Autocrossing into Spring
PCA-GGR Autocross Enthusiasts,
We had a notable (weather wise) and exciting (course wise) April 18-19th weekend at Crows Landing with PCA-LPR running on Saturday and PCA-GGR hosting on Sunday. Despite some predictions of rain on Sunday earlier in the week, the weather was great and the surface conditions were close to ideal.
Our excellent course was designed by Praneil Prasad. He leveraged his extensive experience as an accomplished autocross driver to create a notable course in the true spirit and essence of autocross. What does that mean? It means drivers had to bring to bear the driving instincts necessary to optimally connect elements of the course that required setting up well on entry – always at the risk of over slowing – with the objective to get through those tighter elements at the highest possible speed and exiting at max acceleration to minimize the time to the get to the next key element. The technicalities were substantial and truly challenged even the best drivers to minimize run times. Thanks to Praneil for taking us back to precision driving in the true spirit and essence of autocross!
How did the course challenges translate to results? Steve Lau took TToD at 63.124 sec in he and Tara Shaopwal’s 2010 Cayman race car “Stormy” running in Class U-01. Tara took 2nd at 63.406 sec. Interestingly, and a strong indicator of remarkable driver development and expertise is RJ Harrison taking 3rd in his 2022 718 Spyder at 64.798 sec running in P-05 Class. RJ rocked taking 1st place in PAX at 62.724 sec with Steve Lau in 2nd place at 63.124 sec, followed by Peyton Chen in 3rd driving a friend’s 2018 Carrera T in P-05 Class at 63.177 sec, Dylan Huey in 4th driving a 2019 Cayman GT4 in P-05 Class at 63.246 sec, Grady Carter in 5th driving his 2016 Cayman 981 in P-03 Class at 63.352 sec and Ed Burghardt in 6th driving his 2007 Cayman in P-03 Class at 63.382 sec. Congratulations to all!
It is unusual to spotlight an individual driver in this forum as PCA-GGR has an abundance of skilled and experienced drivers. That foundation laid, RJ Harrison stood out on this weekend as a model leader in the spirit of camaraderie and friendly competition. RJ enthusiastically engaged to raise spirits across the board, took other drivers including class competitors as passengers targeting to help them raise their game, and set a great example in getting the most out of his Porsche.
We are grateful to Porsche Redwood City for their 2026 season sponsorship and support!
Steve Forshay
PCA-GGR Autocross Director 2025-‘26
Steve Forshay
PCA-GGR Autocross Director 2025-‘26