2024 Tour & Rally School Wrap-Up

By: Aniano Arao

PCA Chesapeake’s Tour & Rally Committee held its 2024 Tour & Rally School on April 7 at the Valhalla Farm of Skip Conrey. Eighteen club members took part and brought 12 cars, slightly more than the turnout in 2023.

Our instructors were longtime experts and veteran PCA members Steve Graham, left, for gimmick rallies and Bob Rassa for TSD rallies, both shown in the photo above. Tour & Rally Committee CoChair Aniano Arao served as the tour instructor.

The school, as usual, was designed for PCA members who want to learn about or bone up on gimmick and time-speed-distance (TSD) rallies, in preparation for the competitive rallies in this year’s Porsche Parade, as well as in our own region. It is also aimed at members who may be interested in learning to plan and create their own driving tours or in volunteering to be lead drivers.

The day began with breakfast at the party barn in Skip’s 90-acre farm in Marriottsville. Then 50-minute classroom sessions on tours, gimmick rallies and TSD rallies followed.

Everyone appeared to have enjoyed the exercise. It was won by Hansel Buckingham and Carolyn Bernota, left, in photo above. Bill Kearney and son Will came in second, while Rich and Kris Townsend, right, finished in third place.

Rich and Kris had previously won the 2019 “One-Lane-Bridge TSD Rally,” which was the sample event of that year’s TSD Rally School, conducted by Bob.

As a navigator, Carolyn came in second in last year’s Chesapeake Challenge Gimmick Rally, with driver Jonathan Silverman.

The TSD rally in last year’s Tour & Rally School was won by Steve and Marsha Buss. They did very well again this year. In fact, they would have won second-place honors had they been eligible for them – they were not because the TSD rally they had won in 2023 was identical to this year’s sample event. As the only repeat participants, they had a huge advantage. They kindly bowed out, but took part in the competition just for fun. The others were new to the rally and had to start from scratch.

Missing in the group photo above, in addition to myself, were Steve Graham and George Osenburg, as well as Chad and Gabriella Wasileski.. Unfortunately, all four had to leave early. Our host, Chip, is in the middle, wearing a red shirt under his black jacket.

Our thanks go to Skip of Conrey Construction for his unfailing kindness and hospitality.

Chesapeake Region

Eastern Shore Tour Re-cap

By: Aniano Arao

PCA Chesapeake’s Tour & Rally Committee held its “Eastern Shore Tour” on April 14, our second event in 2024. Eighty-nine club members took part and brought 49 cars, one of our biggest tour turnouts since 2016, when I started creating and organizing driving tours and rallies for the club.

Easton resident Tom Divilio was the guest tour master of this year’s inaugural event. It was his fourth Eastern Shore Tour for PCA Chesapeake since 2016. The tour started from Easton. It went through the historic and charming downtown of Oxford, as well as the scenic country roads in that area and in neighboring Trappe.

About one hour and 45 minutes after starting out, each group of cars reached Cambridge, our lunch destination. About 70 attendees had lunch at RAR Brewing, while a few went to Ava’s Pizzeria.

The universal feedback was that practically everyone had a great time. The weather helped by

being perfect, especially for those who brought their Cabriolets, Targas and Spyders.

Our thanks go to tour creator Tom and his better half, Lisa, and to the other couples who each led a group of cars, namely, Rick and Patsy MacInnes, PCA Chesapeake’s First Couple Steve and Marsha Buss, as well as James and Anna Beavan. Myrna and I led the fifth and last group, after I had launched the first four. Our thanks also go to those who served as group sweepers.

Now, feast your eyes on some photos from the tour, all of which I took, unless credited to Jim McKee.