Two Fantastic Autocross Events in Late June and Early July
First – Timed Events AX#4 at Alameda Point NAS, Jointly with PCA-LPR
Drivers were thrilled to run at Alameda Point NAS again after last running there in November 2019! Both the June 27 & 28 events sold out in well under 48 hours with 80+ Porsche drivers initially registered to run in Zone 7 Classes. On Sunday, PCA-GGR hosted 77 drivers in Zone 7 Classes including 11 new or novice drivers for whom we provided instructors, plus 4 drivers in Fun Class. Our course was a reprise of a course designed by Andrew Blyholder and first run in 2013. We set up the course on Friday and the courses we ran on Saturday (PCA-LPR) and in reverse on Sunday (PCA-GGR) were tweaked to facilitate safety, flow and fairness across all classes of cars. The Alameda surface is less grippy than Crows Landing NAS but still good! The location is iconic and convenient with weather that is great, and the nearby breweries are close by for friendly after-event socialization!
At the drivers’ meeting We re-presented the Don Matthews Enthusiast of the Year Award, a Sterling Silver serving bowl now engraved with the name “Ursula Wong”. Anyone who knows Ursula will know she surely deserves this great recognition from her inaugural year with the club in 2025!
We ran 3 cars on course which enabled getting 4 runs in the AM and 5 runs in the PM.
In RAW time, Tara Shapowal-Lau took TToD in her’s and Steve Lau’s 2010 Cayman race car (“Stormy”) with a 50.756 sec run, Steve Lau took 2nd in Stormy at 51.091 sec, Peyton Chen took 3rd in his 718 Spyder at 51.399 sec, Praneil Prasad took 4th in Connie Lu’s Boxster S running in U-01 Class at 51.876 sec, and Drew Powers took 5th in his modified 2014 Cayman S with a 51.931 sec run.
In PAX time Peyton Chen took TToD with a 49.754 sec run time (first PAX win for Peyton!), Tara Shapowal-Lau was 2nd at 49.442 sec, Drew Powers was 3rd at 50.010 sec, Brant Ballantyne in his 2012 Cayman R was 4th at 50.101 sec, Steve Lau was 5th at 50.171 sec and RJ Harrison in his 2022 718 Spyder was 6th at 50.412 sec.
Second – Autocross AX#5, a Zone 7 Event at Salinas Municipal Airport, July 11, 2026
It was a great day in Salinas for our AX#5, Zone 7 joint event with PCA-LPR. PCA-GGR led the way on Saturday, with 4 runs in the AM and 4 runs in the PM on the clock. Our courses were designed by Peyton Chen; as is customary for Zone 7 events, we reversed the course in the afternoon and “best times” were based on the sum of best morning and best afternoon times.
PCA-LPR hosted a pizza social at Café Sorento in downtown Salinas on Saturday evening and Drew Powers, our Zone 7 Autocross Chair, led a lively and fun trivia session on recent sales of Porsche vehicles.
In RAW time, Praneil Prasad took TToD driving in U-01 Class using Steve Lau’s and Tara Shapowal-Lau’s 2010 Cayman race car “Stormy” now on 200 TW tires with AM/PM times of 34.971/36.912 sec, Steve Lau was 2nd in Stormy at 35.716/37.473 sec, Monty Pack in his 2018 GT3 was 3rd at 35.500/38.392 sec, RJ Harrison in his 2022 718 Spyder was 4th at 35.826/38.172 sec and Drew Powers in his modified 2014 Cayman S was 5th at 36.130/37.894 sec.
In PAX time Drew Powers took TToD at 71.285 sec, RJ Harrison was 2nd at 71.630 sec, Steve Lau was 3rd at 71.872 sec, Praneil Prasad was 4th at 71.883 sec, Grady Carter in his 2016 Cayman 981 was 5th 71.992 sec and Mony Pack was 6th at 72.266 sec.
Congratulations to all of our leading drivers from both events!
We are grateful to Porsche Redwood City for their 2026 season sponsorship and support!
Steve Forshay
PCA-GGR Autocross Director 2025-‘26