Autocross
What is Autocross?
“Autocross” is the safest and least expensive way to experience driving your Porsche at the limit, but at a safe, relatively low speed (typically less than 55 mph). We recommend attending some autocross events in order to sharpen your car control skills and understand the handling limits of your car at lower speeds before heading off to the track, where speeds are a bit higher.
Many end up preferring autocross to the track simply because it is less expensive and also offers a competitive, timed, precision driving experience.
No special equipment is needed to autocross, just bring yourself and your car, the club will provide the instructor, loaner helmet and even the tape to put a number on the side of your car!
First-timer GT4 with stylish number rendered with painter’s tape, photo credit: Gorilla Tornado.
PCA-GGR currently hosts 8-10 autocross events per year at sites like Crows Landing NAS and Salinas Municipal Airport. Everyone is welcome!
To host and facilitate running these events the club will lease a retired or unused airfield and an experienced volunteer will be commissioned to design challenging course which will then be built on site on the morning of the event using soft, orange and green traffic cones, specially selected to not damage your shiny Porsche.
The course will be different for every event, so learning to ‘read’ and assimilate key elements of the course and then anticipating how to navigate optimally through those elements at speed is the big challenge. For drivers, scoping this challenge becomes the primary focus of several morning course walks.
Typically each driver will run as part of a defined “run group” and will have 8-10 timed runs around the course split between a morning and an afternoon run group session. Live timing results will be available on driver’s mobile devices so they can gauge their progress w.r.t. all other drivers, especially those running in similar cars in their class. In terms of competition, if you bring your stock Boxster, you’ll compete with other stock Boxsters and Caymans in your class, not against e.g., GT3’s and GT4’s.
While some Porsche drivers participate for the fun of it and ultimately elect to run in the “Fun Class”. i.e., not joining directly in the competition, we do strongly encourage all Porsche drivers to class their cars per the Zone 7 guidelines (see below) and to run in their Zone 7 Class.
Everyone is welcome, including drivers of non-Porsche cars. Non-Porsche drivers will automatically be registered in the “Fun Class” and will otherwise participate in a given event like all other drivers.
Autocross is for everyone, and we’re proud to regularly host several very capable Women Drivers!
At the end of each annual autocross series, usually late in the calendar year at an awards event, Class Trophies are awarded to the top few drivers in each Zone 7 class who have consistently delivered the fastest times across multiple events in the series.
In addition, there is an overall PAX Championship(*) where the top drivers within each Zone 7 class earn points depending on where they finish in their class at each event. Those points accumulate through the annual series toward consideration for the overall PAX Championship where those drivers with the largest number of points and eligible for related trophies and awards.
It’s a lot of fun, join us!
(*) Pax is akin to a golf handicap where a numerical value intended to ‘normalize’ the performance differences between the cars in different classes is assigned so that the success of the drivers of different model cars can be directly compared.
Presentation of the CC15 1st Place in Class Trophy at the 2022 Awards Dinner at Canepa’s.
Autocross Events Calendar
Autocross Events are fun and present opportunities to build strong personal relationships!
There is a friendly, competitive atmosphere as drivers aim to achieve their personal best times. At the same time, the vast majority of drivers are encouraging and motivated to share their know-how with others, especially with drivers new to the sport, to help one another expand and improve their skills and success.
The camaraderie that develops out of those friendly and respectful interactions is palpable and keeps active participants coming back for more!
BTW: If you like these photos there is often a photographer on site so you can get some shots of you and your Porsche “in action”. Photos credit Gorilla Tornado.
