ball joint let go jamming the wheel into the car in such a way as it could not be pushed off the course. I had to send Bob Canter to my house for a couple of wheel dollies so they could move it. Since it was lunchtime, we halted the event, had lunch while Rob took care of getting the car out of the way, then continued after lunch completing the day with 8 runs anyway and a good time was had by all.

Next up for NER is our final event of the season on October 23rd. Hope to see you out at Devens then!

 

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South of Boston (SoBo) Porsches and Coffee

                                    15 August 2021 South of Boston (SoBo) Porsches and Coffee

Field 2

Field 2

Field 3

Field 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before I discuss some of the Porsches, I want to mention a couple of items:  one is June’s coffee, where I interviewed Edmund Williams with his yellow 2000 911.  In retrospect, I may have overlooked that it was a GT3.  Hopefully, Edmund will return, and we can further discuss his highly desired Porsche.

The second item is the electrifying of cars in general.  Whether they become a permanent fixture or not, they are here, and today I interviewed owners of a hybrid Cayenne as well as a Taycan Turbo S.

The Exleys 74 911 Targa

The Exleys 74 911 Targa

Three generations posed in front of their 1974 911 Targa.  Charles Exley Sr.  purchased the Targa (a yellow B6) in 1977 from a car collection with about 15k miles.  Currently, the Targa is showing 36k.  The 91-year-old Senior Exley has passed the driving baton to his son and grandson. Charles jr. seems to have taken an interest in maintaining the car for his son Charles 3rd.  The eye-catching Targa appears solid and original but a bit tired.

Lou DiRienzo's Cayenne Turbo S e-Hybrid

Lou DiRienzo’s Cayenne Turbo S e-Hybrid

Lou DeRiennzo was an early arrival with his Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid. A 4-liter Turbocharged V8, this big beast has the GO.  Lou chose a cashmere beige metallic exterior, a club leather interior in truffle and Cohiba brown, with black walnut trim, making it a very appealing look.  The battery is in the trunk floor area and is not easily accessible.  When the battery power expires (around 32 miles), an audio notification is provided.  On just the battery, the max speed is about 83 MPH.  This is Lou’s second hybrid; previously, he had a 2011 Cayenne hybrid.   

 

Dantas's 2020 graphite metalic Taycan Turbo S

Dantas’s 2020 graphite metalic Taycan Turbo S

Gregory Dantas arrived in his graphite metallic 2020 Taycan Turbo S.  The Bordeaux red interior certainly adds much bling to the car.  To me, the car appears shorter than a Panamera but wider.  This is Gregory’s first Porsche, and his wife likes it as well.  On a full charge, the range is 280 miles.  One of the options was a rear bench seat, so as a family car, it can seat all four of his kids.  He says it feels like driving an S-class Mercedes.  There are two charging ports on either side of the front fenders; the right side is for rapid charge, and the left for home charge. I was surprised that a sunroof is not an available option.

Bixby's 87 928 S4

Bixby’s 87 928 S4

Barry Bixby’s pristine 87 928 S4; it is the nicest original 928 I have ever seen at our coffees.  With a dark blue exterior and linen-colored interior, this untouched 928 with a manual transmission shows 68k miles.  Purchased this year in March, it was found by word of mouth.  The car was located in Colorado; he is the third owner.  Barry has been in the Porsche business and certainly has a keen eye when it comes to finding Porsches. Asked if he considered selling, he replied “38k”.

 

The next SoBo is scheduled for 19 September (10-Noon) at Sweet Berry Farm, 915 Mitchell’s Ln, Middletown, RI. The event as always is FREE, and no pre-registration is necessary. The only requirement to park on the grass is your Porsche. A Porsche logo sign should be in place directing you to the parking area.  Sweet Berry Farm is child friendly, encouraging small children to enjoy a working farm, so when entering and exiting, drive carefully. And, as always, for any SoBo related questions, please email me at:  [email protected]

Rog Slocum

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NER Special Autocross Event Report

NER Autocross Special Event   August 15th, 2021

NER held a special event geared to give novices a chance to come and try out autocross, meet some of the “regulars,” and see what it’s all about. The event was held instead of our normal “Autocross School,” which we usually do at the beginning of the season. As they have done with the school for years, Conway Motorsports sponsored the event.

We had 50 people sign up, and 27 of them were novices. We had a bunch of parent/child dual drivers, and one family brought four people (father, mother, son, and family friend), all sharing Dad’s Boxster. Now that they are all into autocross, they definitely need to get another Porsche! So, we achieved our goal of attracting the newbies … the trick was to give them a chance to try out autocross and come away with a good taste in their mouths for the sport.

We set up two separate courses and divided them into three run groups so that folks would end up spending most instead of half their time driving and less time out working the course. One course was timed and the other untimed. The untimed course was used as an exercise course allowing drivers to get a good feel for some of the basic autocross elements like slaloms, gates, clamshells through repetitive runs through the course. The timed course allowed everyone to gauge their own improvement throughout the day or against their favorite autocross buddy – regardless of class. The experienced drivers spent most of their time jumping in to instruct the novices, but they managed to get a few runs of their own in as well as give the novices some thrilling rides to give them an idea of what can be done with these cars.

Because we set up two courses in separate areas of the airfield, the courses were up and back arrangements like would be done if autocrossing in a parking lot. The timed course also featured two switchback elements which, in hindsight, may have proved to be a bit too complex for the novices – in fact, it proved to be tough for many of the experienced drivers as well! But it did teach people the importance of learning a complex course – a skill which will undoubtedly come in handy in the future.

The Club sprang for a Pizza lunch as we normally do at our Autocross School, and people had a chance to socialize while taking a break in the middle of the day. After lunch, it was back to the track(s) where people kept driving until after 4:30. Between the two courses, folks got a lot of seat time in, and even though it was all fun, many were ready to call it a day by then.

