Autocross Season Opener
On May 22, lots of old and new friends descended on Moore Airfield in Devens, MA for the first NCR Autocross of the season. The weather was not perfect but at least it was not raining! The sunny and warm forecast turned into cloudy and cool but it was still a treat after all the rain we had been getting all month. Overall it was a good day for an autocross.
After registration, setup, tech, Novice meeting, course walk and driver’s meeting, we had the first car off by 10:00. The event ran like clockwork thanks to my great staff and the help and cooperation of all the participants. We finished the morning session with four runs for all drivers by noon. The worker changeovers were smooth and quick. We had four more runs in the afternoon. Then we picked everything up, tallied the results, awarded the trophies and were out by 3:30.
We had 56 drivers including 14 Novices, many who were first time participants. Scruffy and Chris Darminio laid down a challenging course that was fun to drive. The mid-engine cars seemed to especially love the course. All three P7 entries finished in the top 6 raw time results and the top 5 PAX. Ollie took FTD and top PAX while poor Jeremy finished last in the class but only 5th overall! Meanwhile Mark and Sigrid both finished in the top 8 raw (top 6 PAX) in the 914.
We had a few cone killers. I won’t mention the “winner” (with a total of 27 cones over 8 runs) since she was visiting from California and driving her Dad’s Miata. It seems she could not get used to how quickly the car turns with the R-compound tires. I had the same problem the first time I autocrossed a Miata…. It’s important to note that she had a great time (after Dad convinced her that she was not going to hurt the car). Scruffy was a distant third with a mere 16 cones for the day. To those who did not hit any cones: you may not be driving hard enough or you may be driving too far away from the cones. You don’t know how close you are to the cones until you hit a couple. Don’t worry, the cones are rubber and cone marks are easily removed with washing although the more stubborn ones may require a little car wax!
We also had a visit from Charles & Mimsey Stromeyer in his gorgeous new GT3RS (so his nice 993 Turbo is for sale. Let me know if you want the information). It was good to see Charlie doing so well after his health problems this past winter. Unfortunately, his doctors won’t let him drive his new toy yet, but perhaps the GT3RS is contributing to his rapid recovery. We wish you the best Charlie and can’t wait to see you back on the tarmac!
We have two events in June—Autocross #2 on June 4th and Autocross #3 on June 25th. ! Details are on the NCR website. I hope to see you there!
