October 2009 In this issue... • Featured Members Bob and Sue ...

Autocross Corner
Porsche Defeats Ferrari, Lotus &
Corvette at Autocross
& Laguna Seca: A Lifelong Dream
Story by Steve Eguina
August was an endless month of auto
events for many OCR members. The
month began and ended with the Orange
Coast Region/ Walter’s Porsche AutoX
Series events on Aug 9 and 30. In
between was the Monterey Historic Races
with Porsche as the featured marque and
several members raced at the Porsche
Owners Club event at Laguna Seca the
following weekend.
The Sunday Aug. 9 AutoX
kicked off the month with 100+ drivers
entered. The event was sponsored
by Fairview Mortgage Capital and
RacingLifestyle.com. It was a pretty
relaxed event. In addition to FMC and
Racing Lifestyle, Walter’s surprised the
members by bringing out a silver 2010
GT2, a new Cayenne and a 997 Porsche
equipped with the new PDK transmission
for members to DRIVE on the AutoX
course. Talk about a great test drive!
Also, GMG’s Service Manager,
John “G” had some real car jewelry on
display. The new two-pound GMG
World Challenge-inspired catback
exhaust system as well as StopTech
Brakes, Moton suspension and Sparco
driving suits. In addition GMG displayed
a WC-GT2 and a white 2010 GT3 already
equipped with the new exhaust system. I
might mention that John has been around
Porsches most of his life, not only as
an advisor to Porsche North America,
but as a tech expert. So it came as no
surprise when Dick Storehouse’s 993 had
a throttle problem, John asked to borrow
a hand full of tools and had Dick’s car
running in about 20 minutes.
The event had quite a few first
time drivers register for the event. (You
can tell the first timers by the Huge
grins when they come off the course)
They were assigned an instructor, given
a helmet and had a great time playing
with their Porsche. A number of the
competitors had really close times.
Driving modified 911SCs Gerry Griffin
only won over Kent Verderico by 0.300
seconds. Driving their stock 944 Turbo
Rick and Dennis Neff finished 1st
and 3rd with Andres Branum in his 86
Carrera in the middle. All three drivers’
times were only 0.200 seconds apart. In
the N Prepared class, Robert Morales
driving a 996 won over Bob Nimtz in his
993 Cab. That order would be reversed
at the next event. I think these two will
be very close in points for the year-end
championship. Beating the boys, OCR’s
registration Hero Christine Newcomer
took first place in her stock Cayman S
over OCR’s Chief Driving Instructor
Adam Nguyen. (Oh! That hurt.) In the
six-car PS/S class, the times were very
close as Greg Lush beat Jeremy Bernath
by only 0.420 seconds! This Sunday
everything was right in the world. Joe
had cooked up some great dogs, brauts,
chili and burgers and, at the end of the
day, Gary Thomason driving his 996
GT3 turned the Top Time of Day with
a 69.660, beating the Lotus of Jason
Uyeda, Rad Delgado’s Ferrari and Steve
Abbott driving his Corvette. All turned
times in the 70s.
August’s Second AutoCross
Vrooom, Vroooom Vrooom was the sound
of the Porsche engines warming up on
that warm August 30 Sunday morning.
Many seemed inspired by all the racing
Porsches at the Monterey Historics two
weeks prior! OH, and we had a couple
Corvettes….Bruum, Bruum, Bruum.
The day was going to be VERY
HOT and it was a welcome site to see
the Event Sponsor: Vision Motorsports
crew putting up awnings and chairs.
They always do such a great job and
provided plenty of great food and cool
drinks. Thank You! Dwayne also
brought out a really nice 944 Spec racer
and a couple of other track cars he just
finished. If you want to go racing and
Steve in his GT2G5 at Laguna Seca
not have to mortgage the house, give
Dwayne a call!
With only five events remaining
the CHASE for the year end Class
Cham-pionships is in full swing. The
Walter’s Porsche AutoX Series yearend
awards are based on your top seven
finishing positions for the year. Points
are awarded as follows: 20 points for
1st place, 15 points for 2nd, 12 points
for 3rd, etc. With five events remaining
many class championships are still up for
grabs. A couple classes expected to go
right down to the last event in December
may be class FI where Christian Van
Fleet is holding on by only a three-point
margin over last year champion David
Palmquist. Both drive in modified early
911s. Ted Hoiberg has a chance to catch
Jerry Griffin in class I Prepared.
Ken Fredrickson needs to continue
his winning streak in the last two events
to defeat Cooper Boogs. In class J
Prepared driving his 911 Carrera, Kris
Scheussler appears to only be one win
away from clinching up his first-class
championship. Bonnie Delgado driving
her Boxster must keep up her winning
streak to succeed over first-year driver
Barbara D’Allessandro. In class MS
the championship appears to be locked
up by Hideki Okano but second place
is wide open with only 33 points
separating Akira Kogawa, Roger Ang,
Dennis Power and Tom Tanquary. The
same is true in class MS/S where Kyle
Largent leads Gary Lai, Guy Johnson
and Michael Fagan. Only 32 point
separates these top four places and all
four drivers pilot Boxsters.
Class NS/S is the largest AutoX
class and there have been over 20 drivers
competing. The above mentioned
(Continued on pg. 16)
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