06/17/2026
Posted for Rick Ebinger
Sooooooo…… we had a little autocross at a new venue Sunday with the Shenandoah Porsche Club of America, at the Eagles Nest Airport in Waynesboro Va. It was a beautiful venue where the owner, his staff,(family) and the community around the airport were perfect hosts for our group. We had 53 racers, but we had estimated 180 or so coming to watch, hang out, and catch up with some old friends and new. In the pictures I have the results and some hot pics from the day. Most pictures came from others who had already posted but I think it sets the mood and the type of event we like to run. All who came made it great, and short of a small weakened driveway spot on the return road that made its presence know half way through the fourth heat, the event went perfectly. Thanks again to The Eagles Nest and community, Erik and Nathan who make this all run, and the dozen or so people who help us chalk, mark, and pick up the cones each event. I’m sure we will return again and add a few things like a food truck or two. Discussions have already begun.
All 3 dozen donuts were consumed Sunday brought by the club, I need to force a few more of those baked goods into those top 8 drivers….. gotta work the angles. 😘😬
Below is a narrative of how we set the courses up and what I’m thinking when building a course, and keeping Erik happy with the safety. I usually don’t say much, but my come slalom famousness and other issues need to be mentioned. I hope you enjoy some of the insight. Be glad I didn’t add a Chicago box or the big circle.
How to build an autocross course at a new site with limitations:
Sooooooooo………. The Eagles Nest was a new venue with no history on it for me. I say me because I drive a lot of the overall direction and style of the course. I made a bad track one time that haunts me to this day at Virginia Motorsports park 25 years ago and I work each event to never have that happen again. That’s why I run sections prior to racing to check flow and speed for the event. I usually make it tight and open it up for flow, this day I pulled 8 gates out of the slalom after setting it up and making a pass through it. So here’s the check list mentally.
Airport- fast, use the natural ability of the venue
Balanced- if you have a big fast section, tighten it up for the little horsepower gals. 🫣
Safe- with speed comes increased safety.build it in, talk about it……. Talk about it again!!!!! And then talk about it once more.
Unplanned- don’t just plan for where the cars will run, but where they could end up.
Course workers- keep them safe, and in the game.
Spectators- keep them safe and as close as you can to the action.
Venue- protect the property and everything on it.
Fun- let the boyz ( and others) have fun, make it flow, make it fast.
If you can do all of this you can have a great event.
Sooooooooo………. That’s the basics, now you have to jam it into a new venue you’ve never run before, and it is an airport so there’s an expectation as well. No pressure. 6 runs, multiple cars at a time, 51 signed in racers, and that’s the pre list.
I had been thinking about this for about a year now as Kyle got me introduced to TK at the airport and this started to come together. My plan was start in the middle, swing around in front of the main building, down to the jug handle and turn around and come back the main runway. Same way I ran the airport at Crewe 26 years ago. Obviously very little like that happened. Had to make changes on the fly, and that’s why I don’t diagram a course ahead of time. Things change. This day I had to adjust to not drive on the white marks and numbers on the runway, avoid less than perfect blacktop, and use the return taxiway that’s narrow and closer to buildings than the runway, and a little bump after the finish line.
All absorbed, making a great course in my opinion for the day.
So the runway usage: I was able to drop just four off set gates for 5/8ths of the 2000’ runway. For those of us who ran the four gates flat out and had the stones not to lift, the reward was a big speed accomplished. I was near the top of third gear at about 92 mph, Kevin M clicked off 103….. and was FTD by the way. Screen shots of his runs are in my pics. It was a great section forcing heavy braking and down shifting into the first of challenging gates before the return road section. Still a great feeling, moved many of these gates and slaloms from my old 18 paces to 35 paces….. really keeping it rolling into the taxiway to the return road. I stayed away from the jug handle because the pavement would not survive our loaded cars with our aggressive tires. Sometimes you just have to change plans. I’m glad I did, that turn really was a challenge in itself.
Entering the return road things get serious for safety. Moving from 50’ to 20’ wide, closer to hangers, and keeping it fun, slower and safe. I pulled all the tricks, spacing, type of gate, walls of cones, reducing angles. All the things that might make someone lift when they don’t have to, and let the bold really gain though that area. I was surprised and a little worried in the 911 that I could hold max RPM in second in the return sea of cones…… that’s somewhere near 65 MPH. Again, I stole a screenshot from Kevin M, but he got 75 MPH in this section. Just want those who didn’t run to not think it’s a normal cone fest. I always strive for flow in second gear. That makes the most fun autocross courses in my 33 years of racing and 26 years of building.
The last part is a good team. Erik, now Nathan, and myself run the group. Erik and I over the years have learned what to look for and what to do. He is our Safety Chair and gets on me when I get too creative and sketchy. We have had less disagreements the last decade, but we always feed off each other and always try to make the most fun and safe tracks. One of the best compliments came about 15 years ago when another group member at the end of the day while we were packing up got out a measuring wheel trying to copy our course for another group’s race in the future. Nothing was said, but I understood what he was doing, he was an advanced driver, and I appreciated his interest in what we had just done.
It will be in my memories forever.
I hope everyone enjoyed themselves Sunday.
Besides the sunburn that I seem to always get now and again at events like this I had to explain to my wife (for an hour when I got home) that all my sunscreen was missing and there must have been a run on the stuff since I couldn’t find any in Waynesboro. That’s my story….. I think she bought it…. I hope .🤞🏻🤫🫣
Lastly for the results. Saw some happy and others gloating a little bit. The best way to keep grounded and positive about this is to see where you fall and try to understand why. We chase Fastest time of the day, top ten times, and then class, mainly for the Porsches. I avoid PAX timing crutches like I avoid automatic cars. Personal preferences for me, and PAX timing is handicapped scoring of time for slower cars and drivers if those cars. Fastest time of the day for cars with doors is my true score. That is my little rant for my SCCA brothers. You may beat the Porsches on the track, but we always win on appreciation. 😉😘😬
Always chase your best , because we race other cars and other types we can have a ton of fun beating cars we shouldn’t, having the fastest family car, or improving by changing cars or learning from our friends. We had our top two cars being a New Camaro LT1 and a Miata. Sounds fair to me. (Both national level drivers in my opinion) We have what I would classify as 5-7 national level drivers with us, so don’t sweat those clowns, they are wheelmen with tons of experience and talent in great cars, but watch them and learn. The guy that kicked everyone’s butt Sunday came in 14th three weeks ago. He obviously wasn’t racing the day before in Atlanta and got way too much sleep for Sunday. It’s always up and down, but it’s always good friends and legal fun.
This is for fun, our trophies suck, (none), it’s about the people, the cars, and the memories. I saw people I hadn’t seen in 15 years Sunday, just heard about the event and wanted to see what’s going on.
Made some good friends and new ones as well. Thank you Erik and Nathan as usual, TK and staff, the Eagles Nest Community, our regular non Porsche racing family, and our car club who allows us to play each and every year.
We all make this the best group I have ever raced with, thank you and we’re looking forward to the last two events. The Government Center is planned for 8-2, but not approved yet, and Richmond Raceway on the NASCAR track September 12th.
Hope I can finally get my parts for the little Green 914 before another event. I hate back orders. Booooooo!!!!
