239 SVR members, along with 86 cars that participated in a driving tour ending at the event, celebrated PCA’s 70th anniversary at an

Oktoberfest held at the Fowler Ranch Farm Brewery outside of Lincoln. Complimenting the four-piece Alpenmeisters oompah band were a significant number of members adorned in authentic Bavarian attire. A number of members that attended the 356 group’s monthly breakfast at Jim McMahen’s mini estate tagged along with Jim and Kim Nelson to join in the Oktoberfest fun.

Early in the year, the Club leadership identified the desire to “give back” to the members with some sort of event. Capitalizing on the request from PCA National to hold some kind of special event in recognition of PCA’s milestone anniversary on September 13th, it was decided to hold an Oktoberfest themed event complimentary to all SVR members. Thus, the Club contracted exclusive use of the venue site and covered the cost for food, non-alcoholic beverages, band rental, event site fees and food & beverage minimum guarantees. The Fowler site lent itself to hosting nearly 250 people and the staff did a great job although this was their first attempt at providing the food in-house rather than with a third-party vendor. Unfortunately, the line to get your brat was unacceptably long.

We ran seven run groups for the tour: 3 spirited and 4 non-spirited. On the pre-drive there was feedback from the non-spirited Leads that the mileage was a little long. So, we shortened the route by 15 miles for the non-spirited group and ran the American River/Sutter Mill section clockwise (versus counterclockwise for the spirited group). This provided a fun opportunity for most of the groups to pass each other going the opposite direction around the Greenwood and Cool areas. Thanks to Steve and Kim Long for handling tour car registration at Granite Bay and Party Only check-in at the venue. Couldn’t done it without them. And Jay Barthel, Kent Kaiser, Dana Carlson, Ray DeLaughder, Vern Rogers, Michael Simcock, Rick Duste, Terance Matsuo, Bob Peake, Lawence Newman, Tina Talamentes, Rik Larson, Stefan Hepper and Mike Willis for being Lead and Sweeps. A fun time for all.