Issue 4
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• JULY, 2014
In this month’s issue In the Zone with Tim Hagner
On page 5 Prez Says
On page 6 Le Mans, 2014
On page 12 Soaring to the Coast
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In the Zone Zone 6 Update by Tim Hagner
Tim Hagner is the Zone 6 representative for Porsche Club of America. Email him at simtue@gmail.com.
It’s that time of year: Porsche Drive time. In all our Regions the snows have cascade region porsche club of america
melted, the roads are clean and the Porsches are being
President
driven.
Ross Rampy
Vice President Michael Hernandez
Secretary
Starting in May the events start coming at us every weekend and they don’t slow down till October. I know that some of our regions can drive all year. I’m jealous. Those regions not along the Pacific Ocean aren’t as fortunate and live with “Driving Seasons”; it’s better than Christmas, so let the driving season begin. Oh, don’t forget to apply for your insurance and sign the waiver.
David Duarte
Treasurer Bill Lucas
Membership Chairman Glenn Gumaer
Central Chapter John Thompson
Website Editor Joel Weyhe
Media & Graphics Ignite Media Group, Inc.
Special thanks to Dave Johnson, Robert Forest
Contact der Auspuff is a publication of the Cascade Region of the Porsche Club of America. For more information or to become a member, visit us online at www.cascadeporscheclub.org.
Lots of Zone 6 activities and news. First Big News, Living Skies Prairie is now our 16th Region. There was a Launch Party in Saskatoon on May 31st that I was happy to attend. They have 41 charter members and will grow rapidly thanks to an enthusiastic group of Porsche People and the support of their local Dealer, who was there in force to support the event. I look forward to a return visit, flight, not drive; it’s over 2,000 miles one way from my home in Bend! We are a BIG Region! Zone 6 at Parade in Monterey went very well. Thanks to all of you that made it to the reception. To my old eyes we had close to 300 Zone 6’ers out of the 360 that registered for Parade. I tried to say “Hi” to as many as I could. Hope that you enjoyed it. Zone 6 took lots of awards and prizes home, too many to list here, but one Zone 6 couple took home a new Targa! Mark Titterton of Vancouver Island Region won the PCA raffle this year and was presented the new Porsche Targa at the Victory Banquet. He had no clue until the end. A new Targa to go with the Targa he’s been driving for the last 30 years! How cool is that? Oh, he only bought one ticket. Guess I’ll start buying them. The Zone 6 logo contest is still going on from now till September 1st. There are lots of talented people in our zone and I’m sure there will be no lack of great ideas. I know this because I’ve received 11 logos already! The winning logo will be announced on September 15th. Send your logo submission to your regional President and they’ll past it on to me. The Zone 6 website has all your entries and can be viewed at www.zone6-pca.org. Here’s a “Shout out” to the Club Racers in our Zone who are earning points in the West Coast PCA Club Racing Series: Phil Rochelle, Class C, currently in first place and Chris Chamberlain, Class GTA, in second place. Canada West and Pacific Northwest are hosting the Whistler Weekend, August 22 – 24. This will be a great Porsche event and get-a-way. I’m looking forward to being there and seeing you there also! Hope to see you soon and don’t forget: it really is about the people.
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From Our President Cascade Porsche-Pushers, First of all, Happy 4th of July. Please celebrate responsibly and enjoy the fireworks. July going to be a busy month for the club with the coast trip and the ball game along with the holiday. There still time to join us for both events, so RSVP to teeitup@mind.net and come join us. For Central members, we are planning to have lunch at Seven Feathers on the 19th between 12 and 1 , so if you decide to come, join us there. If you just want to join us for lunch, that fine. My understanding Zone 6 did pretty well at the Parade, and we had some Cascade members attend and I heard they had a good time even though they couldn’t wash their cars because of the water draught in California. In next month’s issue, we’ll have one of them write an article about the week long parade. Right now, all can I think of is my car will be finished by the time this hits the press, and can finally I can say again, See You In My Mirrors. Sincerely, Ross Rampy ross@cascadeporscheclub.org
Ross Rampy has been serving as President of the Cascade PCA since 2011. In addition to his passion for Porsche, he also enjoys spending time with his 6 kids, 5 grandkids and 2 dogs.
