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Volunteer at NER!


Welcome to the Porsche Club of America’s Northeast Region!

If you have ideas or questions for additional events we could plan or would like to volunteer for existing activities, please feel free to email us at [email protected].

We can always use help keeping our members connected through varying ways, ie communications on our website, writing articles for us to publish, event planning, or if you have technical expertise, we welcome any and all perspectives to ensure members are getting the most out of the club!

Here are some examples of events where you can also volunteer this year:

Social Events:

  • Summer Party
  • The Annual Gala
  • Newcomers Meeting
  • Porsches & Coffee

Driving Events:

  • DE (Driver’s Education)
  • Autocross
  • SIM Racing
  • Tours
  • The Ramble

We look forward to hearing from you and cheers to another great year at NER in 2024!

  • The 2024 NER Board
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2024 NER DE Season Dates:

The PCA NER track committee has been hard at work this fall getting us all ready for the 2024 season. More details will follow next month, but please be sure to mark your calendars for the 2024 DE season. NCR dates will also follow shortly. For those asking about our Canada trips. We are looking to co-sponsor a date at Mont-Tremblant with another PCA region. For the Calabogie event, we need at least 30 committed sign-ups to allow this event to happen. Again, more to follow on all of this.

Please note that all track days run for 3 days, the ground school is returning to its Original format at the HMS motorsports shop in Danvers, this event is for folks who have never been to a track day, but all are welcome. It will include a classroom session with breakfast and lunch served. 

Event LocationEvent Date
Ground School @ HMSSaturday, March 9, 2024
ThompsonFriday, May 24, 2024
Palmer CWFriday, June 14, 2024
CalabogieWednesday, July 3, 2024
Watkins GlenFriday, August 9, 2024
Palmer CCWFriday, September 27, 2024

Keep an eye out for more details in the following weeks. We look forward to seeing you at DE in 2024!

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Four Speeds and Drum Brakes: Back to Live Action

 A very mild winter had us all looking forward to driving events in New England before St Patricks Day. Too warm a winter kept the cars off the ice up north unless  northern VT looked like a nice ride. Cars and Coffee didn’t seem necessary because cars were out of the garage driving before April Fools Day. On April 2nd the draw was still there when 60 P cars arrived  at a C&C set up by the Slocum’s in RI.

  The All Porsche Swap Meet in Carlisle PA the end of April was threatened, as always, with rain but that didn’t stop the hard core and sales were brisk.  Maybe the fact that I’ve gotten more realistic about the value of old car parts helped move the merchandise. Looking around the garage I have come to the conclusion that my treasures are going to wind up at the dump unless I get them back into the market where someone, anyone, can use them. If you make things cheap enough people will buy parts they don’t even need. That’s how so much stuff followed me home.  

The first Track Day for your author was the beginning of April at Watkins Glen. That was where the loyal reader will remember I rolled a BMW into a ball last year. This year was much better. The 210 car (BMW E46 – 330) was the ride for the weekend and the AZ Tates flew in to play. It was Marie’s birthday and Rob had promised to take her someplace nice for her birthday so I guess WGI qualified. That certainly wouldn’t fly at my house.

Matt Connelly Motorsports provided a great car that we drove for 8 hours on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday at the American Endurance Racing event. I did have a tire go down due to a cracked alloy rim on the left rear during my stint. As it was losing air it caused a vibration that felt like the tire had just picked up some rubber on the track. At lower speeds the shudder went away so I stayed out. When I got back to the uphill esses  the tire had lost a lot of air and the rear of the car decided that it wanted to go first. I caught it before it got ugly but the time it took to get the car in, check it and replace the tire dropped us back into the middle of the class. Still great fun but no plastic trophy for us this time.

The weather was the best I have ever experienced at The Glen in spring time, cool at night and warm and sunny during the day. At the very end of the race on Sunday some clouds appeared and a bit of rain fell but nothing that would ruin a great weekend.  Well, it might have been a little more than a bit as we couldn’t see across the front straight but that is the kind of weather The Glen is known for. Besides, Rob was driving and he had it under control.

Next up was the first autocross for the Northeast Region at Ft Devens. The 1972 Martini 911 came out to play with 68 other drivers, a great turnout. I’m not as fast as I once was (hear a song here?) but it is still great fun to throw the car around and make a lot of noise. Many attending have never seen a Porsche this old doing what it was made to do.  I had novice drivers join me for nearly every run.

