2006 NEWS ARCHIVE

Holiday Party: Sixty-eight members and guests attended the Shendandoah Region PCA annual holiday party that took place at historic Michie Tavern on Sunday, December 3. Manager and Boxster owner Sam Morris served a variety of local Virginia wines before dinner. More than enough fried chicken, ham with raisin sauce, and various veggies were eaten by all, with peach cobbler for dessert. Santa's coneheads, Alex Smith and Bryce Jewett, handed out autocross awards and club service awards. Phyllis and Weldon Scrogham announced two new awards sponsored by G&W Motorwerkes. More photos...

Fall Foliage Tour : The weather did cooperate, and a record 23 Porsches showed up at the Bank of America Parking lot on Main Street, Gordonsville for the two-part Fall Foliage tour on November 5. Following Phil and Suzie Audibert in "Green Bean" we headed north into Madison County, west into Greene, south to parallel the Blue Ridge Mountains, and east in Albemarle County to the City of Charlottesville (see the detailed driving directions to make this drive on your own). Raif Antar, Shenandoah PCA member and owner of the Basil Mediterranean Bistro, treated us to an outstanding lunch.

After lunch, Jim Condon and Sherry Westfall led the tour out of Charlottesville for a scenic drive through Albemarle County (driving directions) along the historic Plank Road, ending at beautiful Afton Mountain Vineyards where Shenandoah Region member and winemaker Tom Corpora hosted a wine tasting to end an outstanding Porsche day. More photos...

Synergy Racing Fall Fling:The 7th annual Synergy Racing Fall Fling took place at VIR on Saturday, October 21 and Sunday, October 22. The weather on Saturday was perfect. Sunday morning was rainy and provided an "educational experience" in high-speed driving on slippery surfaces. More photos...

Autocross at Augusta: The September 17 autocross was packed with 48 entrants—16 Porsches and 32 "other" cars, a mix including Miatas, Corvettes, Subaru turbos, Volvos, Toyota MR2s, a BMW Mini, etc. There was even an electric(!) 1982 911 SC entered by Ben Sharp (photo).

As usual, Chess had the FTD in his Cayman S. Here are the results:

Results by time    Results by class

Birthday Party: The Shenandoah Region's eleventh birthday was celebrated on Saturday, August 19 at Herb Distefano's home on Lake Anna. The star of the "Porsche only" parking area was Johnny Johnson's "new" outlaw 356. An excellent lunch was prepared by chefs Bill Sanders and Ben Briggs. Alex Smith presented Bill with the "Smoky" award honoring the most recent recipent of a speeding ticket while driving to a club event. Bill gets to keep it only until there is a new "winner." After lunch a number of guests rode around Lake Anna on pontoon boats while others socialized on land.

Herb and Alicia are shown here cutting the birthday cake and serving the ice cream. More photos...

Autocross at Augusta: The August 13 autocross had perfect weather and 26 entrants, including two of our old friends coming up from Roanoke with their new Caymans. All three Caymans came out at the top, with Chess leading by 0.7 seconds. We used the X course I put together last year. I am not sure what our last course will be, but I'm thinking technical and something we haven't seen before.

A few new drivers showed up. Raif Antar brought out his very clean 930 turbo. Alicia Fink also drove a very clean and very large Mercedes E320 for her first autocross. Rumor has it she may be running Herb's 997 in September.

Thanks again for everyone who came out and played with us. The last Autocross of the season is September 17. See you at the track or parking lot.

Rick

Results by time    Results by class

Autocross at Richmond International Raceway: The July 15th Euroclassics event at the NASCAR Richmond International Raceway was attended by 46 drivers, our biggest event ever. We were able to get in four runs for each, and we also had a little practice course in the infield to make sure those who had never autocrossed had a chance to feel what they might experience on the flat center of the track. The big track is a 3/4-mile 14-degree banked oval with one back straightaway. We started and finished at the end of the pit lane, giving us a full run back down the pit lane, a hairpin back onto the track carefully staying on the apron and off the horrible transition, and then 1 1/3rd laps around the big track and we were done. Sounds simple, and considering the distance, you can imagine the speeds with the top times in the high 70s and low 80-second range. For good measure, I tossed a few cones around the course to keep the safety intact. It worked. With a very challenging course on banked surfaces, we had only three spins and no one got in any serious trouble.

For the players, we have to start at the top with Chess Earman and the Cayman. Chess felt like he needed new race tires after the embarrassing beating he took last month at the hands of the Vintage Porsches, and the investment paid off with the FTD and the only one who broke 80 seconds. Emmett Richardson ripped a great run and Erik slipped by me again. Alex Smith ran a great time and really impressed me. Spots 3 through 10 ended up only 1 second apart. We did have one very special visitor: Harold Groom brought out his Ford GT to really get everyone's attention. The car was very cool and I highly recommend you take the car out for a drive through if given the chance.

Results by time    Results by class

All in all, it was a great day and ended up being one of the favorite autocrosses and autocross courses of all time for me, and I have been in this for 12 years. Mark Cooke said he really enjoyed it and plans on another in the spring, but we will wait and see. I highly recommend you make this event in the future. Even if you don't run, just to have the ability to go to the center of the track like this and get a look at a very interesting and very cool track is a great opportunity. For those of you who came up to me and asked for us to pick up the cones and let them "really see what their Porsche can do", I hope you realize I did you a favor when I didn't follow your suggestion. Those people had their hands full with the autocross course, we saw to that. Thanks Erik, Alex, and Mark for all the help; it was a great Saturday.

Rick Ebinger

Cars: The PIXAR/Disney movie "Cars" premiered June 9. The only characters are vehicles, including Sally Carrera, former LA lawyer now living in Radiator Springs, a dying desert town on old Route 66. While the story line is pure Hollywood cliche, the stunning computer animation and nonstop car jokes make the movie fun for adults as well as kids. Don't leave the theater before the credits have finished. Jim Condon and Sherry Westfall give it a "two thumbs up" recommendation for Porschephiles of all ages.

2006 Richmond Porsche Meet (RPM): Shenandoah Region's 10th annual RPM took place on June 9—June 11. The Saturday morning "tops only" concours was held at Euroclassics Porsche followed by an excellent lunch at the "Cafe Carrera." Other Saturday events included a driving tour around Richmond, a tech session at Euroclassics, and an awards dinner at the Walton Park Recreation Center. More photos from Saturday...

Sunday took participants to the Southside Speedway for an autocross on that 1/3 mile banked oval track. Rick Ebinger's 914 produced the FTD (41.235 seconds) by a convincing margin, 0.3 seconds ahead of Erik Boody (1973 911T) and Chess Earman (2006 Cayman S). Not being afraid of scraping the wall gave older and beatup cars an advantage here. More autocross photos...

Results by time    Results by class

Herr Ebinger in Stuttgart: Rick just returned from a May trip to Stuttgart, and he was able to visit both the Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche Aktiengesellshaft factory (left photo) and the Museum (right photo) in Zuffenhausen. For the whole story, read his article on pages 16–19 of the June 2006 Heat Exchanger.

Name Tags: Herb is now producing club name tags like the one shown here. Each is 1 inch by 3 inches in size on a brushed aluminum base with a full-color logo and a safety pin on the back. Name tags are available to all members, spouses, children, significant others, etc. on request to Herb Distefano, 11100 Emery Lane, Bumpass, VA 23024 with prepayment by check, cash, or money order. Each tag costs $10 if obtained directly from Herb at a meeting or $12 if mailed to the member. Herb will produce them in batches of ten or more.