by Mike Woods

Volume 7, Issue 6 November/December 2001 2001 Year-End Autocross Awards Banquet First-place overall in the autocross championship points for 2001 was awarded to Peter Plasterer, who dominated the series with his modified 3.6litre, Turbo-bodied 911 SC -- congratulations, Peter. Second-place overall went to Dean Krenz and his modified 928. Dean gave Peter a pretty good run for the money this year, and I suspect he will continue to be a force to be reckoned with for next season. Third-place honours went to Ernie “95 hp” Kowal and his deceptively quick 914. Ernie once again proves that the driver’s abilities and the car’s setup can be more important than raw horsepower Peter Plasterer (left) accepts the trophy for first-place overall from Dana Rhodes. Photo: Wyman Lee The VIR year-end autocross awards banquet was held once again this year at Bill Mattick’s Restaurant at the Cordova Bay Golf Course, with 49 VIR members attending and enjoying a delicious buffet dinner and an evening of fun and prizes. In This Issue 2001 Autocross Awards Banquet Off Camber Autocross Corner – Season Wrap-Up Treasurer’s Report Interior Region Wine Tour VIR Executive Listing November/December 2001 Page 1 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 8 Basil Hobbs holds a framed print of Dr. Ferry Porsche driving 356 #001, while auctioneer Dana Rhodes drives the price up through the roof. The eventual winner of the auction was Cathie Johnson, with a winning bid of $240.00. Photo: Wyman Lee 1 in the sport of autocross – nice work, Ernie. For 2001, the “Enthusiast of the Year” trophy was awarded to a very deserving recipient, Susan Krenz. This past year, Susan established and operated the VIR Goodie Store, attended numerous VIR events, and was instrumental in organizing the year-end banquet. Great job, Susan. Dick Grant, our PCA Zone 6 Representative, presented Mike Woods with a plaque for the PCA Newsletter Competition, sponsored by Porsche Cars of North America. In 2001, “The Porscher” created by Wyman Lee and Eric Maitland. The show included video clips and still photographs from a variety of VIR events, complete with funny captions supplied by Wyman and Eric. It was clear that a lot of time and effort went into the presentation, and it was very well received by all who were in attendance. As with every year-end banquet there are many contributors, and our thanks goes out to everyone who helped to make the event a success: Dean and Susan Krenz, for putting the banquet together; Dana Rhodes and Ernie Yakimovich , for gathering a spectacular array of door prizes; Basil Hobbs, for donating the auction items; Yvonne Yakimovich, for creating and providing the table centerpieces; Wyman Lee and Eric Maitland, for providing the entertainment. The VIR would also like to thank our generous sponsors who provided the door prizes for the event: Action Awards Big O Tire Cap-it Truck Outfitters Cloverdale Paint CompuSmart Forward Auto Gallery Forward Automotive Fountain Tire Home Lumber Dean and Susan Krenz McIntosh Insurance MCL Motor Cars Royal Bank of Canada Shiney Car Products Speed of Sound Auto Group Speedway Motors Styles Auto Upholstery Three Point Motors Weissach Performance Susan Krenz accepts the award for “Enthusiast of the Year” from VIR President Ernie Yakimovich. Photo: Wyman Lee won first place in its division, Class 1, for regions of up to 100 members. After all of the overall and the various class awards were handed out, it was time to auction off a couple of items donated to the club by “Spring to the River” chairman Basil Hobbs. The first item was a large-format Porsche calendar which eventually sold to Laura Souliotis for $140.00. The second item was a framed print of Dr. Ferry Porsche which, after much heated bidding, sold to Cathie Johnson for the sum of $240.00. All proceeds from the auction go directly into the club’s coffers, so thanks again to Basil for generously donating the auction items. Once the dust had settled from the auction and a large array of door prizes had been handed out, we were all treated to a multimedia presentation November/December 2001 2 Off Camber On a beautiful fall day, two Prevost Marathon motor coaches with my friend Jerry and his wife in one and myself and Yvonne in the other met up at Ice Cream Mountain and proceeded up the Island. What has this to do with Porsche activities? We were taking the coaches out to stretch their legs as part of the exercise as well as meeting up with Basil Hobbs, and Gary and Janice Glover in Campbell River. The purpose was to inspect a possible location for an autocross site for the next year's Spring to the River event. The new highway from Courtney to Campbell River was now open and it made the trip from Ice Cream Mountain to Campbell River three hours of pure enjoyment. Upon arriving in Campbell River we had lunch with the STTR trio, and after, with the extra passengers in our coach, we proceeded north to Kelsey Bay. For approximately 45 minutes from Painter’s Lodge we revelled in the joy of driving Porsche roads in a 40 ft. coach. When we arrived at the 28-acre