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It was with much excitement that I was able to attend the inaugural (well, first for a long time…) Porsche Ladies’ Run.
I have been fortunate to attend numerous Porsche runs in the past, however this was the first time that I participated as the driver.
It was a small but enthusiastic group who met at Melissa’s café in Templestowe. We totaled 18 participants with 13 cars.
The pre drive meet was a fabulous opportunity to meet and discuss all things Porsche and cars. I found it particularly enjoyable being with a group of women and feeling very comfortable speaking about our shared interest. After the coffee and snacks were consumed, and a very detailed briefing from Kon, it was with a cry of “Ladies, start your engines!!!” (ok, that was just me).
We headed off through Eltham towards Kangaroo Ground. Despite it being a grey Melbourne day, it was and is always a
Ursula Weidenmuller, Viki Coghlan and Melissa Thornton beautiful sight to behold a convoy of the high-performance cars. I believe the collective noun is a fleet of cars, however I feel “an elegance of cars” is a more fitting description.
Whatever collective noun you prefer, it was the sight of the lone photographer at Kangaroo Ground who had his back to the road and his camera pointed at the field as we all roared past. A missed photo opportunity no doubt, however I’m still not sure if he even registered the view. Some of us were tempted to test our horns, but we all managed to resist.
The next part of our run saw us traveling through Hurstbridge and then onto a Porsche friendly sealed windy country road through Panton Hill. I particularly enjoyed my navigator’s comments on the scenery as apposed to the usual ‘constructive feedback’ I enjoy from my usual navigator! As we continued through
Wednesday 29th June 2022
rolling hills, winding roads through picturesque Kangaroo Ground and Warrandyte with the occasional obstructed view behind a slowmoving crane truck, I was reminded of how very lucky we are to live amongst such beautiful country and how amazing it is to experience all in a high-performance car. To misquote Tom Cruise: “Porsche, there is no substitute”.
All too soon our run came to an end however we were treated to a first-class lunch at Warrandyte Stonehouse café. The food, wine, company and service were a very fitting end to a most enjoyable run.
All participants thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to come together and share our love of driving. It was unanimously declared that we would love to have more ladies-only runs and would like to have these on the weekends so that more women can have the opportunity to join. We also had a suggestion that during the regular runs there is the opportunity for the partners to drive a section (insurance permitting). Most runs are usually skewed towards one gender, and it could be a great way to address this imbalance.
A huge thank you to Kon Gogos, Melanie Treloar and Anna Cook for all of your hard work in making this run possible. It was truly appreciated by all.
Lastly, a special mention to Ursula Weidenmuller who gave me the following tips: Look ahead not down, accelerate out of the corners and don’t look at what you don’t want to hit! Oh, and that a male donkey is called a Jack and a female donkey a Jill!
In the (misquoted) works of the late Helen Ready “I am woman hear my Porsche engine roar!”
