February 1, 2021

The Blue Ridge Blogger

The Blue Ridge Region Welcomes . . . .

What???  No new members in January?  

Well, let’s do something about this.  If you see a Porsche out there, put a note on the windshield!  Invite them to join!      

There must be a mistake.  Neil Moody is not shown on the January roster.   Neither is Michael Platt!  Something is amiss.   If you see them, ask them!  We don’t want to lose them.

Upcoming Activities

Cars and Coffee

Unfortunately, no Cars and Coffee this month.  We are all hunkered down waiting on our Covid shots.  But people are getting their shots and it won’t be long before we are able to get together again.  Keep an eye out for the next Cars and Coffee.

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   Board Meeting
You are invited to our quarterly Board of Directors Meeting coming up on April 14, 2021 from 5:30PM to 6:30PM.    Because of the Covid-19 virus, this meeting will be held as a Zoom Meeting.  If you want to participate, email Reid Kuder at president@brr-pca.org. 
ALL MEMBERS NEW AND OLD ARE WELCOME!

   Social Meeting
Due to the Covid virus, we are temporarily curtailing our monthly Social Meetings.   We will advise you when and where they will resume.

What’s Happening with Porsche

Motorsports

The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona was run last weekend.  But where were the Porsche’s??  No factory team was entered.  A Porsche did lead (pace) the GTD pack at the 7th hour restart. 

Porsche paces GTD at 7th Hour Restart

Porsche came in 17th place overall in GTLM, 10 laps behind the winning Corvettes which were in 11 and 12th place overall.  In GTD, Porsche came in 25th place overall, but on the same lap as the winning Mercedes AMD-GT3 which were in 22nd and 23rd place.

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Is this your next Porsche?

Price from: $99,200

Engine: 4 liter Naturally Aspirated Flat 6
Power: 414 hp @ 7,600 rpm
Torque: 309 lb-ft @ 5,000 – 6,800 rpm
0-60 mph: 4.2 seconds
Top Speed: 188 mph

For the Ladies

PCA Potomac is holding its first ALL-FEMALE PARTICIPANT event on Sunday, October 3^rd, 2021 at Summit Point Motorsports Park.    We are actively seeking FEMALE DE INSTRUCTORS from within our Zone to help instruct at this event.    Registration for drivers and instructors is currently open on this MSR LINK:   Registration

All questions may be directed to our Women’s High Performance Driving Clinic chair-person and Potomac Instructor, Colleen Reiche at colleen.reiche@pcapotomac.org.Newsletter

We have a new edition of Blau Rain produced by our hard working webmaster, Dave Hogan.Click Here to see it!
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Story

An Invitation to Race at Le Mans (Le Mans Classic)

 It was the dog days of summer, 2003.  I had just returned from a Drivers Education event at Summit Point.  Monday morning.  What a let down.  I had gone from my Recaro seat to my desk chair.  From a view of the track out my windshield to a view of a specification document for a business application on my laptop.  Then the phone rang.  A call from a friend. 

 “Pete! This is Karl.”  Karl was a young project manager who had worked for me years ago.  “Hey, thought you might be interested in this.  My Dad is going to take his car to run in the Le Mans Classic next year.”

 “Well”, I responded, “that sounds like fun.  What is the Le Mans Classic?”

 “It is a race for historic cars, cars that ran at Le Mans at some point in their history.  You have to apply to enter your car.  They have a web site, www.lemansclassic.com.”

 “Well, that is interesting.   Which car?  Not the Dreyer certainly?   And didn’t he sell his Bugatti?”

 His Dad, Scott Ebert, is a long time historic car racer.   I had met him at Summit Point several years ago when he raced his 1939 Dreyer, an Offenhauser powered roadster.  But that car had never run at Le Mans. I also knew that he had a rare, unpainted aluminum Bugatti that he had taken to Monaco to a Bugatti Fest in 1998, but I thought he had sold that car. 

“That’s right, not that one!”, Karl said to my questions.  “He also has a 1930 Type 40 Bugatti roadster.  He was going to enter that car.  And he needs some drivers!” 

 “Did you say drivers??” I said.  I was immediately alert.

“Yes and I told him that he should ask you!   You race Porsches and stuff right?!”

“Right”, I replied!  That did not even take a second to think through.  Of course.  I can do it! 

“Well, I told him and he needs to know about your resume, your history, what you have driven, where you have raced, that sort of stuff.” Karl replied. 

 “Right!”  I needed to think fast here.  Well autocross is racing, sort of.  Twenty four seconds…twenty four hours.  That is almost the same! 

And I have been participating in Drivers Education events for a number of years, mostly in Green group, it seemed.   In fact the club had eventually let me in to the White Group, since I was skillful at pointing others around me and staying out of trouble.  

And everyone seems to have forgotten the day at Time Trials when Manny turned a faster time in his 914 than I did in my 911.   Eventually, desperate for instructors, the club had let me in Black Group. 

I could also boast that I have had some great students over the years.  Many of them had gone on the greatness, moved up to Blue, White, Black and Red, some instructing, others moving to Club Racing.  Most have even received passing signals from me, occasionally giving me a quick wave (I think it was a wave, kind of a closed fist shaking, or occasionally that one finger salute as they went past). 

 Maybe I could do that Club Race thing, I thought.  Get a real racing license before Karl figured this out.

 “So, tell me more!”, I said, stalling for time.

To be continued . . . . . .

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 AND  OF COURSE

A Porsche Gone Bad

Firstly  

Secondly—  https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sk7mERCSODs?wmode=opaque
Street Racing at its finest
Thirdly— 

The Jeff Gordon Pepsi Spoof Cab Ride

Pepsi’s First Prank: When race car driver Jeff Gordon, in disguise, “test drove” a car with a terrified car salesman as his passenger? Pepsi’s first prank was criticized by “journalists” on the Internet to be a fake.

Pepsi’s Second Prank: So, to prove the critics wrong, they did another one. This time the victim is with one of the most critical journalists who wrote about their first prank. This is a must-watch. It’s hilarious!

Click Here for Pepsi Test Drive II

Our Sponser of the Week

 KINGS AUTO UPHOLSTERY

401 Bullitt Ave SE

Roanoke, VA 24013

(540) 344-0718

fkingkingsautoupholstery.com

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2021

We are working on a new calendar for 2021.   Stay tuned!Posted 3rd February by Blue Ridge Region PCA