log sort area we were overwhelmed with the view of Johnstone Straight. With this view it will be difficult to concentrate on the autocross, so complete focus will definitely be required. After taking many photos as well as inspecting the asphalt surface and drawing a sketch of the problem areas we headed south to Campbell River to return our passengers to their vehicles. Basil is clearly going to raise the bar once more this coming year. We have had a very busy and interesting year. Including the awards banquet, we have put on a total of eighteen events. These events have been organized to try to reflect the broad interests of our club and I hope you will agree this has been accomplished. Some of the highlights of the year are the very enjoyable Valentines Day brunch held at Arbutus Ridge which was attended by many members with their young families in tow. Spring to the River once again, a highlight of the year, was well organized by Basil Hobbs, Gary Glover and Ron Young, as well as their wives and other volunteers. The Father's Day German Car Picnic, organized by November/December 2001 Yvonne Yakimovich surveys the proposed autocross site at Kelsey Bay. Photo: Ernie Yakimovich Mike Woods and Ernie Kowal, was another first and by all accounts extremely successful and we look forward to doing it again next year. Beacon Hill ice cream social was well attended thanks to the efforts of Brad Blaney. We are going to be able to donate the amount of $1000.00 to the Vancouver Island Patients Kidney Association as a result of this event. Whistler this year was extremely well represented in the concours event by Grant and Janet Denluck with a first, Dana Rhodes with a first, Mike and Maureen Woodward with a first, Craig MacLeod with a second, and Al Klaus and Lauren Lepine with a third. In the racing scene Chris Souliotis won the Canadian GT championship in Calgary, in September. Kerry Spanier received his CACC racing license and competed in a number of events during the year. Dean Krenz is on his way to getting his racing license so next year there should be at least for of us competing in the regional racing scene. We have published six Porscher's this year, thanks to Al Kyle. The club treasury is in particularly good shape this year and Ken Glover reports we of current balance of over five thousand dollars in the account. This will go down a small amount by the end of the year, but we should deal to retain at least $4500.00 . This will allow the club to put away the amount of $2000.00 towards a rainy day fund. One of the goals all of this current executive is to create a 3 minimum rainy day fund of $5000.00. We are well on our way towards achieving this goal. Thanks to Blair Cooper the club has maintained its membership for the year as well we have created a membership card for the club members that has discount benefits while dealing with Speedway motors. The website has been maintained by Dean Krenz and is currently in fine form as many of you I am sure are enjoying the benefits of having the club information online. For any of you that require a hard copy it is extremely important for you to let the membership chairman know what your needs are. Susan Krenz has got the Goodie Store up and running and available for any of your Christmas shopping requirements for that special Porsche person in your life. I would like to thank all the executive and Volunteers that worked so hard to make last year are real success. In December at The Shark Club a new slate of directors was presented to the members. We actually had election with voting for several positions! The new executive for 2002 is as follows: President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Competition Newsletter Membership At large/Webmaster Up Island Reps Mike Woods Kerry Spanier Ken Glover Catherine McGougan Ernie Kowal Stan Olsen Conrad Peden James Renfrew Gary Glover/Ron Young AUTOCROSS CORNER 2001 SEASON WRAP-UP What a great Autocross year we have had. The weather was just great for all of the events, excepting a damp site at CFB Esquimalt. The Porsches and Corvettes battled tooth and nail for overall wins throughout the year, and I for one have made some new Autocross buddies. Although we were a bit startled at first at the ninetydegree corners, we soon figured out the quick lines and were able to chase the Corvettes with good results. Our "Rookies" all ran well, Richard Roy ran his Boxster well enough to win Class S-3, with Peter Klinke on his heels for second place. Richard also helped out at the events and should be a real contributor next year. Neil MacMahon was online for an overall top finish but due to other commitments was unable to compete in all of the events. It was good to see Jim Cole and his modified 914 at unfortunately too few events; Jim is real close to having the bugs worked out of the car and look out when he does. Melanie ColeKellow, Jim's sister, returned to the Autocross scene at the last event of the year -- welcome back Melanie. The four-cylinder war raged on as usual between the 944's of Al Kyle and Bryce Holtz, with my 914 coming out on top