When John Poor first talked to me about a PCA Club Race in Arizona sometime in mid-2000, I told him he needed to wait until next year. Although I meant a full year, early 2002, he interpreted my meaning as early 2001, and took the bit in his teeth. The rest is now history.

Cars on the pregrid prior to a daytime practice session.
Photo Credit: Photographer Unknown

In January, John asked if I could help Walt Harrington and his crew (see below) with the technical inspection of the race cars and I quickly agreed. Other members from the Southern Arizona Region acted in concert with Arizona Region members to make the race a reality. Kudos to our local members John (co-chair with Dan Web of AZ region and Race Control Assistant), J.R. Albright (registrar), Kurt Cramer (Equipment coordinator), Ryan Volin (awards, advertising, money-watcher and more), Kai Gerky (treasurer), Chuck Strub (Accommodations), Doug Hall, Terry and Alex Prince (flagging) John Fitch (Asst. Flagman), Larry Dennis (Chief photographer). Please accept my apologies to others that I may have temporarily forgotten or assigned improper job tiles. The Arizona Region had a similarly long list of workers. In actual fact, neither region could have carried out the four-day series of happenings without the help of the other. The real stars however, were the National level experts, Bruce Boeder (Club Race Steward) and Darrell Troester (Scrutineer) who provided guidance, training and more help than you can imagine. Without their efforts we could not have pulled off the event. Thanks to a pair of really nice guys!

The technical inspection crew for the "Tweeks PCA Club Race in the Desert" consisted of Walt (who acted as chairman and crew chief), Dave Radmacher, Dan Ward, Jeff Ward, Dann Oebker and myself. Our job began on Thursday afternoon (Tech setup and discussions with Darrell) and continued through Sunday. The focus of this crew was on the technical specifications, safety of the car and the drivers' personal equipment and on the logbook of each racecar. The group tried very hard to move cars through the procedure as quickly as possible... "There is nothing worse than sitting in line, waiting for your car to be inspected". With an unprecedented level of cooperation and communication we wailed on those cars and got them through in record time). All six of us worked through the technical checklist and all of the safety aspects- roll bars, seats, belts, helmets, suit, shoes, etc. A few cars needed new logbooks and we provided those and assisted the owners in filling out the necessary items. What a fun way to spend Thursday morning... poking around a bunch of racecars!

Cars on the pregrid prior to a daytime practice session.
Photo Credit: Photographer Unknown

At the end of selected race sessions on Friday and Saturday, we weighed several cars (using electronic scales provided by Chris Cervelli of Technodyne) to ascertain their class legality (only one was underweight) and did a mini-teardown (a spark plug and valve cover were removed) on others. That allowed Darrell to use his fancy lighted fiber-optic borescope to inspect engine pistons, cylinders and valves. Darrel also inspected the valve train for non-stock spring-retainers (hmmm, any titanium in there?) and springs. If a suspected infraction occurred, the cam timing would have been checked. All of the real mechanical work was swiftly accomplished by Walt, Dave and Dan (W). We also measured the wing height of a modified 914 that looked suspect (limit is 121.92 cm). It turns out he had raked the windshield (see Cramers' car) and chopped 50 mm off the top (legal in that particular class), and that made the wing look a lot taller than the opponent's car. Several cars had belts that were incorrectly threaded through the adjusters and we provided instruction and examples for many drivers and crew chiefs.

When the dust had settled, I found myself out of a job and it was only mid-day Friday. I noticed that Dann O. had joined Darrell in the hot pit lane as the Assistant Scrutineer. That looked like a job that I could do and enjoy! I was able to wiggle into that position for the duration of Friday and all of Saturday... what fun! I was very glad I brought along my earplugs, because this was an essential item for the job. These are real racecars folks... hot, loud and smelling like hot rubber. Inches from your toes. With excited and sometimes nervous drivers, trying to get in all the track time possible. And that they did. There were multiple practice sessions, a qualifying session, several practice starts and a practice race, a sprint race, practice for the first ever PCA night endurance race and the hour-long enduro race itself. All of this on an interesting and challenging 12-turn racetrack that featured a very long straight (150 MPH in some cars!). The night race was a real challenge to the drivers and great fun to watch. The visibility was low and the speeds were high, but almost all of the drivers said that they would do it again... in a heartbeat. The night race also provided an opportunity for SAR and AZ to innovate. We decorated cones, workers and corner markers with reflective tape, established secondary radio communications with the scrutineer (using our talkabout radios) and developed flag-lighting procedures that we hope will help other regions should they choose to do night races as well.

A race prepared early boxster on the pregrid prior to a daytime practice session. Photo Credit: Photographer Unknown

It should be mentioned that in addition to coordinating the tech crew, Walt Harrington participated in the racing activities. Everyone in the pits and grandstands cheered his last lap pass of a supposedly faster car. His effort paid off in the PCA Club Race "rookie" award, which was accompanied by a $1000 check from B&B, one of the event sponsors. I can't wait to see those new wheels, Walt.

This was a really great weekend for me, very little sleep but lots of fun (ask me about the parties). I haven't said anything yet about the Zone-8 drivers' education and time trial event held on Sunday, but I will write an article in the near future describing this one. Meanwhile, get out there and volunteer! You have the possibility to participate in and work at several events in the next couple of months, the Pinal autocross (April 7) and Cinco de Mayo Concour (May 5) and follow up Zone-8 autocross (also at Pinal, May 6). Try it, I'm sure you'll like it!

2009 Note: the dates above were for the 2001 calendar year but if you check our calendar you will find plenty of opportunities to participate; as a driver, worker or interested observer.