Adam states: As far as how Pac NW started, I don't know
that you'll get a single answer to that question. I do know a small band of us
were communicating through Rennlist.
My first recollection was that my timing belt light came on while on I-5
during my first couple weeks of ownership, I limped the car to Larson Porsche,
and noticed a gold S4 up on the lift. I posted it to the list and asked if it
was anybody's, Ray Henson replied.
That blew me away. I remember that I started to keep track of all those
Rennlist posters that were from the Pac NW area. At some point there were
enough of us, maybe a dozen or so, that were active on Rennlist, and somebody
thought we should try to get together, I think Terry Redinger might have been
the first to pitch the idea. I thought a Kart race would be a cool venue; it's
competitive, and yet wouldn't be perceived as abusive to the cars in any way.
In October of 1999, Owner
Showdown I took place, and although the group was small, (less than a
dozen of us), the enthusiasm was amazing. These guys were hardcore. I couldn't
believe that someone (Chris Ford) would drive 10 hours roundtrip for something
like this. That alone set a high standard for commitment to the group.
When I converse with owner's in other regions, I hear a lot about how
people are busy, and that they won't drive more than a couple hours. It's
funny to me now, as some of us locals don't even blink at the 14 hour drive to
Devek, and how our group makes the 5 hour trip between Spokane and Seattle
(some more than others) without even thinking about it. Those other regions
are really missing out, but they'll come around sooner or later.
From O/S I [Owner Showdown
I] things started to snowball. That first event showed me that the
majority of the group was a lot like me, very performance oriented and wanting
to take an active part in understanding and improving the 928. After that
first event, I think Tom really went to task to start recruiting and I believe
it was about that time that he raided the 928 Registry and started soliciting
all the Pac NW owners listed.
Chris F. was nice enough to put the pics of the group event at
his site. The people in the group were
saying that they didn't want to wait another year for
O/S II, so I set up
Dyno Day I for the following
February. While a Dyno run now is a walk in the park, at Dyno Day I it was THE
first time for everybody. Nobody knew what to expect, and everyone was
nervous. It was great time though, and we all learned a lot from the
experience.
Again Chris made the drive in from Spokane, and Oscar Munoz also made a 5
hour trip from Salem. I was truly amazed by the commitment of these guys,
along with the Portland contingent, to come out and deal with poor road
conditions to take a chance of blowing up their 928's on a dyno. Another great
time, with more new faces.
At Dyno I, talk started about having another event during the summer.
Really almost as a joke, I pitched the idea of bracket drag racing. Everyone
said to go for it! I thought these guys were insane! The Stuttgart Airforce
conscription started, and that summer
Shark Drag I came together. I believe that around the time O/S II rolled
around, Tom got his website fired up, and later got us going in the Yahoo web
group.
At any rate, that's what my faded memory seems to recall.
-Adam
Tom adds: My recollection is this.
Adam started the who thing by setting up the very first
Owners Showdown in Oct 99
and the subsequent Dyno Day in Feb
of 2000. He and I started talking about how to get more people interested in
the local stuff and also how to better manage the email list (the To: and Cc:
boxes were getting quite full).
We decided that I would search the [928] registry (Dougs page) among other
sources and compile a list to work off of. I took that further by the creation
of the Temporary Pac NW 928 page (following
Chris Ford's and Curt
Nichols' lead) so we could post information and pics of the various goings
on in the Pac NW group. I also took a cue from
Phil Tong's site and set up a bulletin
board for posting stuff too. This was short lived though as I saw the Sharks
down under (Landsharks OZ) were
hosting a better organized mailing list through E-groups [later changed to
Yahoogroups. djs]. I did the same and subscribed everyone on our list
(May of 2000). The response was great and we went from 35 originally to 90
today [January 2002. djs].
Adam set a precedent when he asked me to do
Dyno Day II (Sept 2000) since I
had assisted him during the one in Feb. He did this because he wanted to
concentrate on the Showdown among other things. From that point on, others got
involved and came up with their own ideas of events. The real beauty of the
group is that we have people willing to step forward and take on the
responsibility of organizing an event and the lengths people go to in
attending these events. As you well know, the Spokane contingent has attended
numerous events on this side of the mountains without so much as a second
thought. Even what started out as post for an informal lunch time get together
swelled into a huge party barbeque attended by a whole heck of a lot of people
(even from Spokane ;-) ).
That's all I can think of for now.
Tom
