NCR Autocross #3—July 19, 2009

by Mark Schnoerr, NCR Autocross Novice Captain

Ron Mann complained endlessly about the course so we knew it would be another challenging day of autocrossing at Ft Devens. In fact, the course was another John Mac Donald’s masterpiece. As Bjorn Zetterlund described it,:

"...it was a very good course. I set a number of courses when I was last active 25 years ago. The speed range was appropriate for an auto-x, the whole course could be run in 2nd with the hands at 9-3, here were choices to be made, irrelevant gates (in section 6), greed was penalized, and an amazing amount of speed was available in some sections. Please thank John Mac Donald..."

Bob Cantor was announcing, but this will not happen again. He will get station 23 or 42 at the next event [whichever is furthest from the timing tent—without a radio –ed.]. He was last in class, possibly because of his poor announcing but it was also rumored that he wanted the free beer at the bar afterward (from the class winner, Chris Ryan,).

Scruffy thought his tires were not working right on his incredibly modified 997 GT3 RS until he found the alignment had slipped to positive camber and the right rear was toed in a mile. Something was WRONG. Perhaps Charles Stromeyer was involved since Charles won the class this time. (Actually Charles literally kicked his butt),

Oliver Lucier (Top Porsche PAX) just barely beat out Chris Jacques as the fast Boxster guy. (rumor is that Chris painting his car silver for the next event). Fred deNapoli is also rumored to be cutting the roof off his Cayman to be more competitive at the next event.

Kenny Conway (FTD) was the fastest 911 at this event, (again) beating out Ron Mann’s Whitey the Wicked Weasel; aka Tail Dragger)

Miriam Dunster asked for an instructor who could make her scream and raise her game.. Watch out! Once she masters this she may be planning to do some DE events. She is well on her way…

If you run Driver’s Ed, you would not believe the amazing car control skills you will learn at autocross events. Come to the next one and see how much fun you should have (and how much more difficult it is to be fast). The adrenaline rush is twice what you can get at a DE (fastest laps count—autocross IS racing).

Our next autocross is Sunday August 23rd followed by the PCA Zone 1 Autocross on Augsust 29th and 30th. Details of both events are available on the NCR website.