Archive for month: April, 2026

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2026 Spring Rally Recap

The Fall 2024 Dow Rally used a beautiful course that started in Ayer MA and explored lovely towns in Southern New Hampshire. We expected some great scenery and leaf peeping, but instead got rain and lousy weather. So for this year’s Spring Rally, we decided to use most of that same course and have some great Spring views. And what did we get? Rain and lousy weather again! But it was still a great drive that featured 31 challenging gimmick questions and ended with a nice buffet lunch at the Billiards Café.

We had a record 41 signups (but a number of no shows who I guess didn’t like the weather!) that included Ellen Beck (and husband Bob Gutjahr). Ellen will be running the Gimmick Rally for the 2026 Porsche Parade and has 251 entrants to deal with. Good luck with that!

The mix of 31 questions included quite a few “gimmies” but some that we feared no one would get right. But we were wrong – there were at least some correct answers to all questions. The scoring was very close – there were 3 teams with only 2 wrong and the winner missed only one question. And the winner is…of course it was Team Black Sheep Tower Racing (Ellen and Bob)! Runner up (winning on the tiebreaker) was Team Dailey.

We usually have a “story contest” – entrants tell a short story as they await the start. The three best stories are presented to the crowd at lunch and a vote is taken to declare a winner. This event’s “story” was “Tell us about your first car.” The three finalists were Arno Mueller, Jessica Levesque and Yvette Viard. Yvette told her story of how she made a bet with her Dad that she would pass her license test on the first try (which is reputedly very difficult in France). If she won she would get his car (a Renault 4L) which he would have to paint Lilac. (Note that in her story there was no mention of what her Dad would get if she failed the test. The answer is probably nothing which is why we Dad’s are such suckers for our kids.) Needless to say she passed and even had pictures of the Lilac colored car as proof. Arno and Jessica could not top this tale so Yvette won.

Thanks to Anker Berg-Sonne and Tony Miniscalco for setting up and managing this event! Look for a summer rally (location not yet determined) and the traditional Fall Dow Rally (we think on the Cape).

Anyone who wants to help with these please contact Bill Seymour.

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2026 Autocross School Recap

NER held its Autocross School early this year – on April 11th. The event was sponsored once again by Conway Autoworks in Hanover, MA. (Thank you, Kenny!) At this year’s event, we mixed things up a bit by inviting a group of drivers and instructors from NER’s HPDE Team led by Tim Canfield to host a car clinic in conjunction with our event. The two groups ran their respective exercises separately during the morning sessions followed by a Pizza lunch provided by the Club. In the afternoon, both groups combined to run a full Autocross Course – putting into practice some of what they had seen during their morning exercises.

This year’s event attracted 32 students at the Autocross School and 16 drivers for the HPDE car control clinic. Both groups had a number of their own experienced drivers on hand to instruct the students.

The Autocross Students had been advised (prior to the event) to watch the 3-part NER Autocross Video produced by Richard Viard (who was one of the instructors attending) to get acquainted with what to expect at an invent and pick up a few tips on driving technique, safety issues, and more. After a brief morning driver’s meeting to cover a few basics on Autocross and Safety, instructors and their students were turned loose to drive the morning exercises.

This year, we set up two comprehensive exercises – a “Figure 8” exercise to help with turning and following a course, a “Clamshell” exercise to practice more braking with turning. A “Slalom” element introducing students to a frequently used autocross element was also integrated into the Figure 8. Students were broken into groups of drivers and course workers and had 45 minutes of driving each exercise allowing plenty of repetitions for each student.

Following a Pizza lunch provided by the Club, we held a brief driver’s meeting before running an actual autocross event for the afternoon.

Students were driven around the course in their own cars by their instructor at a moderate pace to get familiarized with the course and a driving approach. Then, each student was given a chance to do 4 timed runs with their instructor riding along. By the end of the day, there were a lot of smiling faces and a number of students saying they were looking forward to signing up for our first regular event for the season on May 17th.

A look at the posted times for the day shows most of the students managing to improve their times considerably over the course of their four runs showing that they learned something during the day’s activities. Once posted, full results can be seen by going to NER’s Live Timing site at https://porschenet.com/ax, scrolling down to the date of the Autocross School (April 11, 2026), then selecting “Results”.

Thanks again to Kenny Conway at Conway Autoworks for sponsoring the event and hopefully helping to generate some new autocross regulars …

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Newcomers Recap at Archive Framingham

Hi everyone,


If you couldn’t make it to our Newcomers Event on March 15th in Framingham, you definitely missed out on more than baked tasty treats and Ferraris in the back corner .
We had an incredible turnout of new and longtime members who came together to connect, share stories, and celebrate what makes our club so special. From the moment people arrived, the energy was high—great conversations, new friendships forming, and plenty of Porsche passion in the room. It was exactly the kind of welcoming, engaging atmosphere we want every member to experience.
What stood out most was how quickly strangers became part of the community. That’s what this club is all about—not just the cars, but the people behind them.
If you weren’t there, consider this your official nudge: you don’t want to miss the next one.

 

We have more events coming up, and they’re only getting better. Make sure you’re staying in the loop:

  • Check out our new website for event updates and announcements

  • Follow us on social media to stay connected between events

  • And most importantly, come introduce yourself in person next time

As Membership Chair, I’m here to help you get the most out of the club. Think of me as your concierge—whether you’re new, returning, or just looking to get more involved, I’d love to connect and help you plug in.

Feel free to reach out anytime, and I hope to see you at our next event.

 

Best regards,
Kevin Moran
Membership Chair
Porsche Club of America – Northeast Region
[email protected]

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