derBayerische November/December 2024 - 26

Joint HPDE:
NCC and New Jersey Chapter
at Summit Point
Wagon or coupe, if it's a BMW, it's ready for track time.
Photo by Patrick Torbik/ptorbikphotography@gmail.com
By Jamey Basham | Photos by Patrick Torbik and Alan Olson
I
t's 7:00 a.m. on a sunny, cool September Friday morning as I stumble out of
my rented camper, parked in the central paddock at the Shenandoah Circuit
at Summit Point Motorsports Park. I walk down the aisle of space between
my camper and a car trailer right next to it. As I'm about to step out onto
the pavement, I jump back, startled by the passage of a truly huge
vehicle. It's one of those fancy tour-bus-style campers, like the country music
stars use on tour, and it's pulling a tall white enclosed car transport trailer that's
about two-thirds as long as the bus part.
When I got here on Thursday night to start setting up the event, the
paddock was a scene familiar to me, a scattering of about two dozen 24-foot
enclosed car trailers towed by ¾ -ton pickup trucks, a smattering of campers
about the same size or smaller, and a couple of tents. In the time I slept, the
population had grown. There were at least three of the hundred-foot-plus long
country music camper-trailer combos, many more enclosed trailers and
campers, several open car trailers, and sports cars too numerous to count.
Something else rolled in about every three minutes, circling the big paddock
looking for a place to set up for the weekend. The largest 5th-wheel camper I'd
ever seen was parked by pit-in, complete with two raised porch decks.
Multiple individuals were zipping around on two-wheel electric scooters or
electric bikes, dodging between groups of people standing around and saying
hello to old friends and new paddock neighbors.
26
By 7:45 a.m., I'm surveying the paddock from the second-floor balcony
on the classroom building. I have done many events here at Shenandoah,
and I always thought of it as a roomy paddock. It's starting to look smaller to
me now. For the first time, we decided to try pulling off a three-day HPDE
weekend (High-Performance Driver Education) jointly between NCC and
another chapter, in this case the New Jersey Chapter. For many years, each of
our chapters hosted an HPDE weekend on this track, and for many years,
there have been anxious weeks finding out whether we could attract enough
attendees to cover our costs. New Jersey even had to cancel one or two events
in the past, and there's one famous time their HPDE only came together when
the chief instructor pledged he would personally pay $2,500 out of his pocket
if need be. In the end, the $2,500 stayed in his pocket, but only barely.
There are 68 chapters in the BMW Car Club of America, but fewer than 20
sponsor HPDE events, and even fewer offer multiple HPDEs every season.
The CCA sets national operating standards for chapter HPDEs and serves in
certain critical roles to facilitate the activity, but most of the details of actually
running an HPDE weekend fall to each chapter. Over the decades, different
chapters have evolved their approach to their HPDEs separately. At the NCC,
we have been evolving ours for four decades. In the last decade, I have
witnessed much more resource-sharing and commonality of approach. But
due to human nature, each club has pride in their particular way of doing things.
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