January 2021 President’s Message

My fellow Redwood Region Porsche enthusiasts, I imagine every new President has their challenges within any club, and this year is clearly no exception. But, I am delighted and honored to be the new President of the Redwood Region, and I look forward to meeting as many of you in person as possible.

I would like to thank Past President Chip Witt for his guidance given all the ups and downs that our club has had. His technical knowledge, awareness of national and regional rules, and most importantly his commitment to our club have made this transition as easy as it could be. I look forward to working with the new board, an enthusiastic group that will bring our club closer together as soon as the first opportunity presents itself. Please stay tuned to the der Riesenbaum and our website, redwoodpca.org!

My goals for the New Year are to make sure that new members receive a warm welcome, and that in our trying circumstances we can identify new creative ways to enjoy our Porsches together while we ready ourselves for the moment that we can restart our favorite tours along some of the finest back roads in the world.

Some of you may have heard this before but I think it’s important to tell my Porsche story, describing how I became a member of the club. I first figured out that I had a love for convertibles after I got my first real job working at the San Francisco VA Medical Center some 26 years ago. I bought a Targa top Honda del Sol, and enjoyed enthusiastic driving along the roads of Marin and Sonoma counties with its strange but satisfying front-wheel drive grip around the corners. After 11 years I figured it was time to move ahead, and I drove several new convertible models back in 2006. The final car that I test drove was a 987 Boxster, although since there were so many of them here in Marin without much of a body style change over many years, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Within 90 seconds, I said out loud to the dealer “Oh my God! Now I know why they sell so many”.

Since then it’s been a love affair although it took me almost 5 years to join the club and discover that I had been missing out on a truly incredible group of people that I would never have met otherwise. Autocross was the siren song that brought me in, and I had my Boxster for 10 years (ask me how many sets of tires sometime) before passing it on to my son. I now drive a Sapphire Blue 991.2 Carrera S (Cabriolet of course) and enjoy every minute whether it’s my daily drive to work (OK not in the last nine months), driving along our West Marin and Sonoma roads, at Autocross or out on the track. I particularly enjoy our group events and tours to wineries or cafés and look forward to the time when we can do this again.

In the meantime, I promise you that I will look for other ways for us to enjoy our club, including rallies, potlucks, picnics and even a Zoom meeting or two. Our Board meetings are open to all interested members on the last Tuesday of every month at 7 pm. Please see our calendar link at redwoodpca.org.