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From the Archives #24, April 2024

Since this issue of Desert Drives commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Las Vegas Region, we thought we’d bring out some history of PCA and the LVR.

PCA National (often referred to as ‘PCAN’) itself was founded in July 1955 by Bill Scholar of Alexandria, Virginia. The first PANORAMA came out in December 1955, and the first “Region” was the Potomac Region, founded in 1956. To join PCA there was an Initiation Fee of $5.00 and annual dues also of $5.00.

Before the Las Vegas Region was founded, in 1973, if you were a Las Vegan who owned a Porsche and tried to contact other Porsche owners or members of PCA, you were pretty much out of luck. The closest Region was Riverside and there were actually a few Las Vegas Porsche owners who were members there.

Eventually enough Las Vegas locals met other Porsche-owning locals and managed to arrange an “organizational meeting.” About 15 or so folks showed up, names and phone numbers were exchanged, and the process of rounding up the 25 signatures necessary to apply for a region charter began. A wonderful cross-section of folks made up that group: craps dealer, contractor, retired CIA operative, attorney, pastry chef at a strip hotel, valet car parker, head ER doctor in a local hospital, casino floor man, test site workers, trumpet player at a strip hotel, airline flight engineer, a judge, couple of fighter pilots, and on and on.

To present the Region charter to the LVR first-ever President Eric Gurr, Wally Cole (PCAN VP), Tom Houser (PCAN Executive VP), and Don Kravig (Zone 8 Rep), as well as a number of Riverside Region members came to town for the weekend. Activities included a Saturday night social at Carl and Johanne Young’s home, cocktails and dinner at the Showboat, an autocross with the SCCA Sunday morning, and a poolside get-together in the afternoon. Interestingly, of the 40 cars at the autocross, 17 were Porsches… not a bad turn out from 25 members.

Carl Young was one of the original founding Members of the Las Vegas Region and its 3^rd President (for 1976). He was also the Las Vegas Region Porsche Club Historian for many years. In addition to holding the office of Club Historian, he was also very active as Driver Ed Chairman. A retired US Air Force fighter pilot, Carl owned and operated the Porsche Service Shop (which became ‘Carl’s Place’ and is now ‘900 Series Motorsports’); and was thus well known throughout the area. Carl was active in many forms of motorsports events. In 1999, Carl Young drove the Silver State Classic Challenge and his wife Ellen navigated for a First-Place finish in the 165 mph class, missing the 165mph target by just 104 TEN-THOUSANDTHS of a mile per hour. Carl Young drove a 1996 virtually stock Twin Turbo except for safety-related upgrades such as a full roll cage, fuel cell, and fire system. He averaged 164.9896 mph over the desert course.