Dean Watt's historic "901" vintage race car in the paddock at last year's Coronado Speed Festival.2010 is upon us and that means opportunities for the performance minded—drivers and spectators. Here’s an early season overview.

Autocross (AX) is primarily a lower speed event which gives you an opportunity to learn car control skills, improve your performance driving and experience the limits of your Porsche in a safe environment. It’s a fun, low cost way to get a “rush” without abusing your baby. Locally, Reno Region SCCA will have its annual Autocross School on Saturday, April 17th at the Stead Airport. Signups start @ 8AM and the school lasts all day so bring a lunch and plenty to drink. The first “points” event will be the following day and AX events run through October (www.renoscca.com for details). Helmets are required but you may be able to use a “loaner”.

PCA related AX events are out of area with Sacramento Valley (SVR) having 5 events scheduled starting March 24th. Zone 7 has several AX events planned with the first hosted by Redwood Region (RR) at the Charles Schultz Airport in Santa Rosa on April 17th /18th. The SVR events are usually in Stockton but on May 29th the paddock at Infineon Raceway will host a Zone 7 event (and it’s near the wine country). See the links from our website (www.snr-pca.org) to RR, SVR and Zone 7 sites for additional information.

Drivers Education (DE) events are performance driving, track oriented events run or hosted by PCA regions to give Porsche owners a chance to experience their Porsches in a higher speed environment. Golden Gate (GGR) is hosting their annual Rolling Thunder event at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA March 26th-28th. SVR and Trackmasters are hosting a DE at Infineon Raceway on May 29th. Get details through the links to these regions through our website or go to www.trackmasters.com.

Vintage Racing has become extremely popular and even though the Reno Historics are cancelled this year, you still have opportunities to see these great race cars and in many cases SNR members race. The HMSA season starts at Thunderhill Raceway at the Champions Grand Prix. In early June, Infineon Raceway hosts the Wine Country Historic Races which has a Porsche car corral hosted by Redwood Region. As always, the Monterey Historics, now under new management and with a new name—the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion— is the grand daddy of vintage racing in the western US and is scheduled for August 13th-15th.

Other events in each of these categories are scheduled throughout the summer. We’ll try to keep you informed but if you’re interested and need more info, give me a call.