Three for Three Plus One (You Should Have Been There)

May 19 and 20 was the weekend of the 33rd annual PCA Zone 1 Concours and Rally. The format was reversed this year with the Concours on Saturday morning and the Rally on Sunday morning. This meant that you did not have to hurry back from the Rally and prepare your car for Sunday morning judging. It was not a big deal this year because the weather gods provided a weekend of spectacular weather. The base of the event was the Framingham, MA Sheraton right at exit 12 off the Mass Pike. We were hosted by the Northeast Region with Steve Ross as the event Chairman.

The event kicked off with a hospitality event Friday evening at the Sheraton where the out of towners were able to get together and discuss their latest Porsche thoughts and information.

The Concours site for Saturday morning was on the grounds of the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, MA (about 20 miles from the hotel). The Museum is housed in a beautiful and huge Carriage House in a spectacular park setting. Car placement began at about 8:00am on the lawn in front of the museum. There were a total of about 75 cars entered and split evenly between judged classes and People’s choice Classes. Judging and People’s Choice voting started at about 10:30am. There were lots of spectators voting on the People’s Choice entrants. For the Judged classes, the standard Zone 1 300 point scoring system was used. Dan Deegan the Concours Chairman did an excellent job of organizing the Concours.

There were three Porsches entered by NNJR members: John and Donna Paterek brought Donna’s 62 white 356B Super 90 Cabriolet, Murray and Akemi Kane were there with their 92 Black 911 Turbo Coupe, and Margie and I showed “Lite N’ Sweet”, our 57 Sahara Beige 356A Outlaw Coupe.

The Judging and Voting was completed by early afternoon, and the awards were presented at the Larz Anderson Museum site. This is where the 3 for 3 + 1 comes in. All three NNJR entrys won first place in their respective classes. The Patereks won the 356 People’s Choice class, the Kanes won the 90 through 97 911 Judged class, and Margie and I won the 356 Judged class. That accounts for the 3. In addition to the 9 regular classes, there is also a Best of Show award. The Best of Show is the +1 which was also taken home by the NNJR contingent. Margie and I were lucky to take home the “JOHN AND DONNA PATEREK BEST IN SHOW TROPHY.” This is the second year in a row that Best of Show has gone to an NNJR entrant. The Kane’s won it last year with their Black 92 Turbo.

The Saturday evening dinner was set up at Fire Fly’s BBQ with a buffet of excellent BBQ dishes and a good selection of Beer on Tap. The dinner was a social event since the Concours awards had already been presented at the museum.

On Sunday morning, Murray and Akemi Kane and Margie and I got organized to run the rally part of the event. Steve Ross had made arrangements to start the rally from the Bose Corporation Headquarters complex on top of a big hill in Framingham just around the corner from the Sheraton Hotel. He also made arrangements for some cool Bose automotive accessories as prizes for the top five rally finishers.

This year it was set up as a gimmick rally with no Time Speed Distance requirements. The route was set up and provided to the entrants in the form of two pages of route instructions. Additionally, each entrant was provided with another two pages of questions to be answered based on signs seen along the rally route. Just to make it interesting, the Rally Master scrambled the order of the questions. It was interesting to try to keep 33 questions in mind as we were following the route instructions.

The total length of the rally was about 40 miles through the historic areas of Northwest of Boston. We passed sites such as Waldon Pond, the Concord North Bridge, and crisscrossed the Boston Post Road. The Rally ended at a nice Chinese restaurant in Maynard, MA. The Cool Bose stuff was handed out, but not to any of the NNJR contingent this time. The weather held out all day Sunday, and driving the rally route was interesting and educational. The Rally Masters Charlie Dow and his wife Martha did a great job setting up the event supported by Botho von Bose the Zone 1 Rally Chairman.