2007 NEWS ARCHIVE

Annual Holiday Party: This year's party was held at Michie Tavern on Sunday, December 2. Drinks and munchies were served at 6 PM, there was a free tour of the tavern museum; dinner was served at 7 PM. After dinner various awards, serious and otherwise, were handed out. Shown below, from left to right, are Jeff Elmore (autocross and Tech Tactics), Harry Kennison ("Vintage Corner" author), Mel Brannan (with comeback boomerang), and Johnny Johnson (most photographed car, his 356B outlaw).

Fall Foliage Tour: The weather was perfect on October 28 for this year's Fall Foliage Tour organized and led by Phil and Susie Audibert. Twenty Porsches and one BMW left the Bank of America parking lot in Gordonsville, and the route made a three-quarter circle around the City of Charlottesville, like a fishook, leading to the Basil Mediterranean Bistro for a great complimentary meal of hors d'oeuvres, pizza, and a keg of German beer, thanks to Raif Antar.

More photos...

Fall Fling: Synergy sponsored their annual Fall Fling at VIR over the October 13–14 weekend. A wide variety of Porsches and other cars participated in four run groups—green (novice), blue (intermediate), white (advanced), and red (racers). The weather was perfect both days, and the event was both fun and safe, thanks in part to excellent track supervision by Rick Ebinger and Eric Moody. Mel Brannen (Welcome back, Mad Mel!), Jim Condon, Howie Dunbrack, Matt Einstein, and Alex Smith represented the Shenandoah Region on the track. The banquet on Saturday night featured outstanding food served in the "Gallery" at VIR.

More photos...

Final Autocross of the Season: The fall is a great time for autocrossing. The weather is cooler, usually clear and a little breezy. This year was no exception. We had perfect weather on September 16 for the last event of the year. We also had 20 racers who would challenge yet another new track design. I had great luck with a large straight-away on the back of the lot and a 90 degree turn, and I wanted to put that in again. We also found a great straight away down the front of the parking lot, giving us max speed and close to third gear twice in the run. I was happy with it, but some of the lower-powered cars suffered because of it. It was a good course and I am sure we will see parts of that configuration again. We had some old friends return to race, which included the Governor's School electric 911, Rick Kiser with his GT3, and Emmett Richardson also made the trip to push around his newer Carrera S. A new racer, Will King, ran off with FTD in a Hoosier-equipped Honda S2000, and Rhonda and Howie put on a good show in both their classes. The top 13 spots were only separated by 7 seconds, showing the group is getting closer to each other and it can be anyone's day depending on the track design and luck. Thanks to all who came out and made the last autocross event a great one.

Here are the results by time and by class.

Next year we will start with the driving school, to allow everyone to knock off the rust and get familiar with that type of racing again. We also have two great driving events in October at Virginia International Raceway. Both events are great to check out, even if you are not planning on running. The facility is top notch and really safe for rookie drivers. The course has plenty of runoff areas that are grass fields and not a lot of guardrails. It is a great place to start and polish your driving skills. The Euroclassics DE and the Synergy Racing Fall Fling are great events, and each provides a way to advance yourself and your driving skills. Thanks for a great season everyone; we enjoyed it and plan for bigger and better next year.

Rick

Request for Volunteers: Zone 2 is hoping to bring PCA Club Racing to VIR and is looking for key volunteers to support the affair for the whole weekend or at least for a day. They need to have evidence of support before finalizing the track contract. If you are interested in volunteering please inform Herb Distefano at 804-448-3448 or herbd911@comcast.net, who will have a Zone 2 Rep contact you.

Driving Clinic at Verona: Thanks to Rick and Eric for organizing this very successful autocross driving clinic. They began with lectures covering the basics of autocross driving: car preparation, acceleration, braking, and turning. After walking the autocross course, the students were divided into small groups for intensive practice driving a slalom (weaving in and out past a row of cones), a Chicago box (a three-cone slalom disguised in a C-shaped wall of cones), a keyhole (drivers pass through a narrow gate, drive around a cone, and return through the gate), and a long straight (acceleration and braking). In the afternoon, these elements were combined to form an autocross course. Finally, there was a circular skidpad to teach the limits of turning traction.
More photos...

Fox and Hounds Rally: Fourteen antique British sports cars and six Porsches of varying vintages drove in the Shenandoah British Car Club's "Fox and Hounds" Rally on the beautiful sunny morning of Saturday, July 21. Rallymasters Ken Brasfield and Pete Schofield were the foxes who laid down roadside lime markers for decision points and confirmations. The "decisions" required guesswork, and the goal was to complete the course in the fewest odometer miles. A "panic" envelope (with full directions) was provided at the start of the event in case anyone got completely lost. The course started in Crozet, went through western Albemarle County and Greene County, and ended up near Garth Road in Hunt Country. Former Shenandoah PCA member and social chairman Mike Shutty showed up with his Sunbeam Tiger, and PCA'ers Chauncey and Hermione Hutter drove their 1957 TR3. More photos...

Richmond Porsche Meet (RPM): Shenandoah Region's eleventh annual RPM was held on June 15, 16, and 17. The "tops only" Concours took place at Euroclassics Porsche. The famous "Cafe Carrera" opened with catered lunch under the big tent. The afternoon began with a fun rally in the countryside with other Porsche owners. Illustrated directions for the route have been posted on the TRIPS page (link) so you can retrace the tour yourself at any time. After the tour there was a tech session at Euroclassics covering the 2008 Cayenne and the advantages of using dry nitrogen to fill tires. In the evening, participants gathered at the Martin's Grant Club House for dinner and awards presentation of the day's events. More photos...

