Horizontally Opposed - First Settlers Region PCA

My First Parade: Christmas in July!
By Bobby Smith
This fall I will celebrate 25 years as a
PCA/FSR member. During this time I
have never had the privilege of attending
the annual Porsche Parade. My
work and time constraints have always
been a problem for me. As soon as I
found out that the 2008 Parade would
be held in Charlotte, I started making
plans. I registered in March and
received confirmation of acceptance
shortly thereafter. That is when the
work began. My goal was to compete
in the Autocross competition. I started
by going over the 914 by checking out
the major systems and changing fluids
etc. This 914 has been my main Autocross
car for the past 25 years, so it’s
normally in “fighting trim”. I had a
check list of services required and all
of the spare parts and tools to bring
along. About two weeks before the
event I received a set of the PCA rules
and two items jumped out at me. There
would be a 103db sound limit and the
fenders of the car must completely
cover the tires. I run an open exhaust
and my tires stuck out slightly so I
quickly rounded up another exhaust
and hacked together some homemade
flairs. The day before the trip I loaded
the car on the trailer and packed, tools,
spares, helmet, clothing, personal
items and everything that I could possible
need during the competition. All I
had to do the next morning was to put
on my pants and grab my wallet.
I’m on my way to the Parade. Everything
is going great. I’m almost to
Charlotte and I reach to find a phone
number in my wallet. After months of
planning every detail of this trip, I had
left my wallet on the dresser. No
licenses, credit card…nothing! Thankfully
I had carried enough cash to buy
fuel and food.
I arrived in Charlotte and registered
(no ID required). I got a chance to say
hello to some friends in the Shenandoah
region and stop by the Goodie
store. The Westin Hotel was set up
well and except for a few parking problems
everything was smooth sailing.
My plan was to meet up with the Driving
Competition folks at 6AM at Lowe’s
Motor Speedway on the day of the
Autocross for the course walk through.
I’m not sure exactly how many people
ran, but 375 were signed up. I got
there at 5:30 AM and it was still dark.
8 PCA First Settlers Region http://fst.pca.org