As expected, in 2nd quarter, there has been a large uptick in Zone 6 activities.   Silver Sage, my home region, held the first of three 2-day AX’s planned for 2022.  All Zone 6 regions have been holding driving tours. Several Zone 6 regions have held DE’s, these include:  Vancouver Island, Pacific Northwest, and Oregon Regions.  

We attended the Colorado Springs Treffen in preparation for the Sun River Treffen to be held in September in the High Desert Region.  We also attended Vancouver Island Region’s signature event:  Black Rock.  Black Rock is a fund raising event for a number of local charities.  It included; tours, AX and DE events.

Next up is attending Parade in June.  Region visits scheduled for 3rd quarter include: Cascade, BC Interior, Canada West, Inland Northwest, High Desert, and Oregon 

Membership in Zone 6 continues to grow, however, a couple of regions have seen single digit declines.

Respectfully submitted,
John P Sommerwerck
Zone 6 Rep

The post Zone Rep Report Q2/22 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

First quarter was a relatively quiet time for Zone 6.  Much of the Zone has limited opportunities to tour.

In February I participated in the annual PCA national winter staff meeting via Zoom.  I had been looking forward to meeting everyone face-to-face, but Omicron had different ideas.

In March, I held my first Zone 6 President’s meeting in Boise, ID.  All 10 regions were represented, and 5 regions sent multiple officers. Unfortunately, the President of BC Interior Region resigned just before the meeting and the VP of BC Interior attended.  Todd Benz was the EC rep and I appreciated his support. 

I have been made travel plans to visit:
1.  Broadmoor Treffen to prepare for Sun River Treffen in Sep.
2.  Vancouver Island Region in May
3.  Parade in June.
4.  Canada West Region in July.
5.  BC Interior Region in July.
6.  Oregon Region in August.
7.  Inland NW Region in August.
8.  Sun River Treffen in September.

I hope to have finalized travel plans to visit the Pacific NW, Olympic Peninsula and Cascade Regions in second quarter.

I would like to thank my predecessor, Mark Prusynski, for all his guidance and support.

Respectfully submitted,
John Sommerwerck
Zone 6 Rep

The post Zone Rep Report Q1/22 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

COVID finally seems to be settling down after an uptick probably related to gatherings over the holidays. One of the few advantages to the aging demographics of PCA may be the ability of some of us to get vaccinated. That may be the reason for my optimism about getting back on the road. We also had a warm January in most of the Zone, so we’ve had an early start for some drives. Mine were just taking the Boxster to the golf course, but it’s still good.

We had a virtual Winter National Staff meeting on February 6 and Parade registration a few days later. I’ve heard people are having trouble getting rooms already. That may be an indication of the pent up desires of PCA folks to get together again. Treffen Scottsdale is coming up in May and I bet it will be sold out. Those national events are still on track. Putting them on is a lot of hard work and we should appreciate the extra effort that has to be made to keep us virus free.

We have our virtual Zone 6 Region Presidents’ Meeting on March 6 and the region volunteers have already been busy planning this year’s events. We have some significant region anniversaries this year and a couple from last year that deserve a larger celebration. It’s hard to believe that we have three regions, Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Cascade, that are 60 years old. Silver Sage is 55 this year and BC Interior turns 30. I hope that in a few months we can have big parties for each of them.

See you in the Zone.

– Mark

The post Zone Rep Report Q4/21 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

COVID finally seems to be settling down after an uptick probably related to gatherings over the holidays. One of the few advantages to the aging demographics of PCA may be the ability of some of us to get vaccinated. That may be the reason for my optimism about getting back on the road. We also had a warm January in most of the Zone, so we’ve had an early start for some drives. Mine were just taking the Boxster to the golf course, but it’s still good.

We had a virtual Winter National Staff meeting on February 6 and Parade registration a few days later. I’ve heard people are having trouble getting rooms already. That may be an indication of the pent up desires of PCA folks to get together again. Treffen Scottsdale is coming up in May and I bet it will be sold out. Those national events are still on track. Putting them on is a lot of hard work and we should appreciate the extra effort that has to be made to keep us virus free.

We have our virtual Zone 6 Region Presidents’ Meeting on March 6 and the region volunteers have already been busy planning this year’s events. We have some significant region anniversaries this year and a couple from last year that deserve a larger celebration. It’s hard to believe that we have three regions, Pacific Northwest, Oregon and Cascade, that are 60 years old. Silver Sage is 55 this year and BC Interior turns 30. I hope that in a few months we can have big parties for each of them.

See you in the Zone.

