[COPO]

It is hard to put into words the incredible weekend we had at the Reunion. Here's a personal re-cap for some of you who were not able to attend this year's event.

As many of you know I had some engine problems with my COPO Camaro just days before the Reunion. Frustrated, I was just going to fly in for the weekend, but my 10-year old son who had planned to join me told me we HAD to bring a car. This was to be our big father-son car weekend. We loaded up the LS-6 conv. late Thursday night and got on the road at 6:00 a.m Friday for the 560 mile drive to the Reunion. 7 hours into the trip we had a major tire blowout on the trailer and were forced to change the tire on the side of the interstate in the rain. Nonetheless, we didn't let the hour delay dampen our spirits.

After ten hours of rain, the sun broke through the clouds as we crossed the Illinois border. The closer we got to Collinsville the better the weather became. As we pulled into the hotel parking lot after 12 hours on the road, we were greeted by 20+ Yenkos, COPO's ZL-1's, etc in the parking lot.

The hotel had a large open parking lot perfect for us inexperienced towers. To my son's delight, there was an indoor pool and a game room. There was also a nice restaurant, cigar bar and fitness room. Tom had a hospitality room set up for Friday evening in the hotel which gave everyone an opportunity to put faces with names and real names with screen names. There was also a nice memorabilia display that evening. Later that night we had a late night bench racing and beer drinking session in the parking lot around Gary Holub's trailer.

Saturday morning came early as the cars were scheduled to go into the convention center ballroom beginning at 7 a.m. The weather cooperated as we were greeted by yet another beautiful sunny day.

The Gateway Center was located directly adjacent to the hotel making it incredibly convenient. There was a large open parking lot in the rear near the entry into the ballroom. There was plenty of room for warming up the cars and I seem to recall a certain low mileage daytona yellow Yenko Camaro from PA (owner to remain anonymous) w/a full Yenko built race engine "cleaning the tires" in the lot along with a couple of other cars. The cars entered the room through a large overhead door and pulled in next to a background curtain to be photographed. This was one of the many highlights of the trip as it's one thing to look at nice cars in a magazine or at a car show, but to see 50 or so cars pull into the ball room, many with open headers was an incredible experience. "Captain Carl's" open header ZL-1 race car was quite memorable!

The convention room was very large with plenty of room for the cars. It was column free with high ceilings and had a large stage at the front where some of the most incredible supercar memorabilia was on display. The number, rarity, and quality of the cars was unbelievable. Motion corvettes, Dick Harrell cars, Fred Gibb cars, Nickey cars, COPO's and Yenko Camaros, Chevelles, and Novas in virtually every color. Where else but the Supercar Reunion could you speak with the original owners of their Yenko cars who still owned them 32 years later! Horsepower TV was also on hand thoughout the day filming many of the cars for a mid-January airing.

After a couple of hours I headed out for an hour in search of a new spare tire for my trailer for the drive home. My son wanted to stay at the show with my car. By the time I returned things had changed. Earlier in the day it was "My Dad's car", when I returned my 10-year old son had decided he was the "co-owner" and was busy telling everyone who would listen the history of "his" car.

Around 3 pm all of the cars pulled outdoors into the convention center parking lot for group pictures. Around 4 pm many of the car headed to the drag strip a mere 7 miles away under police escort. I can't count the number of "thumbs-up" we saw from other drives on the road to the track.

We arrived at the track and went right through the gate w/out stopping, straight to our own parking area. Later, the cars made a parade lap in front of the grandstands with our own Andrew as the track anouncer. Great job!! A short time later the supercars lined up to make a pass down the track. The track owners even allowed some of the slower cars to have a passenger. The racing was filmed and HP TV even attached a remote camera to the rear 1/4 panel of Tom Clary's Yenko Camaro w/Rob having the driving duties. A special note, Rob was in a wedding 4 hours away, but somehow was able to make the 4 hour drive in 2 1/2 hours to make it in time for the racing! Rob good luck in 2 weeks at the PSMCDR!

Some of the cars made hard passes, some made easy passes, but everyone had a great time. After racing it was back to the hotel and dinner followed by more late night parking lot bench racing.

After dinner my son and I ventured over to play a round of putt-putt, race go-karts and play some video games. It was a great finish to a memorable father-son day.

Sunday morning after a quick breakfast and some good-byes, we headed out for an uneventful return to Atlanta. This time it was only 10 hours and no flat tires.

A special thanks to Tom Clary and others who helped put on the most incredible supercar show ever. As noted the hotel was directly next to the convention center, there were numerous restaurants within 1/2 mile, a waterpark w/go carts, mini-golf, etc and even a shopping mall about 5 miles away in case you wanted to bring your wife next year.
The dragstrip was a great facilty and was a short 7 miles away. Guys, this is as good as it gets!

I can not fathom all the hours Tom and others put in to make this show the best of its kind. Tom, many thanks to you for a special Father-son weekend. We'll be there next year!




[Edited by COPO (09-03-2001 at 02:01 PM).]