From the President October 2013
The completion of our third and last Driver’s Education event at Mid-Ohio begins the last phase of our Porsche season. That’s the bad news – the good news is that we still have a number of events on our agenda for the remainder of the year and that our track programs have been a great success.
Our DE at PIRC (formally BeaveRun) was a sold out event with many new participants (as usual) and thanks to our Chief Instructors (Bruce Graham, Ralph Guidio and Larry Pryor, Jr.) and their instructors, we were able to put on a quality, safe event. I also want to thank Scott (SMORES) Mores for chairing this event (his first time as chair) and his assistants. The event was made even more successful by having a Saturday evening “pig roast” after the day’s driving. This part of the event came off thanks to the efforts of Melinda Clark – it was her idea to do this and I know that many of the drivers, instructors and members enjoyed the conversations and the food.
Once again our Mid-Ohio DE was a near sold our event was a great success. Because of the quality of our instructors and the smoothness of our organization of our track events, we are fortunate to have sellouts at our DE’s and I know many other regions are somewhat envious. I have been told many times by “outsiders” that we put on the best track events in the area – and probably PCA. Our DE was chaired by Dale Rabaneck who also acts as Track Chair and is instrumental in making our track and social events by creating an on-line registration package.
Coming up, we still have one Auto Cross event – see our website for details. As I’ve mentioned before I am extremely thankful to Rob Hoffman and Scott Mores for initiating and bringing back this venue. Again for those members that are not ready yet to put your Porsche on a race track; the Auto X events is a safe (please note the cover of last month’s newsletter – it illustrates that the worst thing that can happen is that you may/probably will hit a rubber cone) and inexpensive way to test out the performance of your car. These events also create some “friendly” competition among our participants which adds to the comradely in our club.
Also coming up is our next rally created and chaired by Iron Jack Purvis and Frank Bunecicky. There going to put in a new wrinkle with a “Poker Run” type of venue. Again if you never been on one of our rallies – you should. It’s not really a competitive venue and again you’ll probably meet some new Porsche folks and we always have a great meal and socializing and the conclusion of the rally. Our last social event of the season will be our Porsche Prom chaired by Sandy Zilenski at the Wildwood Country Club. This is always an enjoyable time – mostly because our ladies (and gents) get to dress up in a non-pretentious environment. Once again our DJ will be Charlie Apple who always has a great repertoire of music and will take request for your favorite song.
A new event this year will be a “Shine and Dine” on October 14th at the Cranberry Wild Wings restaurant. The restaurant specially invited us to show off our cars and better yet they will donate ten per cent of our food purchases to our charities. Also this is a non-Steelers’ Sunday, so there really is a reason not to show up. Again details will be on our website. Some more good news – Jason Monyok has agreed to be our new “Tourmeister”. I don’t know if he will have time to create a tour for this season, but it is great to know and look forward to having some great drives. Our tours have been extremely popular in the past, so I look forward to seeing you and your Porsches traveling some through some of our great scenery. There have been a number of members asking about our annual trek and brunch at Nemacolin. The board and members decided not to do our event this year. Last year, we had less than average turnout and the resort also requested a guarantee (which we didn’t meet) so this was a money losing effort. I am hopeful that we can find someone to chair this event in 2013, because it is a quality experience and hopefully we can return this event to our schedule Coming up in the next issue, you’ll notice our ballot for our 2013 officers. You’ll also notice a familiar name missing — mine and it’s about time. I feel strongly that our club needs new leadership and I know the individuals nominated will do a great job in making our organization even stronger. I hope you will all take the time to vote which really does show how much you enjoy the club.
I also want to thank Diane and Paul Nickoloff for the use of their estate for September’s monthly business meeting. The meeting itself was very productive and the “after party” was even more fun. We need your input, so please plan on attending one of our meetings – you’ll enjoy yourself – especially if you participate.
Before I sign off for this month’s issue, I want to comment on the quality of our newsletter. Creating and publishing the Runshau is the most difficult and challenging task offered in our club. Nancy Lowe really began taking our publication into a quality piece of work. Now co-editors Iron Jack Purvis, Frank Bunecicky, layout guru Rob Hoffman and publisher Paul Nickoloff have taken our publication to new heights and they do this by putting in a lot of time and effort. If you see them or meet them, please thank them for their efforts – they deserve your praise.
Please contact me with your ideas, comments and suggestions – you’re not going to have much more time to do so.