October 2020 President’s Message

I hope that our “normal” Northern California October weather has you inspired and feeling…no, strike that! I hope you are DOING well! I myself have found that slowly changing conditions have opened up the ability to get back out in the world to actually do stuff, while also providing new hope for opportunities on the horizon. I was able to join several other Redwood members and members of our neighboring Sacramento Valley Region for an autocross at Thunderhill on Sunday, October 11, and last night Nicole and I enjoyed a nice meal out in the open air on the Petaluma River. It was wonderful to see friends, share some laughs, and just take a moment to breathe. I highly recommend you take every opportunity afforded to you to enjoy life a little if you are able, as it can be inspiring. Also, I don’t want to blurt out anything specific, and steal anyone’s thunder, but the Redwood VP and Events Director have some things brewing for over the next month and half that will be great fun…which is certainly exciting given our truncated 2020 events calendar. Please stay tuned.

As I was driving the 140 miles up to Thunderhill Raceway in Willows last Sunday morning for autocross, I happened to take note of my odometer. Ordinarily, I probably would have overlooked it, but something stood out as the drive on a straight portion of the route pushed me to distract myself with some simple math. Some of you may recall that I tripped over 100,000 miles in Sasha (my Carrera White 997.2 GTS) on September 21, 2019 on my way to Redwood’s 2019 Oktoberfest celebration in Vacaville.

In the intervening 386 days, I had driven my trusty “daily driver” only 3,755 miles…or about 30% of normal for an average year. I found this to be sad, sobering commentary on 2020. Cars that were meant to be driven and drivers that need to drive should never have so few miles shared between them. I see it as a problem, and one I intend to do something about.

I think the thing that struck me most as I was driving back from Thunderhill, is that I enjoyed my 280 mile round trip there and back again almost as much as I enjoyed pushing my car through the autocross track as quickly as I could for what wound up being twelve total runs over the course of the day. My point is this, I didn’t need to be driving with anyone else…I just got out and drove, and found pleasure in the purity of the experience. I didn’t need a tour and really, didn’t even require a destination. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the autocross too, but, if I’m honest, I think I enjoyed the roundtrip to be there a bit more.

Again, be on the lookout for some upcoming Redwood activities, but in the meantime, get out there and drive!

Thank you, be well, and stay safe out there!