SDR President’s Message – October 2020
Oct 2020 Monthly PCA San Diego Region President’s Message
What’s happening in PCA San Diego Region?
COVID-19 restrictions are gradually loosening and PCA-SDR events are slowly being permitted to return. Again, we still need to continue being diligent in complying with stated regulations and common sense, especially as we are nearing the Thanksgiving/Christmas Season when annual gatherings abound.
Vote for 2021 SDR Board members
To those of you who VOTED for next year’s board either by mailing in a paper ballot, or by voting electronically on line! – THANK YOU. We received a total of 237 responses to the election.
Per SDR By-Laws, candidates have been notified accordingly and the first step of their two year term is for 2021 SDR Board members to meet and decide who will be our four officers: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary for 2021 with the remaining three being Board Members at Large.
Congratulations to the four newly elected board members for 2021 who, in alphabetical order, will be:
Ann Archibald, Anastasia Berta, Scott Leslie and Eric Marc-Aurele.
They will join Tom Brown, Mike Miller and myself (Keith Verlaque), from the 2020 board, to make a total of the seven directors required for 2021. Better luck next time to the candidates who did not make it this time but thanks for throwing your names in the hat.
SDR Virtual FOOD DRIVE
(As of Oct 7th)
The SDR food drive began on Aug 1st and continues until Nov 1st and we are rapidly nearing our revised goal of $10,000.
The current $ total (as of Oct 07) is $9,625.
Each dollar donated provides food for 5 meals, which means that San Diego Region has provided over 48,000 meals to date, and we still have all of October to go! Let’s see how high we can get that total to help fellow San Diegans.
If you’ve already donated – thank you very much, and please consider donating more than once if your budget allows. $10, $25, $50 or more – whatever you can. If members simply donated the amount that they are saving on gasoline every two weeks, while working from home, the difference to the total would be HUGE.
Click HERE to donate.
Use your debit or credit card and remember these donations are tax deductible! Just make sure to print out your receipt after checkout, you will also get an email receipt from SDFB.
New Members
Although club management’s hands are still tied, to some extent, by current circumstances, we remain eager to demonstrate how SDR can show members ways of getting much more enjoyment out of their Porsche. Consequently, a New Member Welcome event is still in the pipeline at which all members will be welcome to attend and meet and socialize with members who have joined recently. Please watch out for e-mails from the club and check our calendar regularly.
BEWARE of an early 911 in Irish Green … that makes no noise!!
For those interested in short Porsche related videos, the following link is to the story of a heavily modified 1968 Porsche 911. Brilliance or Blasphemy? – you decide but if, by chance, you do happen to see this car on the street – it’s probably NOT a good idea to race it!! To see more, click HERE
What has recently happened in SDR?
SDR’s First Virtual Tech Session
Our first ever Virtual Tech Session was hosted by Völlig Autowerks on Saturday Oct 12th who invited you into their shop from the comfort of your own home via a Zoom meeting.
The event was a HUGE success with a mix of live questions and answers interspersed with some pre-recorded video of several aspects of wheel alignment and suspension set-up including adding adjustability to your Porsche’s handling. Approximately 80 members were in attendance and all learned how their cars’ suspension and alignment worked and learned a few ways to improve the suspension system. Many were wowed by the fantastic acting in the video portion (remember the word “fantastic” means hard to believe as it originates from fantasy). All in all it was really good fun and very educational. Huge thanks are due to Adam and Lana Gill at Völlig Autowerks – plus the team that helped them film and record the whole event. Our web team is in the process of posting the whole event on our website – so, if you missed it, be sure to watch for that.
SDSU Stadium availability – Autocrossing
For many years (at least for the 23 years I’ve been in SDR) our region has been known as a Driving Region. Largely due to our having access to “the Murph” (Jack Murphy Stadium), which was then renamed “the Q” (Qualcomm Stadium) and, subsequently SDCCU (San Diego County Credit Union Stadium), we proudly boasted it as the largest paved area West of the Mississippi. As a result, we have been able to put on autocrosses with sometimes as much as one and a half minute laps* and speeds occasionally in excess of legal road speed limits. I recall one PCA Parade autocross in which competitors from all over the USA competed where the TTOD (top time of day) was below 40 seconds!!
