I had a fantastic time in June at the Golden Gate Region hosted Porsche Autocross School. The club holds the autocross school once a year and it is usually sold out early on which means I haven’t been able to go for a few years.  Thankfully, it wasn’t sold out on day 1 of its announcement. I reserved my spot the minute I got the email about it!

This year it was held at Alameda Point next to the USS Hornet, rather than at the Candlestick parking lot. Even though this session was in a completely different format than the prior time I went, it is still worth going to. I think everyone should go through an autocross school – it would make for better drivers on the road 🙂

I was the absolute last driver to arrive and felt like I was driving into some track meet and someone forgot to tell me that I was supposed to bring racing tires and tow my car in on its own trailer. People had all kids of things set up including sets of racing tires, trailers, folding chairs, coolers, etc. I found a bit of space to park among all of the other porsches (what a great site to see so many in one place). There were tons of 911s and a few Boxters, 912s, and 914s, and only a few 928s and 944s. There were a few interlopers altogether – one woman drive her honda and endured jokes about car seats and getting milk on her way home. You can see the starting line (and the Honda) here:

My times for the day (in seconds and roughly in order of track runs):

• 52.478 Morning Run
• 51.978
• 48.385
• 46.879
• 47.153
• 48.244 Afternoon Run 1
• 47.346
• 47.603
• 47.789
• 47.610 + 2 cones and almost the timing camera…
• 48.727 Afternoon Run 2
• 47.095
• 47.058
• 47.022
• 47.102
• 46.842

For the last three runs of the day, I had sunscreen in my eyes and they were burning, but driving that track makes you really concentrate. I had been trying to get to break 46 seconds, having forgotten that I had done so in the morning when I had been trying to meet/beat my instructor’s time of 44 and change.

I was expecting a bit different day given the last autocross school I attended. It had different exercises set up for braking, cornering, a skid pad, a chicane, and a timed track and you were assigned a couple of instructors. The format of this event was just a skid pad (a tight circle that you go around and a round on until you lose it) and the timed track with an instructor in the morning and a different instructor in the afternoon. The parking lot at the former Alameda Naval Air Station was very gravelly and full of pot holes (not unlike Candlestick). The timed track was at least swept in most places so that you didn’t just skid around all day long. We walked the track to chart out the “best” path. I say “best,” because people had  a different philosophy about a couple of the turns – especially the slalom. I had to change my tactics on the slalom late in the day to try to shave time off the back corner. I think the first time I tried to change my slalom approach was the run where I went too fast into the final corner and almost took out the timing camera (which happened later in the day, by another driver).

The instructors were pretty helpful and made suggestions to try things out in a little bit different way. Once we did two rounds, we would hop in the instructor’s car and he would drive the course. Jeremy D. (I have no idea how to actually spell his last name) made it around in his Boxster in a little more than 44 seconds (which I spent the rest of the morning trying to get to). Turns out Jeremy used to live across the street from me in San Carlos.  Greg Welch was my instructor in the afternoon and he had a 914 with racing seats and 5 point harnesses installed. Driving around in his car made me realize that my butt and racing seats weren’t really made for each other. Greg made a great cheerleader and made me try a few new things around the course. It was awesome to have so many times around the course and  to be able to try out his different suggestions and approaches!

The best thing about the autocross school is that you get to try many different things and see how they work for you and your car. Can I really take that corner that sharp, should I really brake that hard going into that corner, etc. It makes for a ton fun and it lets  you know what you can really do in your car. I tried out the skid pad again after we had lunch and before we went out on the track again. By then someone had hit one of the middle cones so it was more like a rhombus than a circle, making for an interesting skid exercise.

The funniest thing that happened was something I discovered when I got home. I had put my remaining lunch in my trunk (a la no cooler) and when I went to put the car cover on I discovered why everyone else had everything sitting out next to their cars; I had sun chips pummeled into the size of half cenitmeter bits strewn about my trunk along with everything else.

I can’t wait to do this autocross school with our kids in a few years! It really makes you learn where the 4 corners of your car and how it handles skidding and braking. I highly recommend it!