[Wichita-SCCA] PDX at Hallett

[Greg Laws]

Yes, I was there with my 944 Turbo.  It's my daily driver and I ran it without changes, not even changing the air pressure in the tires.  I never did get a time on my runs but I believe that I successfully blocked every fast PDX car there!  (Just kidding!)  The fact is that even as quick as the 944T was down the straights there was just no way to counter for the difference between street tires and race rubber in the corners.  With my Goodyear Eagle street tires I couldn't keep up with any of the faster PDX cars, all of which were on Khumo/Hoosier tires.  Dave Gird, Kay Dickerson, & Richard Prestige could all walk away from me just on that, let alone the difference in driving skill which was all in their favor too!  <grin> 

I did learn something about Mustang brakes versus Porsche brakes however.  Scott Bettinger was my instructor and I noticed that he would start his right leg reaching for the imaginary brake pedal on the passenger side of the Porsche well before I would hit the brakes myself!  I never ran out of brakes so it all turned out okay but I do admit to driving more in an autocross style of brake hard and cut the corner tight rather than in the road race style of smooth, consistent lines through the corners.  Scott did his best to hammer that point across to me and I'm sure that my times went down as I grew accustomed to the differences.

Dave Gird was kind enough to show me the line through corners 5-6-7 (if I have those numbers right) before he ran off and hid from me.  I managed to get black-flagged twice: the first time for looping the car in mid-track between 8 & 9, ending up in the grass.  Dave Gird was right behind me at the time but backed off to let me have LOTS of room.  Come to think of it, it was right after that spin that Gird offered to show me the correct line! 

The second black flag came because I wanted to follow Richard Prestage through the last corners before the front straight so as to see what line he was running there.  I pulled to the right and pointed him to pass me, which he did.  The pass was safety performed but we both got black flagged because I had completely forgotten that this one particular stretch of track had been designated as a "No Passing Zone".  Oops!  In my view this was entirely my fault and no one else was responsible.  The SCCA Stewards apparently thought that Richard shouldn't have passed even with my point so he was called in too.  My apologies to Richard for the error and the resulting frustration for him.

Anyway, in terms of bang for buck this was a terrific event.  There weren't any open wheel cars for the road race driving school portion of the activities so the Stewards lumped the closed-wheel race students into one group and then alternated that group with the PDX group all day long.  I ran more that a half-tank of gas through the Porsche in less than three sessions.  There were still two more sessions to go and this was just on Saturday.  Sunday had even more PDX sessions available for another $50.  By the end of the 3rd session I had done all the high speed stuff that I was comfortable with, I didn't want to excessively wear out the engine/brakes/tires/etc., and I was about out of gasoline anyway so I headed for home.  I had come just to see what the 944T could do and I was very pleased with the results. The once-a-year PDX at Hallet is a "must do" for anyone wanting to try road racing or, like me, just curious about what their car can do.  Don't miss it next year!   

Enjoy,
Greg Laws
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