We are sad to report the passing of Martha Dow on November 26th. Martha and Charlie Dow were founding members of our Region and held many leadership positions – both in the Northeast Region and at the National PCA level – over the years. Charlie passed away in 2017 and our fall rally is named in their honor. Our condolences to their children Eric, Heather and Kristen (who are regular attendees at the rally).
NER AUTOCROSS SERIES EVENT #5
SPONSORED BY
NER held its fifth and final 2022 Autocross event on Saturday October 15th. The event was sponsored by Herb Chambers Porsche and of course we thank them once again for their continued support.
We were fortunate to have an exceptionally nice October day with cloudless skies and temperatures around 70 – a bit cooler than mid-summer for warming up tires – but welcome nonetheless. We had 58 drivers participating event after a few last-minute no-shows, including 17 registered Novices (although that included several of the no-shows). Regardless, we seem to be continuing to generate interest in autocross for the future and we surely hope these folks will all come back for more.
The course was a bit longer that last event, with no one generating a clean runtime below 70 seconds for the day, although there were a few “dirty” 69 second runs. It featured several “aggressive” element changes requiring lots of steering input, perhaps contributing to these times and at least a few more sore arms.
In a surprising and entertaining upset, FTD was taken by Gareth Peters in his 2016 GT4 by posting a 70.080 on his 10th and final run. Not only did he have to beat Rob MacAlpine (who often posts FTD), but also Rachel Baker and Pat Salerno, two of our fastest drivers. Well done, Gareth!
Class 3 saw old friend Nick Durham return after a long absence driving Bob Canter’s 1984 Targa. Although he steadily got his feel back during the day, he only managed to get within 1.3 seconds of Adam Small, also driving a 1984 Carrera, who posted a 76.693 to take the class and season.
Class 4’s winner was Georges Rouhart, posting a 76.164. However, once again, Max Mayo made him work for it with a 76.371 – only .207 seconds off the mark. Georges took the season in Class 2, but look for Max to be a contender in the future.
Elsewhere, Dan Gramm took Class 5 for the day and the Season posting a 79.962. Class 6 was dominated once again by Mark Skala posting a 71.369 in his 2014 Cayman S and securing the season as well. Tim Dailey ran unopposed in Class 7, posting a 78.557 for the day. Ed Moschella won Class 8 with 73.153, but featured a close horserace for the season points in the class between Erick Aubin and Jeff Johnson, who had been battling back and forth all summer. On Saturday, Erick managed to prevail by .772 seconds, taking the season by one point over Jeff. Class 9 was Gareth Peters’ who as previously mentioned, wowed us all with his win over Rachel and Pat, and is also the season winner for Class 9. Jeremy Mazzariello took Class 10 for the day with a nice run of 70.813 seconds, but Ollie Lucier, who was not at Saturday’s event, takes the season in that class this year. Class 11 featured a win by Rob MacAlpine with a 70.154 earning him the season championship for the class as well.
For the Novice class, Hartman Wagner posted a 77.973 to take the Class but also get himself booted into Class 7 for next year.
Full results can be seen on our Live Timing/Archive site by going to https://porschenet.com/ax, scrolling down to the date of Autocross #5 (Oct 15, 2022), then selecting the “Summary”, “Results”, or “Raw Times” reports. Season Points are posted below.
We’d like to thank Herb Chambers Porsche once again for sponsoring this event, and Thank everyone who participated for a great NER Autocross Season. See you next year!
-Chris Ryan
It’s that time of year again for the most spectacular four days to be a car enthusiast in New England – the Audrain Newport Concours and Motor Week. This year’s event will be the fourth annual iteration and it has certainly hit its stride, packing more mind-boggling events into four short days than you can fit into one schedule. The fun starts on Wed 9/28 and runs through Sunday 10/2. Let’s get right into an overview of what makes this so special.
Wednesday 9/28
This is the big setup day for Motorweek with most of the action happening in the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHOF) on Bellevue Avenue. The event hasn’t technically started yet, so parking is pretty easy. If you make the trip, you get a preview of the greatness to come. You can pick up your passes to the various events and there is a museum-members exclusive seminar with Jay Leno and Donald Osborne – two of the main celebrity hosts, among many others, that you’ll see constantly over the weekend. The cars for the auction will be getting loaded into the indoor tennis facility and the cars that will be displayed on the grass tennis courts will be put into position. Last year, we were able to get up and personal with two classic F1 cars driven by Mika Häkkinen and David Couthard along with some other McLaren finery like a Marlboro-livery Senna. What will we see this year?
