Get Out & Drive

I’m starting this month’s column on a sad note, one of my heroes of racing passed away recently, Vic Elford. I started watching road/ track racing in late high school because a mechanic that worked for my dad purchased a brand new 1965 Porsche 911 that I fell in love with. He told me I should follow Vic Elford if I liked Porsches. In 1968, Elford won the 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 907. Elford’s fame in racing was not just for his extraordinary accomplishments that he did with Porsche but also because of his dedication to help others in racing. One physical instance of that was in 1972, Elford was named Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite by French President Georges Pompidou. The prestigious honor was awarded for his act of courage and heroism during the 24 Hours of Le Mans when he stopped to assist a fellow driver from a burning car. Elford’s skill can readily be seen in the movie Le Mans where Steve McQueen chose him to handle the high-speed close-up action shots driving the famous Porsche 917. A great, great racing hero and one of the good guys! This year has started out with some great events and we have already been on the track with our first drivers education event at Big Willow. There are many more coming up so please take advantage of our autocrosses and drivers education events. Chuck Jennings and Bob Bruington would love to talk to you about them anytime. Also, Gil Igleheart continues to put together some great events for us. For all of these events go to page 10 for more information. It is already April and there are some major Porsche-related events coming up quickly here locally but remember that there is Car Week up in Monterey along with the PCA Werks Reunion too in August. If you haven’t ever attended this almost local event, and you own a Porsche, you should go see it at least once. The California Central Coast Region is looking to build up our advertising base so that we can continue to print the Coastalaire every quarter and support some of our great events. If any of you know some businesses that would benefit by advertising with us and don’t mind asking them please contact Bob Kitamura at costalaireeditor@gmail.com. We are seen by about 1,000 California Central Coast Porsche enthusiasts ... a great market for many businesses. If any of you are interested in writing articles for our Coastalaire publication, especially if you attend some of our events, please contact me. I would be happy to show you what we are looking for and how to write it. Also, we do have many of us doing photography but I would not mind getting photos from more of you that are attending the events especially photos showing our members. The only caveat is that I need high resolution photos, at least 4 megabytes, which most of your handheld phones should be able to do.

by Bob Kitamura, Editor

In the March 2022 issue of Panorama “From the Regions”

Thanks for all of your interest and participation in our activities, we hope to see more of you out there soon. Now………”Get Out There and Drive!” - Bob