It all started in 1958 when a group of automobile enthusiasts who owned Porsches and lived in the St Louis area got together and decided to petition the fledgling Porsche Club of America to become a recognized region of the Porsche Club of America.
1958 – Organizational meetings were held in 1958 leading to the formal request for recognition as a Region of the Porsche Club of America in late 1958.
1959 – St. Louis Region officially chartered as a Region of the Porsche Club of America on January 17, 1959 by National President, Earl Kirschbaum, Bill Kiburz and Manny Glazer served as first Officers of St. Louis Region
1964 – Carol Curson began putting together a Club newsletter published on a mimeograph machine owned by Dick Bena. St. Louis Region held it’s first “track” autocross at Mid-America Raceway outside Wentzville, MO. DE’s were unknown to the PCA at the time, so our track event was classed as an “autocross” for insurance and PCA sanctioning purposes. Word spread rapidly across the Midwest about St. Louis rather quick autocross and members from all across the Midwest came to St Louis to “autocross”.
1966 – St. Louis Region’s Carl Dieckmann brought a quick and unexpected end to the National PCA Parade Hillclimb event on Cheyenne Mountain at the Denver National Parade. Carl ran off the road during his hillclimb run and was saved from a long fall down the side of the mountain when his 356 snagged on a chain link fence. Carl was unhurt and the car only slightly damaged, but it caused the organizers to shut down the hillclimb.
1968 – On the way home from the PCA Parade at Anaheim, CA, John Piatt decided it was time to replace the mimeographed newsletter with a more formal, printed newsletter. The next year, the Porscheweiser appeared with John’s wife, Nancy Piatt, serving as editor. St. Louis Region became known (perhaps infamous might be a better word) for its Monte Carlo style rally – a high speed event on public roads. Participants were given a route and the “fastest time” won. The event had one checkpoint along the route to make sure people were actually driving the event and not taking short cuts. The history of the event was peppered with numerous incidents ( a 912 ending up in a pond near Weldon Springs – headlights under water, but the engine stayed high and dry. One car, luckily not a Porsche, ran off the road, rolled but stopped back on its wheels so the driver completed the rally with his “crushtomized” car – a little banged up but still drivable.) You could get by with a lot of things in those days as long as you didn’t get caught. Float trips and photo and gimmick rallies were popular events during the Region’s first decade.
1970 – In January 1970, Die Porsche Plauderei appeared for the first time under the editorship of Bill Juhre. The Gateway Arch straddling the Porsche crest became the Region’s official logo. Associate editor Dennis Aulenbacher helped choose the newsletter name and assumed editorial control when Juhre moved from St Louis in the middle of 1970.
1972 – The “Oops Award”, St. Louis Region’s recognition of misfortune during a club event, was born with Dick and Peggy Bena becoming the honored first recipients.
1973 – St. Louis Region partially sponsored an entry in the 24 Hours of Daytona endurance race. St. Louis Region members Klaus Selbert, Marv Schoenfield and Bob Klempel drove the race-prepped 911. St. Louis Region members served as the pit crew. Due to an engine swap, the 911 started 51st out of 53 entries. Early transmission problems forced a 2 hour 20 minute pit stop to replace the transmission. By 10 am, the St Louis entry worked its way up to 15th place. On the last lap, the throttle linkage broke with Klaus Selbert behind the wheel. Klaus screwed the carburetor idle screws wide open and limped around the track at a “very fast idle” to take the checkered flag in 18th place. A young, John O’Steen transferred to St. Louis Region from Peachstate Region. For many years, John competed in the SCCA and IMSA racing series in numerous Porsches. Years later, John went on to become National SCCA E Production champion at the wheel of the Autobahn 356 Speedster. Over the years, John competed in numerous 356, 924, 911, 934, and 962’s in races from MAR in Wentzville to the 24 Hours of LeMans. In the summer of 1973, the first St. Louis Region car badges were designed and ordered.
1974 – The St. Louis Region / Mid-America Raceway “autocross” became known for the first time as the Carrera Classic. 1974 Carrera Classic entry fee – $35.00. The Carrera Classic became a highlight of the Regional calendar until the late 1980’s when MAR was closed by insurance companies due to safety concerns.
