yosadmin

Santa Cruz Stay and Drive, Oct 9-11th

July 11, 2020 by yosadmin

Watch this space for when registration will open.

Welcome our new board members: Jacki Sturkie and Carrie Stone

July 7, 2020 by yosadmin

Carrie Stone has assumed a “new” definition of Event Coordinator. Carrie brings considerable experience in “technology”, boundless enthusiasm and a passion for Porsche. Historically, our past secretary, Jeniffer Pierce, handled the “Eventbrite” registration process. Given our experience with Eventbrite, the board recognized that we needed to do a deep dive into software platforms, including Eventbrite, for what would work best for our region’s events.

Carrie has already looked at a number of platforms against a “wish list” or capabilities. While this analysis is still on going, Carrie will provide a recommendation to the board on what platform is best suited for the region.

Ongoing, Carrie will help with the management of future events by “running” the chosen platform.

As far as Porsches go, Carrie has what currently is the “newest” car in the club, a 992 Cab! Jon Stone is now relegated to the 991 Turbo S.

Jacki Sturkie is tackling the El Portal with Bracken’s request to step down. Jackie brings expertise as a Brand Strategist/Copywriter (as well as having some influence with our region’s president, Brian!).

As we go forward, the region will continue to publish the newsletter on line, retaining format flexibility and content with color images. We have an opportunity to evolve the newsletter in some manner — the sky’s the limit!

So, welcome Jackie as our newsletter editor/media coordinator/communications chair ??? Still working out the details !!

Yosemite says “good bye” to Bracken Helms, El Portal Editor

July 6, 2020 by yosadmin

Bracken Helms has been serving as the El Portal editor for over 5 years; but has requested to step down. Even though Yosemite Region awarded him “Member of the Year” (the first to get this award in “modern times”), the region still owes Bracken a huge Thank You for all the work he has done for the Region.

Bracken took over the El Portal when it was still being “printed”. That meant he had to make the newsletter in a format that could be printed, then get it printed and then “mail” it out to the members. After several years of this approach, the region moved the El Portal to an “e-version”. This allowed Bracken more freedom with format, but more importantly, it gave him the capability of publishing it IN COLOR. Check out the cover photo from his Dec 2019 El Portal for his composition “eye”. He could have been a co-lecturer in the recent Tech Tactics Webinar of “Photographing your Porsche” !

It also gave him the chance to maximize the impact of the “cover” photo. We think that his artistic flair made some of the best “cover” shots in PCA newsletter.

Bracken has a very busy life, working, family man and running his accessory business, Circuit Sixfour (check out his website by clicking on his business icon at the bottom of our Website Home page!

So, again THANK YOU, Bracken, for your efforts to help make Yosemite Region a premium club.

So, now what?

We are fortunate to have Jacki Sturkie volunteer to take up the “newsletter” job. Jackie brings expertise as a Brand Strategist/Copywriter (as well as having some influence with our region’s president, Brian!).

As we go forward, the region will continue to publish the newsletter on line, retaining format flexibility and content with color images.

We have an opportunity to evolve the newsletter in some manner — the sky’s the limit!

So, welcome Jackie as our newsletter editor/media coordinator/communications chair ??? Still working out the details !!

A Drive to Prospect 772 Winery — and Dinner

June 27, 2020 by yosadmin

The board has been working hard to develop an event that we can enjoy with our cars, be with friends and end up at a lovely venue for dinner — all consistent with “social distancing” and member safety!

Yosemite Region announces its first social event since March: A Drive to Prospect 772 Winery and Dinner on the winery grounds. The date is July 18th. Dinner will be by the Prospect 772 Managing Partner, Ron Pieretti. Our host will serve his famous Baby Back Ribs, salad and cornbread. Ron will set out three wines for us (included in the event): a Rose’, he calls it Baby Doll, a wonderful Red blend that is one of my favorites, called Black Tie Charlie, and a Grenache Blanc white wine, called Stepping Stones. Price will be $42/person which includes the wine, tax, tip and Eventbrite fees. Registration and payment will be via our normal Eventbrite site. Click the GT-3 registration button to go to the registration site. There is a lot of details to go over, so let’s begin:

We will meet at the Big-Boy grocery parking lot (The store is “closed”) in Escalon at 2:30 PM, leaving for our drive in the foothills at 3:00 PM. There will use “social distancing” procedures for out”safety” meeting. And, we will ask each participant to wear masks — its not a political statement, just a precautionary practice — like buckling your seat belt when you start up your Porsche! To minimize “touch points”, participants will be mailed the “customary” release form and the additional “Communicable Disease Spectator and Participant Release” release form– addressing COVID19 We will ask participants to bring them to the event already signed!

Our “DRIVE” will be up to the foothills — we promise some new roads for your enjoyment! The usual caravan procedures will be in force, including use of region’s radio’s (which will be sanitized before and after the event!). We will provide good route sheet, again sending the copy to registrants before the event

Once we are at Prospect 772 winery, we will park on their tarmac and field (sorry, it will be slightly dusty) trying to keep even our Porsche’s “socially distant”. Please follow the directions of the “parking” chairperson when you pull into the winery property. NOTE: the driveway onto the property is a well packed gravel surface; please drive slowly to avoid kicking up any stones for cars behind you!

