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With foul weather canceling the last
autocross of 2000, the Peachstate PCA staged the event on January 21st of
2001. Not expecting a great turnout, we invited the SCCA, Viper Club, and
BMW CCA. In addition to the usual 40-50 Porsches, we were joined by more
than 50 guests! The autocross crew was running around from 7:30 in the
morning to well past 6:00 in the evening ensuring everyone had a good,
safe time.
I invited Michael and Laura Poffenberger, two good
friends and former colleagues, to run in their first autocross. They're
waiting to take delivery of their spanking new BMW M3, so they drove their
Acura TL. Not a bad car, certainly, but not an M3! Thankfully Michael and
Laura brought their digital camera, and kindly took many photos of the
Yellowbird.
Please scroll to the bottom for a brief movie clip of my 968 coupe.
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That's fellow
968.netter Chad Austin on the left, and his beautiful black
968 behind mine. Sitting down is Michael, a good driver and
fine photographer. Michael's wife, Laura, is quite smooth
behind the wheel and the camera, too. |
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Michael and yours
truly early in the day. It was cold -- somewhere in the high
30s/low 40s all day. We had a few minutes to kill between
walking the course three times and taking our positions as
corner workers for the first run group. |
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Events with the SCCA
are fun 'cause we get to see many neat cars, like these
Panteras. Also running were a few Vipers, two 427 Cobras, and
many, many BMWs. |
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Staging before my
first run. |
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I missed a shift and
plowed into this corner. Ugh! My poor clutch... |
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Crossing the finish
line after run 1. My time of 1:09.745 wasn't much to write
home about. |
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Laura staging for
her first run. Note the look of excitement in her eyes. Yeah,
her arms are a bit straight for optimum steering control, but
that'll come with time. She was *really* smooth, and got more
aggressive with each run. I think she's hooked! |
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Laura joined me for
run 2, ostensibly to learn a bit about autocrossing. After my
performance on run 1 I was concerned that I would show
her how *not* to drive.
The timer wasn't functioning for this run,
so I'm
sure I turned in a 0.57 ;->. Usually we each get at least three
runs, but the SCCA and BMW CCA turnout was much greater than
expected, so, as the hosts, PCAers got two runs each. |
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Waiting for the
start signal for run 2. Yes, I know the car is very dirty --
it'd been too cold to wash it for a few weeks! |
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My favorite picture.
That's Turner Field in the background. The large baseball is
the back of the centerfield JumboTron. Note the '715' to the
left of the baseball, which signifies Hank Aaron's 715 career
home runs. |
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Toward the end of
the day I snuck in a third run so at least two would be timed.
Lending advice is Tim Betteridge, one of the finest Peachstate
PCA drivers. He autocrosses and Club Races his prepped 944.
Tim was the only one (out of five) to beat me in P9, so I owe
him a Sam Adams next time we're out together. |
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Braking before
entering a tight turn in run 3. Tim reminded me to be smooth,
let the car do the work, breath through my eyelids, etc. It
must've worked, as my time was 1:04.827, which was just off
Tim's first-place (in class) 1:03.255. |
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Click
to play
or download |
Michael took this
MPEG of me with his digital camera. Lotsa squealing from my
street tires. The video is 9 seconds long (216KB, MPG format). |
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