1983 – St. Louis Region combined with Kansas City Region to bring the National Porsche Parade to Missouri. Tan-Tar-A Resort at the Lake of the Ozarks was the headquarters for the highly successful Ozarks ‘83 Parade showcasing the best Missouri and the Ozarks area had to offer our fellow PCA members.
1986 – The Carrera Classic was reborn at the then new Gateway International Raceway and became a predecessor to the Driver’s Education program of the Porsche Club of America.
1988 – St. Louis Region begins reaching out to the community through a series of charity activities. St. Louis Region began by foregoing it’s traditional holiday gift exchange, choosing instead to ask members to bring unwrapped toys to the holiday party for donation to the Marine Corps Gateway Battalion’s Toys for Tots campaign. Over the ensuing decades, St. Louis Region has become one of the local Toys for Tots largest and most consistent contributors.
1989 – St. Louis Region joined forces with the Ferrari Club for a “rather quick” (emphasis definitely on QUICK) tour to the wineries in Augusta. The joint tour of Porsches and Ferraris blasting through Augusta on a Sunday definitely attracted lots of attention.
1990 – Linda Clifford became the first woman president of St. Louis Region.
1992 – Oak Allen was named Zone 10 Representative and continued to serve as the Zone Rep through 1995. Oak was the first St. Louis Region member to serve PCA as a Zone Representative.
1993 – St. Louis Region mourned the unexpected death of our Regional Secretary, Dick Dalton. Dick was a much loved and well respected community leader and Dick and Beverly truly loved Porsches and the people who drove them.
1997 – St. Louis Region member Stephen Jianakoplos retired as Legal Advisor to the Porsche Club of America national organization. Steve was awarded the Bill Scholar Memorial Award for outstanding service to the National organization.
1998 – Oak and Crin Allen were recognized by St. Louis Region as being true ambassadors to the Porsche Club by accepting the “Dalton Distinguished Community Service Award” – a special award created in honor of the leadership and dedication to PCA as originally personified by the late Dick Dalton.
2000 – St. Louis Region member Carter Dunkin was appointed National Porsche Club Public Relations Chairman and served our National Club in that capacity through 2003.
2003 – St. Louis Region began focusing on charitable events to support local organizations. With contributions from the charity laps at the Carrera Classic, St. Louis Region has been able to make sizable contributions to local charitable organizations such as St. Charles Youth in Need and thousands of dollars to St. Louis Children’s Hospital in support of a special MRI unit to monitor brain activity in infants confined to an incubator. More recently, funds have also been donated to the ALS Foundation, the MO Botanical Garden in honor of our late President Bill Dickson and also to the Children’s Tumor Foundation. St. Louis Region member Joe Rothman was appointed to serve PCA as Zone 10 Representative. Joe served as the Zone 10 Representative for 2003 – 2004.
2006 – St. Louis Region began the hugely popular biennial All Porsche Auto Show chronicling the beauty and history of Porsche engineering as faithfully preserved by dedicated St. Louis Region members.
2008- The Region is still going strong. With 2 Drivers Education Events per year the Carrera Classic has allowed hundreds of Porsche Owners to experience what these cars are capable of. Proving that with proper education driver’s can safely learn the dynamic’s of their vehicle all the while making them more competent drivers on the street. Membership continues to grow, passing the Nord Stern region to become the largest region in PCA zone 10.
2009– St. Louis Region celebrates it’s 50th year with the Porsche Club of America. Many special event’s were held to commemorate this occasion including guest speaker and legendary Porsche Racer Vic Elford at the 50th Anniversary party.
2010– With great events throughout the year the St. Louis Region was able to continue contributing to charities including the Childrens Tumor Foundation, helping to sponsor a 911 GT3 in the 24 Hours of Daytona as part of “Fuel The Cure“.
2011– With our track venue closed by the Dover Motorsports, St. Louis Region focused on long range tours to Cape Girardeau and the Lincoln historic sites in central Illinois to entertain our members. To keep the interest of our performance driving members, noted author and performance driving instructor Ross Bentley was brought into St. Louis to give our members a weekend seminar on how to improve our driving performance. As the year ended, a new management team reopened the Madison IL track facility as Gateway Motorsports Park, and we were the first organization to help spearhead the reopening of the performance driving facility.
