Autocross Blog Post for April 2025
PCA-GGR Autocross Enthusiasts,
2025 Season Kick-off!
Our second event of the 2025 season – PCA-GGR Autocross #2 – was held at Salinas Municipal Airport on Sunday, April 13, 2025. We had 61 drivers competing in 53 different cars including 9 student drivers who were new to autocross, which we paired up with a comparable number of our very capable Zone 7 trained instructors. The weather for the weekend, which included the PCA-LPR autocross on Saturday and our event on Sunday, turned out well with cool (some would say cold), breezy mornings followed by partly to sunny afternoons which enabled getting at least some heat in our tires. Our course for both days was designed by Peyton Chen and used both the main pad and taxiway to maximize course length. The course was tweaked by our capable setup team led by Ed Burghardt on site for safety and flow. Connie Lu, our Chief Instructor for the event, led the morning course walk for our nine student drivers plus two parade laps to orient them to the course. All things considered the event went well, and drivers departed for the day having completed eight runs and having a safe, fun and enjoyable experience!
Congratulations to Steve Lau who drove the 2010 Porsche Cayman race car known as “Stormy” for top time of day (TToD) of 43.555 sec. Tara Shapowal-Lau, also driving Stormy, had the next best raw time of 44.217 sec, followed by Ed Valko in his 2024 GT4 RS with a 45.178 sec and Drew Powers in his 2014 Cayman S with a 45.237 sec. Congratulations to Himanshu Patel (1st) with the top PAX time, Drew Powers (2nd), Steve Lau (3rd), Kunal Patel (4th) and Grady Carter (5th). Full provisional results are available from our Clokkr Timing System here: https://app.clokkr.com/results/events/f09fdbb6-52b8-46f8-b210-538a2749834d
Upcoming events include our Novice Car Control Clinic and Day 2: Practice What You’ve Learned events in partnership with the Golden Gate Lotus Club (GGLC) at the Alameda Point NAS on April 26th and 27th respectively.
We are grateful to Porsche Redwood City for their 2025 season sponsorship and support!
Steve Forshay
PCA-GGR Autocross Director
