Authors in our Midst!
This monthly letter is being dreamt up during “Speed Week” at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Scheduled to start last Saturday, it looks like the shortened week will begin tomorrow, a Tuesday. The delay is thanks to two thunderstorms last week. Salt needs time to dry in order to become safe again for racing. Such are the narrow parameters needed to run the safest possible event for those who want to set world records. But thinking about one of the more unique records at Bonneville reminded me of a former Zone Rep, Sean Cridland. (Sean still holds a world record from “speed skiing” while strapped on the roof of a car at 162 MPH on the salt). And thinking about Sean reminded me of yet another newly minted author in our midst, Chris Lennon. And that finally led me to take stock in the overall level of talent that’s scattered throughout our regions. Let’s start there, and we’ll work back to Sean and Chris!
For those of you who have been to a Porsche Parade, you will be aware that the national awards for the prior year’s activities are announced throughout the week, at various banquets in front of nearly 1000 people. One of the really BIG awards was won by the Alpine Mountain Region. The award is the “Betty Jo Turner Award” for Best Overall Newsletter for AMR’s Mountain Passages monthly publication. Newsletters take a village to create and maintain. They also evolve in order to continually improve and pull in advertisers. So at the risk of offending those who chase down advertisers and content writers, or those who contribute to the process of getting each issue published and mailed, I’d like at minimum recognize the 2018 editor Matt Ardaiz. And realizing that it took a lot of formative years to get the newsletter to its current state, a lot of development credit should also be attributed to Bill Cosper, Matt’s predecessor for the many years just prior to Matt’s tenure. I should also mention that during tonight’s semi-annual board meeting conference call with 145 invited region President, Cindy Jacisin, PCA’s Vice President chose this award, as one of four National Awards to highlight as she recapped activities at the recent Porsche Parade. Congratulations to AMR and its leadership under Denise Jordan.
Four additional national awards within the zone were announced at the event in Boca Raton. These were awarded to the Rocky Mountain and Roadrunner Regions. The awards included a first place in the Region Website Class V category in RMR. Congratulations to Webmaster Scott Rogers. Next, RMR took 2nd place in the National Awards for Best Newsletter in a Class VI region. And Roadrunner Region also took a newsletter award; a 2nd place among Class IV regions. Nothing like a little neighborly competition with AMR, right? Congratulations to Tom Champion, newsletter editor RMR. And also to Steve Waller and Ann Mulhern who are collectively credited with a five year string of national newsletter awards. And a really special recognition to Bill Simon, who, if I understand correctly is instrumental in providing publication support for BOTH the RMR and AMR newsletters. Finally, a third national award was won by the RMR region; a 3rd place for Public Service. In other Parade competitive news, I also understand that we had two Concours entries from the RMR region who won their respective classes. Congratulations to Dave and Bette Seeland, as well as Jim and Randy Osgood!
No mention of awards won, should go without recognition of the nominations for awards NOT WON. Every year, the zone rep has the dubious expectation from PCA national leadership to pester region presidents to make or assign nominations for the top national awards. Considering and creating these nominations takes A LOT of time. And because it takes a lot of effort, no nomination gets written unless the person making the nomination truly believes that the national recognition should be warranted. Having read all of this year’s nominations it would be wrong to NOT recognize the intended recipients, and those who wrote the nominations. I’ll leave the specifics to each region announce, but special recognition should be made to Gigi Camarena and Jim Thorburn as Presidents of IRPCA and RMR regions respectively, and to John Mackin as Past President of RMR. You were all involved in one way or another in either nominating or being nominated for Region of the Year, Enthusiast of the Year, or Charity of the Year Awards. Your work is not lost on anyone, even though in each case, the BIG NATIONAL award was taken by another amongst the 145 PCA regions.
Now, coming back to recognition of mountain west PCA members who are spreading their writing talent around the world, I just want to make a short mention of two books published within the last year. I’ve purchased and read one of them and look forward to doing the same for the second. Many of you may already be aware of former Zone 9 Rep Sean Cridland’s “HURLEY: From the Beginning”, co-authored by Sean and Hurley Haywood. Sean traces his 9 years as the newsletter editor for the Roadrunner Region’s “Ramblings” as the beginning of his industry-wide Porsche-oriented article writing career. During his tenure, the newsletter placed on the PCA National Awards “podium” twice! The new book also includes a LOT of Sean’s incredible photography. Nicely done Sean.
Finally our perennial Pike’s Peak racer, Chris Lennon, from the Alpine Mountain Region, has recently released his own book titled “The Peak of Racing” (www.peakofracing.com). Chris’ most recent run up the hill was in a fully electric….wait for it….911! I’m looking forward to reading this book, as well. He added a sixth podium finish to his record (in the rain this time)! Congratulations, Chris!
Rich Sanders
Zone9Rep@pca.org