Prospect 772 has a number of picnic benches around the venue. We will limit one couple at one end of a table and another couple at the “other” end of the table — should be about 6 feet apart! Dinner won’t be a “self serve” buffet, rather we will queue up to get our plates and food served by winery staff. Grab a glass (sorry, we will won’t be able to take them home!) and queue up for a wine serving.

If the case of wine that will be set out doesn’t last, the club will make sure there will be more available! Also, Ron will have all the winery’s other offering available for purchase either to enjoy at the dinner or take home, and he will extend the Wine Club Membership prices to everyone at the event. (note: Don C is a Wine Club member there and just picked up a case a couple weeks ago — yummy!) Click here to go to Prospect 772’s website for a description of their wines.

WERKS Reunion 2020 Cancelled

June 16, 2020 by yosadmin

Following is the communication from WERKS that the event just could not meet the expectations of the local health requirements for gathering of this type.

(Don C: And I did a deep clean of the wheel wells already — for naught!)

Food Drive for 2nd Harvest

April 25, 2020 by yosadmin

Our Food Drive, supporting the Second Harvest Food Bank is in the books. The event was plain gratifying on so many levels.

Over 20 Yosemite Region members as well as Redwood Region, Loma Prieta and Sacramento Valley participated!
We contributed about 125 “grocery bags” to the food bank — filling up three full sized pick-up trucks!!
In addition to food donations, four members make cash donations to the food bank, including one from as far away as Peach State in Georgia!
It just FELT good. Anthony Vierra summed it up ” … we did a good thing today!”

The board’s preparation was detailed and responsible as possible. Event Chair, Larry Inman worked with the Second Harvest management to coordinate particulars of the donation and Dave Boyd used his work experience to develop a “Safety and Procedures” plan to reflect all manner of “social distancing” and stipulated PPE. Brian Sturkie was in frequent communication with PCA Vice President Cindy Jasicin to secure PCA buy-in. The request for event insurance ultimately went all the way to the full PCA Executive Committee, with Collin helping to present “our case”.

In the end, with full PCA backing, the event went off without a hitch!

Make sure to check out the “Photo Gallery” on the website for photos of all the participants and organization.

We also have to give a BIG shout out to Nico and Victoria of Migliore Motorwerks for their support, hosting the drop-off location.

Some YOS history from 1966!

April 11, 2020 by yosadmin

Since most of our Yosemite Region members were not part of the club 50 years ago, it would be interesting to get an appreciation of what the club was like “back in the day”. Dale’s input meshed with Norm Swanberg’s input that first populated our Yosemite Region History page in our website.

Dale Burnham, who was part of the club back then, communicated to the region about helping sell his brother-in-law’s 1984 924 Turbo. Of course we were happy to help and the “ad” is posted in our classified section! But, we asked a favor of Dale — could he give us a short recollection of what it was like to be in the Yosemite Region in the 1960″s. Dale, being a true Porsche and Yosemite Region fellow to the core, gave the following remembrance. Thank you Dale!!

My name is Dale Burnham. I joined Yosemite Region, PCA in January 1966. My car was a 1955 356 (not an A) Continental sunroof coupe. I believe Walter Rupple, of Rupple Imports, was president. Some of the members were Johnny and June? Knight, Bob Romans, Jim Burt, Bud and Mary Ann Behrens and Bob and Gladys Ikeada( they won one of the first PCA member raffles). We were a small region but we fathered many others in the beginning of PCA.
I believe the 1970 issue that highlights Yosemite region covers our history. I had a copy but it was stolen at one of our dinner meetings. We are the parent region for Sac Valley, Golden Gate, Monterey Bay and Loma Prieta.
We were a small region when I joined with a lot of our Stockton members belonging to Sac Valley. I became president either 1969 or 1970. Our membership kept declining because people felt the was more activities in Sacramento. About 1972 I advised we were going to dissolve the region unless they helped us. They forced the Stockton people to Yosemite region and they decided to get active locally. Helped a lot.
We had a couple of tours to San Simeon on some 3-4 day weekends. Stockton to Hollister, south on Hwy 25 to the end. Turn right to 101 over to US 1 to San Simeon. Spent 2 days at Hearst Castle and then home. Had 20 + cars. We started doing rallies put on by our own people and by John Cleaver ( rallye master supreme). We had auto crosses all over the local areas from Turlock to Stockton. We used small airports, wineries, fairgrounds and the Stockton Gun and Boccieball club. We had dinners at Dave Wong’s when it was located south of the Cross town freeway in Stockton ( complete meals were not on the menu). We would travel to various places for dinner( down to Dos Paulo’s for basque dinner).
I moved out of the area in 2007 and transferred membership to Heart O’ Dixie.
During the many years I belonged to Yosemite I served as president, vice pres, sec/treas newsletter publisher and historian. My wife designed our regional badge that was used until late 2000.