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My Trip to Le Mans
by Jon Thompson Central Chapter
Some may have been wondering why the Central Chapter hasn’t been overly active. I am going to chalk it up to a trip I recently took. A trip to support Porsche in their return to Le Mans. This turned into a much more time involved vacation than I expected. For out two week vacations, I needed the previous three to get my job and other things in order for me to be gone. Then upon returning, I needed almost another two weeks to get things back in order. A brief run down of our itinerary. We flew into London and took a train to Bath where we stayed for four days. My wife, Renee, was able to do some genealogy while we were there. Amazingly, the weather was beautiful. We then took a train to Portsmouth where we took an overnight ferry to Caen, France. This was my first time on a ferry of this type and I was amazed at its’ size. I initially thought this was a people-only ferry. Boy was I wrong! We arrived a bit early to find two things. First, the ferry wasn’t boarding for two hours. Second, the entire UK was going to Le Mans and they were taking their cars and campers. It was fun to watch the wide variety of cars that were loading onto the ferry. The ferry paperwork showed it can hold almost 1000 cars and 2000 people. The night trip went by fast. We had a room and were able to get some shut-eye. Once into Caen, we were take a train to Vivion, about 35 KM north of Le Mans. After getting to the train station we were told that the rail way workers were on strike. ON STRIKE? WHAT? Knowing hanging out in the train station was not an option, we were directed across the street where we could rent a car. While this was not in our plans, renting a car turned out to be the absolute BEST decision that was forced upon us. Vehicles travel on the the right side of the road and it turned out to be pretty easy to get around. We certainly made good use of the car and it gave us some freedom that the train wouldn’t have offered. On Friday, the day before the race we managed to work our way through Le Mans and get to the track. We didn’t 6
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have a parking pass, but I was lucky enough to score a reasonably close spot on the street (ok, sidewalk which seems to be how they park in France). Friday was open pit day and Renee and I walked through the pits snapping photos of pretty much every teams pit. The Porsche factory cars where the Manthey Racing 911RSR in GTE Pro and the much anticipated LMP P1 car, the 919. Also of note was the Dempsey Racing 911. After getting through the pits and the hoard of people camped out in front of the Audi pit, we walked part of the track where Porsche had brought over a nice collection of cars from the museum. We were at the track for about 3 hours and then headed into town to catch the Parade of the Pilots. Luckily we got there early and found a primo spot in the shade. Having not been here before, I had not done much research on this parade. I was thinking it was probably each cars drivers (three) riding in cars from the companies they were representing. Boy was I wrong. Turns out (most) of the drivers walked the parade route and signed autographs. The Ferrari drivers did tend to do more riding and waving than walking and signing I determined. While I did not know most of the drivers, it was cool to get autographs from the Porsche factory drivers (minus Mark Weber), Patrick Long, and Patrick Dempsey. Derek Bell was also there signing. Most of the drivers were walking alone and had they not been wearing their racing suits, they could have blended into the crowd. The exception was Patrick Dempsey. He was completely surrounded by the paparazzi. He also looked completely wiped out. This parade took almost 6 hours and we went back to our B & B for the night. The next morning we headed out and arrived at the track at about 9:30. We were smart to get a parking pass the previous day and so we had a guaranteed place to park
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near the track. We checked out the Le Mans museum and then watched some of the pre-race racing. There was a Porsche Cup race and then a historic Le Mans race. Then at 3 pm the real race began. Again we were lucky enough to have found a good seat to watch the start. It was very exciting to see the cars go by for the first lap. It would be the only lap they passed us as a group. Since the track is about 8 miles long, the faster cars easily put some distance on the slower cars. We stayed at this spot for a couple hours and endured a brief spat of rain showers that put the race under caution. Other than this Oregon liquid sunshine, the weather was perfect. We moved around a bit to see other sections of the track which allowed us to catch the sound of the cars under braking and acceleration. Of particular note were the Audi diesels were oddly quite. Definitely the opposite of the Corvettes which shook the ground as they rumbled by. The change to night was pretty interesting. The grandstand area lit up and was very picturesque. Sadly Porsche was not doing well and around 2 am we decided to go to the car and catch a brief nap. At this time Porsche was maybe 4th and 7th. A brief nap was perfect to set us up for the remaining race. Our sleeping must have been good luck because we arrived back at the track to find Porsche second behind Audi. Things were getting good! Audi’s lead was short lived and soon Porsche 919 #20 found themselves in first place. The crowd erupted. It was fun to see so many people pulling for Porsche. It was clear also though that the Porsche did not have the speed to stay out front. My calculator was trying to figure out if the lead was enough. Porsche had changed drivers but would still need to stop every 13 laps or so and the Audi was around 4 seconds a lap faster. It was looking like Porsche might pull it off if things went as planned.
