Gettysburg resident Regie Johnson looks like a sixtyish grandmother who you might see tending a garden or taking a stroll outside. However, put her behind the wheel of a sports car and watch what happens.

She and her husband, Keith, were window shopping at a Jaguar dealership a while back. They showed enough interest in the cars that they were invited to a special luncheon hosted by the dealership. It was catered at a race track so that the guests could test drive one of three Jaguars models. Regie got behind the wheel and was driving around the crowded track. She told the salesperson who was in the car with her that she’d like to see how it would really perform.

He was skeptical, but he set up a pylon course and cleared the track of other drivers.

“Regie went around the course and those pylons like a pro,” Keith said. “I was impressed. She has a great, natural talent for driving sports cars.”

Keith shouldn’t have been too surprised. Regie competed in autocross competitions from 1963 to 1975 piling up dozens of trophies along the way. They crowd shelves and counters around a second home that she and Keith have in Thurmont, Md.

Autocrossing is an intense battle against time, accelerating into the straights, steering, double-clutching and braking into corners and racing around a complicated course that the drivers memorized in practice sessions. Brake and clutch pedals, gear shift lever and steering wheel are worked in precise, lightning-fast coordination to complete the course a thousandth of a second faster than the competition.

Most competitors drive production cars, while some are modified. All have separate classes, but all run for the fastest time of the day.

The events were generally held on a large parking lot or racetracks. Occasionally, Regie would compete on a drag strip, but she didn’t like those events because she said that they were “go straight then stop.”

Because the autocross field is smaller than a racetrack, the competitors can’t build up the speed that drivers do on a race track.

“You get the most out of first and second gear, though,” Regie said.

Among the things she learned from autocrossing on oval tracks was to “keep her foot in it” when going into the oval. She also learned how to drift around turns. This is when the driver oversteers in a turn, causing the loss of traction in the rear wheels while maintaining control of the front wheels through the turn.

Regie got interested in autocross after watching a similar type of competition called gymkhana in Frederick, Md.

“I thought it would be a good way to have fun and learn how to better handle cars,” Regie said.

She and her first husband got involved in competition so much that they helped found the Mason-Dixon Sports Car Club. The club began sponsoring its own autocross competitions in Gettysburg, Hagerstown, Frederick, and Chambersburg. The club also sponsored speakers, such as Roger Penske, and rallies.

One of the things that autocross does is index female competitors to male competitors. It adjusts for a variety of factors to make the men’s and women’s times comparable. When that was done, Regie typically placed among the best men’s times. Even without the index, she sometimes won the fastest time of the day, beating out all men and women. She typically drove a Porsche 356, a Porsche 911, or a Ferrari 250.

“The men did not want me in the same class with them,” Regie said.

However, they did tend to measure themselves against her.

“Guys would often ask me, ‘What was your time?’ because they wanted to know what they would have to do timewise in their class,” Regie said.

Regie also competed in wintercross competitions. These were winter autocross events that often involved driving on snow in ice in a large parking lot.

“They certainly taught you something about driving,” Regie said.

Regie unknowingly met her second husband at an autocross competition in Gettysburg called “The Dust Bowl” because it was held in a grassy field. Keith Johnson had an Austin-Healy and wanted to see how well he could do in an autocross. Since Regie was registering the entrants, they realized years later that she must have registered Keith, although neither recalls the other one at the event.

She said that her most-memorable event was a competition at the Marlboro Racetrack in Maryland. Twenty-two Corvettes competed and the times at the end of the day were indexed.

“My time by index would have placed me at no. 2 in the men’s class,” she said.

Regie has earned championship autocrossing status throughout the entire mid-Atlantic region, the District of Columbia, and Gettysburg.

Now, long retired from the competition circuit, she still enjoys driving and when the opportunity arises, such as when she was testing the Jaguar, she will open up and show that she still has the right stuff for competing.

You might also enjoy these posts: