Carlisle, PA
August 24-26, 2007
My favorite of the year!
Wednesday August 22
Departing Maine.
Thursday August 23
Arrival in Carlisle,
after a night with my folks in Philadelphia.
While
waiting for our tent to be set up, I did some sightseeing around the fairgrounds
while waiting for frequent co-pilot & bodyguard Gary Readio to arrive.
Chip's Choice
this year featured "Cover Cars" - Vettes that had graced the covers of
magazines.
Spectacular
flame job on a spectacular car!
Dennis
& Cindy Manire's banner is covered with autographs, including Sandy's...
Chuck
Mallett's latest monster - a Saturn Skye with Corvette power!
Friday
August 24
By 9:15 we were open
for business.
A
few minutes later, Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter stopped by for a
visit.
We talked about the fun we had on the Corvette
Quarterly Ride & Drive back in May in Maine.
Richard
Fleming's Grand Sport replica.
The
day ended with the Burnout Contest. Corvette Plant Manager Wil Cooksey may not
have been the overall winner, but his performance was certainly the talk of the
event!
Click on the photo to see more.
C5/C6
Dinner
Wil tells about the
burnout contest, the inside view.
Jim
Danahy, new Corvette Chief Engineer for current products.
Vehicle
Line Executive Tom Wallace.
Walt
Thurn shooting Dan Adovasio, Tom, Jim and Jake Drennon.
The
50/50 we did at the dinner produced $738 for the American Cancer Society!
Saturday
August 25
Gary already hard at work (on the donut) at 6:11 am!
By
6:47 the sun rises through the haze.
While
Gary minded the table, I walked the field looking for my Celebrity Pick.
Another
spectacular paint job!
Sometime
overnight someone thoughtfully applied a band-aid
to sooth Wil Cooksey's burnout boo-boo.
Up
on C5/C6 Registry Hill I found Dave DeMarco's Z06...
...
90
degrees left is this view of the field and grandstand.
Photo
in the C5C6Registry tent on top to the hill that appeared in the Registry
magazine.
Another
Registry magazine photo from the hill.
Lance
Miller and Dave McLellan at the autograph table.
There
it is! Lee Boyer's '61, my Celebrity Pick. I believe this is the
car Sandy would have picked: Our first Vette would have been
a red '62, if we
could have found one. Instead we got a black '63. This car sort of combines
the two. Lee has owned it for 32 years!
That
evening, a wicked thunderstorm hit the area,
and there may have been brief tornado activity.
Gary & I were just leaving the Olive Garden in Mechanicsburg when it
hit. This is what the drive back to Carlisle looked like.
What
we didn't know until later that evening via email chatter was the damage wreaked on
Carlisle and the fairgrounds!
Sunday
August 26
At the fairgrounds,
there was ample evidence of the force of the storm. The rumors that abounded
were wildly exaggerated.
Fortunately, the storm hit around 7, so most of the
participants had left for the evening and the vendors were secured for
the
night or the damage would have been much greater. The Carlisle staff and many
volunteers did a tremendous job of
cleaning up the debris overnight and are to
be commended. There were some injuries; miraculously, none were serious.
Click
photo to see more pics of the damage.
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About
11:00 Gary performed his preflight and taxied away for his ground level flight
to MA for FAA business.
The
event concluded once again in front of the stage with Gate City Corvette Club, represented by Dan
Feidler and Carol Michalik,
presenting
me with a check for $8300, the proceeds
from their annual fundraiser in NH. Lance Miller added some kind words of support.
Time
to head home.
That's a bunch of
North Shore C.C. people
waving!
Having
gotten a relatively early start, I managed to get all the way home to Maine,
1:00 am.
Thanks
to the hospitality and support of
Corvettes @ Carlisle and the C5/C6 Registry,
we were able to send $1,252.00
to the American Cancer Society's Harrisburg office!
Click to go
directly to next event!
