A Yosemite Member wins a Porsche! Story by: Don Chaisson, Dave Boyd, Brian Sturkie, Photos by: Don Chaisson. Lightning can strike in the Yosemite Region. On Saturday Jan 22, Yosemite Region President, Dave Boyd and Past President Brian Sturkie surprised Yosemite Region member. Mike Miller, as a WINNER in the PCA Car Fall 2021 Member Only Raffle. Mike won one of the four Grand Prizes, a 2022 911 Carrera Coupe! But for the heart warming part of the surprise, you will need the "back story" to really appreciate it. Unfortunately, folks from the national office couldn't fly out to California for the presentation, so Dave, Brian and Don drove over to Mike's house to make "the presentation". We rang the door bell, crickets. Tried again, nothing. We tried his mobile phone, no answer. A neighbor, Tom, walks over and asks "Are you looking for Mike?" Folks in the neighborhood are pretty friendly and look after each other, it seems. "Yes, we are from PCA and are here to meet with Mike." The neighbor, says, "He's not here because he is with his friend for breakfast. Mike and Rich go to breakfast every Saturday, forever! Why are you here for Mike?" Like we said, neighbors take care of each other here. "Well, we are representing Porsche Club of America, and Mike won a raffle with a Porsche!" Tom then continued, "Oh my, that will surely make him feel better." What a strange comment. Tom then volunteers to phone Mike, Mike answers (seems that he recognized his neighbor's phone number). Tom, then playing along, told Mike that he needed to come home right away. Only 10 minutes away, Mike promised to come right home. Check out the video of the "surprise" ..

As you can tell from the video, Mike uses a "walker" to get around. Apparently Mike was always a very "active" person, a long time surfer dude and later in life a very active bicyclist (easier on his knees!). A little over a year ago, he had a bike accident and things went a bit sideways in recovery -- hence the walker. In his joy of winning the 2022 Carrera, Mike offered, "... this will make me better a lot sooner!" His doctor may have foretold this good fortune when he earlier told Mike, ".. take a shot of whiskey and win a Porsche -- you'll get better." Now that is our kind of doctor!!!

Mike is a "Porsche" guy. His current car is a 2004 Boxster 550 that he ordered new. It has about 50,000 miles on the clock, but looks just like the promotional posters and just as it rolled off the showroom floor. Well, except for the Boxster 550 themed and PCA decals and a Yosemite Region medallion. The Boxster 550 is concours condition, just immaculate. But a manual transmission. So, the 2022 Carrera will surely have PDK!

Mike will have to make some room in his wonderfully decorated and clean garage. There are all sorts of Porsche posters and banners that decorate the walls. Maybe he will need a new sign, "... Mike's Porsches".

Mike confessed that he has "won" one other PCA raffle. Back in 2007 (or so), Mike took his grandson to the Laguna Seca IMSA race and hung out at the PCA Porsche Corral. PCA had a raffle for a "pit pass", announcing the winning ticket " 550 ". Of course, Mike's ticket was # 550, which after all is the number on his Boxster's license plate. It all kinda hangs together. So Mike took his grandson to the pits, but was told that his grandson was "too young" to gain entrance to the pits -- not suitable for a youth! So, the Penske team gave the boy a big Porsche flag which he enthusiastically waved at Turn 1 every time the RS Spider zipped by!

Mike then invited us into his home to show off his "Porsche Den"... with all his models, documentation on his 550 and other memorabilia. The display case also showed off Mike's skill in woodworking as he made and installed the display case on top of a parts counter top! Beautiful.

Dave mentioned that he also has a collection of memorabilia at his house, a collection of "oil cans" since his business is World Oil Environmental Services. Mike reached into the shelf and gave Dave an antique mini-oil can. Dave respectfully declined, but Mike insisted, "Please take the oil can, after all, you gave me a 911 !" Now, you might have a better appreciation of the kind of guy Mike Miller is. A worthy winner of a 2022 Porsche Carrera!

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