2020 Annual Meeting/Dinner

February 11, 2020 by yosadmin

This year’s Annual Dinner was a delightful treat. The venue at the Reed Carseum in Modesto was very welcoming and was set up very nicely! The car displays were impressive with a very nice, red soft top Targa SC, flanked by a blue Pantera and a black Ferrari! All sorts of other yummy cars were there to help with the backdrop. And unlike many other auto museums, a number of the cars were “open” to sit in (not the Pantera, sorry!)

John Reed kicked off the evening with an introduction to the museum, how his father started it and how the family continues to expand the holdings. He relived how they came to buy the Porsche and how it was one of the family’s favorites (yea, I bet that Ferrari was the family favorite when some “other” car club visited the museum! The final count of attendees was 58 members, including some “new” members. Ted Fisher, a transfer in member and long time friend of the Pierces, drove in from north of Sacramento!The evening started with a social hour, beer and wine (thank you Brian!) and hours d’Oeuvres, giving everyone time to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Just to spur memories, a “slide show” of all our events from 2019 played on a HD TV. Dinner was a three course meal with salad, a very tasty beef and poultry plate and desert.

After dinner, Brian started the “business” part of the meeting, with a power-point presentation — just enough to keep things on track. Of course, he welcomed everyone and gave a brief glimpse of the health of the region (more on this later). Brian introduced the board with particular attention to the “new” board members: Dave Boyd (VP), Larry Ingleman (Treasurer), Anthony Vierra (Membership). Of note was the growth of the region — now with over 250 overall members (over 150 “primary” members) and, interestingly, 7 “Junior” members — a nice demographic to highlight for future growth!

Brain then moved to announcing the “Member of the Year” award. This year, the region had the honor to recognize the incredible contribution of BOTH Chuck and Jennifer Pierce. The impact that Chuck and Jennifer had on energizing, expanding and making the activities FUN cannot be overstated.

If you missed this event, we are sorry (for you) as everyone had a grand time. Below is evidence of the good times:

What to do when in “quarantine”

February 8, 2020 by yosadmin

A new question is just a fact of life for us during this global viral crisis. What am I going to do today? For some of us, its adjusting to how to work “from home”. That takes care of Monday through Friday. For a number of members who have moved on from careers, the question is more difficult to answer since many social activities just are not allowed, such as going to a music event, meeting friends for dinner, or anything that has a group of people. For me, I’m particularly inhibited from such things as I’m in the unfortunate demographic of > 65yrs (ok, way over 65 for me) and once had a serious infection, so my resistance may be compromised. Other common go-to home actives like watching a F1 event, or a baseball game, or March Madness!! on TV are not possible, since they have been cancelled. So, what to do?

Here are a few ideas to consider!

You can always start on a simple “project car”. Like, how hard can it be?? You see them all the time in Panorama, Excellence, etc. Someone finds a tub in a barn, pulls it out and says, “… I can fix this up for a nice fun project”. All the time.

A simple 356 wouldn’t be all that hard to work on, after all, it doesn’t have those pesky computers and things. Just a motor, a few wheels, a little paint, … no problem ! I bet that would keep you busy for a month or two!

How about a brake upgrade? My rotors were getting a little rutted after a few seasons with PAGID (completion) brake pads, so maybe a re-fresh?

Actually, the job is well within the reach of anyone with a little wrench experience. OEM rotors are not that expensive from Pelican Parts or your dealer (with your Yosemite Region discount!). One recommendation though, make sure to use NEW caliper bolts, or better yet, install caliper studs (available from Tarett : www.tarett.com). And, no brake job would be complete without a full flush with new brake fluid! The outcome is gratifying just to look at it.

Want something to “update” your “tunes”? If you are getting tired with your CDR-220, or if your PCM 3.1 is on the fritz, why not move up to the 2020’s and get a new unit with modern features?

The job is really easy, if you know what you’re doing with all those funny wires and all. The unit fits right into the current space. But, since I didn’t know how to hook up all those funny wires, I had a very competent shop do the hard work. The end product is something that is worth while — makes you feel so, 2020’s !

If push comes to shove, you can always pull the car out on your driveway — you still can consider yourself in quarantine, and give your lovey a nice spa treatment.

My favorite process is to wash and shine my car with AMMONYC products (no vested interest), but Griot’s products are equally as good (I’m told!) — I signed up for the Griot’s seminar next month, but, you guessed it, it was cancelled!. I know that you are really “a driver, not a waxer”, but when you get really house crazy, a little soap and water will make things a little more bearable.

And,,, washing you car will count for maybe 5 of your required “hand washings” for the day!

Update: PCA and Porsche Events and COVID19

February 8, 2020 by yosadmin

The following items were posted on PCA website and is repeated here, if for nothing else, effect!

UPDATE 3-23-2020: PCA offices will be closing!

In compliance with Maryland Governor Hogan’s Executive Order, starting at 5 pm Eastern Time on March 23, 2020, the PCA National Office will be closed until further notice. We will have PCA staffers working remotely in limited capacity. You can always reach us via email.

National and International Motorsports events

Due to the novel Coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, automotive events around the world have been postponed or cancelled, and events held by and/or related to Porsche Club of America are no exception. Below is a list of PCA and Porsche-related events and their current statuses. We will update this page as more information becomes available. PCA-hosted events are in bold.