JC3D – 996 Spec Porsche Carrera Club Racer
By Joey Leh, Photography by Aaron Kupferman – Motorsportlens.com
Porsche. Mere mention of the manufacturer conjures up names like Donohue, Rohrl and Dean. It’s distinctive 911 series of sports car has been made for decades and is one of the most recognizable auto designs on the market today. Show anybody a darkened 911 silhouette and, like a Rorschach ink blot, they’ll surely say, “Porsche”. Try that with a Corolla.
But, unlike the commonly beige Toyota, the 911 is not a cheap commuter car. It wasn’t built for fuel economy and it surely wasn’t designed to go from grocery store to dry cleaner. It’s a sports car through and through. Performance and the driving experience were high on Porsche’s list during the design process. Still, it’s the factory support and inherent design that keeps racing drivers behind the wheel of the 911 to this day.
And racing one might not be as expensive as you think. John Cherniak is one of the drivers in a growing series known as 996 Spec. He’s not a real estate or oil magnate and doesn’t have himself air dropped to the races via helicopter. Cherniak is a real guy with a real budget. This black 1999 Porsche Carrera began life as his daily driver, fighting through the endless traffic of notoriously congested Los Angeles, CA.
Cherniak began his racing career on two-wheeled terrors and continued until his final year of college. A bad wreck put him out of the motorcycle world and Cherniack turned to his supercharged Mazda Miata. The little drop-top hit track day after track day and Cherniack began to feel the bug once again. Displaying better and better results on track, Cherniack eventually made the decision to go full bore and tore apart this 996. A Pierce Motorsports roll cage was one of the first changes to the car. There was no going back.
The 996 started out with Porsche Owners Club (POC) time trial events and eventually progressed into a full-blown racecar. In his first outing, Cherniack took the pole and his first two races at Laguna Seca. He then followed that up with an endurance win at Buttonwillow Raceway, co-driven with fellow 996 Spec racer Bill Hartsock, and a second place in the R6 class.
For 2009, Cherniack and Ottos Venice converted the car fully to 996 Spec rules. The car also runs in the SCCA’s ITE class, and finished 4th out of forty-seven starters at the POC Auto Club Speedway race in Fontana, CA.
Cherniack is a standout at POC events, the only racer within view that doesn’t have an enclosed trailer, multi-person crew or big rig. He tows with a VW Touareg (now his daily driver) and with a trailer that seems to be a better fit with a classic Mini than a 911. Even with a real world budget, racing a Porsche is within reach. You just need to get your hands dirty and be smart about where you race your car.
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