I finally got a breather and wanted to sit down and thank all the people that helped bring the showcase to a reality. We all had a great time and it came together way better then expected with virtually no issues considering the amount of time we had to put it together. I could not have done it alone and the participants made it easy as
EVERYONE was terrific in helping! Thanks especially to Bob and Vicki for all the help and understanding and for putting up with me.
Besides all the participants who spent considerable time and money bringing their cars to the show, I especially wanted to thank Paul Raidna for trailering the Dick Harrell Camaro some 32 hours (on an open trailer mind you), Kevin Biermann for bringing the knock out T-K display (and Albert for putting up with him on the drive
), Al Wagner for gathering 5 of the nicest 71 LS-6 Corvettes in the country, Andy, Corey and Tom for allowing me to "tweak" Red Alert with some jack stands, Cumby for getting the X-mas tree from Whitehall Dragaway and bringing it to the show as well as making my decals and more business cards, Annie for all her help in phone calls, e-mails, purchasing and bring the carpet to the show as well as allowing me to "borrow" her truck and trailer so that I could get the Pilot car back home, helping me set up the showcase and also the convertible display, cleaning the Pilot car and convertible and most of all for putting up with me the last two months. Lastly to all the participants who helped pull this off, you guys were great.
I fully intend to do this again in the very near future with all your help once again and with an even better display including memorabilia, another restored chassis and drivetrain (thanks Don for delaying your restoration so you could bring this one), more photos and signage and try to outdo Dan and his display. His Showcase was a fantastic collection and I don't think I ever saw Dan sit down and relax and was always helping everyone.
Here are some shots I took. I only managed 32 photos all weekend due to time constraints. One of my customers, Dennis Lang, experienced his first ever car show with a car and was amazed at the quality of the cars. He was a little taken aback and told me he thought he was out of his leaque even though he met some outstanding people who treated him like anyone else. Dennis not only scored a Gold Spinner but also a Top Gun and had a blast. Other winners that I know if were Paul Raidna (DH Camaro), Howard Cox and Nick Bigioni. If there were others, please let me know. Most of the participants elected to not have their cars judged such as the convertible. However, Nick's convert was given a Club Pick award from Fox Valley Corvette Club which was quite a compliment in my opinion. Thanks guys!
Between the sYc and the individual showcases, we have really helped to bring VetteFest where it is today and I think it will only get better with people like you guys!
