Slipstream - July 2012

Maverick Region 2012 Autocross School
Maverick Region hosts an Autocross
School every spring to introduce new
drivers to the sport, and to help them
find the limits of their cars in a safe
learning environment. Here are comments
from some of this year’s students.
My husband George signed me up
for AX without asking me (mostly
because I yelled at him so much
last year during our drives at the
BRBS, the Blue Ridge Boxster
Summit in North Carolina). Needless
to say, I did not want to do
AX!! The thought of me driving
in AX terrified me. Several days
later George announced that he
was signing up, too; that made me
feel a lot better knowing he would
be there to “hold my hand.”
Three days prior to the event,
George informed me that he
had to fly to D.C. for work and
would not be able to join me at
the AX. You can imagine that
I was not a happy camper!
Sunday morning – AX day in
Bedford . . . where the heck is
Bedford?! Not only did I not want
to do this, I had to get up at 6am,
and leave the house by 7am in a
big rain storm, to do something I
didn’t willingly sign up for! Heck, I
didn’t actually know what AX was!
But I drove our 2006 911 Carrera
S through the rain, thunder
and lightning . . . not really sure
where I was going, and hoping
my GPS didn’t fail me. I made it
to Pennington Field in Bedford,
found the group, and although my
feet, socks and shoes were soaked
from the river flowing over my
feet, I enjoyed talking with old
friends and meeting new ones.
The rain looked like it might
slow up a bit so each student was
assigned an instructor. It was my
good fortune to have Lisa Steele
as my instructor. Lisa was fabulous!
She not only gave me what
I consider excellent training, she
was very patient, encouraging and
Photos by Kevin Hardison
The braking exercise on wet pavement made it
easier to get the ABS to kick in
Autocrossing is not just for Porsches - front-drive cars want to have fun too!
fun. Lisa understood my anxiety
and didn’t push me. We had so
much fun! I learned quite a lot
and now feel much more confident
about driving and/or being a
passenger in our 911 while zooming
down narrow two-lane roads,
with blind curves and hills ahead.
I apologize for such a long story,
but wanted you to know that I
am looking forward to this year’s
BRBS! I want to personally thank
each and every person who worked
on the Pennington AX School - it
was an incredible amount of work
to set up all the courses. Thanks to
their love of AX and their patience
and encouragement, I truly appreciated
the opportunity to feel
more confident with
our 911. Sadly, we won’t
be able to participate
in the upcoming AX
due to our trip to BRBS,
but you can bet that
I won’t miss many!
- Dee Luxbacher
Had a great time.
Wendy was a fabulous
instructor. Really helped
learning what the car
can do. I liked it a lot.
- Bud Heflin
My wife Adela and
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