Our 2019 picnic took place on Saturday June 8 at the Boyd Conservation Area’s Hillview site. We were blessed with sunny weather at +23c. Despite the conflict with the Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix, and GT3 Cup Challenge Series in Montreal that weekend, we had 350 participants including our members and their families, and a total of 50 children at the picnic.
We also had representatives from Porsche Cars Canada (Col Henkes), Downtown Porsche (Derek Chen), Pfaff Porsche (Laurance Yap), Garage Living (Linda Fiore Ceolin), Marsh Canada (Nicole Persad, Emily Poole), Mount Pleasant Group (Altman Wong), Doxa Detailing (Joshua Brown) and SRT Carriers (Brad MacDonald) attending the event.
Colas Henkes (Marketing Director, Porsche Cars Canada) brought his wife and two young daughters to the event, which was his first picnic since he and his family moved from France to Canada. Prior to working in Canada, Colas served as the Marketing Director at Porsche France for a decade and he became Marketing Director of Porsche Cars Canada in July 2018. Colas brought the “Porsche Inspiration 911” miniature sculpture for the grand prize draw at our picnic. On August 31, 2015, Porsche AG unveiled “Inspiration 911”, a 78-foot sculpture outside the Stuttgart headquarter of Porsche and the museum in the Zuffenhausen district of the city. The sculpture, designed by British artist Gerry Judah, consists of three generations of the 911 sports car (F-series from 1970, a G-series from 1981 and the current series) appearing to rocket skyward at the top of the curving pillars.
Michael Pohlmann (UCR President) and David Walker (Director and Concours Co-Chairs) arrived at the event at 9:00am to prepare for the event. Our picnic registration desk was set up at 9:30am with Jackie Metcalfe (Director and Club Race Grid Captain), John and Rosemary (Past Presidents) manning the desk. Our members’ Porsches began to roll into the “Show ‘n Shine” area at 10:00am. Michael Pohlmann, Terrence Tong (VP), David Walker, Stefan Walther (Director, Driving Tour Chair and Social Media Chair), and Gerry Cornwell (Provinz Proofing Editor) directed the incoming Porsches to align them in an “all-in Show ‘n Shine” display with 100+ Porsches!
Jill Clements (driven2smile Chair) set up the kids’ areas with many toys to keep the children busy. We also launched the “PCA Juniors Treasure Hunt” at the picnic. We asked members to launch http://findtheporsche.org on their smartphones, and then asked their children to look around for the Porsche cars listed on the smartphone game screen. The children can then tap the screen to add the Porsche cars they see at the picnic. They can then claim their prizes. We gave take home toys to almost every child, and the toys included a die cast Porsche 911 Carrera S and key chain plush toys.
At 11:30am, the Fire it Up BBQ caterer began to serve a gourmet BBQ lunch, which included a choice of four grilled menu items: 8oz. charbroiled all beef burger, smoked BBQ pulled pork, Zesty jumbo Italian sausage and veggie burger; a pasta salad and assorted beverages. As soon as the ice-cream truck arrived at 12:45pm, we had a long line-up of kids and adults who had been craving for ice-creams!
Michael Pohlmann gave a welcome speech at 1:45pm. Sajjad Butt (UCR Rally Master) presented trophies to the winners who participated at the rally with the final check point at the picnic. Michael Pohlmann then announced the top three winners of the “Show n Shine – People’s Choice Award” and presented each winner with a $50.00 UCR Goodie Store gift certificate:
- Jay Lloyds (14-year UCR member) – Gulf Oil themed
Jägermeister orange 1975 934 - John Filipopoulos (18-year UCR member) –
white1969 911E - Syed Ali (25-year UCR member) – black 1995 911
2019 is the 50th Anniversary of the 914, which is Porsche first mid-engine sports car. On June 2, 2019, the Porsche Museum hosted an event called “50 Years of the 914 – Typically Porsche” in order to pay tribute to the car. John Tipper, advocate of UCR Special Interest Group (“SIG”) 914, had four of our members displaying their 914’s in the middle of the field at the picnic. Michael Pohlmann picked John Tipper’s white 914 to be his favorite 914 and presented him with a $50.00 UCR Goodie Store gift certificate. John Tipper is currently organizing several 914 get-togethers to celebrate the 50th Anniversary. Please check out this page for upcoming 914 events:
https://pcaucr.org/special-interest-groups/914-sig/
Adam Henderson is the advocate of SIG 928 and he managed to get eight members’ “sharks” (aka 928) to display at the picnic. This is part of the group that participated in the SIG 928 Spring Fling (Driving Tour and Lunch) organized by Adam on Victoria Day in May 2019. Please check out the pictures at:
https://pcaucr.org/special-interest-groups/sig-928/
Roger Stopford (Director, Tech Session Chair and Special Interest Group Chair) is leading the SIG initiative. The formation of the SIG is to allow UCR members to network with others in their specific area of interest and the sharing of information will foster restoration and maintenance of members’ automobiles. Click SIG for more details. If you are interested to be an advocate of a Porsche class, please contact Roger Stopford (Director, Tech Session Chair and Special Interest Group Chair) at sig@pcaucr.org
Michael Pohlmann and Mark Solomon (Open House Chair) gave out draw prizes to members. The prizes include Wurth products and a Wurth kit with adhesives donated by Jay Lloyds, several Porsche shirts from UCR Goodie store, two “Driving Force: Getting Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People” books written by Peter Schutz who was called “The Man Who Saved the Porsche 911”, and a lego car building kit donated by Michael Pohlmann.
Warren Snyder, a 10-year UCR member, won the grand prize “Porsche Inspiration911” miniature sculpture donated by Porsche Cars Canada. After winning the prize, he said to me, “This sculpture was similar to the one installed outside Goodwood House in the United Kingdom in celebration of the 911’s 50th anniversary. Gerry Judah also did another sculpture with six cars (356, 917, 959, 918 Spyder, 919 Le Mans Prototpye and a 911R) in July 2018 which marked the 25th annual Festival of Speed at Goodwood House in West Sussex.”
I would like to thank all the picnic participants for making our 2019 picnic a huge success. I would also like to thank Sonny Lott and Eshel Zweig for taking pictures at the picnic. I organized three UCR picnics at Boyd Conservation Area’s Hillview site during the past few years: 40th Anniversary Picnic in 2016 (500 participants with ~200 Porsches), 2018 picnic with 70 Years Porsche Brand celebration (500 participants with ~200 Porsches) and 2019 picnic (350 participants with 100+ Porsches). It is about time that I pass the baton to the next picnic chair. If anyone is interested to organize 2020 picnic, please send an email to volunteer@pcaucr.org
(Provinz: Aug 2019)