August 2008 Topless at the Beach... The White Gloves Concours

AutoCross Corner (continued from page 11)
ran very smooth. The morning practice
sessions saw some quick times in the
low 70-second range. The course was
designed by Atilla Szilagyi. It was
long, fast and fairly technical. Atilla
studied the “art of course design” under
the direction of that infamous course
designer David Palmquist. While the
course was technical, those who “got
it right” by looking ahead and setting
up for the more difficult parts were
rewarded with some nice times.
Our Event Sponsors were Cape
Auto Repair and Chips Away. James
Buck, the owner of Cape Auto Repair
located in Laguna Niguel, not only won
his class driving his 1988 Carrera but
provided lunch for everyone at event.
Oh, did I mention James is also our
Equipment Manager. T J is the Owner
of Chips Away and has been an OCR
advertiser and sponsor for many years.
I have had chips in my paint repaired to
look like new and the “clear bra” Chips
Away installed has been on the car for
three years and still looks great! Thank
you both for your support.
With everyone fed and watered
and eight practice runs complete, we
were ready for the competition to begin.
Drivers get one warm-up run and then
three timed runs. The best time of the
three runs is what goes “in the book”
and counts toward year-end series
championship points. If you hit a cone,
2 seconds are added to that run. LET
THE FUN BEGIN!.. Oh wait my phone
is ringing. “Yes Mr. Harris, the event is
running fine.” What dedication! Jim
Harris, OCR’s AutoX Chairman took
time out of his busy day driving Porsches
on the Nuremburgring to check on our
event. WOW, I’m at a loss for words.
With the help of our timing team,
Lori and Kris Scheussler, over 1,000
runs were timed throughout the day.
As I mentioned earlier, the course was
very challenging. Upon reviewing the
results (Complete results are available
on the OCR web site) I noticed the
top drivers in each class seemed to
dominate their respective classes by
about 1 to 3 seconds. This is VERY
unusual, as times are usually tenths of
a second apart. I can only attribute this
to how technical the course was. Not
hard to drive. You just needed to look
ahead and anticipate the quickest way
through the cones. Those with a few
years experience seemed to have gotten
it right by a pretty significant margin. At
the end of the day everyone helped pack
the truck and trophies were awarded to
the winners and almost winner.
June 22 – Championship AutoX
I once said, “To bad we don’t have a
trophy girl!” Then on Sept. 21, 2007, at
The Streets Event, on my birthday I was
presented with Lei...OCR’s “official”
trophy girl. She comes to all our events
but usually stays in the trailer so her
petit cardboard figure does not get wet
or faded. Now fast forward to June
22, 2008. Autowerks is sponsoring the
OCR event…and it happens to be Bruce
Powers’ (the owner of Autowerks)
birthday…and it seems the Autowerks
Team had a little surprise for us. YES!
We had a real live trophy girl! Angela
is a model and is Miss June in the
UmbrellaGirlsUSA.com calendar. In
addition to Angela, Autowerks displayed
some other pretty neat Porsche aftermarket
accessories, a very trick Porsche,
and a very cool Noble sports car.
It was good to have OCR’s AutoX
Co-Chairman Jim Harris and his son
back from Europe. They had a great
time as the trip included several father
and sons who spent about a week of
bonding and driving throughout Europe
in Porsches. Jim’s son, James, is at that
age of trying to figure out what to do
next with his life. Well, Mr. Harris is no
dummy. As soon as they returned from
Europe, his son enrolled in college! It
seems a taste of the “good life” gave
James some direction.
The AutoX Team had Registration,
Tech, etc. handled and so at 9:00 sharp
after Jerry Griffin, OCR’s Chief Driving
Instructor, assigned instructors, the first
car was on course. If you’re new to
AutoX or even if you have several years
of AutoX competition, it is always nice
to have an instructor give you some
pointers on what you’re doing right
and areas where you might improve.
Instructors are available at OCR events
at no additional charge and I would
recommend you take advantage of their
experience. Just check the “instructor
wanted” box when you register or ask
for an instructor at the drivers meeting.
Driving an AutoX course is a combination
of experience and learned skills. It takes
time to get your car to “dance” through
the course. A little instruction as in golf,
tennis or any other sport goes a long way
to making your day more enjoyable.
Everyone had a good time. Our
914 friends at club NARP (Not A Real
Porsche) provided great dogs, links and
chili. By late afternoon the temperature
finally dropped below 85 degrees. After
the timed runs, Angela was kind enough
to present the awards and pose for
pictures. The ladies receiving awards
wanted their pictures taken with the
birthday boy, Bruce Powers.
Who is in the Hunt for a 2008 Class
Championship and Top Gun Award?
This was the 5th Walter’s Porsche
Championship AutoX Series event.
With 12 events scheduled for 2008,
the competition is still wide open for
the 2008 championship awards and the
coveted OCR Region Class Champion
jackets. A driver’s best 8 events will
be counted toward the championship
awards. A driver must compete in a
minimum of 6 events to be eligible for
year-end awards. In several of the larger
classes, the points are very close. Below
are a few examples. A driver receives
20 points for 1st place, 15 point for 2nd,
12 points for 3rd, 10 points for 4th down
to 2 points for 8th place and 1 point for
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