The timing results from the main course are posted below and will remain up on our live timing site at https://porschenet.com/autocross/results_live.htm until our next event on September 4th. Photos from the event taken by Anker Berg-Sonne have also been posted to the website and our Facebook page. Thanks to all the new people who came out to try AX and to the veterans who spent most, if not all their day instructing and helping the novices have fun.

 

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2021 NER Summer Party Recap

On August 1st, 200+ of your fellow club members, friends, and family came out to Wachusett Mountain for our 4th annual NER PCA summer party. We could not have asked for better weather; it was the perfect summer afternoon to enjoy a ride on the ski lift up to the summit, chill by the band, have a tasty BBQ lunch, check out the robotics demo, and mosey through the car show.

PCANER 2021 Summer Party

 

21 NER Summer Party Robots

 

The lawn was filled with Porsches of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and our sponsor Porsche Norwell came through, as they always do, with a wide-ranging display of models from a gorgeous 1976 930 Turbo, a Taycan, and a paint-to-sample Arrow Blue Cayman GT4. Attendees voted on their favorite cars (or SUVs), and we’re proud to report the following winners in each class:

Class

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

911/912 74-89

Charlie Padula

Pat Mansfield

Ed Grogan

964/993

Tim Coonihan

Steven Howitt

 

996/997

Laurie Holman

Constantine Tsivelekidis

Robert Weisenbloom

991/992

Clement Napolitano

Mazzola, Colin

Tie: Bob Siegel / Varun Sara

Boxter/Cayman

Derek Mulligan

Chris Landry

Ed Moschella

924/944/968/928

Maddox Kay

 

 

Macan/Cayenne/Panamera

Virginia Young

Peter LaPine

 

 

PCA NER Summer Party Winners

Turning our attention to Cornhole Corner, we received a special report from our local correspondent, Bill Seymour:

There was plenty of sports excitement in the ever-unpopular Cornhole Contest. A thin field of only seven two-person teams entered for the Qualifying round. The pre-race favorite team “1920-1983” (ask Luis how he came up with that name as I have no idea) faltered badly, and “1983 Targa” (Brian Leonard and Tony O’Toole) also failed to get out of Quali. Two teams tied with 15 points and were set to have a “play-in” – “LOL – PDK” (Mike Cioffi and Andrew Quinn – both of Porsche Norwell) and High Fructose (Owen and Mitchell Coonahan) when it was determined that two of the qualifiers were not in attendance. 90% of success is showing up. (OK, maybe the event organizers didn’t do a good job of communicating exactly when the finals would take place.) >>>So that’s how he weaseled his way into the finals. I went on a ski lift ride with my girlfriend and came back to a smirking Bill Seymour who ended up “winning the tournament” Am I salty? Yes, a little bit. Will I come back next year with a vengeance? – you better believe it, but next year it’s me against you, Bill – the rivalry remains  (Luis).

In any event, that bid adieu to Tequila Takillya (I hope I’m spelling that right, but the players were Rob Stanley and Nikki Sanders) and “Need A Partner” (Tim Coonahan and Jay Landry – the latter being the Parts Manager at Porsche Norwell). The top qualifier, “Electrons” (Michael Cardinale and Cyril Bernard) did make the start line. Lacking a fourth team to fill out the grid, a new team consisting of Brian Leonard (another Porsche Norwell) and Bill Seymour was formed as “The Replacements.”

In the semi’s “Electrons” squared off against “LOL – PDK” and played a heroic match that took forever because they invoked the rule that you had to hit 21 points exactly (going over puts you back at 11, according to this format). (Let the record show that the NER PCA Cornhole rulebook follows the more standard format as published here. “Electrons” lost and could have filed an appeal but did not do so in time.) In the other semi “High Fructose” jumped to a 16-1 lead, but then the beer kicked in, and “The Replacements” roared back to win. “The Replacements” stayed hot in the Finals and won. A good time was had by some, and the organizers are questioning whether next year this event should be replaced by Beer Pong.

 

NER Summer Party Cornhole Winners

 

Thanks to the tireless efforts of our membership chair and sim racing enthusiast Anker Berg-Sonne, as well as fellow members of the NER PCA facebook community who jumped in to help, guests had the chance to experience a full complement of sim racing technology. Two Sim Rigs were available to try for participants of every age. Both simulators were run at Lime Rock Park and solo practice with the Skip Barber Formula 2000. One was the loaner Sim Racing rig that is available to PCA members in the local region, and the other was generously provided by Erick Aubin and Cyril Bernard. For the adventurous and motion-sick resistant, we also had a VR headset to try out. Testers ranged in age from four to the ’80s. The youngest, a young lady aged four, impressed everyone by staying on track lap after lap. She did need help with accelerator and brake pedals; they were far out of reach for her. Since the Summer Party, the loaner rig has been upgraded and is now a full rig with a racing seat and a solid frame. It is easily disassembled and can be transported in a family car. Interested members can contact our Membership Chair, Anker Berg-Sonne, through email at [email protected] to arrange a loan. You will need to use your own PC that must be able to support iRacing. To test your PC for compatibility, go to http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/Client/iRacing/?apikey=dec37c7f-8819-45d4-94f2-f33cf0956712

 

NER Summer Part SIM Tests

 

At the end of the day, when things were winding down and cars were being packed up with the various supplies used throughout the event, I sat down to have a drink with the amazing volunteers that really made this event possible with their incredibly hard work. I can’t give enough thanks to this crew – you know who you are and you are very much appreciated!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will leave you with the photos and memories captured throughout the day by party-goers. Their thousand words tell a much better story than I possibly could. 

Enjoy!

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