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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Dave Weber, GT3Cup@PorscheNet.com
NOR'EASTER Online - September 2002

Reality based television shows generally have little appeal for me. I have no interest in shows like “Fear Factor”, “Big Brother”, and most certainly “The Anna Nicole Show”. I do however find myself drawn to shows like “Cops” and other shows that feature assorted car chases from around the world. I’m not sure what the appeal is for me, other than watching for the inevitable out of control crash or the eventual surrender to the pursuing authorities. In the past I’ve seen film of an individual driving around in a stolen tank wrecking havoc on everything in his past, numerous stolen vehicle chases, and loony motorcyclists trying to elude officers. One amazing chase involved a semi pulling a flat bed trailer loaded end to end with lumber. Over the course of the chase the load shifted and portions started falling off onto the highway, clipping signs and light poles and scattering debris on the road. Eventually the trailer brakes caught fire, and that in turn set the lumber on fire. The driver kept going as the load burned and the trailer axles deteriorated. Not surprisingly he was eventually permanently stopped with gunshots.

One show this week featured a semi driver, sans trailer, racing down an interstate at a very high rate of speed. The pursuing officers made no attempt to stop the monster truck other than to call ahead to a tollbooth to clear a path for the onrushing truck. The crazy driver must have been doing around 100 mph when he blasted through the tollbooth area. Fortunately after some persuasion overly dutiful toll payers had been hustled through the booths, despite their anxiety about not paying. The truck of course eventually crashed, into a lake, and the driver was taken for psychiatric evaluation. The second featured incident involved an off-duty police officer apparently upset with his former wife. This guy, while being pursued, drives off the road and intentionally crashes his van into his former house.

I always speculate as to the motives and thought processes of the individuals involved in these chases. Do they really think they can elude a pack of police officers, while they are driving vehicles with blown out tires? Can they possibly think that a semi tractor has handling characteristics similar to a sports car? If you’re driving a tank crushing everything in your path, what are your plans for your future?

I’ve managed to fix in some time in front of the television over the past few weeks, so as to watch several of my favorite races. They are my favorites because they involve events at racetracks we get to drive each year. The NASCAR race at Watkins Glen is always entertaining, in the past because the driver’s oval track expertise didn’t help much on the road race circuit. Nowadays most of the NASCAR drivers have become much more proficient on road courses, so crashes and spins are less frequent. The entertainment now focuses on driver technique, particularly their ability to shift without using the clutch and for some drivers their left foot braking ability.

The America Le Mans Series raced at Mosport last weekend. The race was relatively anticlimactic as Audi won once again, despite their #1 car crashing out at the end of the back straight. My interest in that event focuses on watching the line the drivers take through each corner. We’d just been to Mosport for a driver education event, so it was easy to make comparisons, particularly when in car coverage was shown. As an aside, prior to one of Susana’s few runs at Mosport (lots of rain cut into our time) the driver’s side door popped off. In putting it back on, we realized that there were no bolts holding it in place. We subsequently learned that bolts generally aren’t used as it facilitates quickly removing the door for service. At the ALMS race at Mosport, the leading Alex Job 996 GT3 RS was leaving the pits when the driver’s side door fell off at pit out. No rules existed requiring a door, so the driver continued racing – no doubt a bit cooler as a result. He was later on punted off at turn 5B into the tire barrier hitting it on the driver’s side of the car. That must have looked a bit intimidating as he approached the tires with only the side roll cage bars as protection.

Finally CART raced at Mid-Ohio, one of my most favorite racetracks to drive. While they get around the track much faster than we do, it is still very instructive to watch the line they drive. Much like all of us, they also make mistakes and find themselves in gravel traps.

It seems like we’re getting lots more motorsport coverage on television these days. Speed Channel (re NASCAR Channel) of course helps increase visibility. But a few weeks ago the three major networks all featured auto racing at nearly the same time of day on a Sunday afternoon. Who would have imagined a few years ago, that you’d see more motorsports on television on a weekend day, than baseball?

Finally a couple of weeks ago I hosted a conference for Gorton’s service providers and material suppliers. During the conference we scheduled a half-day of recreation, which each year involves a golf tournament. For the non-golfers we organize tours of the Boston area. This year we offered go-karting at F1 Boston as an option. Thirty people including a few golfers opted to go-kart for an afternoon. We organized teams of three and raced in an Enduro format for an hour. At the conclusion nearly every participant commented to me that they had developed a new appreciation for was involved in racing, and that most assuredly racecar drivers were athletes. The 20 minutes/person of go-karting was viewed as exhausting and very intense. The bus ride back to the hotel was very quite as most of the participants were drained physically and mentally. After a night of recuperation, all the participants were eager to go-kart again next year. Even some die-hard golfers were heard to comment that they could golf anytime, next year they wanted to race.

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region