– Mark

The post Zone Rep Report Q1/21 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

Many of us are hoping for a new year with a return to normal. It seemed we were on the right track last summer, but as I write this, Oregon, Idaho and Washington have all seen spikes in new COVID cases, Idaho especially, and we have new restrictions as we go backward. The 10 regions in Zone 6 did a great job of adapting and held a lot of events incorporating COVID protocols. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend any of those events outside of my home region, Silver Sage. One of those events, a tour over to Yellowstone and up the Beartooth and Chief Joseph highways in Wyoming, was a Multi-Region Event. Several other regions were represented and we also got to meet some Silver Sagers who don’t get over to Boise much. Shortly after that tour in September, gatherings were limited again.

I’m tired of COVID. If you are also becoming a couch potato, PCA has been working to give you some Porsche entertainment.

Our Executive Director, Vu Nguyen, has been hosting regular Tech Tactics LIVE videos on a variety of topics. He’s covered several Porsche maintenance topics and had one on garage lifts that got me considering a lift to make changing the oil in the Boxster easier. Nathan Merz of the Pacific Northwest Region was the featured speaker for a session on valuation of Porsches, originally scheduled for November 11. Those of us who signed in were surprised that YouTube shut down that evening, so the session was rescheduled for November 18. I’m sure it will be interesting. If you can’t make the live presentation, watch it and 10 other sessions on YouTube. It’s easy to check PCA.org, click on the header for “Technical” and click on Tech Tactics in the drop down menu.

I’ve also spent some time on the new PCA Mart, drooling over Porsches I can’t afford. PCA’s partnership with Hagerty gives us a great deal more information on the average values of the cars we are looking at. Another one of my favorite time killers is Rennbow.org. Panorama’s Editor, Rob Sass, is even more obsessed with unusual Porsche colors than I am and he put together a great site showing all the colors with histories and the models each color was used on. Post a picture of your Porsche(s) on the site.

Now that I’ve contributed to your bottom line, please enjoy the holidays safely and,

I’ll see you In the Zone in 2021.

– Mark

The post Zone Rep Report Q3/20 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

It’s June and in a normal year we’d be deep into driving events and tours, but everyone knows this is not a normal year. So I was thrilled, as were a great number of PCA members, when things loosened up enough in late May that we could start driving again. The first few are always test cases, kind of like test driving a new car. I was happy to see that all our Zone 6 events passed the test. The wide variety of COVID 19 regulations, stretching from mandates to suggestions among all our governmental jurisdictions, added a huge layer of complexity to the normal guidelines for staging a safe event.

In late May we had an autocross, tour and gimmick rally in three different regions on the same day. All were successful, possibly perfect. There may have been some grumbling about signing waivers and social distancing, but most understood the need for additional measures. As Zone Rep, I receive copies of all certificates of insurance for all upcoming driving events Although I haven’t been flooded with them like I have in past summers, the stream has increased significantly. I hope it continues until everyone feels comfortable with all of our driving events and we can get back to more social activities that are the backbone of PCA.

Gary Glover and Perci Hala spent some of their “stay at home” time coming up with a new addition to the
Zone 6 website. Click on “Tours” up above and check out the region tours. Gary did the Canadian tours to show those of us in the States the examples of what we can post. I’ll prompt the region presidents south of the border to get their favorite region tours posted. As restrictions continue to be lifted we hope that longer tours with stops at restaurants and other opportunities to socialize become feasible.

I also hope that it will feel normal again to shake hands or give you a hug.

See you in the Zone.

– Mark

The post Zone Rep Report Q2/20 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

I thought we’d get an early start to our Zone 6 activities by attending PNWR’s 60th Anniversary Gala in January. It was a great wrap-up to their anniversary year with over 200 people attending. PNWR continues to be our leader. We took a little detour from Seattle to Hawaii to visit some PCA friends there and then headed to Dallas for the PCA Winter meeting. Everything was positive, with plans for increased participation in all of our PCA events.

We held our Zone 6 Region Presidents’ Meeting on March 7 in Victoria. Half of our 10 regions have new Presidents this year and we also had several Vice-Presidents attend. I keep saying what a great group of region leaders we have and it’s the truth. One of many agenda items that we agreed upon was starting a rotating multi-region tour, dubbed “Premium Tours” by Gary Glover, who came up with the idea. We’ll talk about that later, because March 7 was at the early stage of the battle with the coronavirus, Covid-19, and Seattle seemed to be the epicenter in North America. Doug Andreassen was in constant contact with the PNWR board and National officers about the effect of the virus on the health of our PCA members and gave us an update at the end of the meeting, including the decision to cancel or postpone events for the rest of March.

Thank you to all who attended and a special thanks to our host region, Vancouver Island. The facilities and weather were perfect. Several region members attended the traditional social after the meeting with a gorgeous harbor front setting. We were looking forward to returning for Black Rock, but are sad to see that it has been cancelled because of Covid-19.

