Category: From The Presidents Desk

From the President’s Desk,

First of all, I want to thank JP John Polnik, and Mikey Patriquin of Interpolnik LLC for their creative talents with editing and publishing our Desert Drives. Both are professionals in their fields and are LVRPCA members. How lucky can we get! I took time to view the newsletters of the 16 regions in PCA Zone 8 and we are among the best. If you do not take time to click through each monthly issue of our Desert Drives, you are totally missing out.

January started out with a bang! 

Week 1

First Lady Dana and I set out for sunny CA during the first weekend to attend the Zone 8 President’s meeting. One of the topics was for each President tell of improvements needed in their region. When it came to me, I [...]

There were so many high points with our club’s activities during 2023 that I don’t know where to begin. So, I won’t! But I will say that it has been a joy to meet so many members having a great time at our many events. Our Board and volunteers made it happen! I’m not a pessimist, but sometimes I remember the challenging times. The event that created anxiety for me was our Tri-Region drive to the Valley of Fire that we hosted last March. We had everything planned to a “T”. Dana and I left home plenty early with the waivers, drive directions, $500+ worth of NPS and NVSP passes, and traffic cones to help line up dozens of cars from Arizona, Utah and Nevada at our meetup location. We live in the northwest area of town and it was raining. Little did we know it would take nearly 2 ½ hour to get there. [...]

The holiday season is here! If you haven’t put those decorations up yet, I’m sure it’s on your short list. During the month of December, we usually do not offer as many club activities because it seems like many of us are busy with family and other commitments during the holiday season. 

The new year will include the Phoenix Fun Run Tour, which take place January 12-14th. It will include a unique Cars and Coffee social, a day drive through the Sonoran Desert and a visit to an incredible Secret European Car Collection. 

Our Winter Gala will take place at the M Resort and Casino January 21st. It will be a wonderful evening to kick off our Las Vegas Region 50th Anniversary celebration year. We are excited to have Vu Nguyen, PCA Executive Director, as special guest speaker. We will have a big birthday party for our 50th anniversary on April 20th, the day of [...]

Fall and Spring are typically our busiest time of the year for club activities and this year has been no exception. I really enjoy seeing the increasingly large turnouts and interest in our club. In just the third week of October we had the Maloof Collection Tour, Chef Dan’s cooking presentation at D’Agostino’s Trattoria, and the Tuacahn Cars and Coffee in Southern Utah! Each one was a hit with our members.

Because the Maloof Collection Tour was limited to 25 attendees, I am planning to work with them to have another tour in February. I’ll keep you posted.

Looking to the future, we have our last High Performance Driver’s Education weekend November 3rd-5th. We will offer four run groups from beginning to advanced. Check out the details in this issue. 

Our Mix & Mingle social gatherings have been quite successful. Our strategy has been to pick interesting establishments at various locations around town. The November [...]

September has been an active month for our club. Our Yosemite/High Sierra Tour started the day after Labor Day. We had perfect weather and some windy roads on our way over to Big Pine and then north to Mammoth Lakes. We turned the Porsches loose to explore the sites and scenery around the area and or course, Yosemite National Park for a couple of days and then headed to Tonopah on a very fun road. We will have to do this tour again! 

The next week we had a great turnout for AutoFest. Although a little warm, many of our club members displayed their cars. There was some healthy competition from the Corvettes, but they conceded when a total of 93 Porsches showed up! A special thanks to all of our LVR volunteers and especially Barbara Barron for organizing our Porsche corral!

Randy and Martha Burba have stepped up and done an excellent job of [...]

What a summer! I hope you were able to survive the heat, monsoons and tropical storm. Dana and I were able to get away to visit family and also spend some time in north Idaho and Colorado. We are glad to be back and am heading out today on our Yosemite tour with our LVR group.

Our first Mix & Mingle was a huge success. We had 45 members socializing and having a good time at the Bella Vida. Our next one is planned for September 19th, at the 2-La Neta Cocina and Lounge in downtown Summerlin. A special thanks to Martha and Randy Burba for organizing these fun events. See you there!

AUTOFEST is soon upon us. The largest car show in Las Vegas will take place September 16th. Last year I counted at least 85 Porsches displayed at the festival! Will we reach 100? It is not too late to enter. Check out [...]

I hope that you are beating the heat and staying cool this summer. We had some technical issues with our newsletter/website, and have decided to combine the July and August Desert Drives. Let’s just call it the SUMMER ISSUE!

First Lady Dana and I spent a week in Palm Springs while attending the PCA Porsche Parade in June. When gathering the names of LVR attendees I was amazed at the number of members I had never met before! So, we planned a “Starlight Winedown” for our region members and friends. It was great to see many of the 38 members that attended the Parade, and meet some for the first time. We had a fantastic time. I Love a Parade! See our Parade write-up and pictures in this issue.

Memorial Day weekend was very busy for the club. We ran our three-day High Performance Driver’s Education event at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch. The weather cooperated [...]

I hope that you are beating heat and staying cool this summer. As I write this, Dana and I are spending the week in Palm Springs while attending the PCA Porsche Parade. Yes, I’m sure it is warmer than Las Vegas, but we can take 100 degrees with a little sweat. When gathering the names of LVR attendees I was amazed at the number of members I had never met before! So, we planned a “Starlight Winedown” for our region members and friends. It was great to see many of the 38 members that attended the Parade, and meet some for the first time. We have had a fantastic time. I Love a Parade! See our Parade write-up and pictures in this issue.

Memorial Day weekend was very busy for the club. We ran our three-day High Performance Driver’s Education event at Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch. The weather cooperated with some ideal temps and everything [...]

May has proven to be a busy month for our club with numerous activities. We started with a false alarm monthly Brunch! My apologies for the date mix-up. Mike Dugan and I stood at the RRCC roundabout to inform each member that did not get the last-minute email. No members read us the “riot act”, which we would have deserved. A big thank-you for your understanding.

We had perfect weather for our annual Club Picnic Honoring New Members at Mountain Crest Park on May 13th. Besides the tasty BBQ catered by Road Kill Grill, our Board members and Zone 8 Rep, Lori DeCristo, refreshed us on the many facets of our club. Also, on May 20th, many of our members had a very interesting tour of Atomic Motors, in Henderson. We had a very interesting presentation about digital license plates at our May 21st Brunch. It was quite informative and a little sobering to learn [...]

This month is loaded with club activities. Here is a quick rundown for May:

• 7th – Brunch. If you have not signed up yet, see the brunch directions.
• 10th – LVR Board Meeting. We will be planning activities for the rest of 2023. Gaudin Porsche Board Room 6:00pm. Join Us!
• 13th – Member Picnic Honoring New Members. Great food with new and old friends!
• 20th – Atomic Motors tour
• 26-28th – HPDE at Spring Mountain
• 27-28th – Kanab Tour with IRPCA

Desert Drives and our Activity Calendar have detailed information on all events. There should be something for everyone! Our activities usually thin out during the summer months, but we will be continuing our monthly brunches and hopefully some other opportunities.

Some of you remember that our Boxster S Black Edition was murdered in November on the 215. Traffic was stopped, but not the Jeep doing 75 mph that rearended us! Dana and I are fine and we’ve been [...]