As the COVID-19 pandemic continues we’re all waiting for the green flag to drop. Good news...the POC will be returning to the track in May. Registration is now open for Willow Springs. Just go to the last page and click on the graphic.
In this issue, we hope you enjoy the collection of our members family photos...thanks to all of you who participated by providing these great images. Also, be sure to catch Matt’s article covering our first two SIM Races at Laguna Seca and Las Vegas. Continue to stay safe. We’ll be seeing you soon!
DM
VELOCITY Staff
Editor/Art Director
Don Matz
Production Manager
Matt Hollander
Contributing Writers
Justin Crickenberger
Matt Hollander
Don Matz
Contributing Photographers A Host of POC Members
POC Board of Directors
Ron Palmer President
Scott Craig Treasurer
Nathan Johnson Secretary
Joe Wiederholt VP Motorsports
Dwain Dement Chief Driving Instructor
Matt Hollander Social Media Director
Don Matz PDS Director
a special
Cover Photo:
Lain McNeill captures his wife, Ann and daughter, Lainey ,sharing
moment.
Letter from the President
Staying home because of Covid-19.
While there was no racing for us in April, the POC has entered the virtual world. We began SIM Racing a few weeks ago and have already completed two events at Laguna Seca and Las Vegas. At both events we had over 40 entrants. Personally, I find the virtual environment astonishly real and I love those announcers calling the race in real time. The series has definitly taken off as attendance continues to grow. A special shout out to Matt Hollander for creating the POC Sim Racing League and being a big part of its success.
We are also working hard on physically “getting back on track”... and to that end, we are going ahead with our May event at Willow Springs. This event will “not include” our Tribute to LeMans. You will be receiving more information shortly.
While staying home, I have been focused on rebuilding my 4.0-liter motor. As many of you may know 2019, for me, was not a good year. I blew the motor 4 times before I said “enoughis-enough.” After finally taking the engine completely apart, I found myself looking at a broken crank shaft. With any luck I’ll be back in June.
See you at the track!
Ron
Virtually
Amazing
by Justin Crickenberger
It would be an understatement to say COVID-19 has had an impact on the racing community. Throughout the world every major race organization has been forced to postpone and cancel events. However, that has not prevented organizations from adapting to these unfortunate circumstances. Most major race organizations from NASCAR, Indycar, IMSA and PWC have taken their races virtually. POC has done the same offering their members the opportunity to race with each other at the virtual track. The preferred platform for these organizations, including POC, has been iRacing which has an ideal framework to host and broadcast races online. The POC league is well organized and open to all current POC members regardless of real or virtual track experience. A discord community has been set up for POC members where they can chat and talk about the events or whatever else they may choose. Currently the season is set for 4 race weekends. I suspect more will be quickly added after this introduction season. Now is the time to join and get on track!
Race 1: Laguna Seca
Race 2: Las Vegas
Race 3: Sonoma
Race 4: Autoclub
Driver schools are offered to all members, especially those new to Sim Racing. This opportunity allows members to become familiar and get up to speed navigating this new environment.
Having participated in the first event at Laguna Seca I can say this is truly a fun experience. For me the level of excitement was high. I had qualified 2nd and felt I was able to have a good run to try and win the race. From the start of the green flag the race was on and it was close between Connor Bloum and myself. The race was really intense once we were making our way through traffic. That added another element of difficulty and required quick decision making and assertiveness in the passes to prevent being held up. Just before the white flag lap Connor was able to resecure first place. And the race would end there. Quite an enjoyable race for me. Overall, it was an extraordinary event with live broadcasting, commentators and a deep field. Forty-three members participated in the first race! Regardless of racing experience, a field that big will always provide someone to race with.
Aside from the enjoyment Sim Racing offers there are some real world advantages. The biggest and most talked about advantage of Sim Racing comes from the ability to learn new tracks. With the focus on tracks being laserscanned, and the application of advanced physics models, a dimension of realism can be achieved not previously experienced in older racing games. The cost savings and learn-at-your-own-pace advantage pays off big in the real world. Rather than having one or two practice sessions to come up to speed at a new track you can, at your own leisure, set the learning pace. Do you want to run a few laps every now and then? You can! Do you want to run the track for an hour straight? You can! Not to mention if you don’t abide by distancing requirements from walls the cost isn’t financial but rather the push of a reset button.
Along with learning a new track, a racing simulator provides another distinct advantage: it keeps you going through the motions required to drive a racecar. Tthe application of throttle, manipulation of the brakes, and the inputs to steering all build on the foundations necessary to navigate the various tracks POC visits.
