On June 3–5 in the Richmond, Virginia area the Shenandoah Region Porsche Club of America celebrated the 20th anniversary of our Richmond Porsche Meet (RPM). Shenandoah member Alex Smith started RPM in his back yard and hosted it for 19 years. RPM began with about 20 Porsches and has grown to attract Porsche enthusiasts and over 100 Porsches from all over the East Coast. Many thanks to Alex for his love, dedication, and hard work in creating Shenandoah’s signature event! To see the photo gallery covering RPM 2016.

About 60 volunteers and consultants from Shenandoah, other PCA regions, and other organizations came together to continue one of the club’s favorite traditions. This Porsche-packed weekend included a visit on Friday to Euroclassics Porsche for a tech session on the new Porsche 991.2 and a detailing demonstration by Joel Dryden of Flawless Finish. Shenandoah member Kevin Leonard topped off the evening by arranging for an elegant dinner at the nearby Stonehenge Golf and Country Club.

RPM’s home base this year was the lovely Colonial-style Wyndham Virginia Crossings Hotel & Conference Center in Glen Allen, where participants enjoyed onsite lodging and dining as well as a tops-only concours and people’s choice car show in the center courtyard on Saturday. Click here to see the concours judging results. Congratulations to our concours winners and to Bruce Russell who won the Gay Jewett People’s Choice Award with his red 1984 Carrera Targa! Both of our Porsche dealers, Euroclassics Porsche in Midlothian and Flow Porsche of Charlottesville, graciously brought Porsches for us to ooh and ah over (and possibly buy). A tremendous thank you goes to Head Concours Judge Dave Lasch who has led the RPM judging teams for 20 years! Many judges volunteer year after year because of the camaraderie and the opportunity to get up close and personal with so many beautiful Porsches. Thank you judges!

Our friendly onsite registration team worked like a finely tuned Porsche as they checked guests in and sent them on to other volunteers who directed them to parking and the RPM festivities. An enthusiastic team of volunteers at Info Central sold Shenandoah and RPM merchandise, handed out maps and event freebies, and gave directions to participants. Shenandoah member and Deputy County Manager of Henrico County Tim Foster prepared detailed maps, arranged to have the traffic light held at busy Route 1 for our fun run/gimmick rally to pass, provided his expertise on county regulations and area roads, and helped with numerous other tasks. Lisa Abernethy kept a record number of children entertained at Kinder Korner, a play and rest station for kids and kids at heart. She was so popular, they didn’t want to give her a break!

We had a “Grab-and-Go” lunch in The Tavern, and then Randy Bell led a large group on a lively fun run/gimmick rally on winding country roads to Meadow Event Park in Doswell, birthplace of horse racing’s Triple Crown winner Secretariat. After a visit and photo op with one of Secretariat’s descendants, Mo, a.k.a. ATM Machine, a movie about Secretariat and the Chenery family, and a tour of The Mansion, our congenial hostess Leeanne Ladin took participants on a trolley ride to see the rest of the property. Meadow Event Park has become an event venue and hosts a variety of activities and productions such as weddings, the State Fair of Virginia, horse shows, and the holidaytime Illuminate Light Show and Santa’s Village.

Back at the Wyndham that evening, guests enjoyed an awards banquet dinner with guest speaker and racecar driver Michael Keyser who entertained the crowd with stories and photos from his Porsche racing days in the 1970’s. Michael generously donated some great racing books for door prizes and signed RPM posters for us. Thank you Greg Glassner and Deane Parker for exploring speaker options. (See Greg’s article for more on Michael Keyser and his talk.)

RPM wouldn’t be RPM without a chance to satisfy our need for speed and desire to see what our Porsches can do. Co-autocross Chairs Erik Boody and Rick Ebinger put together a challenging and fun autocross on the “Bus Lot” at Richmond International Raceway for 23 drivers. What a great way to top off 20 years of RPM!

Much gratitude goes to the Shenandoah Region PCA Board and the many people who pulled together to host RPM this year! In addition to the people named above, many others worked in front of and behind the scenes (some in multiple capacities) to make RPM happen in the areas of site selections; contract negotiations; finance; insurance; sponsorships; publicity; awards, prizes, and gifts; guest speaker research; online registration via MotorsportReg.com; packing packets and other pre-registration tasks; onsite registration; parking and directing traffic; manning the car wash station; event set up and take down; and photography.

A very special thank you goes to Jim Condon, our club’s webmaster and photographer, who produces an award-winning web site and beautiful photos and also helps whenever and wherever needed.

Many thanks to the following sponsors and contributors who made our 20th Annual Richmond Porsche Meet a success:

Title Sponsors

• Euroclassics Porsche (Mark Cooke, Chris Rennie, & Brian Faulkner) – Midlothian, VA
• Flow Porsche of Charlottesville (Shawn Ayers, Will Reifsteck, Jason Robson, & John Slaughter) – Charlottesville, VA

T-shirt Sponsors

• Automotive Aesthetic (Daniel Wendell) – Charlottesville, VA (Plus car wash supplies for RPM)
• Burleigh’s Body Shop (Sam Aronson) – Richmond, VA
• The Drivers Club at Dominion Raceway (Jim Lorimer) – Thornburg, VA (Plus gift certificate for driving days at Dominion Raceway)
• Flawless Finish (Joel Dryden) – Richmond, VA
• Long & Foster Realtors (Susan Lockhart) – Midlothian, VA
• Overstreet European Motors (Paul Overstreet) – Gordonsville, VA
• PhotoWorksGroup (Mike & Geoff Kilmer) – Charlottesville, VA (Shenandoah and RPM banners and other signage, autocross box graphics)
• PrintSource (Ben Briggs) – Charlottesville, VA (Printing of the RPM brochure, program, poster, fun run/gimmick rally instructions, and other items)
• Radio Communications of Virginia (Joe Buttner) – Glen Allen, VA (Plus use of radios during Saturday’s activities)
• W. D. Sanders & Company, CPA (Bill Sanders) – Charlottesville, VA

Contributors of Other Gifts, Prizes, and Goods & Services

• Autosports Marketing Associates, Ltd. – Butler, MD (Collector’s poster Battle of the Titans and assortment of books by Michael Keyser)
• Griot’s Garage (Car care products)
• Keswick Hall – Keswick, VA (Gift certificate: Foursome of Golf at Full Cry at Keswick Golf Club)
• Meadow Event Park – Doswell, VA (Two tickets to the State Fair of Virginia and the book Secretariat’s Meadow: The Land, The Family, The Legend by Kate Chenery Tweedy and Leeanne Ladin)
• Michie Tavern (Sam Morris) – Charlottesville, VA (Gift certificate: Lunch and tour of The Tavern for two)
• OG Racing (Mark Francis) – Sterling, VA (Awards and prizes)
• Jack Woodfin – Richmond, VA (Awards)
• Zone 2 Porsche Club of America (Zone 2 Rep Cheryl Taylor) – (Variety of Zone 2 and Porsche goodies)

RPM is a major production. I sincerely thank all of you who gave your time, talents, and resources to make this very special event happen and those of you who brought out your family, friends, and beautiful Porsches. If you volunteered and your name was not mentioned in this article, please know that you and your contributions are very much appreciated. If we work together, Shenandoah’s Richmond Porsche Meet will continue for many more years to come!

Sherry Westfall
RPM 2016 Chair & Shenandoah Past President