of the class and 3rd Overall for 2001. Peter Plasterer drove his 1973-3.6 911 to a 1st Overall win, Peter was only defeated once out of the six events that he ran (that pesky black and yellow 914 grabbed one away from him) -- nice driving Peter. Second overall, as well as first in M8, went to Dean Krenz and his bevy of 928's. Dean's success this year was due to his ever improving driving and he will be a force to reckon with in the future. Ken Glover wins the Turbo class again with an excellent and consistent performance in his C-2 Turbo, thanks also to Ken for helping collect the money and pay the bills for the events. In the stock 914 class Brad Blaney came out on top, now if I can just convince him to by my RS 11's maybe he will move into the P class. Connell 4 Congratulations to all those that were elected and took up positions on the executive for the club. I look forward to working with the new executive in the enviable position of past president. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and all of your families. I look forward to seeing you at our events in the new year. Happy Porsching, Your President and soon to be Past President, Ernie November/December 2001 `` Ashby finished second to Brad in the S-1 class. Matt Rosenko in the 914 shows good promise and if he and Chris Souliotis ever build an Autocross 914 they will be hard to beat. John Vestner and his 911T came out on top in Class S-2, and our V.P. Mike Woods finished 1st in class P-3 in his 911 Carrera. James Renfrew took the win in P-4 in his 928 – you need to run more events next year James, always fun to hear the V-8. Many thanks to the following people (in no particular order of importance): Conrad Peden for helping with the tech inspections, Ernie Yakimovich and Craig Mcleod for hauling out the Autocross trailer out to Western Speedway. Cathie Johnson and Mike Woods for the wonderful cooking and refreshments at the events. Susan Krenz for her efforts with the Goody Store, and Stephan Krenz for selling the 50/50 tickets. Al Kyle, Brad Blaney and Ken Glover for doing registration, for all of you who helped set up courses, Ernie Y, Stan Olsen, Richard Roy, John Vestner, the Corvette guysLarry and Rod, Dan at Western Speedway, and everyone who stayed after the events were over to help with the cleanup. And finally anyone that I missed, it was not intentional -- thanks to you all for making the 2001 Autocross season a success. Ernie Kowal TREASURER’S REPORT Another year and the Club is still solvent. Your Executive worked overtime this year and organized numerous events to benefit the Club. Blair Cooper actually collected membership dues from all members this year and next year we’ll up the cost for non-members to participate in our events. Our Goodie Store was a great success thanks to the efforts of Susan (and Dean) Krenz. Al Kyle’s newsletter costs were as budgeted and Ernie Kowal organized all the autocross events and although I haven’t seen the bills for the awards, I’m sure his efforts will have a positive contribution to our Club coffers. We’re anticipating a break-even for the annual banquet thanks to the organizational skills of Dean and Susan Krenz. Brad Blaney sponsored Ice Cream Sunday and the Club donated $500.00 to the Kidney Foundation. As a result of Brad’s efforts, the net revenues nearly equalled our donation. Mike Woods and Ernie Kowal sponsored the German Car Picnic, with numerous award packages donated by Ernie’s car cleaning product company, Shiney Car Products. They’re organizational skills to bring in the BMW and Mercedes clubs also made a substantial contribution to our bottom line. The Spring to the River event, organized by our hard working up-Island members including Basil Hobbs, Gary Glover, Ron Young, Wayne Ayers and Dana Rhodes, nearly broke even this year after significant contribution last year. Ernie Yakimovich sponsored several tech nights at his house, Chris Souliotis sponsored a race tech night at his house and both Speedway Motors and Forward Automotive hosted tech sessions, thus reducing our costs to hold these events. At the end of the day, after tallying up the cost of the autocross awards and the net banquet costs, I expect that this year’s Executive will have promoted events that were supported by our membership and the public at large that will have raised approximately $1,500 for the club. I’ll give you the final chapter of the accounting results at the AGM after I return from Hawaii. Ken Glover November/December 2001 5 B.C. Interior Region Wine Tour 2001 Thinking that wine and German cars go together, Janice and I registered for the Interior Region’s Fall Wine Tour. Basil Hobbs also decided to participate. We made our ferry reservations, as the event took place over the Thanksgiving Weekend, and departed Nanaimo at noon of the Friday. Amazing, even Basil was on time. After a quick uneventful sprint over the Coquihalla and the connector to the Okanagan we arrived in Kelowna and checked into our motels. That evening found us at the home of Dwayne and Colleen Armeneau. We sampled enough local wine and feasted on an