It is hard to believe that the CVR 2025 DE season has come to an end. It feels like yesterday, driving to LRP in April, thinking “here’s to a good driving season”. With the end of a great DE season comes the planning for next year’s season. We hope to bring you as many days next year and once we get confirmation from the venues on the dates, we will post them on ClubRegistration.net and the CVR DE page so that you can block off time on your 2026 calendar.
For the past few months, I’ve included a reminder in each article stating that the 2015 helmets will expire at the end of 2025. Some SA2025 helmets are now available, but PCA has extended the expiration date of the 2015 helmets to June 30, 2026, to “allow the manufacturers time to get their product into the supply chain”. Effective July 1, 2026, Snell SA2015 helmets will no longer be permitted. Only SA2020 and SA2025 helmets will be good for the 2nd half of the 2026 DE season.
CVR photographers Bob Reinckens and Jim McKay were on hand at our October event, taking pictures from all different areas of the track, capturing the fun and excitement. They are very generous with their time, not only at the track, but then afterwards, editing and sorting the photos. Thanks to both Bob and Jim for taking pictures and then sharing them with our drivers.
With the growth of our green rungroup this year, know going forward that you have to register early for events, or you might end up on a waiting list or even worse, not get into an event. With the quality of CVR instructors, the welcome greeting from our Registrars in the morning, the guidance leading up to each event, to our Green Zone for beginners and support at the Green Zone from Bela Sr. and Jr. with EPS, it’s made for overwhelming participation with beginner DE participants. I want to thank Bela and Bela, Jr. for their support and continuing support for 2026 at CVR’s DE events. They help make the DE experience just that much better – having a place for instructors to easily locate students, helping beginners with any car questions during down time ie; tire pressures, oil levels, future car upgrades, where to get lunch, etc., EPS always has coffee and donuts in the a.m. along with a cooler full of water during the day and providing that much needed shaded area under one of their tents. If you haven’t had the chance to experience a CVR DE for reasons unknownst to me, come try it out next year and let CVR’s team of volunteers help make an unforgettable experience for your first DE and hopefully many more to come.
With the season coming to the end, it is customary to give out several awards for the year. We handed out the awards at our last event of the year at LRP, on October 4th. Our first award, Enthusiast of the Year, went to Andrew Salvio. Andrew started three years ago with CVR and has participated in almost every one of our DE events. Andrew is now a white rungroup solo driver, helping out with the tech line and always accompanied by our four-legged friend, Morty. His company is also a sponsor for Porsches@TheRock. Thanks for your enthusiasm, Andrew.
The Instructor of the Year is always the hardest to give out because all of the CVR instructors are fantastic. There has to be one that just maybe had the edge for the year and this year it was Josh Zwick. Josh is not only a great instructor but also a great driver. He truly gets every bit out of his GT4, driving it the way Porsche meant it to be driven. Josh’s feedback from his students is always positive. His driving skills translate to teaching his students to be good drivers. Congratulations, Josh.
The last award was the Spencer Cox award and this went to Rich Bello. Rich has been a long time CVR DE instructor and is who we all should want to strive to be as a driver. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to working on cars, especially air-cooled. Rich decided to dabble in some racing this year and when the green flag dropped, he showed many seasoned racers how to win. A long-time, air-cooled, accomplished racer asked “who the heck is driving that blue car? Oh yeah, he’s a DE guy from CVR. Congratulations to all of the award winners for 2025. Thank you from CVR to all of the participants, instructors and volunteers that make our events fantastic.
Thank you from CVR to all of the drivers, instructors and volunteers that made our 2025 events fantastic. I will acknowledge all of our team members in next month’s article, as well as giving a shout-out to all of our generous sponsors. For now, big thanks go to PCAR Market, Repasi Motorwerks, and Porsche Danbury. They were our three major sponsors for 2025 and we can’t say ‘thank you’ enough for all of their support.
Have a great fall season and a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Dave