2012 – Our driver’s education program was reborn with 2 driver’s education weekends at the re-invigorated Gateway Motorsports Park, but we continued our long-range tours with runs to the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, MO and to Bald Knob at Alto Pass in Southern IL. We also gathered to tour the historic Hunter Auto Collection in St. Louis.
2013 – Our members headed west to the home of the famed Anheuser Busch Clydesdales at their breeding ranch, Warm Springs Ranch, near Booneville, MO. We helped members learn more about their cars with a 911 tear down tech at Plaza Porsche and a Cayman Exhaust Header Swap.
2014 – High performance on the road and in the air was our focus in 2014 as we headed west to Zenith Aircraft Company, in Mexico MO – manufacturers of sports aircraft kits which you can assemble for some sporty fun in the air. A cocktail party was added to our biennial All Porsche Auto Show. Noted Porsche racer, Kees Nierop, was our special guest at the cocktail party and show at the Kemp Auto Museum.
2015 – Indigo Auto Group purchased the Porsche dealer franchises from both Parktown Porsche and Plaza Porsche and consolidated them at a temporary facility in Rock Hill. The remodeled facility would be home of the dealership until a new building could be finished. Our members took to the road to St. James, MO to tour 3 Squirrels Winery co-owned by one of our members.
2016 – We added a PCA Club Race to our calendar with the first Gateway Carrera Classic presented by Porsche St. Louis at Gateway Motorsports Park. Our large All Porsche Car Show moved to the streets of downtown Clayton. The year ended with the Grand Opening of the state-of-the-art Porsche St. Louis sales and service facility.
2017 – With our 2nd Annual Gateway Carrera Classic Club Race, as many as three additional track events, our monthly Tischzeit Thursday social events, our 2nd annual Garage Tour, many driving tours with destinations throughout the area, tech sessions, a local Indycar race, a brand new Porsche retailer, several car shows and many Cars & Coffee events to enjoy, region members enjoyed another great year.
2019 – The St. Louis Region hosted legendary Porsche race car driver and three time winner of the 24 Hours of LeMans Hurley Haywood at our Region’s 60th Anniversary Celebration on April 6, 2019. Hurley was joined by motorsports writer, photographer and outdoorsman, Sean Cridland, author of the biography, Hurley, From the Beginning.
Own a Porsche? Help us create more history by joining the PCA today
St. Louis Region Presidents
1959 Bill Kiburz / Manny Glazer
1960 Harold Kuever
1961 Donald Doll / Jim Okimoto
1962 / 65 / 70 Dick Bena
1963 Andrew Smith Jr.
1964 / 82 Bill Curson
1966 / 69 John Piatt
1967 John Watterich
1968 Theo Welsko
1971 Gene Gerarde
1972 John Lauer
1973 Sam Powell
1974 Jess Moulin
1975 Whitney Otis
1976 Ed Banks
1977 Hiram Saunders
1978 Rick Maloney
1979 Thomas C. Farnam
1980 Art Pontow
1981 Stuart Lutz
1983 George Phillips
1984 Irv Doty / Oak Allen
1985 Oak Allen
1986 Mark Shevitz
1987 Lefteris Patelis
1988 / 89 Dave Roeder
1990 Linda Clifford
1991 Tim Hayes
1992 Gerry Schaller
1993 / 94 Theodosios Korakianitis
1995 Peter Kovacevich
1996 Miles Cramer
1997 Gary Bachman
1998 Larry Bares
1999 Sam Lanius
2000 Bill Dickson
2001 / 02 Jim Fiss
2003 / 04 Jonathan Jones
2005 / 06 Steve Sullivan
2007 / 08 Menelaos Karamichalis
2009 / 10 Jim Singler
2011 / 12 Dave Carr
2013 Jim Singler
2014 / 15 Brian Johanningmeier
2016 / 17 Allen Maddy
2018 / 19 Steve Warren
2020/21 Nancy Goodman
2022/23 Steve Warren
2024/25 Steve Sullivan