We were also able to proudly hold two Performance Driving Schools per year complete with four large skid pads for Throttle Steering and Pitch and Catch exercises and at least four other full size exercises – Slalom, Accident Avoidance, Early/Mid/Late Apex and the much-loved Dynamic Cornering. Our school was held twice a year for approximately 25 years and will be greatly missed. It was indeed rare to have such a huge open driving venue available – we were the envy of many a PCA Region. I suspect that many an SDR members who are graduates of the PDS will have a moment’s quiet thought and remember having incredible fun learning how to tame their Porsches at past PDSs.
Sadly, we have received a message from the new Stadium Manager from SDSU, who recently acquired the stadium (and has already started to tear it down to build anew), that there will definitelybe no more events of any nature, driving or otherwise, held at the stadium for at least the next two years and most likely ever. Accordingly, we are sending scouts out to every driving venue in So Cal to investigate the possibility of re-invigorating our PDS.
*PS. My proofreader just informed me that I may have been the only person autocrossing that was getting one and a half minute lap times … 
PCA-SDR Goodie Store
Autumn is officially underway!
Gear up with a PCA-SDR soft-shell jacket from the PCA-SDR Goodie Store!
Lightweight and waterproof, this jacket will keep you warm when you’re rolling through town with the windows down.
NOTE: Most SDR clothing in our goodie store is available in both men’s and women’s styles.
What’s about to happen in SDR?
Driving Tours
On Sunday Oct 11th, the SDR Driving Tours Chair Rick Richardson and his team revived the legendary SDR Driving Tours program and added Tours back onto our calendar. Event protocols have been significantly modified to comply with COVID-19 regulations with facemasks and social distancing being required and observed. The tour was limited to 50 cars with event registration on a first-come first-served basis. If you were unfortunate enough to have missed the window for signing up for this tour – fear not! Another is scheduled for Sun Nov 1st.
Watch your e-mail – but please note there is a rule that if you attended the Oct 11thtour, you are ineligible to run the Nov driving tour.
This is intended to give more members a chance to sign up. If the demand for tours remains sufficiently high, the tours team will consider increasing the number of tours significantly. The current “four tours per year” just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore.
DE/TT – on October 17th and 18th there will be another Time Trial at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway (CVR) this will be a double points event in a clockwise direction. PLEASE NOTE: ALL attendees are required to register and sign a Speedwaiver ahead of time – whether they are driving or simply visiting the event.
The link to the event is HERE
The NEXT Monthly Board Meeting will be Tue Nov 3rd and will again be a Zoom conference call, in order to comply with social distancing regulations. Board members and committee chairs will receive conference call details with dial-in numbers, etc. The Board will again reassess all upcoming events, based on current affairs.
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For all SDR events, please see our region website calendar HERE
CURRENT OCTOBER events:
Now thru Nov 1st – PCA-SDR Virtual Food Drive, in conjunction with San Diego Food Bank (SDFB), go to SDR Webpage HERE – If you can help, please do!
11 (Sun) – Back Country Roads Driving Tour. We are very happy to announce that the SDR driving tours are back with Rick Richardson and his team. This tour will have full COVID-19 protocols in place (facemasks worn when outside the car, plus social distancing, etc.). The Oct tour is already full and registration has closed. However, an additional tour will follow on Sun Nov 1st. Registration for the Nov Driving Tour is not open at the time of writing but, as soon as it is, event details will follow in an e-mail to members.
17 – 18 (Sat & Sun) – There will be another COVID-19 compliant SDR Time Trial at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway (CVR) that will be double points and will run clockwise.
As the situation changes regarding Government restrictions on holding “non-essential” events and it becomes possible to have PCA-SDR events once again, e-mails will be sent to SDR members.
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Still hoping to see you soon at an SDR event and asking that when you do attend, please be sure to introduce yourself.
Keith Verlaque
PCA-SDR 2020 President
Who are we?………………….WE ARE SDR !!