Martin S.

STS SPECIAL PROGRAM {As announced recently on the POC web site}
www.porscheownersclub.org

All STS licensed drivers are invited to join us for a special Saturday Driving Program. You will be provided a POC instructor, a scheduled 90 minutes of track time and a free BBQ! STS safety requirements will be in effect. Please contact Martin Schacht for further details. (mfschacht@gmail.com), or on his cell: 213 610 7416 If you are not sure you qualify for this event, please make sure that you contact Martin Schacht.

Details: December 1st, 2007, Porsche Owners Club is holding a one (1) day driving Drivers Education event (No Timing) at Willow Springs International Raceway providing STS Licensed drivers an opportunity "test the waters" and experience driving our home track, Willow Springs International Raceway aka WSIR. This track is known as the Fastest Road in the West, an incredible 9 turn track with some great opportunities to blow out the carbon deposits that have been accumulating in your cars over time. If nothing else, you owe it to your car to attend this special event.

Because this is a Drivers Education event with no timing provided for the drivers, STS safety requirements will be in effect. The minimum requirements are for participants to arrive with their helmet, a Snell Foundation approved SA2000 or later helmet. With STS safety requirements in effect, drivers will be expected to have long sleeved shirts, trousers, socks and comfortable shoes. Addition safety gear such as driver’s gloves, drivers shoes are recommended, as well as 5/6 point harnesses, but not required. Some have suggested, you might as well get them prior to the event…addiction to the Big Track Time Trial venue is inevitable, so just get it over with now, an early Holiday present perhaps?

Part of the program, as you would expect, a POC Instructor will be riding with you while you are on the track, coaching you and providing tips for making the transition from the STS to a Time Trial venue. You will hear driving smoothness stressed as well as anticipation, thinking ahead.

The special session is scheduled for ninety (90) minutes of track time divided into four (4) sessions, 20, 25, 20 and 25 minutes each. As mentioned above, there will be no timing provided...this is a true Drivers Education event. At the conclusion of the day, you will enjoy the camaraderie of your friends, some new, some old, at a trackside BBQ dinner provided by your Club.

Note: You must have earned a POC Short Track Series License prior to the one (1) day Big Track event. To obtain a POC STS License, successful completion (Documented with a POC Instructor sign off) of three (3) one (1) day POC STS track days, + a one (1) day POC Driving School. Those lacking from one (1) to two (2) STS track days required for their POC STS License, can pick them up at the November 10/11th POC STS event being held at the Streets of Willow.

Total cost for POC Members, $150, assuming your POC membership is current. If not, there will be an additional charge of $75.00 for a one year membership with POC.

Martin S.

Check out the pdf file!

fastkevin

Didn't the POC used to require a roll bar for the big track?
Maybe that was just for racing...
You go off the track anywhere between 8 and 9, and you don't have AT LEAST a roll bar, you're gonna really wish you did.

Martin S.

You are correct. POC requires a roll bar for racing, and strongly recommends a roll cage. We have moved back the roll bar requirement for Stock and Improved classes for coupes. They are strongly recommended but not required. This decision was in line with all the other clubs that Time Trial and DE on the larger tracks such as PCA, Alfa Club, Pantera Club, etc.

[/QUOTE]You go off the track anywhere between 8 and 9, and you don't have AT LEAST a roll bar, you're gonna really wish you did.[/QUOTE]

In many years of Time Trialing with POC, since 1988, I have yet to see a car go off between 8 and 9. Not that it hasn't happened...I just have not seen nor heard of it. It is a no passing zone...if a car were to go off it would be driver error or a mechanical failure.

Now an off at Turn 9, the decreasing radius turn with difficult apex to see until you are almost on it, I have seen quite a few cars go off there...generally caused by an early apex, followed up with a drift to the left off the track at the exit, a throttle lift ensues in many cases...then the polar moment of inertia is reached, the point of no return, and off you go.

The whole idea, as most will agree, is to NOT go off the track. Learn your turn it spots and don't deviate.

fastkevin

I have, and it was either '98 or '99. I can't remember if it was just a normal race, or if it was the TTL weekend. A yellow 911 (IIRC,looked like a cup car) went off in the chute and cartwheeled. A lot of force is being placed on the left side of the car through there. A blowout (can't remember if this is what happened or he stepped a wheel off) can easily take you off.
Heck I remember a guy (Can't remember his name. Wasn't Randy) with a blue 914 coming together with someone in T2 and flipping the thing, at the beginning of a TTL race. I did the race with my bro two years. Once in 98 or 99 and then again a couple of years later.
Anyway, I remember doing some slaloms with my 911, and then a big track Time Trial coming up, and my Bro telling me I had to have a roll bar in the car before I could do it. My CRS has me forgetting whether that was the rule for TT cars at the time, or he just wanted me to be safe.

Martin S.

You are a real buzz kill. I have been active with POC in two stages, 1988 to 1994, and 2001 to present. In these two blocks of time, I have not seen a Time Trial car go off in Turn 8 at Willow Springs International Raceway and receive any serious damage. I have seen no roll overs. Not to say that they can't or won't happen.

If you have seen them...I can't say you haven't, as I wasn't there when you were. Driving a high speed event is a risk. Personally, I would not do one without a roll bar, if for no other reason than its a great place to anchor my shoulder belts. God forbid, were I to roll over, it would be there for protection.

fastkevin

Same thing I say to myself. Having run thousands of laps around there on a bike in the past 12 years, I'd be willing to bet If the opportunity presented itself to me, I'd probably put on a bicycle helmet and flog a rented Ford Taurus.