April 26-29, 2007
Bowling Green, KY
This was a bittersweet event for us. I
joined with many friends in celebrating the life and friendship of Frank Genova,
dedicating a brick and a bench in his memory. It was also the first birthday of
our Corvettes Conquer Cancer C6,
which was presented to us at the 2006 Bash. It
was also a very unusual event for me because I was sick as a dog
for the entire
event and missed both the Corvette Racing dinner Friday and the final dinner
Saturday!
Thanks to a whole bunch of wonderful people
we were able to send a total of
$3667.00 to the American Cancer Society office
in Bowling Green, KY.
+++++++++++++
Tuesday,
April 24
Leaving Maine 6:26am for a quick visit with my parents
in Philadelphia,
before moving on to Carlisle for the night.
Wednesday, April 25
Carlisle to Bowling Green, a 14 hour, 900 mile
day. This included all 318 curves
in the 11 mile "Tail of the
Dragon" section of US129 straddling the NC/TN line. No time to be
shooting photos in that stretch,
but I had a camcorder mounted on the dash to
record the fun. I'll post a clip of the video here once I figure out what format
will work.
Thursday,
April 26
Rain. At least I didn't
feel obligated to wash the car...
Views
of my space in the front window of the lobby
of the National Corvette Museum, from both outside and inside.
Dinner
at the Montana with the IC5CU gang. Dinner for them, at least - I could barely eat
anything,
and that was the last thing I ate until I got back home on Monday!
Friday,
April 27
Mob in the lobby.
The
folks who bought my C5 last year, Roman & Marilyn Sabadaszka,
arriving at the Museum, at right, in the shades.
The
crowd greets the 2008 Vettes... and blocks my view of them!
Saturday,
April 28
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A
Tribute
to Frank Genova
The
Bench
This was the first memorial bench to be
dedicated!
Here is Frank at
the 2006 Bash, holding the plaque that Dave Hill had read moments before as he presented me with
the new car.
If the guy in the orange shirt stepped aside, you could see the
spot where Frank's bench now sits.
Here are some of the people who spoke at the Bench dedication:
Tracey
Richardson, Donna Genova,
Tadge Juechter, Wil Cooksey, Harlan Charles,
Tony
"Zippy" Vernogis and Jake Drennon.
Some
of the faces in the crowd...
The
Brick
Fittingly, Frank's brick
occupies the very first space on the Walk of Fame!
Frank's
last Vette, which went home to FL with Bernard & Ruth Hochberg.
Bernard presided over the brick dedication, above center.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
2007 Indy 500 Pace Car.
The Banner
This
is the Auction where the banner that flew trackside on the Corvette Racing Pavilion
at the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans was sold to Gary & Tonya Curry for
$2100.
Frank
Genova attended that race, brought the banner home and donated it to the
Maine2005 C5/C6 Registry event as a fundraiser
for the American Cancer Society.
Steve & Bev Adams bought it there for $900, then donated it back in 2006 to
again be a fundraiser for ACS.
I took it to the Museum's Labor Day Celebration
and, at her suggestion, entrusted it to Marilyn Sabadaszka. She gave it to Robin
Pratt who took it to
the Petit Le Mans race in GA later that month. Robin was
able to get ALL SIX of the C6-R drivers and EVERY MEMBER of the Pratt
& Miller crews to autograph it!
I had an agreement with the museum that I would donate it for the Bash auction
on the condition that the proceeds be split between the Museum and the American
Cancer
Society. Frank's souvenir from the 2005 Le Mans race has, to date,
generated $1950 for the American Cancer Society and $1050 for the National
Corvette Museum!
Thank you, Frank, and
all the others identified above who helped boost its value!
Sunday,
April 29
The fact that these 3 Vettes happened to be parked together
Sunday morning was appropriate. When I got back to my hotel room Saturday I knew
I was too sick to go to the closing dinner. This presented a problem because
that was where we sell the bulk of the tickets for the 50/50 raffle and
draw the winner! I called
Tony "Zippy" Vernogis and asked
if he would be a lifesaver and take over for me. He immediately drove over and
picked up
all the stuff (and my dinner ticket). He and Pat ran with it,
recruiting Charlie and Jim Robertson and Pam Dansbury to help sell tickets and
Frank & Bettie Noerr and Larry & Janette Terrell
to count the money. They did a great job: the final pot was $1817.
And the winner was: Frank & Bettie!!! Without hesitation, they donated their
50% back so that the entire $1817 would go to the American Cancer Society!
That,
my friends, is why this grouping of Vettes is significant: the blue C5 is Frank
& Bettie's and the Ron Fellows C6 Z06 is Zippy's.
I captured the last photo
from the Museum's web cam as Tony & Pat took delivery of that car on April
9!
All
packed up again and ready to head back East.
Monday,
April 30
Some interesting cloud
patterns northbound on I-81 through Pennsylvania
Timing
permitted stopping off at my office in Portland to show my new boss, David
Barter, the car that proudly bears the CBE Technologies logo.
As
luck would have it, the VP for Services, George Mellor, was there from Boston at
the time, so they both got their first look at the car.
CBE and ValCom
have
been wonderfully supportive of our Corvettes Conquer Cancer mission from
the very beginning.
1998 ----> 
The
final stats:
Most
important stats:
$3667.00 for the American Cancer Society
and
$1850.00 for the National Corvette
Museum!
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