Thursday 9/29
This is the official first day of Motorweek with lots of seminars happening and the ITHOF Concours Village fully setup and running. Seminars will kick off with many of our celebrity stars. There is a wine event at 41 North (ticketed) in the evening.
McLaren F1 car up close and personal at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
Friday 9/30
Friday might be my favorite day of Motorweek. The Gathering is the main event, held over at Rough Point, Doris Duke’s sprawling place by the water. It’s a who’s who of the car world showcased among jaw-dropping machines strewn across the rolling lawns of the estate. The food is excellent, the drinks flow, the merch is on display. And guys like Rod Emory, Justin Bell, Tommy Kendall, Zak Brown, and Jay Leno have some spare time to hang and chat. There will likely be something special with a cover to be pulled off at some point (like the new GT3 last year!). As if an Elva, an SP3, and some Chirons aren’t enough to call it a party! PCA has been invited to display 25 cars this year at the event including 10 from our own Northeast Region, hand picked by PCA Executive Director, Vu Nguyen.
Lee Hower’s Monteverdi – unique road car with F1 engine
Saturday 10/1
Saturday is packed with jaw-dropping, crowd-inducing car craziness. It starts bright and early with some options: do you have a car in the main Sunday Audrain Concours at the Breakers mansion? Then drive around in a huge parade with closed roads on Saturday morning in the Tour d’Elegance. If you don’t – like me – you’ll be able to enjoy seeing these spectacular cars out on the roads of Rhode Island ending with a parked display on temporarily-closed Bellevue Avenue around 3pm. Have a cool car or want to drool? Head to Fort Adams for the cars and coffee 8am-10am. Do you have a Porsche? Of course you do. So scrap those events and come to the Elms mansion starting at 9am for our annual NER Porsche Concours event. Rod Emory, great guy that he is, often hangs out with us there showing off one of his latest outlaw creations. Prizes will be awarded at 12:30pm. When that’s all done, take in more cool seminars and then change into your tux for the Gala back over at the ITHOF. The ticketed prices…well…it’s for charity! Get what little sleep you can as Sunday will again start off bright and early.
Sunday 10/2
6:30am kicks off coffee and dawn patrol over at the Breakers for the main event, the big concours. This event now easily attracts the crazy Pebble-beach type cars (like the $70M NART Ferrari that graced us last year…) and also has pioneered an innovative 30-under-30 class showcasing folks under 30yo with under $30k into their car. The most recent edition of Porsche Panorama has a story by our own Ceiledh Siegel highlighting last year’s group of Porsche 944s that shone bright in the spotlight. Last year, our friends up at Larz Anderson took home a special preservation award for their first-ever factory race car from 1906! It’s a car-person’s day of the year. So come on down to Newport and enjoy it all!
For more info: https://www.audrainconcours.com
NER AUTOCROSS SERIES EVENT #2
SPONSORED BY
NER’s 2022 Autocross competition season held its second event on June 19th. Kachel Motor Company was the sponsor and although no one from KMC was able to make the event, a good time was had by the 61 drivers that participated posting 9 runs for the day.
With an early morning rain that stopped just in time for us to get set up, temperatures much more moderate than the previous event’s heat-wave, Rob MacAlpine set up another great course, back to using NER’s smaller cones, that the usual level of technical stuff, but still flowed nicely once you got the hang of it.
Once again, we had a good turnout in the Novice Class (23 out of the 61 drivers) with many of them coming out to try autocross for the first time. I trust we didn’t disappoint them.
After all was said and done, 18 drivers (about 30%) had posted times below 70 seconds indicating the course was a bit faster than the last event; Rob MacAlpine posted FTD at 65.106 and Rachel Baker posted Porsche FTD at 65.698.
