In mid-April, convention deputy chairman Ray Bombardier of Bay State Corvairs and I met to visit with event suppliers and go over some outstanding details. We almost got arrested!
Ray met me at the Sturbridge Host Hotel driving his beautiful, well-running 1962 Monza coupe. (Are you picking up on the whole 1962 thing here?) After we left our last appointment, we took Route 20 back to the hotel. It was sunny, mild day and jokingly I said to Ray, "keep driving!" To my surprise, he did!
Ray took me to Quabbin State Park. There's an observation tower there that is a must-see while you're at the convention. At the foot of the tower hill is a big parking lot, with a sign at the base of the road reading "No Vehicles Allowed." Ray waited there while I walked up the road to the tower and climbed to the top.
WOW! What a view of the Quabbin Reservoir and the surrounding countryside. I went back down the hill and told Ray we should drive his car up the restricted road to the bottom of the tower for a photo.
Ray, being a law-abiding guy, wasn't sure of the plan and told me that as soon as we did a park ranger would appear out of thin air. No way, I said. Ray trusted me and drove up the hill to the base of the tower.
You could see this coming, right? The ranger showed up within seconds.
Before the ranger could say anything, I told him we could read but used the road because of the convention, blah, blah, blah. Turned out he was car guy. A VW guy to boot who liked air-cooled engines. To Ray's relief, he let us stay for a few minutes. Ray was further relieved that he would not have to call his wife and tell her to deliver his tooth brush to the local jail.
And we got the photo, too.
Although not as exciting, a lot of other good things happened over the weekend in Sturbridge. I met with the rally committee of Bob Scheidel and Mike Kovacs who along with Dave Delancey are hard at work on the route. The rally will be an excellent mix of challenge and enjoyment.
While there we also locked up agreements with our trophy guy and the T-shirt vendor. Thanks goes to Ken Shifftner of NJACE who made the original contact with the trophy shop and John Texieria of Bay State for following up on the lead.
On Sunday, Ray Zabinski, NECC veep and Director of Track Operations, and Ken Klingaman of NJACE, autocross designer extraordinaire, toured Stafford Motor Speedway where out autocross will take place. It's a great facility with spectator seating. You'll enjoy the show.
See you in Sturbridge!