As you all know by now, we have cancelled or postponed many more region and national events, including Treffen. Parade is still on at this time and we had 106 people from Zone 6 signed up at the Phase One registration. What we do in the next few months depends upon whether we can get ahead of this virus soon. Let’s hope so.

In the meantime, I hope that your local authorities will allow you to get out for an occasional drive in
your Porsche.

Stay safe and healthy.

-Mark

The post Zone Rep Report Q1/20 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

Most of the Northwest experienced a cooler, wetter, September than normal, but it didn’t seem to effect the turnouts at all the Fall tours we have in the Zone. Zone Reps get copies of all the certificates of insurance in the Zone and for awhile I was receiving several each day! The Prusynski family traveled to Poland in September. It was a bit strange to travel in something other than a Porsche for a while.

We returned in time for Silver Sage’s Octoberfast, which has become a multi-region event with regular attendees from Inland Northwest, High Desert and other regions. November’s weather seemed more like September should be, which extended the season for driving our Porsches, even with the tops down. I’ve got the winter tires on now and many of you have probably put your Porsches to bed for the Winter. It will be a good time to enjoy all the tech sessions coming up in the Zone.

I’d like to extend a special thanks again to all those who helped and participated in the Zone Grand Tour this year. We’re looking at some new ideas for multi-region tours in coming years. Also, thank you to all 10 Region Presidents who guided their regions this year and to those new Presidents who will be coming on in 2020. Pacific Northwest Region celebrated it’s 60th anniversary in 2019 with so many activities that it seems like they had something going on every day. 2020 will be the 60th anniversary of our second largest region, the Oregon Region, and 2021 will be the 60th anniversary for the Cascade Region. We have a lot to celebrate!

I wish everyone the happiest of holidays and look forward to a great New Year in the Zone!

-Mark

The post Zone Rep Report Q4/19 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

Well, we ended the Spring with a great INWR wine tour. We always have a good time, perhaps evidenced by the fact that we’ve gone back for about 20 years. Technically, Spring ended and Summer started with our second Zone 6 Grand Tour and it was truly Grand. I can’t thank everyone enough who helped me organize the whole thing, the region presidents and the 10 region tour leaders, and all the participants. If you haven’t read my blog turned into an article on pca.org, take a few minutes. It was a long trip on some of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever been on.

We only had a few days off after the Grand Tour before we headed to the Porsche Parade at Boca Raton, Florida. The heat and humidity didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. The resort is incredible and it was nice to see a lot of people from Zone 6. We have a number of Zone 6 members who hold national committee or Parade committee positions. One of them, Kathleen Behrens, was honored with the Zone Rep Award for her service as Parade Registrar. Vancouver Island Region brought home a first place trophy for their newsletter and a third place charity award. Great job! I didn’t keep track of all the other awards won by Zone 6 members in the competitive events. It was a great Parade, but I’m glad we live in the opposite corner of the country.

We recently returned from the Whistler Weekend. It’s been on our “must do” list for over 20 years, but something always came up. We drove to Seattle and joined the PNWR tour up to Whistler. Great tour to a great place. Although we didn’t enter the concours or autocross, we did sign up for the wine tour. Unfortunately, a truck rollover blocked the only road to the winery for a few hours. The first two groups made it after substantial delays, but we were in the third group and decided on an alternative tour. There aren’t a lot of options in such a remote area, but I love seeing the mountains. It was a wonderful event with a lot of history. Thank you everyone.

See you in the zone!

-Mark

The post Zone Rep Report Q3/19 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.

Zone 6 was well-represented at the Santa Barbara Treffen, although I suspect some of them were “snowbirds” who had their Porsches down there already. Great weather and tours. Seems like that’s what it took to dry out the Northwest. It’s been warm and dry. Perfect driving weather. I can always tell when the driving season is here because I get copies of all the certificates of insurance for the Zone. Sometimes 3 or more a day.

Other than Treffen, I’ve stayed home at Silver Sage for driving events, even doing an autocross for the first time in years. People still tell me I’m “smooth”, which is really a polite word for “slow”. Linda and I also did a short tour today with about 30 Silver Sage cars. Zone 6 has some of the best Porsche roads in North America.

We’ll see a couple thousand miles of those on the Zone 6 Grand Tour from June 22-30. Each of the 10 regions has done a great job of planning the route and syncing it up with the adjoining regions. Registration ends in 10 days, May 21. 71 cars and 121 people signed up so far with 14 of those cars and 24 people signed up to do the full 2000+ mile tour. We’ll get to know each other well. If you haven’t signed up yet, sign up for some or all of the tour and see some of those great Porsche roads we have in these parts.

Next week is the INWR Wine Tour that Linda and I will attend for the 20th or so time. Great wine and even better friends.

See you in the zone!

-Mark

The post Zone Rep Report Q2/19 appeared first on PCA Zone 6.