Old friend Jack Goudreau showed up in his 1976 912 and took Class 1 unopposed 87.229. Once again, Class 3 saw Adam Small taking the Class over Bob Canter with a 72.717. This time, it was Neil Halbert’s turn to edge out his nemesis Georges Rouhart in Class 4 by posting a 71.843 vs Georges’s 72.328. In Class 5, Lev Tabenkin returned to take the Class with a 68.908. Class 6 had only 2 drivers and Mark Skala earned the win over yours truly posting a 67.654. Once again, Glenn Champagne was the class winner in Class 7 posting a 73.582 in his 1999 996 Carrera. Dan Quaroni in his 2011 Spyder prevailed in class 8 posting a 67.263 frustrating Jeff Johnson and Erick Aubin who were both about 2 seconds slower. Class 9 featured a Rachel Baker win with her Porsche FTD of 65.698. Jeremy Mazzariello decided to bring his 2001 Boxster race car and with that edged out Ollie Lucier for the class win with a 66.933. In the non-Porsche class, Rob MacAlpine’s FTD of 65.106 secured the victory.
In the Novice Class, the top 10 drivers posted some pretty respectable times all below 78 seconds, and this time it was Ryan Cataldo posting a 70.388 to get himself booted out of the Novice category and into Class 8.
Full results can be seen on our Live Timing/Archive site by going to https://porschenet.com/ax, scrolling down to the date of Autocross #2 (June 19, 2022), then selecting “Results”.
Thanks again to everyone for coming out to our second Autocross of 2022 and to our sponsor, Kachel Motor Works. Our next event is on Saturday July 16th and registration is open on motorsportreg.com.
-Chris Ryan
Join NER and Porsche Norwell on Sunday August 7st for the 5th Annual Summer Party!
If you are already a member, thinking about joining or simply want to know why all these people are crazy about about Porsches, this is one of our best events of the year and you should come hang with your friends or make new ones!
Date/Time
Date(s) – 08/07/2022
11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Learn more and sign up here!
We’ll have
- An eclectic Porsche car show of course ( expecting 75-100 cars, and more when you sign up and bring yours!)
- A deliciously catered lunch accompanied by an awesome live band
- A full outdoor bar serving locally crafted beverages (try the Blueberry ale while you’re there)
- The world famous NER cornhole tournament (try your skill to take the crown from the region’s reigning champ and 1970’s legend, Bill Seymour!) Bonds have been made and rivals have been born at this tournament so be sure to sign up!
- SIM racing machine try outs and learn from our SIM pro Anker. While you are there also check out the rad Robotics exhibit put on by Mechanical Advantage
See you there and thank you to our sponsor Porsche Norwell!
Cold, Fog and Sleet, Oh My!!
Remember my dread of forcing Miss P to drive in the rain? Well, this morning, on the 7th day of our road trip, it happened again. We wake up and look out the window and it is raining…again. Linda had warned me of this the night before but I paid no heed. This was the first of multiple mistakes I would make over the course of the next several hours.
This is not a good way to start the day. But one fact this intrepid driver NEVER took into consideration is that when you start going UP in the mountains it starts getting colder.
After a brief (free) breakfast we gas up and hit the road. Retracing our steps Linda and I are back on the Blue Ridge Parkway within 45 minutes, heading south, destination Blowing Rock about 100 miles away. The goal today is to “double up” on the mileage and eventually arrive in Asheville, North Carolina in the late afternoon having traveled perhaps 190 miles. 190 miles in maybe 6 hours. That’s something like 30 miles an hour. How hard can it be??
I had seen signs posted at every “entrance” to the Parkway warning “Be Aware of Fog”. Ok, sure, what’s a little fog? Well, when you are in the mountains … often at or above 3000 feet, and it’s raining, there can be plenty of fog and/or clouds. Plus, on a mid-April day the temperature in the mountains can rapidly approach 32 degrees. Naturally we all know what happens at this temperature, correct? Yep, snow!!!
None of this initially made any kind of impression on my pig-headed brain. I had broached the idea to Linda of “doubling up the mileage” and now it was necessary to follow through. So, we climb into the mountains and I am watching the outside temperature indicator on the Porsche instrument cluster. Down in Mount Airy it is about 40 degrees or so. Soon it is 38, then 36, then 34 as we continue climbing.
