A number of members have expressed an interest in autocrosses, but many folks have indicated that they are unsure as to what they really are. Briefly, an autocross can be described as an automotive equivalent of a downhill slalom in skiing. Chiefly held in a (LARGE) parking lot, a miniature road course is set up using rubber traffic cones indicating comers to drive around and gates to drive through. Like a slalom, an autocross is a competition; you are aiming to drive through the course as quickly as possible without knocking over any of the cones. For each one knocked down, a two second penalty is added to your total course time. If you do not drive through all the gates and comers, you are "awarded" a DNF (did not finish).

In an autocross, a premium is placed on how fast and well you can learn a course. You are only allowed one lap per session, after which you get to the back of the line and wait for everyone else to drive the course. You will only get a limited number of sessions (or "runs") through the course. Typically, the Porsche club event have 4 to 5, but in other sports car club events you might have as little as 3. To learn the course, you walk the entire course before the start of competition and memorize it as well as possible. You visualize yourself driving it, and picture where you should be accelerating, braking, and (most important) setting up for the corners.

As stated, you are trying to drive the course as fast as possible; the fastest time gets the trophy. However, to avoid having a 356 running against a 964, all cars are grouped into classes of similar performance. You only compete against cars of similar performance capability as yours. For a Porsche club event, there could be as many as 40 stock classes; to these are added 14 classes for various degrees of modified cars.

The Porsche club regions from here to Indiana have joined together and developed a competition autocross series known as IRAC (Inter Regional Autocross Championship). This is a series of seven autocrosses put on by various regions. At the end of the year series championship trophies are awarded to the top finishers in each class; class trophies are also awarded at each event. These IRAC events are great times to compete against Porsches similar to your own, and to socialize with a fantastic group of people the day and/or night before the event, or after competition ends. Applications for all the upcoming events will be published in the Rundschau as they become available.