We had a dozen novices that included some seldom seen rides. Think Tesla and a mid eighties Olds 442. The latter was really well set up using a 760 hp V8 and tires wider than a new 911 Turbo S. These heavy American cars seldom do well but this Olds was an exception. Reasonably well set up and very well driven it was faster than most Porsches. The Tesla was silent but deadly and also ran with the big dogs as far as their elapsed time went. They were both fun to watch and taught everyone not to make snap judgements.

Next up is a 356 Drive in Lancaster PA set up by the gang that did the Catskill Tour last year. No car show, no autocross, just a bunch of old guys with old cars driving around Amish country trying to avoid the horse and buggy traffic. At least we’ll be faster than someone on the roads. The Puddle Jumper gets the nod on this ride as the Speedster engine isn’t back together yet. It stopped running last Fall on the way to NY for another 356 gathering with a suspected broken crankshaft.  The case has been opened and the two separate parts of the crankshaft have been removed showing no other damage so it may be alive soon.

I had another crank but turnaround time for a rebalanced crank was 5 months so that has delayed progress. Plus I had other toys to play with so Blackie got pushed to the back of the garage. An oil change and clutch adjustment was all the preparation that the sunroof coupe needed so it will be on the road again this week. Action report to follow…

Author: Tom Tate

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DE Crier Report: DE Hooks a New Fish and Father Time Goes Electric!

NER Driver Education Ground School at Palmer Motorsports Park on April 23rd

 

Well, the weather sucked and that scared a few people away – HAH! – they lost out
on a really good event! NER’s Driver Education team held the annual “Ground
School” event – again at Palmer Motorsports Park – on Sunday April 23 rd . The
thinking behind this is simple: we know there are folks out there who haven’t been
to a DE event but might be lured in. So we chum the waters with some free food,
put up a presentation with some racy pictures and then turn them loose (well, not
really – there is an instructor in the car and they are parade laps) on the track. And
voila! They are hooked and start to sign up for events.


There were 45-50 interested students and 30 or so instructors/regulars to guide
them through the day. And despite the weather all of the “students” I talked to
reported a fine time and an interest in actually signing up for a DE. I rode in the
passenger seat of a 2006 Cayman S (I felt right at home, of course) piloted by
JoseAlberto Betances. Very nice fellow, originally from the Bronx (we didn’t
discuss baseball) who said he was new to driving a manual but acquitted himself
very well and did a good job of learning the racing line in the 5 or 6 laps we did.
We had time to talk about tires and the minor mods he might make to his car
before he went to a DE (brake fluid and pads). I encouraged him to sign up early
for Thompson since it might sell out for novices but not to miss Watkins Glen. I
think we landed that one!


While the primary bait on the hook is the driving, let’s also note the strong social
attraction of the DE events. There is a lot of time at a DE event for making new
friends – people with similar hobbies and similar cars are pretty easy to get to
know! – plus there are the beer/wine/dinner socials when the track goes cold. It
was great to see my many friends after a winter of no driving events.


Thanks are due to many for putting on a well organized event and let’s start with
Track Chair Charlie Kenney who put the whole thing together. Chief Instructor
Dave Berman did yeoman duty in herding cats and matching up students and
instructors. Stan Corbett did his usual registration chores (and reports that he
already has 4 new fish in the net). Ed Mansing was responsible for the nicely done
powerpoint. Dennis Mascetta was there to represent North Country Region and we had 5 NER Board members in attendance.

There were a lot of presenters who did a great job and they won’t mind that I don’t list them all. But let’s thank the food providers. David Peterman (who is now competing against my teammate
Nick Shanny in SRO GT4 America racing – sorry David but I have to root for
Nick) donated a ton of delicious Panera pastries and HMS Motorsports provided
pizza (and Cody also presented and brought some merch for display and sale).
And finally thanks to Al Sandy and Palmer Motorsports Park for hosting.
And speaking of reacquainting with friends, I had noticed that Aaron Walker, a
long time autocross buddy who lives near me, was signed up to go. (Let’s put in a
plug for autocross – a great way to learn your car’s limits before you head to the
race track.) I invited myself to ride with him in his Rivian pickup. I got to drive it
home. Wow. I understand that its 115mph speed limiter hurts its quarter mile time.
Think about that! Aaron points out that if he uses it to tow his GT3 to the track it
might actually be able to beat it. Very impressive and lots of fancy tech as well
(but let’s not talk about the range issues – there would be a lot of downtime towing
to Watkins Glen). I’ll stick with what I’ve got.