Just as we cross into North Carolina from Virginia I note that the outside temp is now 33 degrees. We stop to take a photo at the North Carolina State Line and while outside (wearing my warm winter coat… thankful we had brought this along) I note the roads are beginning to get just SLIGHTY sleet covered. There are white dots of rain on the windshield which tells me it is changing over from sleet and rain to snow. Linda has the Porsche seat heat on full blast. Not a good sign.
But do I stop (and think) for a moment? Do I perhaps reconsider and alter the plan? Perhaps climb down out of the mountains (and off my high horse) and retreat back to the lowlands?
NO… not me! I’m the man in charge! This was my idea and by golly we are going to complete the assigned task! Linda will tell you this is NOT one of my endearing qualities. “Raymond, sometimes you can be a bit stubborn you know”. “Yes, I know dear… but you married me anyway.” We all have faults and this is one of mine.
Thus, for the remainder of the day we motor along, struggling to average that 30 MPH … struggling to sometimes see 50 yards ahead.
There are times we can hardly see the yellow line on the road. The other day I had asked the question, “How many overlooks can you overlook?” On a day like this the final answer is ZERO.
With the Porsche navigation MAP displayed on the center console Linda sort of guides me along as a co-pilot would on a World Rally segment. “It looks like a hair pin turn maybe ¼ mile ahead. After that it looks pretty straight, but I can’t tell if its going uphill or down”. At least on a World Rally event you get to reconnoiter the route before you begin. For the Porsche team of Boyer & Boyer, we are “flying blind” (literally) as we forge forward through the fog and sleet covered roads.
It went on like this for the remainder of the day. There were times when we would come around a bend and things would dramatically improve. It seemed as if one side of a mountain was in the fog & rain/sleet and the other side was not. While not exactly sunny, the “good” side of the mountain afforded decent views across valleys cut between the rugged hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Moments like this were encouraging so we would pull over and admire the somewhat muted views. After each brief pause we would continue on, hoping the situation would improve with each passing mile. Sadly, we were to be constantly disappointed.
One of the “high lights” of this trip that I had been looking forward to was the Linn Cove Viaduct, perhaps the most photographed section of the road. This engineering masterpiece was the last section of the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway to be completed. The concrete S curve is only 1240 feet long as it snakes around Grandfather Mountain. It was begun in 1979 and not completed until 1987. That’s eight years to build 1240 feet of highway. Amazing!
I was really looking forward to this “short” part of the trip, hopefully stopping to take a few pictures and visit the museum located at the southern end of the bridge. Well, I knew we were ON the Viaduct as we were driving. I could kind of view the basic road and feel the concrete expansion joints through the Porsche steering rack. But there was nothing to see except fog and the occasional steel guard rail. The road was completely socked in with thick white goo.
What NEVER occurred to me was to abandon this “quest” and retreat from the higher elevations. Why not just come down from the hills and seek solace down in the valleys below? Surly the situation would not be as “bad” down below.
The simple answer is that such a thought did not pop up into my feeble brain. If it had, the day most likely would have been a lot more enjoyable. As it turned out, from a pleasure point of view, the day was pretty much a bust. It certainly was an “experience”, but not one that either Linda or I will soon want to repeat. Sure, Miss P and I hate the rain. But now FOG is something we both detest.
-Ray Boyer
Next Time…
Asheville at Last!
Part 6 Good Roads and Bad Decisions
If you have a moment, look up the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway on the internet and find a general map of the route. Linda and I did this during our planning stages. We did not want to have to “rush” our trip so we set ourselves rather “low” mileage objectives for each day.
As we perused a map of the Blue Ridge Parkway, we could see certain towns, travel times and distances laid out on the page. Afton (Waynesboro) to Roanoke 120 miles. Roanoke to Fancy Gap, (Mount Airy) 80 miles. Fancy Gap to Blowing Rock 95 miles. Blowing Rock to Asheville, NC (our ultimate destination) 90 miles.
For our 6th day on the road, the itinerary is to begin at Roanoke (mile post 120) and meander on down to a place called Fancy Gap (mile post 199). Notice the word meander… because if you do the math, we were only scheduled to drive 80 miles today. This rather modest mileage goal would eventually have HUGE consequences in our overall enjoyment of the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway.