Sunday's main event was an autocross (photos) at the Southside Speedway. We set up the same type of course, the twenty racers that took their 6 runs saw what they usually see, and again it was fun. The weather was warm and with a bit of a breeze, tolerable.

Bryce Jewett brought out his 993 to put down some good times for the day. Pat Daily also had out the good old 356 to drive hard around the course and turn a pretty good time. It is always good to see the earlier generation (car) come out and compete. Chess, Diane, and Howie always bring good times and a lot of fun to the events. Jeffrey Elmore did a great job moving his Boxster S around the course. With Jeffrey judging Concourse, rallying, and autocrossing during the weekend, he took advantage of the entire event. Good for you Jeffrey. Emmett and Chess ran the "new" cars to the top of the pile and with a strong showing from our friends John Kessler and Bobby Smith holding down the top times, it is a good showing for the cars from the last century. Good talent and great cars.

My student from last year, Mary Taylor, came and joined the fun also with her very nice 997 S. Mary has improved greatly and I see her times coming down with her seat time increasing. Herb and Bob were also great help for the day and with Kerrigan Smith we had a really easy day. 6 runs over 60 seconds each, completed by 2:30 PM, and no incidents. Great day in the sun for everyone, and a perfect end to another fun weekend.

Here are the RPM autocross results by time and by class.

Michael D. Early has posted many more excellent RPM concours and autocross photos on his website.

Spring Tour: Shenandoah Region members Herb Distefano, Alicia Fink, Jim Condon, Sherry Westfall, and Chauncey and Hermione Hutter participated in the Carolina Region's Spring Tour on April 27–29. We stayed at the McKeever Lodge in Pipestem State Park, West Virginia. The weekend began with a welcome party in one of the executive suites at the Pipestem Resort. Saturday started with a hot breakfast buffet, a 9 AM driver's meeting, and a 9:30 start.

The 168 mile drive on the scenic (meaning, very curvy and hilly) byways of West Virginia included a poker run and a boxed lunch at Twin Falls State Park. Back at Pipestem Resort, the evening's activities included a western-style buffet, door prizes, a $300 prize for the poker run, and dancing to a live band, the "Collegians," who played Carolina beach music along with hits from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

More photos...   Driving directions were added to the TRIPS page so you can make the run yourself.

The Social/Business Dinner Meeting: took place on April 17 at Wild Greens Restaurant, with a record 29 members present. Rick Ebinger, our Driver's Education Chairman, told us about the upcoming High Performance Driving Clinic scheduled for Sunday, July 29, 2007 at the Augusta Government Center. If you have little or no autocross experience, this clinic will teach you how to drive your Porsche better in a relaxed and controlled environment. It will help to make your street driving safer as well as your competitive driving smoother and faster. Spouses on the sidelines and new Porsche owners: this is a great event to get you started! Damien Walsh, president of the First Settlers Region, described their DE event at VIR over the Memorial Day weekend (May 25 through 27) and said that registration has not yet filled up. Herb asked for volunteers to serve on the driving safety committee, primarily to make sure that everyone signs the waivers at autocross events.

Autocross at RIR: Our first autocross of the year took place on March 31, when we raced at the Richmond International Raceway on the big banked oval. There was a 14 degree bank, a Chicago Box in the middle of turn one, and a killer straightaway to make this an interesting event. As usual, Euroclassics put on a good show, with lots of support and a lot of interesting characters. This was the second event at this site and I hear rumors of more in the future. We had a small herd of GT3s and a number of Lotuses on the course. It was a very fast day for everyone, with some of the cars using four gears on the track, but Erik Boody and his old 911T produced the FTD. Chess Earman ran very near the top, and Howie Dunbrack's 944 came in a very respectable fourth overall. Mark Cooke and Alex Smith battled Rick Kiser's new GT3 and all were in the top ten. Andy Turner got his white 911 back and knocked off the rust to run again. Andy's car is still one of the best-sounding Porsches around. The event had its share of spins and slides, but the players stayed off of the walls and we had a safe and accident-free day. It was a great day, thanks to all who came, and thank you Euroclassics for sponsoring the event. More photos...        Rick Ebinger

Results by time       Results by class

Zone 2 Driver Ed:The PCA Zone 2 DE used the full course at the Virginia International Raceway for three days, March 16–18. The first day was rainy, giving the intrepid an educational experience (as in "Oh no, not another educational experience!") driving on a very wet track. Saturday and Sunday were cold and windy, but dry. The entire event was well organized, thanks in large part to our new Membership Chair, Rebecca Morgan. More photos...

Board Meeting: The board met at 10 AM on January 20 under the gavel of our new president, Herb Distefano. Its main task was drawing up the 2007 calendar of regional events, which is still preliminary and subject to revision. Note that the social meetings were moved from Thursdays to Tuesdays.

The board approved spending up to $2,000 for a transmitter that remotely controls autocross starting lights so the start/finish lines are not tied by cables to the control computer. This allows greater flexibility in course design and facilitates operation at large venues such as the Richmond International Raceway. To pay for this, we may have to increase the autocross registration fee from $20 per car to $25 for members and $30 for nonmembers. Drivers who want to autocross more than one car in a single event may be charged $10 for each additional car.

The board requested that the club offer free on-line Das Market ads (with optional color photos) to region members buying or selling Porsche cars and parts, and that the Shenandoah Region Club Store post a list of available goodies on the web.

On-line Ad Page: A MART page has been added to the web site. Classified ads for Porsche cars and parts may be posted by Shenandoah Region PCA members only and are free of charge. Email your ad and optional photo(s) to the webmaster, and please email again to cancel your ad. On-line ads will be canceled automatically after 60 days unless you request a renewal.

The MART page also includes a photo catalog produced by Ben Briggs of items available from the club Goody Store..