On Sunday, August 19th, 29 Porsche drivers found their way to the Delaware County Campus of Penn State to challenge their driving skills. The weather forecast called for off and on showers, but Mother Nature was on our side and just dropped a few light sprinkles on us. Mike Andrews, track chair, sent an email out to all his "trackies" and suggested they come out for the Porsche Challenge. It was great to see some old Autocross veterans who had drifted into the track program back out on the Autocross course. A great deal of thanks goes to Mike Andrews and his track enthusiasts who made the day a truly challenging Porsche experience. They made for some hot competition and their fully prepared cars were exiting to watch as they made their way around the course. Thanks also to Mike Andrews for his delicious hot dogs and hamburgers that he grilled up for all the participants at lunchtime. Special thanks also to Nick Betegh who, although still waiting for his car to come back to life, spent the day helping with the organization of the event and towing the trailer to and from.

This week's course was fairly fast and easy to follow. I wanted to make it as pleasant an experience as we could for the track group. Sure hope they all enjoyed themselves and will come out for our sixth and last event of the 2001 season. The course consisted of a couple of sweeping turns linked to a skid pad and a figure eight. It added the challenge of a couple of sharp right and left boxes requiring the drivers to brush off the speed and concentrate on slipping through without taking any cones with them.

The non-Porsche drivers also made a sizable showing with 18 varying marquees pushing the times under the 60-second mark. In fact, Ian Mcfetridge in his 1997 Mitsubishi looked like he was going to take the fastest time of the day with a time of 55.47 seconds. But Larry Herman saved our Porsche honor and took the FTD award with 55.33 seconds. David Ehm, Geoffry Ehrman and Brian Smith all kept the competition stiff with times under 56 seconds. Every one drove with precision and skill and the run times where tightly grouped together with a total spread of only 12 seconds between the fastest and slowest Porsche driver.

RTR has one more Autocross event on September 9th at Penn State Delaware County. If you are curious about this form of motor sport please come out and join or watch. There is plenty of room for spectators in the areas surrounding the course.

Results

Porsche Cars

Non Porsche Cars
(Revised August 24, 2001)