Part one of a two-part report on our Grand Annual Gala
ON SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26, more than 150 Upper Canada Region (“UCR”) members and friends celebrated another record year of event participation at our Annual Banquet, which took place at the Islington Golf Club. The Annual Banquet is an occasion to give recognition to our long-time partners, volunteers and members who are the best ambassadors of the Porsche brand.
We were honoured to have the following guests at our banquet:
• Pfaff Porsche: Diana Kwok, Marketing Coordinator. Pfaff was our Presenting Sponsor of the 2019 CanAm Challenge Club Race at Mosport.
• Porsche Centre Downtown Toronto: Derek Chen, Marketing Manager and his wife Alexis. During the past six years, Downtown Porsche has been fueling our membership growth by giving complimentary first year UCR membership to every customer who buys a Porsche from them or renewing the membership if the customer is already an UCR member. With 2,700 primary members, UCR remains the largest region among 145 regions at the Porsche Club of America (PCA). We have more than 4,000 members including family and affiliated members.
• Porsche Centre North Toronto: Adriano Bernaudo, Marketing Manager and his fiancée, Pascale Zollo.
• Braidan Tire: Brad Shimbashi and his wife, Nadia. Braidan Tire has been a long-time Trackside Tire Sponsor of our annual CanAm Challenge Club Race at Mosport.
• Autostrada: Lucas Scarfone, a professional automotive photographer and the publisher of the Autostrada magazine. Derek Cheung (Provinz Assistant Print Editor 2018-2019) conducted a fireside chat with Lucas Scarfone and Adam Ivers (a close friend of Lucas) at our banquet. Please see our 2019 Annual Banquet – Part 2 about the fireside chat in our January 2020 Provinz
The President’s Speech
Michael Pohlmann, UCR President, thanked UCR volunteers who organized 60 events for our members in 2019 and highlighted the following events:
• 17 Driving Tours by Stefan Walther, Driving Tour Chair and various driving tour hosts and three of the driving tours were hosted by Downtown Porsche, Porsche Centre North Toronto and Pfaff Porsche.
• UCR Ultimate Porsche Germany 2019 Trip organized by Stefan Walther for 28 UCR members on Sept 11 to 23 was a huge success. Stefan is currently planning a UCR Ultimate Porsche Germany 2020 Trip, which is expected to take place in late September 2020. The trip will include Porsche Factory and Museum tours in Stuttgart, the newly opened Porsche Experience Centre at Hockenheimring race track, Neuschwanstein castle and Alps, Rhine river cruise, Oktoberfest in Munich!
• driven2smile (D2S) on May 31 by Jill Clements and Del Bruce. 2019 was the eighth year that UCR organized D2S. We had 80 Black and Red Run Group drivers from our Driver Education program giving rides to 300 children and their families for a few laps at Mosport. These children have unique cognitive, medical, and physical considerations and they come from multiple organizations such as Autism Ontario and its local chapters.
• CanAm Challenge Club Race at Mosport Grand Prix track on Aug. 1 – 4 by Terry Cassan (Club Race Chair). Thank you to the three sponsors – Porsche Cars Canada, Pfaff Porsche and Braidan Tire.
• Annual Picnic on Saturday June 8 at the Boyd Conservation Area (Hillview) by Kathleen Wong (Picnic Chair). We had 350 participants including our members and their families, and a total of 50 children at the picnic
• Concours d’Elegance on September 1 at Wundebar in Burlington by Kye Wankum and David Walker, Concours Co-Chairs. We had a total of 108 Porsches on the Concours field, and 350 participants including entrants and spectators.
UCR Won Multiple Awards at the Porsche Club of America’s 64th Parade
(July 21-27) in Boca Raton, Florida:
• The Provinz team led in earlier 2018 by Randy Gananatham and Rhonda Rose-Roberts starting with the October edition, won 3rd place in the PCA newsletter contest.
• Botho von Bose’s 50th anniversary 997 Club Coupe won in his class at Concours.
• Kevin Kurnik and his foursome came in 1st place at the golf tournament with 15 under.
• Debbie Pogue won 2nd Place in the Art Show – Fibre Art.
After his speech, Michael Pohlmann presented recognition certificates to two directors who are stepping down:
David Walker is stepping down from Director and Concours Co-Chair. However, David will remain as Porscheplatz coordinator and he plans to take on the Board Secretary role in 2020.
Terrence Tong is stepping down from the VP position. Terrence was UCR Treasurer in 2017 and 2018 and he organized five Rennlist/UCR Cars and Coffee events in 2019.
Michael announced the Nominating Committee has advised the following individuals to stand for the positions on 2020 UCR Board:
Michael Pohlmann as President; Stefan Walther as Vice President; Kevin Choquette as Interim Treasurer; David Walker as Secretary; Kathleen Wong as Past President; and the five Directors are Terry Cassan, Kevin Choquette, Jackie Metcalfe, Roger Stopford and Kye Wankum.
