Awesome Autumn Thunder
Click to see 2024 Autumn Thunder - Advanced Red Album
I can honestly say that in all the years I’ve been visiting tracks, I’ve never experienced 3 of the more perfect sequential track days. Each morning was slightly cool with picture-perfect blue skies and each day quickly warmed to near 80 degrees. If you have attended one of our HPDE events you know the routine. We line up and wait to get onto the property and are usually delayed by an hour or more. Once in, we dodge those who are packing up from whatever was happening that Thursday. Sometimes fog in the morning will delay the start of the day. Traffic on the track is so heavy that we have complaints that drivers aren’t quick enough with passing signals. Then on Sunday, the paddock clears out by 2 in the afternoon. None of that happened at this event.
We had no fog delays, we got into the facility on time, no one was left in the paddock when we pulled in, traffic was light on track so “trains” were rare and a good third of our drivers were still on the property at 4 on Sunday. This is not to say that the weekend was perfect. We did have two incidents that left cars damaged but those stories are for the drivers involved to tell and won’t be covered here. If you have not done an HPDE event and are curious about the dangers involved, please speak to someone on our HPDE committee. Dangerous situations can be mitigated with the correct safety equipment, but incidents will happen.
Click to see 2024 Autumn Thunder - Advanced White Album
We had Matt Griffin doing double duty as both the event director and safety chair. I can’t say enough about the work that Matt did throughout the weekend. Not to say that we’re a bunch of old guys, but it is great to have someone younger who has the energy needed to run one of our events. With Matt taking on this new role, we will begin looking at options in 2026 for a third event. Thank you, Matt, for the great job you did over the weekend!
To help with tech for our instructed drivers, we had Christian Rauch step in to oversee the Friday evening tech line at the hotel. Thank you Christian for doing that. For every driver that attends an HPDE event, they find that Saturday morning is best described as controlled chaos. We have been working on our program for years and found that we will always have surprises on Saturday morning. Thank you to all our drivers for their patience.
Registration has become smooth thanks to the ladies who get everyone through quickly, without too much fuss. My wife Becky takes over control of that process once we arrive at the track on Thursday. She has a few incredible ladies who jump in to make sure that our drivers are getting through quickly and answering any questions they might have. A special thank you to Rose Nichols, Susan Okin, and Anli McCoy who stepped in at registration to help our drivers. I would be remiss to not mention Dennis Okin who has the toughest job of all. He gets every driver through the registration process before the event, collecting funds, answering questions, and directing them to the correct run group. Dennis has been an integral part of OVR’s HPDE program for years and we hope he will be for many more. Thank you, Dennis!
Click to see 2024 Autumn Thunder - Advanced Blue Album
As I mentioned earlier, we did have two incidents over the weekend and one of those was on Friday at the start of the weekend. I only bring this up at this time because I want to thank our friends Bob and Lori Bryant with the Northern Ohio Region for stepping in to assist the driver involved along with his wife. They are a testament to the statement that it’s not about the cars, it’s about the people. We enjoy the cars and love the people. Thank you, Bob and Lori, for being there and helping when it was needed most!
Friday night was our party at the host hotel, and we saw a record number of drivers stick around for pizza and wings. Along with Susan Okin helping with the party, we also had Sandi Beck arrive to help keep the drivers and their guests’ plates filled with food. Thank you to Sandi and Susan who are truly party professionals. A special thank you to Herb Beck for bringing Sandi! We are also always grateful to everyone who jumps in to tear down and load up the leftovers. It would be a long night without you!
Click to see 2024 Autumn Thunder -Friday Drivers Album
Saturday morning dawned clear and beautiful. We had moved registration into garage 7 and we had a driver jump in to manage the distribution of loaner helmets. My notes fail me at this point as I’ve got two first names, Paul and John, but no last names. So, whoever jumped in to help with helmets (Paul or John) thank you for doing that. I want everyone to know that no matter the job you volunteer for, it is a huge help and appreciated more than I can express. I’ve mentioned David Parks before and can’t express my appreciation for what David does each weekend. For hours each morning and afternoon, David runs pit out getting our drivers safely into pit lane and keeping the lane clear for those coming off the track. David provided some entertainment as he tried to stuff his very tall frame into the 914/6 that Matt Griffin had brought for the weekend. Even with us cheering him on it wasn’t to happen, and it took a couple minutes for David to unravel himself from the small sports car. David is a great guy and a true asset to our club.
Click to see 2024 Autumn Thunder - Intermediate Yellow Album
Saturday morning is also the time that our drivers break out into their drivers’ meetings with our chief instructors John Obrien and Bill Altvater covering our instructors and advanced drivers’ meetings. John and Bill’s work begins well ahead of the weekend as they gather and communicate with our instructor corps making sure that each driver is assigned an instructor. When Saturday hits, they are at it full-time, answering questions, confirming that drivers have received a “solo” status and occasionally moving a driver up or down in the run-group system. Thanks to both of you for making it look easy.
One of the pilot programs we initiated appears to be taking hold in other clubs and is growing in popularity. Our expanded passing school for the upper intermediate drivers has taken quite a bit of adjusting to make it successful. It allows our drivers the opportunity to experience the next stage in their progression by taking part in expanded passing. This happens with an instructor in the right seat and other instructors on track in their cars forcing passes in turns. We look forward to continuing this program at each of our weekends.
Click to see 2024 Autumn Thunder - Novice Green Album
Sunday afternoon at Autumn Thunder always elicits mixed feelings. While it is tremendous to have had such a great weekend, for most of our drivers it is their last weekend of the year. From the drivers and instructors to the volunteers it is a true pleasure to work with so many incredible people. We look forward to seeing everyone again at the Jerry Wolf Spring Classic from May 30th through June 1st. Please make plans to join us!
Click to see 2024 Autumn Thunder - Remembering Mike Valentine Album
