Slipstream - November 2004

Autocross #6
By Jerry Fleming
The day was like a San Francisco Sunday and the autocross
layout, thanks to Chuck Machala, was big, like Texas.
We’re talking Big-Big. It took the fastest driver of the day
88 seconds to tour the layout (We’ll talk more about that later).
We had a guest for the day as well. Ivan’s little cousin, Van was
in the area all day. Throughout the day, ominous looking clouds
hung around and a couple of times the track was dampened by
misty rain, but fortunately for the Sunday bunch we were, for
the most part, dry.
No. 1, Chuck Machala, started us off by welcoming the
visitors, and there were a bunch. He succinctly gave us the
rules for the day and wished us well. Enter Wendy Shoffit,
who stated that someone needed to volunteer to write an
article for Slipstream about the day’s event. Naturally every
hand went up. Hardly did the words get out of my mouth that
I wasn’t a righter, or is that writer? and guess who gets picked.
So, bear with me as I describe the events of the day.
Group B got the honor of showing us the way as they led
off. The track was long and spread out requiring seven groups
of corner workers scattered out almost across the entire paved
area. The first group of drivers found the track a bit wet, but
the course quickly dried and times began to immediately
improve as the groove was beaten into the track. The best
time turned in by Group B was Richard Diller with a 90.356
tour and several were closely bunched up behind. His very
modified 911 looked unbeatable.
Group A stepped up to the plate after about an hour and
the first of the Shoffits did their thing. James on his third run
nailed an 88.216 that stood up as the best time of the day.
Many of us were in excess of 100 seconds as we wound around
the course.
After lunch the mist started again and the first run group
experienced slicker conditions that held down times.
However, by their fourth and final run they were going well.
Cones took a beating for awhile until adjustments were made
as dictated by track conditions. By the second run group of
Group A things settled down and times continued to improve.
The second of the Shoffit clan had her turn when Group
A got underway. Wendy blasted her way to a 91.303 and beat
some of the big boys like #1, #66 and #519. Maybe the Shoffits
were on steroids or something because they just made child’s
play of the event and their times prove it. Congratulations to
James and Wendy.
Fun runs were held after the official autocross was completed.
First, thanks to the corner workers that stayed on
course and helped us out. I took my turn and got to ride with
one of the best drivers of the day and found out that I simply
wasn’t pushing down on the pedals hard enough or at the
right time. The ride really was revealing and it clearly showed
me what could be achieved by pushing the envelope. Back to
my car I went and I immediately shaved off almost three
seconds and that even included one screw-up. I was amazed.
What a great learning experience one ride in the Fun Run
event provided. Thanks, James.
It was a good day, a very good course and as always it was
good to see friends of the Porsche Club and to meet newcomers.
So ends another Autocross year out west at the Mineral
Ring.
Chuck Machala’s “Big-Big” Autocross Course
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