Check out the full gallery of photos from the Banquet!…
Recognizing Anniversary Members
At the banquet, we recognized long-term PCA members who have been part of the Porsche family for 5, 10, and every five years after. There were 301 primary members in these categories and the 24 primary members pictured below along with their families or affiliated members were present at the banquet.
2019 Enthusiasts of the Year go to Larry Funnel, Driving Tour Host and John Tipper, advocate of 914 Special Interest Group
Jackie Metcalfe’s words about Larry Funnell:
Since joining UCR in 2016, Larry has actively participated in our Club’s DE programs at Mosport with his black 2006 Boxster. He attends many of the monthly DE events each year and is always a smiling face ready to discuss how the day’s runs are going. He even brings a pop-up tent and is happy to share the shelter with fellow drivers. Larry’s passion for being in his Porsche is evident as he even chooses to get out on track during the wet and rainy days while many other DE participants spend the day trying to stay dry in the paddock. He’s even had the character-building experience of seeing the track from the counter-race direction, a thrill many of us have experienced (and hope to not repeat), but was keen to get back out on track.
Larry shares his enthusiasm for the Club with his wife, Carmelina. Together they attend most of the Club’s monthly socials as well as the annual Club Picnic. Larry and Carmelina even chose the European Delivery experience for their new Macan in 2018. In addition to attending and hosting Club driving tours, Larry has also volunteered at the Street Survival School in May as well as the 2019 CanAm Challenge Club Race weekend in August where he lent his critical eye to help perfect the redesigned grid layout. Larry’s passion for the Club is clear through the effort he makes to attend and contribute to the variety of events our Club hosts throughout the year. Larry is a true testament that our Club is not just about the cars, but about the people.
Kathleen Wong’s words about John Tipper:
I would like to recognize Roger Stopford, Director and Tech Session Chair, and advocate of the 944/968 Special Interest Group (SIG). Roger started the 944/968SIG three years ago and he was instrumental in setting up other Special Interest Groups in early 2019. The Special Interest Group is similar to the Porsche Club of America’s Registry Program, which allows PCA members to network with owners of specific Porsche models. Since the beginning of the year, we have recruited advocates to lead the 914, 928, Boxster and Cayenne Special Interest Groups.
John Tipper joined UCR in April 2019. He bought his first 914 in 1987 and he currently has fifteen 914s in various stages of restoration. He is well-connected with the 914world.com. During the past several months, he recruited ten 914 owners to our club, boosting the number of 914 members at UCR by 33%.
2019 is the 50th anniversary of the 914 and he suggested a 914 parade lap celebration at Mosport during the club race weekend. He worked so hard in the background to make this happen. I saw all the emails that he sent to 914 members, and the blogs that he posted on http://914world.com/. On the last day of our club race weekend, he brought seventeen 914s members, together with their cars and families to Mosport. They did a number of parade laps during the lunch hour.
I would describe John Tipper as someone who can take the ball and run. He has been running very fast and he has run very far. But he always kept me, Michael Pohlmann and Roger Stopford posted about his initiatives and the progress. He took the 914 members to our picnic in June and our Concours in September. The Upper Canada Region is very lucky to have found John Tipper as a volunteer and he deserves to win 2019 Enthusiast of the Year!
Congratulations to Door Prize Winners!
We gave out several 1:43 diecast Porsche models (RS 2.7, 911 RSRs, and 935) and five UCR event giveaways. The winners of the five event giveaways were:
- Frank Tsang won a free ticket for two to any UCR monthly socials in 2020.
- Anne Forbes won free entries for two UCR rallies in 2020. Each entry covers both the driver and the navigator
- Susan Shaw won a Porscheplatz volunteer pass for the Mobil 1 Sportscar Grand Prix weekend at Mosport on July 3-5, 2020.
- Al Guerrero won a free ticket for two to any one-day UCR Driving Tour in 2020.
- John Tipper won a free Driver Education weekend at Mosport Grand Prix track in 2020.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the following volunteers who help me to make the banquet a success:
- John Adam (Past President and Historian) for printing all the name badges and table place cards.
- Jackie Metcalfe (Director, Club Race Grid Captain) for helping with the presentation of anniversary certificates.
- Terrence Tong (VP) for manning the registration desk.
- Christopher Hebert for designing the banquet flyer in the Provinz magazine and on the website and the event giveaway coupons. Chris has recently joined the Provinz team and become Digital Editor.
- Dixon Chan (webmaster) for suggesting Lucas Scarfone to be the guest speaker at our banquet, and the idea of door prizes.
- Derek Cheung for being the fireside chat moderator.
- Adam Ivers for participating in the fireside chat.
- Frank Tsang for taking pictures at the banquet.
We are a non-profit organization fueled by volunteers. If you are interested to help at any of our events, please send an email to volunteer@pcaucr.org This will be an excellent opportunity for you to discover your hidden talent.
Thank you to all banquet participants who made the 2019 UCR Banquet a great success. Mark your calendar, the 2020 UCR Banquet will be on Saturday, October 24, 2020. </>
By Kathleen Wong, UCR Past President 2017-2018, Socials and Banquet Chair | Photos by Frank Tsang