– Courtesy: Father Time AKA Bill Seymour

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Fifth Annual Charlie and Martha Dow Fall Rally

 

OK, sharpeyes, you are right – it was a Tour at first but it is a rally now and, once again, it was a great time.  We started at Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown RI, sharing the parking lot with the usual Sunday SoBo event.  A total of 41 rallyers were dispatched at 90 second intervals to follow a lovely course that wound back and forth between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, finally ending at Rachel’s Lakeside in Dartmouth MA. Along the route participants were required to spot the answers to 22 questions (some were “trick questions”) based on sights that they encountered.  Teams turned in their answer sheet with the total mileage driven (as per their car’s odometer) acting as the tie breaker.

This year’s rallyers were darned observant and four cars answered 20 of the 22 questions correctly (or at least correctly as per the judges – there was some controversy):  Tom Tate/Jeff Leeds, the Haynes, the Walkers and the Laws.  And the first three of these had the correct distance.  Clearly the organizers had not anticipated this as there was no “second tiebreaker” and the winner was chosen by drawing names from a hat by Spiderman (young Mr. Beaver).  Based on this Tom (darn it) and Jeff were declared the winner and took home a $250 gift certificate donated by Craft Detailing.

There was a second contest as well. Participants were asked to tell their best car joke to the judges (well, OK, one judge – me) as they awaited departure. It was very evident that the internet had been heavily interrogated in the search of jokes so there was considerable duplication. The most original was, unfortunately, a little too risque to be a winner. The winner was the previously mentioned Law team with runner up trophies to the Hebners and the Mattsons. (Here’s the internet version of the joke:  Three men were waiting in line to enter Heaven. The angel at the gate asks the first man “how many times did you cheat on your wife?” “10 times” the man answers. The angel gives him the keys to a 2010 Toyota Camry “this is what you will drive around heaven”. The second man says he cheated on his wife 5 times, the angel gives him a 2018 Lexus and lets him in. The third man says he never cheated on his wife, he gets a 2022 Porsche GT3RS. A few days later the 3 men meet and the man in the Porsche is very sad, the men ask him what’s wrong, he replies “I just saw my wife riding around on a scooter.”)

And, after the fact, we’ll declare a third contest.  The winner of the best “Fun Team Name” is the Kricks for “RhodeShow.”

Thanks to our sponsors Craft Detailing and Griot’s Garage, our host Sweet Berry Farm and our hard working team of Roger Slocum, Paul Soares, Anker Berg-Sonne, Lisa Burke, Larry Levin and Rosemary Driscoll.  And special thanks to the Dow family for their lifetime commitment to PCA and for sending 6 representatives (and bringing Charlie’s yellow 911) to this year’s event!

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DE Crier Report: Palmer #2

NER’s Last DE of the Season

Palmer 2022 Sept 23-25

Your DE Crier was unable to participate in this event (hence this is Kind Of Bill’s Report – LR) but thankfully there are better writers.  The following reflects the work of Mike Woodward, Joe Cracco and Dale LeBossiere…

In between the heavy rain on Thursday and the showers late Sunday, we were treated to 3 great days of driving at a spectacular and challenging track with Patrick Long and the Cayman Islands sponsored Cayman GT4 Club Sport.  Admittedly, Friday started out a little cooler than the Cayman islands folks are used to (cold temps and wind chill almost in the 30’s), but it was sunny and dry! 

If you haven’t seen the Cayman Islands Cayman, you should.  It’s a beautiful car.  It’s fully wrapped with the front being that almost indescribably gorgeous Caribbean blue water and the back being the sandy beach with crashing waves in between.  Pity that no one could see the car for long.  Why?  Because…well because of Long. Patrick Long.  He (thanks to the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism Authority) drove 24 lucky raffle winners around Palmer in that car.   Let’s say that Patrick’s pace was such that you never saw him coming and once you gave him the point by, he was out of sight in a matter of seconds.  Turns out that Porsche factory drivers are pretty quick. 

