|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Activities
Nor'easter News
Car Care
Membership
Other Cool Stuff
Sponsors & Advertisers
|
Porsche
Club of America
The
Driver's Window
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Right after I finished my last article and emailed it to Dave Arnie Zann received a call from Mont Tremblant. Here I had gone and outlined the year of Driver Education that was all weekdays and now we have 2 weekends. This is unheard of for that track. For those of you that don't know, the track is own by, I believe, the CFO of Tommy Hilfiger and he also owns a Ferrari dealership in Montreal. He and his friends spend all their weekends on the track. Hell, if I owned the track I would do the same thing. But we got the good news that he was to be in Europe for a couple of months so he told the track manager to rent out the weekends too. So the Mont Tremblant dates now look like this. June 2-4 (Monday-Wednesday, July 12-14 (Saturday-Monday), and August 9-10 (Saturday-Monday). The June dates are a great time to be at Tremblant but unfortunately it is right before the Watkins Glen Club race so I might not be able to do it. On the other hand, the July date, are the hot set-up. There are never any good driving events in July, so this will be perfect. The August date, again, is right after the Mosport Club race so I might not make that either. OK many of you probably noticed that I wrote 2 articles last month with 2 different photos. That was a typo on Steve Berry's first article (poor guy) now that he has taken over the role of Membership Chair. Sorry Steve! As many of you know I put the call out for input on why or why not members show up at events. I am surprised that I got as much response as I did. Some members roughed me up pretty good though. Those came mostly from members in southern Massachusetts area and Rhode Island. They pointed out that the majority of events take place in the northern part of the state. They are, of course, right and I am trying very hard to change that. For the past few years the annual dinner was in Georgetown, MA. Admittedly a ridiculous drive for these members. I thought by having the annual dinner in Bolton (45 miles closer) it would appease them. It didn't! Sadly I can't imagine getting too much closer to them that. I chose the location for two reasons; about 75-80% of the membership lives north of the Mass Pike and the excellent reputation of the International. I am sorry they thought it was still too far but we had members from much further away show up. One new member came down from Vermont. I beg you all to try and make it next year. It is worth the drive. Just so you all know I live in Franklin, MA, which is 25 minute from Providence. I drive everywhere to enjoy the clubs other members but that's what the car is for, right? Another common reason seems to be the inability to register and pay for events online. This has been under much debate with the board members for the past year. Small non-paying meeting would not benefit very much from the online paying but the rest of the events would. Mostly for Driver Education events but it would also be available for events such as the Annual Dinner, Registering your cars for the Concours, and other big events. Well, you will all be glad to hear that we have made steps to get this set-up. The newly appointed Autocross Chair, Rich Towle has volunteered to research the options and to start the organizational process. I don't imagine it will be operational anytime soon because we are checking what other clubs are doing and what works and what doesn't. There are many clubs that went through the learning process so we hope to learn as much as possible from them. Of course there is always the obvious reason why members don't attend and that is they spend so much time working that the family takes up the rest of the time. This is a reason I fully understand. If I had a family that's where I would be. Also most Monthly Meetings are held on Saturdays when many members still work. I have given a lot of thought to the idea of a family-type event. Unfortunately I keep drawing a blank. If any of you parents come up with a killer idea let me know. I am allowed one month off; maybe we do something for the kids then. F1 Boston has raised many questions in my mind. The mere point of the facility is based on competition. The problem I have found is the different levels of competition within the club. It's going to be very difficult to organize another event there with the current format. Everyone loves to drive there but some of the members get disappointed when they find themselves in the midst of a bunch of very fast, very competitive drivers. The other side of the coin is of course, the faster drivers having to rough up the slower drivers to get to and pass the next fast driver. The only way I can see it working is to hold two back-to-back events. The first would be for beginners or drivers that don't want heavy competition but still want to race people of their own level. The next would be for advanced and very competitive drivers. Then we take the fastest laps of ALL the winners and pair a slow driver with a fast driver for a small enduro. The fastest driver would get the slowest partner and right on down the line. I think something like this would be a blast because there would be for fun. I would have the fast partners go first to position the team and let the slower drivers finish the race. Probably 10 laps each with a fast driver change. Let me know what you think of this idea. During the HMS meeting I chatted with RJ Valentine (the owner of F1). He is anxious to get the club out for a tour of the new outdoor facility. He told me that the facility has sprinklers set-up on the entire course in case we wanted a race in the wet. But I will get a little more info on this before I organize anything. One last comment from my viewers is that the club concentrates too much on the track/race area of Porsche ownership. That too is being addressed this year. Steve Ross is back on the board and has a full calendar of non-track events planned. This year we are going to revive the ever-popular rallies. There are plans for; I believe 2 rallies and 2 tours. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term RALLY, it is where several driver/navigator teams are given a list of instructions that have to be followed exactly to reach a certain destination by a certain time by passing through many checkpoints. I did one many years ago and they are a lot of fun. From what I understand the reason the club hasn't done one in a while is because their creators tried to get TOO clever and out-foxed everyone. So as you may well know the instructions are designed to be difficult to figure out. I will always remember the exact instruction that got me some 25 years ago. It said to pass 4 physical arterioles (what?). We passed 4 of everything, 4 cows, 4 birds, anything that seemed physical. We were in our teens, not very smart and driving a 1967 Dodge van with green shag carpeted walls and floor. A physical arteriole is a stoplight. Of course you all knew that, right? Don't miss out on these! We have some very clever people that are going to try and make a name for themselves. Let's show them they can't out smart the Porsche Club. Also there will be a Fall Tour this year sometime in November that I think will end somewhere down south of Boston or Rhode Island area. The Spring Ramble to the Woodstock Inn is already 1/2 full so if you want to be part of that I suggest you send in your check soon. This promises to be a very eventful year with many different activities planned for all types of members so make sure you have you Nor'easter subscription and what the calendar. My driver's window is always opened. The only problem is the car is in the garage. The Vent Window
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright
1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 PCA/NER
Year 2000 Web Site Design by www.sitesofboston.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
