The 65th Porsche Parade was held at the sprawling French Lick Springs Resort in French Lick Indiana from July 11th thru July 17th.
The hotel was originally built in 1845, and over the years has expanded with the addition of the SPA Wing, Casino, and the Valley Tower.
PCA came back to French Lick for an encore as they held their 2015 Parade at the same location.
Just a mile away on the same property is the famous West Baden Springs hotel, with it’s 200 ft high atrium.
This is an awesome site to walk through the lobby to see this magnificent structure.
The 356 Registry held their annual Registry Holiday at this hotel in 2009.
Monday kicked off with the Concours event. Once again, as in 2015 mother nature intervened and forced the
Concours indoors to the main covered parking garage. A full week of driving, exhibition, social events and
presentations filled up the week long calendar.
The theme for the Historics display was “Blow the lid off Summer”. This group of open top
Porsches spanned all the decades from the 50”s on up. Mac McGregor showed his 1984
Carrera Targa in the Historic lineup and also took first place in the judged Preservation Group
PS04F. Congratulations to Mac. If you have ever seen Mac’s 911, you know why this is such
a well preserved 911.
A long list of local DSG members could be found at the Parade. Too many to list.
Donna Dreher also displayed her historic 1958 Speedster, keeping it just as her Dad raced it
in the 60’s.
Larry and Louise Haskett also showed their 1964 356 Cabriolet in the Historic display,
which was not a judged event. They also placed 2nd in their unequipped class in the TSD Road Rally!
DSG member Glenn Patterson from southern Indiana won 1st Place for his 1959 356A 1600S
in the Preparation Street Modified class. Glenn turned his 356 into a mild Outlaw during the
2020 Covid shutdown.
The Parade booklet listed 37 attendees from the Ohio Valley region. Zone 4 had it’s own social hour
inside the hotel on Monday evening. Bill Kief walked away with a nice door prize of a compact fire extinguisher.
Jerry Wolf was awarded the prestigious PCA Enthusiast of the Year national award at the
Monday night Concours banquet. Well deserved, way to go Jerry.
The Parade store was well stocked, as was the Porsche Classic factory parts booths.
A large contingent of other familiar Porsche suppliers were also on hand to answer
questions and hand out free goodies. Our own Brian Schroeder was one of the rep’s
at the KONI shock booth. Wow, what a gig, getting paid to attend a Porsche Parade.
Parade registrants could sign up to try their hand at SIM racing. I always wanted to
try this out, and I will say the experience is very real and demands your full attention.
I ran the Mid-Ohio track and then Laguna Seca the next day. PCA SIM Racing was
giving away a full SIM setup for the fastest lap time at Laguna. I didn’t win.
Mid week the Parade store brought out clothing , hats etc. announcing the 2022
Porsche Parade to held in the Pocono Pennsylvania mountains on June 12-18, 2022.
The Parade resort hotel will be close to Pocono raceway and nestled in some of the
best Porsche driving roads in the East. See you at the next Parade!
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