Patrick Long is one of the great Porsche team racers of all time, and he has been the only American on the Porsche team.  He has won endurance races at Le Mans (twice), Sebring, and many others during his illustrious career.

The NER Track Committee was thrilled to hear Patrick would join us at our local track in Palmer, MA on September 23 for demonstration rides supporting his favorite charity.  The Cayman Islands sponsored this event with impressive goodies for all participants and, of course, the car driven by Patrick.

We raised $3,000 for charity by selling raffle tickets for the 24 rides available with Patrick.

All of the raffle winners were thoroughly impressed with the laps riding shotgun with Patrick.  Many of us have spent years driving Porsches as a hobby, and we were all humbled by the skills and speed demonstrated by Patrick.

For those of you track rats, a few technical observations:

  • The Cayman Islands Club Sport itself was no more powerful than many of our cars, but its suspension and brakes were extremely ‘dialed-in’.  Porsche does a fantastic job tuning its cars, and Cayman Islands team further tunes these cars based on feedback from its racers.  Many of us longed for a chance to drive that car!
  • Patrick was very relaxed driving at impressive speeds.  Endurance racers can’t afford to waste energy, and Patrick appeared to be driving conservatively relative to his race pace.
  • Perhaps because of the fresh Michelin slicks and the relatively low power of Patrick’s car, he apexed a bit earlier than most of us.
  • Braking was most impressive.  Patrick braked later than we do, and he balanced braking and turning (trail braking) almost to each apex where he smoothly transitioned to the gas pedal.
  • Patrick balanced oversteer and understeer naturally and without drama.  His hands were very fast and precise when the car oversteered.
  • Many of us were surprised by Patrick’s technique of shifting the PDK transmission to a higher gear to reduce torque and oversteer.
  • Patrick did not use the full track width on some of the turns.  His natural line was guided by his vision.
  • Many commented on the smoothness of the ride with Patrick especially when transitioning from braking to throttle in each turn.

Many of us improved our lap times after riding with Patrick, and the enthusiasm of all participants was exciting to see.

Dale LaBossiere reported that while he was awaiting his ride, Al Sandy was watching and timing Patrick… “that’s a 1:41”!  That lap time is about 4 seconds faster than the fastest times of our instructors, and Patrick drove that pace in his very first session of the day on an unfamiliar track! 

When Friday’s track went cold, the pre-dinner social had a festive tropical vibe with colored lights and inflatable palm trees in kiddie pools full of ice and beer provided by sponsor South Shore Auto works. Then the Cayman Islands folks put on the grand finale.  A one-two punch of Cayman Islands swag bags (including Patrick Long signed hats, yeti mug, key fob, etc…) and a belly-busting Caribbean food-fest dinner. (Thanks to Pam Mascetta and Judy Mansing for organizing the dinner!)

After an awesome day on Friday, we enjoyed the rest of the weekend without the company of Patrick and the Cayman Islands team. Saturday dawned just as cold as Friday (but didn’t feel like it b/c the wind was lighter).  With new run groupings, drivers were treated to 26-minute run sessions (20% more than normal) and boy was it a treat.  That extra 5 minutes was just enough time for each of us to master Palmer (or am I the only one?). LOL. What with running CW one year and then CCW the next, for most of us, it had been 2 years since running the track in this direction (CCW this time). Remember how to drive this direction 2 years later? Some of us can’t remember what we had for breakfast. 

Funny thing, though….it took only a session for the track layout to come back to Joe Cracco (inconceivable b/c, no kidding, he still can’t remember what he had for breakfast).   Talking to others in the paddock, everyone seemed to be working on improving their driving on different parts of the track.  Isn’t that just like Palmer?  After all, there are 14 corners and lots of elevation change.  (Who is Joe Cracco you ask? He’s the only man in New England who might do this: Winter Beaters Season 1 Vol.1 – LR)

Some folks were promoted, some hit personal bests, all had a great experience. To quote one new student (back from a few years away from PCA), “Every single person was friendly and helpful. I have participated in many DE events, but this one was by far the most welcoming”.   For that we have to give thanks to the volunteers who continue to produce events like this which are a joy to attend. ‘till next year, Palmer!