It is a beautiful sunny day as we set out from Roanoke and searched for the nearest entrance to the Blue Ridge. Well, low and behold, the nearest section is “closed for construction” and we are detoured at least 15 miles along local roads before we finally hook up onto the “official” Parkway. At one point Linda and I were SURE we had missed a turn. We were about to retrace our steps when we came around a bend and saw another detour sign pointing the way. By 10 am we are back on the Parkway and enjoying the view.
My trusty co-pilot and I are traveling at a speedy 35-40 MPH, stopping at overlooks to read the information signs and in general just enjoying the road. One of the special sights we wanted to see was Mabry Mill, located at Mile Post 176. Unfortunately, one item we did NOT note when researching our trip was that this popular spot would not open until April 29. What day is today? April 17. Thus, like almost everything else on the Blue Ridge (and previously on Skyline Drive) the restaurant ….and other facilities…. are all closed.
Fortunately, the general grounds are open and Linda and I walk around, read the markers and get a real sense of what it was like to live in these mountains and hollows over 100 years ago. One lasting impression was that life back then was a lot of hard work.
Around 1905 Ed Mabry began building a grist mill with help from his wife Lizzy and neighbor Newton Hilton. Initial construction took about 3 years to complete. Once up and running Ed turned the grist mill operation over to Lizzy. He then spent another couple of years adding a sawmill, a woodworking shop and finally a blacksmith & wheelwright shop to the building. By the time he was done Ed Mabry had a thriving operation that was known, and supported, by customers and neighbors from up to 20 miles away. Talk about grit and determination, this family had it in spades.
Since we have so few miles to travel today Linda and I spent more than 2 hours exploring this outdoor museum.
After our Mabry visit, we continue on. At one particular overlook in the early afternoon, we pull over and are enjoying another “goldfish lunch”. Off to the side was a couple sitting at a table enjoying a modest picnic. I wandered over to their car and noticed the license plate. They were from New York, but the surround around the license plate caught my eye. It said “I’d Rather Be Watching the Andy Griffin Show”.
At first we did not get the significance of the plate… but that would soon change.
By 3:30 we had completed our allotted 80 miles and we climb down out of the mountains and head for our reservation in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Mount Airy is the closest town to Fancy Gap with amenities. As we are driving down out of the mountains I ask Linda if she can tell me a little bit about Mount Airy. It’s always nice to know a bit about the local history of the area. She consults the oracle (i Phone) and guess what? The Andy Griffith Show takes place in a mythical town called Mayberry, USA. And Mayberry is loosely based on Mount Airy, North Carolina.
Well, what do you know! That couple we had seen earlier were probably heading home to New York after a trip to a place they most likely always wanted to visit. Kind of similar to our desire to see the Biltmore Estate in Asheville.
By 4pm we are all checked in and killing time until we head out for dinner. Something had been percolating in the back of my mind all day and I finally express it to Linda.
“You know, it’s still pretty early and we are already done with our driving for today. How many miles did we drive today, and how many are we supposed to do for tomorrow?”
Linda consults the “Purple Book”, her loose leave binder with the general plan of attack, including hotel reservations and points of interest. “Today we did 80 miles, Roanoke to Fancy Gap. Tomorrow we have about 100 miles scheduled. That will get us from Fancy Gap to Blowing Rock. After that its about 90 miles to Asheville. Why, what’s on your mind?” She has a sense something is up.
“Well, I’ve been thinking. I know we don’t want to rush things… but after today, 80 miles a day, or even 100 miles a day doesn’t seem like a lot of miles to cover.” I continue on with my brain storm, hoping to convince the keeper of reservations that we should change our plans.
“What do you think of the idea of blowing off Blowing Rock”, hoping she gets the pun I just presented, “and we combine the next TWO days of driving into ONE single day. All together it’s a total of about 190 miles. Surely, we can cover 190 miles in a single day… and not really miss anything interesting along the way. Like I said yesterday, how many overlooks can you overlook?”
Linda is not always an easy person to convince. But eventually, after much discussion, she begins to see the logic of my argument.
“This will only work if we can change our reservations in Asheville. If we can’t come in a day EARLY this is a NO GO. I have a nice place booked at Homewood Suites” … another Hilton chain naturally. “Let me make a couple of calls and see what they say in Asheville.”
Ah, the joys of having an understanding wife. Over the years Linda has come to expect my occasional brain storms. She calls them something else… but we should skip over that for now.
