GGR President’s Message for April 2025
Dear GGR Members,
April was a momentous month for GGR, for the Club’s 65th Anniversary, we created a new branding package and redesigned the website. The driving force behind all this was Ryan Holmes, the GGR Creative Director. You should read Ryan’s article in this issue of The Nugget, he can talk about the concept and the process, but I just wanted to personally thank him for his enthusiasm and hard work. I also wanted to thank the other members of the Board, who provided valuable guidance and support along the way - a great team effort! Keep an eye out for new GGR swag that will be available on the website very soon.
On a more personal note, I was looking back at all the cars I’ve owned over the years, not including my wife’s cars or the many motorcycles I’ve owned over the years, just MY cars. The number currently stands at 23. So as I was looking back at old photos of my cars, I came across photos of my first track day ever, it was a GGR event back in 2003 at Thunderhill in my 1974 914 named “Kermit”. I suppose you can figure out the car’s name based on the rare Ravenna Green paint. I just wanted to share some images of what a track day was like over 20 years ago.
Going over Turn 5, the Cyclone. As a student with a yellow sticker on my windshield, John Seidell was in the passenger seat as my first track instructor.
This is Turn 3, surrounded by air-cooled 911s. They are classics now, but back then, they were to standard track car. There were no GT3s and GT4s back then, if you wanted to go fast back in the day, you modified the heck out of your Porsche!
A couple 944s cooling off their engines in the hot Thunderhill summer.
#32 was Bill Benz’s track car, a beloved GGR Past President and one of the kindest and most generous individuals I’ve ever met. I had the pleasure to serve as Social Director with Bill.
#60 is David Leong and #58 was past Chief Driving Instructor, Harold Williams. Harold also happened to be my first autocross instructor back in 1999, he is dearly missed.
Seated on the right is Larry Sharp, past-President, Zone 7 Representative, past Track-Director, amongst other positions held. Standing behind Larry to the left is Dan Thompson, Race Control for all the GGR track events. On the very right edge with the bandana is Harold Williams. On the left you’ll see a guy wearing a cowboy hat in a dark orange shirt, that is your’s truly.
I hope you enjoyed my little walk down memory lane. In some ways, it was all different back then. In some ways, it is exactly how it is now.
Sincerely,
Howard Yao
president@pca-ggr.org