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Unfortunately, around hour 22, the leading Porsche #20 suffered a mechanical failure taking it out of the race. Uugh! The second team Porsche #14 soon retired also with a mechanical failure. It did manage to miraculously come out of the pits on last lap and cross the finish line about the same time as the winning Audi’s. How is that for a convenient photo op? This turned out to be an exciting experience and I am glad I have a wife who both allowed and accompanied me on such a trip. Would I go again. Definitely! Look for it on next years Central Chapter event schedule.
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Soaring to the Coast by Glenn Gumaer Soaring, it is a sensation that we all crave. We subconsciously feed that craving by engaging in gravity-defying, recreational activities that involve feeling the interaction between centripetal and centrifugal forces. Riding a bicycle, rollerblading, motorcycling, skiing, driving a car and even flying a kite can deliver that sensation. When carving corners in a powerful Porsche, the lateral acceleration forces felt by our body causes the release of euphoric hormones (enkephalins) that make us feel like a rambunctious youngster screaming… do it again, do it again! So, what better activity to complement that soaring sensation we get when carving the apex, than to actually feel the power of the wind through the paired strings of a sport kite as it soars skyward?
just say, somewhat earlier than predicted.
Upon our arrival, we were met by Dave Bartholomew and fellow Kite Club pilots who were on hand to provide flight training for two-string, deltawing kites. Wind conditions were as variable as Dave Duarte’s accelerator pedal, making it more challenging for the uninitiated to keep their kite aloft. Ross became expert in repeated crash landings, while Dave’s kite continued to fly on auto-pilot, while he took a time out to lie down in the sand. Alex and Connie smartly kept with their colorful singleOn Saturday, June 7, your string, enjoying a somewhat intrepid Board members, Ross Rampy, Dave Duarte and Glenn less frenetic experience. As Gumaer were joined by Alex and the seasoned expert of the group, (this was the second Connie Frum for a fun dash to time I had flown my seven-foot the coast. Mapquest calculated delta wing), the powerful wind the distance from Central Point gusts nearly lifted me out of my to Anchor Way in Crescent City shoes. So, if I wasn’t crashing, I at 110 miles covered in two was getting launched skyward. hours and ten minutes. After (Note to self, next time bring a coffee and donut breakfast Band-Aids.) supplied by James Shannon at Carrera Medford, we waited After a couple hours of earning an extra hour for everyone our wings, and destroying a to arrive, then hit the road at 9:30. I think Mapquest needs to delta wing, we adjourned to The Chart Room Restaurant a provide a separate calculator short walk up the beach for rich for spirited Porsche drivers chowder, crab Louie salads, fishwho like to soar, because we n-chips and refreshing libation. made it to the beach, let’s
Our day-trip was capped off by a fun, traffic-free jaunt carving through the redwoods heading home on Southern Oregon’s spectacular Highway 199. Wind in our hair, sunburn on our brow, chapped on our lips and smiles on our faces.
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