December 2025 - January 2026
With Jeff Clark, President and Turbo, illustration, Roger Warrick
“Whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time” Marcus Aurelius”
I actually started writing this a few weeks ago. Thanksgiving arrived, and Christmas was on the horizon. End-of-year efforts at work take priority this time of year. So, my apologies.
Here's your dose of my catharsis.
December 2025:
Here we are, people, looking down the barrel of an incoming 2026. It was a few years ago that 1999 became 2000. I was in my sister's living room when the planes that were supposed to fall out of the sky didn't.
Our first Gemienschaft of 2025 took place in February, and a few weeks ago, many of us were at Luft in Durham, NC, with bright sunshine and 80 degrees. It's been a fast year.
“Be tolerant of others, and strict with yourself”
Every business needs to grow to stay viable. The OVR Porsche Club is no different. Yes, we are a social organization, but we are in many ways a business, and to lose sight of opportunity for growth is an opportunity you may never get back. I had set a goal when I became president to get our membership to 2000 members. In 2021, we had 1742. 1134 primary and 608 Co-members.
This past week we cleared the 2000.
We are ranked 27th of 149 regions in the US.
I want to thank Craig Lewis, our membership chair, for his persistence and professionalism in running this committee. If you want to understand why members are becoming more engaged with us and our calendar, Craig is a big reason for it.
“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize.”
I started working at 15 years of age, bagging groceries in a Food Town grocery store in Pineville, NC.I think I was getting paid less than 2 bucks an hour. I have, in the decades that followed, learned several things.
I don't know everything, and that's ok.
There will always be people better at some things than I am. Learn to be content with what you have but never stop driving forward. Always surround yourself with people who are brighter than you.
You can get a lot of things done if you don't mind who gets the credit.
Never stop praising and thanking the people around you who make your job a privilege.
And so it begins:
“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
Gerardo Nucete. He's suave. He's sophisticated. He's got a wicked cool accent. He runs several businesses, and he literally knows everyone. He's got a guy for everything. He and I align on 90% of everything that goes on in OVR, and so much of what we've been able to accomplish is by his force of will. He's become a great friend to me, and I cannot express my gratitude enough.
Chuck Lindsey. In my 65 years, you sometimes connect with someone right off the bat, and it's like you've known him your whole life. He's the type of guy that 2 weeks will pass between conversations, and when he calls, it's like you just had lunch. I've gone to him with a myriad of issues over the years, and without fail, I know I can depend on him to be the voice of calm, reason, and discretion. He is truly a rare man, and I am incredibly grateful for being pulled into his circle. Thank you, Kathy, for taking good care of him.
I met JC and Betsy Stadnik at a Spring Concours a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how it happened, but our conversation was about pizza and who has the best. Honestly, you don't forget a conversation like this when you first meet somebody. Out of that conversation came the idea of “Gemeinschaft” and everything that it entails. What these two have created is nothing less than incredible, and other regions are asking about them. I still have to have lunch with him to come up with a way for other regions to pick it up. It should be a brand, like Treffen or Parade.
Miguel Alemany. Have you seen a car you didn't think you'd ever see in the wild? It's probably his. Talent, good humor? Of course. He's also got the good looks worthy of a “Glamour Shots” calendar. With decades of business experience, he's traveled the planet. It's not uncommon to text him during the week, and he'll say he's in some country you have to Google to find. He has reformed our treasury and bookkeeping and streamlined how our bills get paid. He does it with professionalism and a laugh. We are very grateful to him.
Steve Krekeler: 2025 OVR Enthusiast of the Year. Steve and his wife, Gwynne, have built our rallies and tours into something very special. The annual Athens tour is sold out months in advance and his highly anticipate,d beginning with the first conversations in the spring. Between us, Steve should be President of OVR someday, if he's willing.
Thank you to Dr. Ian Rodway and Bill Altvater for hosting two of the best Cars and Coffees this club has had in 2025. We are seeing attendance at these events that used to mirror an annual end-of-year party.
Mark Wilson, Trevor Barber, and your team, thank you for the incredible Concours events you guys have done for us. These are truly a labor of love, and we appreciate it.
West Virginia. Can’t thank Joel Cost enough for what he has been doing as the OVR ambassador in West Virginia. Joel has been instrumental in setting up the wildly popular West Virginia Country Roads tour and Porsches in the Park. The response to these events has been nothing short of remarkable. Thank you, Joel!
Loss.
“You don’t know who is important to you until you actually lose them.”
We have lost members over the years. It's the inevitable march of time. This past November, we were rocked with a passing that was unimaginable when the plane on which our own Captain Richard Wartenberg went down at the Muhammed Ali Airport. The accident got international attention, and to be honest, we were inundated with calls and emails from reporters across the country. Out of respect for his widow and family, we did not respond to a single call. A decision I believe was just and correct. I need to thank my friend Brian Butt for his beautiful tribute to Ric, which was sent out to the membership.
November 2018. I just wanted a Primanti Brothers fried bologna sandwich. Does anyone really know why you'd crave something so horrific?
The place was a zoo, the Bengals and Pittsburgh were playing as I recall. The wait was going to be eternal. “Let's just go up the street and see what's there”. Well, there was a place up the street, and they had puppies.
I walked in, and my boy fired that puppy bark at me like we knew each other. They handed him to me, and he buried himself in my coat. He was home, and I had a new best friend.
In April of this year, Turbo became ill with a heart and blood cancer that was terminal the moment it manifested. Between the moment we realized something terrible was happening and the moment he left this world was about an hour. Not nearly enough time to tell him how much he meant to me. I couldn't let his head down even after he took his last breath. I just kind of squeezed him and smelled his fur.
His bed is still next to mine, and not a day goes by that I don't say “good morning” to my puppers.
I've never felt so broken as when he left me.
He was the greatest person I ever knew who never spoke a single word to me.
Christmas 2025.
I had all my kids at my house on Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning. I had my wife, a pot of Ethiopian coffee, and my kids in my house eating and laughing it up at 6 am.
I never want anything more than that ever again. Ever.
I hope it's one of those memories you get to take with you to the other side.
It's the first of January 2026. Can anyone tell me how we got here?
I've seen this look lately in the eyes of my friends: "I'm still a kid, I'm still cool, how am I stuck in this body? I could run till I dropped, I never felt pain or fatigue”.
I don't recall signing up for this. The days seem to fly by, probably due to the routine of it all. You reach for that ethereal moment of clarity, that epiphany that explains it all, but you can't really make heads or tails of it, it just sort of is. It's being older and not so much making sense of the world, but the collective experience of your lifetime gels into a mass understanding of how it all works.
What I wouldn't give to have my 65-year-old mind in my 28-year-old body.
The Board and Committee heads have already been talking about the incoming calendar for 2026. We've got planning meetings taking place and I will get this out to you as soon as I can.
It's going to be great, it's going to be busy.
Anyway, it's 5: 30 in the afternoon on New Year’s Day. It’s gray and cloudy and 28 degrees. I might suggest this week you go into your garage, pull the cover back on your Porsche, and sit down. Just take it in.
Spring is only a few weeks away. See you guys soon.
Jeff Clark
President, Ohio Valley Region
Porsche Club of America
