from pit lane To summarise the 2021 track year in one word, difficult or frustrating would be the words that come to mind. With only 5 competition events able to be completed this year, it has been a cold and lonely winter (and Spring for that matter) since our beloved marques have been collectively on the black stuff in any form of anger! Fortunately with restrictions easing recently, we have been able to hold a very strongly supported and successful finale to the 2021 season, with the first and hopefully last Covid Cup being completed at Sandown on November 28. Please see a full report further on in this edition. This event became a significant joint occasion, with the integration of the Social Committee providing an event for all members, the “Sandown Experience”. Again this was a huge success and provided the opportunity for the social set and the track addicts to combine and mingle and experience a different side of what the club provides. A detailed report is presented further on.
Well done to Russell Sturzaker and Linley Baxter for pulling this together on a relatively short notice. We are already planning another similar event at Winton Raceway Benalla in mid 2022. I’d also like to congratulate all of the Competition award winners this year, details and photos are shown in this edition. With the 2022 Competition calendar almost fully locked in for next year, we are looking to make up for lost time with 10 events plus our time honoured Presidents Day that unfortunately had to be postponed this year. Please see the below calendar. Phillip Island Sun 13/2 Haunted Hills Sun 6/3 Sandown 6 Hour Sun 3/4 Broadford Sun 22/5 Winton Sat & Sun 4&5/6 Long Track Saturday/ Skid Pan Motokhana Sunday Sandown Sun 10/7 Winton Sun 14/8 Long Track morning/Short Track afternoon Phillip Island Sat 17/9 Sandown Sun 16/10 Unconfirmed at this stage Sandown Presidents Day Sun 20/11 Unconfirmed at this stage
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the Competition Committee for their help, support and direction during my first year as Competition Director and wow what a baptism of fire it’s been. Without their assistance and guidance, this year could have been far more difficult for me than it ended up being. Special mention must go to Carly in the admin office for her tireless work behind the scenes. We are blessed to have such a strong and enthusiastic club that always has the best interests of its members at heart. Let’s all put 2021 behind us and have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year and I look forward to seeing everyone “From Pit Lane” in 2022.
Andrew Smith Competition Director
the socialist We were very honoured to have Daniel Schmollinger CEO of Porsche Cars Australia attend the Sandown Experience. He summed up the magic of PCV when he told Russell Sturzaker that “we were animating the brand on his behalf” More about that later. Did you know that the main reason people are joining our club is “their interest in the Porsche Marque” followed closely by “sharing an interest with like minded people”. I didn’t but now we know this from our recent member survey. You will see a lot more about the survey in this issue together with the announcement of the two lucky winners of the $150 Visa card participation prize. A great big thanks to Anna Cook for persisting with the idea of the survey and bringing it to fruition. As surveys go our survey threw up some very valid data because the 35% response rate was very high when on average the response rate to surveys tend to be between 5% and 15%. A big thank you to all members who participated to help us understand what you want from PCV events. We will use this data to help frame future events. For instance there is the temptation to just service the 81% of members aged over 50. Giiven the responses we already do that pretty well albeit with plenty of room to use survey findings to improve the offering. And we will continue to improve the quality and number of events for that
group. It is the 19% aged under 50 that provide a level of fascination. Arguably they are the future generations of the club. With busy family /career oriented lifestyles they are time poor. They have pre school, pre teen and secondary school children and probably drive SUV’s (Macan, Cayenne?).It is this group that we can also look after. We now know they tend to prefer family events such as family days and less time intensive events such as Cars and Coffee. We also know that older members love car displays so why not combine car displays with attractions for families and children? A guideline for such events in 2022? Maybe. Regardless an example of how we are using the data from the survey. So the survey has been run and won. And so have some of the many events we proposed for November and December to celebrate the return of our freedoms. Starting off with the brilliant Run to Hurstbridge. Kon Gogos pulled off another corker, which was not even dampened by persistent mist and some heavy fog. Soon after we had the Brighton Monte. Clyde White conceived of a unique first time event combining three runs culminating at Porsche Brighton with a beautiful outdoor lunch in their spacious undercover area.We called it the Brighton Monte to celebrate Porsches win in 1968 Monte Carlo Rally which, in those days, commenced from multiple points in Europe. A great big thank you to the 3 run organisers Stephen Lofthouse, Geoff Mould and Kon Gogos and special thanks to Pike Peters (Marketing Partner) and his team
at Porsche Brighton. We have now just come off the high of the Sandown Experience where organiser Russell Sturzaker pulled of some more “firsts”. The first time all three Porsche Dealers had displayed together at a PCV event and the first time in a long time that the Social and Competition parts of PCV had joined for one big happy event.Thanks to Comp Director Andrew Smith for embracing us as part of a Competition event. It was a huge pleasure to repose in the marque with a sumptuous lunch whilst reflecting on your laps around the Sandown race circuit.A big thank you to Russell and all the volunteers who helped run the day. And a big shout out to Porsche Melbourne, Porsche Brighton and Porsche Doncaster for the car display and also thank you to Porsche Cars Australia who provided very significant sponsorship for the day. Before we launch into 2022 we have two more events to go. Kon Gogos is organising a Porsche and Coffee Run in Mid December and Vickie Morris is leading a Mid Week Run. To find out more about this and our plethora of events coming to you in 2022 please check out the Events page on the website and keep your eyes out for the PCV email update. Here’s to lots of Porsche Socialising. Linley Baxter Social Director
ISSUE 4, 2021
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