FROM THE PREZ

FSR Members

Happy New Year and welcome to another year of great activities and camaraderie with your fellow Porsche enthusiasts!

As we look back on the last couple of months of 2011 we made another significant impact on the Hampton Roads area with our participation in the Mayflower Marathon providing food and funds for the Eastern Virginia Foodbank. Our Turkeys in the Trunk effort once again equated to 15,000 Thanksgiving meals for less fortunate folks in the area. Also, while on the topic of charity, thanks to everyone who pitched in during our 2011 charity events. We raised over $13,000 for our supported charities of the Foodbank, Special Olympics, and the Boys Home as well as our special donation made to the SPCA via our Air and Auto event! This is an increase from the $8,000 we donated in 2010 thanks again to all for helping FSR make a positive impact on our community. 

An obvious highlight of 2011 was FSR winning First Runner-up for PCA Region of the Year!!! And once again we had the best website in PCA for the second year in a row! So, what does this mean for us in 2012? We aren t resting on our laurels and we have a great year planned& now we just need everyone to enjoy the activities and help us make it an even better year.

Your FSR board for 2012 is ready to go and we will be looking for folks who want to get involved with great ideas. Your new board is made up of: President - Dave McFaddin; Western VP - Steve Sarfaty; Eastern VP - George Michaels; Secretary - Kevin Pirkle; Treasurer - Alex Bell; Activities - Don Bryant; Newsletter Editor - Phil Grandfield; DE Chair - John Kopp; DE Registrar - Marco Estrada; DE Chief Instructor - Alex Bell; Safety Chair - Chris Stanley; Webmaster - Marco Estrada; Charity Chair - Josie Grandfield; Membership Chair - Ken Thomas; Asst VP Eastern - Jason Horner; Asst VP Central - Bud Syme; Events Registrar - George Michaels; Asst Activities Chair - Pam Michaels

I encourage everyone to get out and enjoy driving your Porsches when able (hopefully winter will be mild) and to enjoy the camaraderie of likeminded enthusiasts as we participate in social events, charity events, tech sessions, Driver Education, car shows and fun runs!

Happy New Year once again! Dave McFaddin

President, First Settlers Region

Here is a new question to add to the Porsche Parade Tech Quiz question bank: “How many frozen turkeys fit into a Cayman S?” If you are David Jones from the First Settlers Region the answer is twenty one!!! David drove into the service area at Checkered Flag Porsche about ten minutes before end of the official weigh-in, popped opened both trunks of his car, and with the help of scurrying volunteers, starting pulling out frozen turkeys. The turkeys filled up the four by four foot board on the first scale, then the overflow went to the board on the second scale. The total weight came to 309 pounds and David became the winner of the Turkeys-in-the-Trunk contribution contest for 2011. For his efforts, David will soon be wearing a new Porsche leather jacket courtesy of Checkered Flag. This event also demonstrated a competitive edge where the mid-engine Cayman, with two trunks, has a clear advantage over the iconic Carrera!!

July 1972. I had come back home to Georgia with a new 911T and was excited. I talked my wife into going to my very first road race at Road Atlanta, a new road course about 40 miles from my in-law's home. We stood as spectators outside Turn 1 and watched George Follmer in a Porsche 917/10 outdrag the McLaren CAN/AM cars into turn one and win the race. After that moment I was hooked. In 1973-1975, I worked as an SCCA corner worker all the corners at Road Atlanta. That was a cheap way to see the races. I always wanted to drive the course but that remained a dream.

We'd like to extend our thanks to you for attending our second annual charity car show. Through your generosity and that of our sponsors, we raised almost $4000 for the VBSPCA, the Foodbank of SE VA and Special Olympics VA. We had 100 cars participate in the show and about 250 spectator cars; both numbers lighter than last year, but nonetheless a good turnout. The generous support of our sponsors was particularly critical to the show's sucees.

For our repeat attendees, we hope you saw some improvement over the way the show was conducted last year. We appreciated your comments and hope you noticed that we implemented some of your suggestions. We have some new lessons learned of our own, but we'd like to hear from you if you have any comments or suggestions on how we can further improve the event. Please send them to our registrar by replying to this email.  See show results here.

We'd like to plug the Foodbank's upcoming 15th Annual Mayflower Marathon Food Drive on 18-20 November. Donations will be accepted around the clock at 2 locations: in Virginia Beach at the Pembroke Mall parking lot, and on the peninsula at Coliseum Central next to Peninsula Town Center. They will be accepting non-perishable food items, frozen turkeys, and cash. We'll be showing up in force at the Pembroke location on Saturday, and we challenge all local car clubs to come out and join us in contributing to this great cause for our local communities. The Car Club Council of Hampton Roads is coordinating a schedule for member clubs to promote a steady stream of club donations all weekend, so if your club plans to attend, please reply to this email with the day and time.

We hope to see you there, and at the 3rd annual Air & Auto Classic next year!

Best Regards,
First Settlers Region - Porsche Club of America

Just a quick note to say thanks. We enjoyed a truly fantastic event last weekend at VIR, and there are so many folks to thank...some obvious, others not so obvious.

Our Students and Solo Drivers - You're the reason we're here. Thank you for your enthusiasm and willingness to take instruction from someone you may not have known before coming to the track. We hope you feel safer behind the wheel and that you'll come back again & again!

Our Instructors - Thanks - - Thanks - - Thanks for your dedication to turning out better drivers! A special thanks to our Instructors for their willingness to cover for each other when needed and to make sure our students have the best experience possible. And a very special thanks to our instructors, 9 of you, who came out to instruct even though you weren't driving your own cars. Spectacular...