NCR Autocross #3—July 19, 2008

by Joe Kraetsch, NCR Autocross Chair

It was a hot July day with temperatures in the 90s. 54 entrants came out to participate in the third NCR Autocross of the year. This was a smaller crowd than the first two autocrosses, perhaps due to the heat and/or family vacations. However, it did not stop the 914s; we had 8 drivers in six 914s—the most we have seen in a long time. Those who came were treated to a fun and challenging course set by Chris Darminio and John Mac Donald. Many of the morning runs were dirty with a number of off-courses and quite a few cones. Many of us who were overly aggressive never got a clean morning run. After four morning runs, we took a short lunch break and made a few changes to the course before the afternoon runs. We then took 4 afternoon runs.

The close race was in the Improved Class where Scruffy Lefebvre trailed Charles Stromeyer in raw time but led by 0.048 seconds PAX after the morning runs. In the afternoon, Scruffy again trailed in raw time but led by 0.017 seconds PAX for a final margin of victory of just 0.066 seconds. In Class 2, Lisa Roche led by 0.339 seconds over my best dirty morning run but in the afternoon, she drove 0.611 faster than me in raw time for a victory of nearly a second (and, yes, I was the first to congratulate her for beating me in my own car). However, Class P7 continues to be the exciting class to watch. Chris Jacques had the fastest Porsche time for the morning session and what looked like a comfortable class lead of 1.7 seconds over Greg Osche. Things looked bleak for Ollie Lucier in third place without a clean run and 2.3 seconds behind Chris. But in the afternoon, Ollie pulled out all the stops and beat Chris by 2.35 seconds putting him in First place 1.6 seconds ahead of Greg who managed to stay in second just 0.047 seconds ahead of Chris. Mark Schnoerr took both Porsche FTD and top Porsche PAX for the day in his little 914.

I would also like to acknowledge NCRs fine showing at the Porsche Parade 2008 Autocross in Charlotte, NC last month. We had eleven NCR members tackling the Rob Faulkner designed course and six of us brought home trophies, including three first places. Congratulations to:

on their excellent representation of North Country Region!