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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Dave Weber, 38RSR@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - August 2001

Tomorrow we leave for our third Driver’s Education event of the year, this time to the nearly refurbished Mont Tremblant racetrack. Reports are that the track is going to be terrific when all the safety elements are in place. Unfortunately the paddock and support facilities are not complete, so we’ll be “roughing” it for the weekend. No doubt you’ll hear from a number of region members experiences at the track in next month’s issue of the NOR’EASTER.

The trip to Mont Tremblant only takes 6 1/2 hours, a brief hop when compared to most of our trips of late. While less of a jaunt, the preparations are no less time consuming. Prepping the car takes a bit of time, but getting all the supplies together and packed into the truck and trailer takes more time. Inevitably we forget something that of course we will subsequently need to borrow. Our Mid-Ohio trip found Doug Adams using duct tape in place of a forgotten belt, while I was borrowing a short screwdriver to refasten a panel underneath our car.

While we were at Mid-Ohio we missed Speedvision’s coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. I’d heard that the race was run in miserable conditions, but didn’t appreciate just how bad those conditions were till I watched a highlight show a few days ago. The rain came down steadily throughout the entire race, resulting in nearly all the competitors having off course excursions. I can’t imagine driving at high speeds in the dark in heavy rain. Scary doesn’t begin to describe that race. Audi was once again impressive on the track and in the pits. Why other competitors don’t go to school on Audi’s construction techniques that facilitate fast repairs is curious. Panoz once again struggled with their cars; it looks like their efforts to be different just are not working. Maybe a more conventional approach would yield better performance and results.

Scary also describes the driving in the Speedvision GT Championship. I watched a tape of this year’s race at Lime Rock recently that featured numerous heavy crashes caused by overly aggressive driving. These guys must be taking their cues from the bump and grind driving that occurs when NASCAR races at Rockingham and Bristol. BMW’s don’t look good after they’ve been pushed into guardrails at high speed. Fortunately no drivers were seriously injured. Looks to me like the officials need to come down hard on some of the drivers, before someone does get hurt.

I’m a fan of F1 racing, and try not to miss any of their televised races. The commentary however is nothing short of inane, with the exception of Steve Machette. He knows the sport and the cars inside out. Sam Posey and David Hobbs on the other hand are unbearable. Their race calls are almost always wrong, and their observations are mostly hot air speculation. I’m reduced to watching these races with the sound off or turned down low.

Who else thinks Fox Television’s coverage of NASCAR races far surpasses NBC’s coverage. I initially thought I couldn’t tolerate Darryl Waltrip and Larry McReynolds, but they proved me wrong. They both know the sport and their commentary was mostly entertaining. NBC’s team of Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach are hugely boring. Plus NBC has not utilized technology - particularly the car tracking system, as effectively as was done by Fox. NBC will need to step it up in the next few weeks to keep this year’s larger television audience interested. What a shame it was that reporters tainted Dale Earnhardt Jr’s win at Daytona. The race was fantastic with a number of competitors in hot pursuit of Dale Jr. for most of the race. For reporter’s to suggest that the “fix” was in was very unfortunate.

Fox Television has NASCAR coverage nailed, let’s hope their purchase of Speedvision doesn’t result in that channel focusing on NASCAR to the exclusion of other forms of racing - particularly sports cars and F1.

Questions to ponder: if cell phone use in cars is dangerous, what does that make coffee drinking, newspaper reading, makeup applying, and radio fiddling? Furthermore how in the world are they going to enforce a ban on cell phone use? Seems like it will be easy to drop a phone should an officer appear on the scene. And if cell phone use in New York is illegal, what about CB radio use? How different is CB use from phone use?

Our Speedster went in for its’ annual inspection a few days ago. Last year it was supposed to be put on the dyno, but that didn’t happen because the inspection station could not find a way to anchor the car properly. This year the Speedster was only required to go through a safety inspection. Good thing since the dyno was out of service and had been for several days. The shop manager was clearly frustrated with the equipment, apparently downtime occurs with regularity. For $39 the shop confirmed for the state that the Speedster’s lights work, that the wipers and squirters work, that the horn works, and that we have tires with tread. The paperwork took longer than the inspection. I know all this is making our air a lot cleaner, and that safer cars are on the highway. Don’t you agree?

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region