December 2007 - PCA - Orange Coast Region

Autocross Corner
The Best Day I’ve Ever
Had With My Car—
and My Wife!
By Steve “Friend of the Cone!” Eguina
We had a blast at the Autocross
Driver’s Clinic…No doubt the best
day I’ve ever had with the car…Our
instructor Tom was very good…We were
amazed at how friendly everyone was…
The day was really good for me and my
wife.
The above comments were typical of
those I received the week after the
Autocross Driver’s Clinic, put on by OCR’s
own Autocross Team. About 45 students,
40 instructors and 10 more support staff
attended the event. Jerry Griffin and
Adam Nguyen, OCR’s Chief Driving
Instructors, arranged for the instructors
and had a fun day planned.
Now, some of you who are not familiar
with the concept of Autocross may be
asking yourselves—what exactly is an
Autocross? Autocross (or Auto-X) is
the sport of trying to navigate your car
through a defined course of pylons,
usually on a large parking lot, faster than
your competition. Autocross courses
are set up using soft orange traffic
pylon cones (which should not damage
you car) and events are run at speeds
usually between 40-65 mph, usually all
in 2nd gear. Autocross is a “performance
driving event” and a way to learn how
to drive your car at its limits. You not
only learn how to handle your car at
speeds that you drive daily, but you also:
Gain confidence in your driving ability
• Learn the limits of your car’s brakes
• Learn correct seating, hand and feet
positions
• Learn the limits of your car’s tire
adhesion
• Most importantly, Autocross is also
a social gathering of friends with a
common interest and is simply a ton
of fun!
Saturday Driver’s Clinic
October 20, 2007, about 7:00 a.m.:
Kevin and his son Christian Van Fleet,
with some of the instructors, start to
tech the students’ cars for basic safety.
Once everyone was signed in with OCR’s
crack registration team Lisa Goetsch,
Margaret Knight and Lisa Hunter-
Eguina, the drivers and students were
split into two groups for a morning
briefing while they enjoyed coffee and
donuts, provided by our 2007 Event
Site Sponsor, Stuttgart Performance.
Thank you, Stuttgart!
Some students had owned their Porsche
for only five weeks, some five months
and many had driven Porsches for five
years or more. Have you ever wanted to
push your Porsche to the limit but were
afraid you would lose control? Many of
the students wanted to do just that and
now were given the opportunity in a
controlled environment. Students learned
how to throttle steer their car and how
to control oversteer and understeer in
the middle of a turn. In the accident
avoidance exercise, they learned the gas
pedal and steering wheel may be your
best friend in a tight situation. During
the threshold braking exercise you learn
just how fast a Porsche will really stop!
Many of the students had never attended
an Auto-X event. After the morning
exercises, a mini Auto-X course was
set up so students could practice their
newly learned skills. The course included
increasing and decreasing radius turns,
a slalom, a fairly long straight followed
by a 180 degree turn then back through
another slalom to the finish.
Normally the course is outlined with flour,
however, due to time constraints we did
not outline the course. Most students
started out slow, learning the course
during the first four runs. Then the pace
started to pickup! Joe Lipnisky, our
Chief of Timing and Scoring, was kind
enough to set up the timing equipment so
students could gauge their improvement
on each run.
By mid-afternoon, the instructors were as
excited as the students, cheering as they
crossed the finish lights. Based on the
times toward the end of the day, many
of OCR’s 2007 Class Auto-X Champions
may have some real competition next
year. At the end of the day students and
instructors were all smiles.
By 6:00 p.m. Dave Palmquist and
his team set up the course for OCR’s
Newport Auto Center Driving Event
Series championship event to be held the
following day. As is tradition, everyone
helped pack the equipment into OCR’s
equipment truck. We were ready for the
next day’s regular monthly Championship
Auto-X event…or so we thought!
DECEMBER 2007 31