NCR Autocross #4... CONE MADNESS!!!
by Ed Moschella
By now, everyone who participated in the July 14th autocross at Moore Air Field in Ayer has recovered from what is best described as a cone crazy event. Sixty four drivers braved the high heat and humidity (seems to be a trend for this year’s events) to battle it out for the coveted trophies awarded at the end of the event. What made this event memorable was the cone tally racked up by the end of the day. If last month’s course was deceptively fast this course was deceptively tight, evidenced by the cone count at the end of the day.
For those who may not be familiar with autocross, it is a timed competitive driving event in which you navigate your car through a course made up of cones strategically grouped and placed. Your score is based on your fastest time. You are penalized for any cones knocked over and scores are multiplied by a handicap factor (known as the PAX) that attempts to equalize performance differences between the cars competing. Aside from driving the course as fast as possible, the object is to avoid hitting cones. Of the 64 drivers who competed, only Chris Ryan, Rob Cantor and Grant Kaiser could lay claim to hitting no cones at the end of the day. That’s right, nearly everyone took out a cone (or 2, 3, or 25 as was the case with one driver!).
Yes, by days end, 429 cones were struck down by 61 over zealous drivers completing over 500 runs. Amongst those were 10 of the 11 class winners. Contributing to the higher than usual cone count, was the challenging course set up by the design team led by Scruffy. During the morning course walk, drivers carefully plotted and calculated the course, planning a driving strategy for the day. After a few runs, most drivers were scrambling to change their plans as the cones were flying everywhere!
Of course, the high heat and humidity didn’t help matters, but happily nobody suffered from heat fatigue or dehydration, thanks again to the thoughtful planning by Co-Chairs Joe and Ollie, and Safety Chair Ed Broadhead. Club Vice President Rich Wiley dropped in for the morning and got to experience the course as a passenger. Rich, we all know you’re a big car guy and are looking forward to seeing you compete in an event soon! The co-chairs have created a new ride along policy this year that permits less experienced drivers to ride along with more experienced drivers (and vice versa). This allows for mentoring and hopefully has helped up and coming drivers to improve their skills. An added bonus is being able to ride along in a faster car although all I learned in my one ride with Scruffy was; don’t drive into a wall of cones and knock ’em all down!
Apparently, fatherhood agrees with autocross as new dads Adam Blauer and Apollo Sinkevicius scored well in their classes. Other notable performances were turned in by Alan Davis and Judy Larocca. Both placed second in their respective classes against well seasoned drivers but Alan and Judy are determined drivers who continue to gain on their classmates. Jim Garry and Will Schambach drove one of the more interesting vehicles in the Non-Porsche class; an open wheeled Cheetah that resembled a professional formula race car. You never know what will show up at an NCR autocross!
Thanks again to all who participated and helped make Autocross #4 a great success!