Participating in POC virtual events builds on other foundational skills necessary in the motorsport world. Being on track with others gives you the opportunity to build on your awareness and racecraft. Again, all at a lower cost in the event something goes wrong.
If I had to rate one advantage simracing offers it’s the ability to use telemetry. Within iRacing you have the option to turn on telemetry and gather data from your sessions. With the help of a program called Mu you can convert the iRacing data into a format readable by the MoTec i2 analysis software. With the MoTec analysis software you can begin to look at and improve your own driving performance. iRacing provides ample data channels to study but for those new to data it provides the the most fundamental channels needed for driver performance—speed, braking, throttle, and steering. From the traces you see how you interacted with each input, allowing you to make changes that will help you put down faster lap times—just like the real world!
Just as a heavy or speed bag won’t make a boxer a champion you nonetheless find them in every boxing school. Those bags are invaluable tools for the boxer. Sim racing should be looked at as an equally valuable tool for the racer. It builds on the muscle memory of smooth application of inputs and can build one’s focus and mental capacity required for racing. I would encourage all POC members to download discord, join in the POC community and add Sim Racing to the tools you use to prepare for the track!
Links:
iRacing: http://www.iracing.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/UczwmGB
Mu (which converts iRacing telemetry to Motec): https://github.com/patrickmoore/Mu/releases
With the pandemic bringing not only race tracks but the whole world to a standstill... what could be a better time or way to get to know one another better than through family photos? So, we’ve assembled a few images of your POC family hoping that more will be submitted for future issues of e-Velocity...enjoy!
Max Gokhman Bryan VanNoy
Darin Moore
Jim McLoughlin
James McLoughlin
Lain McNeill
Eric Oviatt
Jim Salzer
Jeremy Kyle
Mike Monsalve
Martina Kwan and Dwain Dement
Glenn Orton
Dave and Vanis Buckholz
Bob Thacker
Brad Keegan
Michael Oest
Allen Cravello
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From the Ocean Breeze to Desert Heat
by Matt Hollander
Well the title may be a bit misleading but none-the-less, the Sim League is gearing up for heading back to the coast this weekend at Sonoma Raceway after just finishing our first two races at Laguna Seca and Las Vegas, respectively. The POC Sim League has been a huge hit with current POC members as well as new members looking to join the club in order to participate in Season two. I, along with the new POC Sim Racing committee, have attracted sponsors to help build this league to be one of the top Porsche Sim leagues in the country. If you haven’t already done so, check out the website, porscheclub.com/simracing.
Race 1 at Laguna Seca was a total blast. On the days prior to the event the members and I hosted multiple practice sessions as well as hosting a virtual “racers clinic.” Yes, just like in real racing, everyone drove doorto-door around the track and even did some practice starts. We thought this would be crucial to the series’ success as we have a wide array of drivers with different skill sets joining in. This was apparent during the race when Connor Bloum (pro driver with Turner Motorsports BMW) and Justin Crickenberger (POC BSR driver) were able to pull away from the field of 43 cars. Though they were able to finish
Laguna Seca Las Vegas
the race, it was “interesting” to say the least. Lapped traffic seemed to be the biggest issue for the top 5, luckily I had the simulated “damage control setting” turned off for the first race expecting some growing pains. Watch the race here: https://youtu.be/ZgQSIXLpqGI Race 2 at Las Vegas Speedway was very tricky. The club has not driven the inside roval in more than 10 years and few drivers were familiar with it. The narrow infield and extremely tight transition off the banking made it very difficult. During the week, before the race, we practiced A LOT (I probably logged 300 laps or more) while also doing two more racer clinics. (The drivers seemed to enjoy the practice starts and social aspect of it). The race proved to be as difficult as we expected even with a smaller field of 28. At the start we had a few technical issues and the race was switched from a rolling start to a standing start; not something we practiced for. To complicate matters, polesitter Justin Crickenberger’s computer froze as the green flag dropped and caused a serious pile up at the start-finish line. Many of the cars running close to him into turn 2 ended up in a
15+ car pile up. Thank goodness this was all virtual...it would have been very expensive! Check the race out here: https://youtu.be/ SZ0AN2iC3cY
We are excited to bring you some exciting racing on Saturday for round 3 of POC Sim Racing League at Sonoma Raceway: you can tune in at 7:15pm on YouTube using this link: https:// youtu.be/rNopNJcX7pc
Our current championship leader breakdown is shown here:
The league is still open for new members. If you’re looking to join, or just have general Sim racing questions, feel free to reach out to me. Also, I can help build you a rig and have it installed ...completely turn key. I can be reached at marketing@ porscheclub.com
I look forward to seeing you all very soon. In the meantime, stay healthy and safe.