A few phone calls to confirm an early arrival in at our Destination City, plus cancelling our reservation at Blowing Rock. “No Charge? Really? Great!” says a relieved Linda and our plans have been changed.
Little did we know that this decision was a major mistake.
Next Time
Bad Mountain Roads
-Ray Boyer
With many attending other events scheduled today (DE and Porsche Parade at the Poconos) I was surprised that we had nearly 60 Porsches on the freshly cut lawn at Sweet Berry Farm. The guy helping to park the cars was my younger brother Lou, a California PCA member owning (since new) a 2008 Cayman S. Lou and his friend Sandi dropped in for about a week after a month in Europe (5 days at the races in Monte Carlo).
Don Baily got my attention (liked the stance) with his 1982 911 SC. This Porsche has an 87 3.2 Dual Plug with DTS engine Management, and Elephant Racing suspension. Kind of a “sleeper”. This is a euro version export and is Don’s first and only Porsche found on Craig’s List and purchased from a dealer in Boston area about five years ago. His first Porsche sensation was the feel of driving. Don has lightened the car by removing some items such as the large whale tail and the A/C unit.
Another first-time owner of a Porsche was Shanay Patel (known as Sunney) parking his 1983 Guards Red 944. Purchased from Luis Rivera, he has done substantial wrenching, including clutch, top end rebuild and lots of small stuff. When I asked, “why a Porsche”, he replied, “its Iconic”. His first impression was the drive; “it handles perfectly”. With 167k on the odometer the original paint shows wear. Looking at the interior, all the gauges appear to be a pale yellow.
Marilyn Shan Scott Krick received her 2022 911 Carrera in December 2021, although it was scheduled to arrive in February (sinking of the freighter). Fortunate her order arrived early; this is her first Porsche. Her husband had first drive; she followed the next day. The driving experience is excellent, getting, so far, to 80-90 mph. The interior’s dash gauges are in red, as well as the seat belts.
John Barros parked his awesome 2022 agate grey GT3 touring with carbon roof and mirrors. Additionally, it has PCCB brakes and Neodyme wheels, with a Mojave Beige and exclusive manufacturer interior with deviated stitching. This is John’s second Porsche; his first was a chalk 2017 GT3 with a manual transmission. Asked why a Porsche, he replied, “ the engineering and the way it drives”. Driven near the edge, John has come close to bending the needle at 165 MPH.
Haley Dantas and family arrived in their Charcoal 2022 Cayenne Hybrid with black interior. Previously, they purchased a new Taycan Turbo S that did not have much range (just 165 miles) and had to press a button to lower car to load and off load the four kids. Also, the Taycan was too quiet and fast, causing undesirable speeds of 140 MPH. And today, with high gas prices, they are pleased getting 46 MPG in this 3.5L Hybrid.
Mel and Patty Cowher parked their Aventurine Green 2021 Carrera S. This Porsche is highly optioned with Sport Package, Tek seats, stripe package, red gauges (Patty said the red seat belt option was too much), walnut interior with aluminum trim and retro mag wheels. Mel’s first Porsche was a 1973 911 S when he was just 18 years old that he restored himself.. Later he owned a grey market 85 Carrera 3.0, followed by a 2011 Boxster, and then Patty’s 2016 Macan. Currently Patty drives a 2017 Cayenne. Mel says that the fastest he has driven a Porsche is about 160 MPH.
How Mel obtained his current Porsche is quite a tale: He entered a diabetes sponsored raffle and won a new Porsche. Then he traded in the new Porsche and his 2013 Carrera S to the upgraded 2021 Porsche that was parked on the lawn.
The next SoBo is scheduled for 10 July (10-Noon) at Sweet Berry Farm, 915 Mitchell’s Ln, Middletown, RI. The event as always is FREE, and no pre-registration is necessary. The only requirement to park on the grass is your Porsche. A Porsche logo sign should be in place directing you to the parking area. Sweet Berry Farm is child friendly, encouraging small children to enjoy a working farm, so when entering and exiting, drive carefully. And, as always, for any SoBo related questions, please email me at: [email protected]
Rog Slocum
127 Center Ave.
Middletown, RI 02842
e-mail: [email protected]