excellent pizza and lots of at the first stop we were given the correct procedure. “Spit -- do not swallow.” Right on! (That train of thought lasted about five minutes…) The day was spent touring around the local area of Kelowna and visiting the five wineries. We even had time for a scenic drive to the Okanagan Lakeside Resort for lunch. By the time we reached the last winery, our numbers had dwindled down to five diehards. On Saturday night, everyone stuffed themselves at a local Greek restaurant. Sunday morning was the same ritual again -- clean the car and head for the coffee shop. The itinerary for this day was a spirited drive through the Monashee Mountains, a picnic lunch, and then back Dick Grant & Paul Smith – PNWR Various Members – CWR & BCIR Porsche Only Parking @ Mission Hill Winery finger food. Before we returned to our beds, all were given an itinerary for the next 2½ days. It looked like there was not going to be much time to stay up late. Saturday morning found us at the local car wash – we had to remove the squadrons of flies that had attached themselves to our cars. After a few moments of soap and spray, we noticed another 911 in the next booth. They had just arrived from Kamloops. We managed to find our way to the arranged coffee shop to meet the others, and continued to make new acquaintances. There were even some members from the Canada West Region that had been to Tofino, so we even knew some familiar faces. At precisely 9:45 – 10:00 am, 15 Porsches departed for the first of five wineries. We had been wondering how to tour and sample the wines and November/December 2001 to Kelowna and another winery. Well “spirited” it was, and there’s not enough room to recollect our adventures this day. What a sight, 18 Porsches on a dry, winding, almost empty mountain road. The weather was gorgeous, a clear fall day with a hint of winter in the air. Our hosts provided an excellent picnic for all. Amazing what you can carry in that many Porsches. Back in Kelowna we stopped at the Grey Monk Winery. The Interior Region had been stopping here since it started the Wine Tour, many years ago. It was like a warm homecoming. The owners and staff were fantastic. I think we closed the place down that day. After supper, again many congregated at Dwayne and Colleen’s house. Their home is situated on a hill with a splendid view of the city -- an impressive backdrop while tasting more of the local wine and socializing with fellow Porsche 6 On the spirited Drive Again at the tasting bar – Grey Monk Winery owners. Monday morning saw again the same ritual -- not as many cars this day as our schedule was for a brunch in Summerland, a back road drive to Keremeos and then on to our respective homes. We left Penticton via the Green Mountain road. Well, this was an even better drive than the previous day – a totally exhilarating piece of pavement. This was the perfect end to our weekend. We had a great time and we’ll be sure to mark this event on our calendar for next year. One has to partake in an immense quantity of wine samples to feel any effect, or have a designated driver with you. What a remarkable way to spend an autumn long weekend -- exceptional wine, food, company and great Porsche driving. Special thanks to Dwayne and Colleen Armeneau for organizing this event and hosting everyone at their home. And you can ask Basil about the spirited drive!!!!! Janice and Gary Glover A Quiet Country Road Above: resting on Saturday. Below: A final farewell in Keremeos After a brief stop in Keremeos to say our goodbyes, use the facilities and purchase a few of the local fruit and veggies, we were on our way back towards Horseshoe Bay. There was a pair of red 993’s from CWR leading the way (and looking out for the local constabulary). By 9 p.m., Janice and I were home in Port Alberni, unpacking and amazed at how many bottles of wine you can squirrel away in a 911. November/December 2001 7 The staff of The Porscher wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Your VIR Executive President: Vice President: Ernie Yakimovich 658-4355 egy@home.com Mike Woods 383-2428 flatsix@telus.net Brad Blaney 477-9674 bradblaney@home.com Ken Glover 658-0925 ken@glover.bc.ca Blair Cooper 479-0448 bscoopers@aol.com Ernie Kowal 743-5540 thekowals@home.com Director: (Newsletter) Director: (At Large) And Webmaster Director: (Up Island) Past President: 1997/98 Al Kyle 744-1060 hakyle@telus.net Dean Krenz 727-3366 dekrenz@cardsys.com Vacant Secretary: Al Kyle 744-1060 hakyle@telus.net Treasurer: PCA Representative Zone 6 Dick Grant (253) 813-1930 wooosh@aol.com Director: (Membership) Director: (Competition) Newsletter Editor: Design and Publishing: Al Kyle 744-1060 hakyle@telus.net Bryan Kyle bryank@canada.com EDITORIAL: Statements appearing in The Porscher are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Porsche Club of America, the Vancouver Island Region, its Executive, or the Editor. SUBMISSIONS: Members are invited and encouraged to submit articles and photos that would be of interest to the Club. VIR Web Site: http://www.pca.org/vis November/December 2001 8