OK, so now your DE Crier is taking back the microphone from Mike and Joe and Dale. And the main thing that I can add is that I have actually been to the Cayman Islands and can report that it is all you would hope for in an island vacation (stay at the Ritz Carlton and try the water squirty thingie powered by a jetski if you dare). See Water Squirty Jetski powered thingie below-

 

 

Here are the promotions from this event…

Placement to Blue (new to our club but has prior experience):

  • Penko Ivanov

Green to Yellow:

  • Corina Cisneros
  • Stephen McMillan
  • Chris Gorski

Yellow to Blue:

  • James Burgarella
  • Benjamin Zendejas
  • Jay Wynn
  • Matt Robison
  • Joe Davin
  • Stephen Hall

Blue to White:

  • Sam Axelrod

White to Black:

  • Michael Canfield (son of the instructor Michael Canfield)
  • Torsten Becker
  • Zachary Veugen

And finally, special thanks to Glenn Champagne and Betty Mae Mosley for finding and coordinating the Cayman Islands Dept. of Tourism event at Palmer and the following day at Lars Anderson!

 

 

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Getting Started with NER PCA

Welcome to the Home of the Porsche Club of America’s Northeast Region!

Below are some helpful links to the activities shown in the NER PCA flyer you received, as well as contact information for the experts who can answer any questions you have on each type of activity.

If you have ideas for additional events we could plan or would like to volunteer for existing activities, please feel free to email me at [email protected].
We can always use help keeping our members connected through communications on our website, writing articles for us to publish, event planning, or if you have technical expertise, we welcome any and all perspectives to ensure members are getting the most out of the club!

If you are already a member of NER PCA and don’t currently receive our News email which goes out around the 15th of the month, please reach out to me on that as well. I will provide information on how to update the email address on file with PCA National.

On behalf of NER’s board of directors and myself personally, thank you for stopping by to check out what the club has to offer and we look forward to meeting you at one of our future events!
Lisa Burke
NER PCA Membership Chair

Full calendar of club events: https://porschenet.com/events/
Recurring weekly events not listed in the calendar:
Sim Racing, Tuesdays at 8pm
Cape Cod Porsche Gruppe Cars & Coffee, Saturdays 7:30am

Concours: https://porschenet.com/activities/concours/
Chair: David Melchar, [email protected]

Driver Education: https://porschenet.com/activities/driver-education/
Chairs: Adam Schwartz & Charles Kenney
Registrar & Safety: Stan Corbett, [email protected]

Ramble: https://porschenet.com/activities/the-new-england-ramble/
Ramblemeister: Dennis Friedman, [email protected]

Sim Racing: https://www.facebook.com/groups/810156892838722
Chair: Robert Galejs, [email protected]

Autocross: https://porschenet.com/activities/autocross/
Chair: Chris Ryan, [email protected]
Registrar: Jeff Johnson, [email protected]

Social Activities: https://porschenet.com/activities/social-events/
Chairs: Glenn Champagne & Betty Mae Mosley [email protected]

Facebook groups to connect with other members:
• Main group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/northeastregionpca
• Autocross: https://www.facebook.com/groups/260319394517298
• Technical: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3572353792857260
• Sim Racing: https://www.facebook.com/groups/810156892838722
• Cape Cod Gruppe: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1570367176509558

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Coming in October: 5th Annual Charlie and Martha Dow Fall Rally

Join us on October 9th for the 5th Annual Charlie and Martha Dow Fall Rally! 

Date/Time
Date(s) – 10/09/2022
9:00 am – 3:00 pm

We do this rally in honor of the late Charlie Dow and his wife Martha – longtime, active NER and board members and all-around Porsche enthusiasts.

This year we will be back to a Rhode Island start but a Massachusetts finish.  We will start at Sweet Berry Farm in Middletown RI (joining those who are coming for the SoBo event that day) and finishing at Rachel’s Lakeside in North Dartmouth MA where we will enjoy a hot buffet lunch.  

HERE IS AN IMPORTANT POINT:  At the Newcomer’s meeting a common question was “I’m not sure that I want to jump into a DE or an autocross, what is the best activity for me to try first so I can meet other members?”  WELL, THIS IS IT!  (Or the Summer Party – that works too!)

Learn more and sign up now!

For general questions please contact Bill Seymour

Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

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