Autumn Thunder 2025

The word for Autumn Thunder this year is volunteers. To put on almost every Ohio Valley Region event, it takes volunteers. For Autumn Thunder in October, we expanded the program to include spotters who would be working alongside the corner workers. This would take a much larger list of staff than had we had ever needed in the past. There is only one way to say this; Thank you so much Ohio Valley Region for everyone who stepped up to work our Autumn Thunder weekend at Mid-Ohio. We wouldn’t put on the event if no one was interested in participating and we couldn’t put on the event if no one volunteered to help.

For the volunteers who worked all weekend as spotters thank you. It included gentlemen like Jeff Sollman, Alan Brody, Trevor Barber, Fred Hasser, Doug Walker, Michael Williams and Alan Deeds. To the ladies who ran registration thank you, to the ladies who ran the party Friday night thank you, to our chief instructors thank you, to the crew who ran pit-out thank you, to our classroom instructors thank you, and to all of our instructors thank you.

We were fortunate to have three days of clear skies and dry track. We kicked off the weekend with no Mid-Ohio track events happening Thursday evening, so the gates opened at 5 for load-in and stayed open until we cleared out Sunday evening at 7 p.m. I left around 5:30 on Sunday and was surprised at how many people were still in the paddock not wanting the weekend or the HPDE season to end.

One of the things that we always enjoy on our Mid-Ohio weekends is family. Of course, we have a track family that we spend the weekends with (sometimes no relation), but the cool thing is seeing the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and couples that attend together. It is also great to see a growing number of kids who show up with their parents spending the weekend watching things from the sidelines.

If you have never had the opportunity to attend an HPDE with Ohio Valley, then I suggest you check out the fantastic video that Fred Hasser completed while covering a spotting position on Friday and attending as a driver on Saturday and Sunday. He did a great job and it is posted on our OVR PCA website. Fred also provided photos that have already been posted. Saturday is an early morning for our drivers, and they all sleep well that night after a full day of classroom and track work. Sunday morning is a little less hectic, but it is still a full day, burning calories and using every brain cell to accelerate, brake, turn-in, and accelerate again.

As we did during the Jerry Wolf Spring Classic, we covered the cost to have around the clock access to the facility. This allowed our Friday drivers to arrive Thursday overnight at any time they liked and for those drivers who are so inclined, they could camp right at the track. Being able to come and go as you like throughout the weekend is priceless. There is nothing better than seeing our drivers with their feet up, the cooler open, and the grill going late into the evening.

For the uninitiated, an HPDE weekend appears to be about cars and speed. What you find quickly is that you’re part of a new family. Like every family you have some that are a bit quirky, some that are very talkative, and some require a little extra patience. But at the end of the day when you’re not at the track it’s the people we miss. Sure, the noise that starts at 8 a.m. Friday morning gets your blood flowing, but it’s the energy of your track family that keeps you going every weekend.

We have our dates already on the books for 2026 and do hope that you’ll choose to join us. If you want to peek under the curtain we do have a couple options for you. On Saturday February 28th we will be hosting the annual Drivers Seminar at the Hamilton County Coroner’s office in Blue Ash Ohio. If you want to check out one of our weekends but don’t want to drive, we would love to have you volunteer. We need to fill roles again as spotters, helping with registration, taking a turn down in pit lane, helping with the party and working tech at the hotel Friday evening. Our dates in 2026 are May 29-31 (the weekend after Memorial Day) for the Jerry Wolf Spring Classic and October 2-4 for Autumn Thunder.

Registration is now open for both the Drivers Seminar as well as the Jerry Wolf Spring Classic. The giveaway for the May weekend will be epic, so we will be producing extras for those that want one. Or just register or volunteer and we would be happy to hand you one at registration.

As always, if you have any questions please ask. Be patient as we can get quite excited about what we do so the answer may take longer than you like. Thank you from the HPDE team!