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Hello everyone:
For all of our friends who made the trip to Carlisle this past
weekend, I extend my sincerest thanks for spending your weekend with The
Central Penn SAAB Club, along with NESA, NJSOC, WASSAAB and The Swedish
Underground.
The combined effort of our clubs helped SAABs edge out The
Mid-Atlantic Fiero Owners Association, who have been THE CLUB to beat for
the past several years at Carlisle. Congratulations to Bob Schlag and MAFOA
for a second place finish with 112 cars. Bob and I have already discussed
the possibility of a combined assault on the GM Nationals show next June, to
demonstrate brand loyalty. Much will depend on how much support we can
muster from our dealers and SAAB, but I'll let you know how this one shapes
up..
Two glitches that I want to correct are: Jeff Proposki who's
gorgeous 900 SPG/Viggen took top honors in the SPG category and The People's
Choice Award, was not presented with his SAAB Orfors crystal dish until
Sunday morning, after we discovered the mistake. Our thanks to SAAB Cars USA
for furnishing this beautiful award. (Sorry Jeff.) Also, The High Mileage
Award was completely missed, and should have gone to Tal McBride, with over
425,000 miles on his 900. Tal, my apologies, but a gift certificate from
Griot's Garage is on its way to you later this week. Thanks for adding a few
more miles to the odometer and spending the weekend this us.
The list of people who pitched in this weekend is very long, with
over 160 SAAB loyal in attendance. A truly incredible effort. First I have
to thank my wife Diane for putting up with me this past year as all of the
planning was under way. Also on this prestigous list is John Webber for all
of his talents designing our show artwork, but even more importantly, is his
wife Gaylene, who tolerated the long hours he and I worked, including until
3 a.m. on their anniversary 2 days before the show! Thanks Diane and
Gaylene; you are the greatest!
Other notables include the lunch crew who helped feed everyone on
Saturday, including John Sizer, Mike Beare (picking up stuff and keeping it
cold), Jon Desenberg and Erin Arnold (how much food can you fit in a Honda
Prelude?) and Diane Fails for enforcing the "No Votes, No Vittles rule".
Fortunately, no one was turned away for not voting.
Our registration tasks were handled by Ron Nichipor and Alan Mede,
who were very busy all weekend. You guys did a tremendous job!
Our vote counting team included John Webber, Tom Cox, Larry West,
Stephen Goldberger, Bill Jenkins and John Webber. Did I miss anyone?
Our parking crew included everyboby who could point or direct. Great
job done on this one too!
Jason Morris/Infinite Graphics in Pottstown, PA donated all of the
SAAB Street signs, including Highway 99, which has mysteriously disappeared.
The reports we received indicated everyone liked the street signs and we'll
include them next year too.
Thanks to George Basehore and Erin Arnold for the raffle ticket
sales and to Phil Lacefield, Jr. You guys did a great job.
Thanks to Garry Grimes and Russ Angstadt for handling the CPSC/SAAB
Catalog Boutique. Initial reports indicate almost $800 in accessory items
sold, so it appears to have been a great success. Thanks to SAAB Cars USA
and Eisenhauer SAAB for putting this together for us.
Thanks to Bill Jacobson (Sonett1), Tom Cox (Quantum) and Bob Abel's
(GT750) for bring out some notable vintage SAABs to display in less than
favorable weather. Also of notable interest were Jeff Proposki's SPG/Viggen;
James Uhls' 900 Sensonic, Dave Holtzinger's Pro Street SAABstang; Richard
Levy's 9000 Ultra and Bill Jenkins' '74 99 (on display in Building T), as
well as his '78 99 Turbo. We are hoping to bring out even more vintage cars
next year.
Our vendor support this year was terrific, with SAAB USA sending 2
large boxes of goodies. Lehman SAAB and Kelly SAAB co-sponsored the lunch
this year, which fed over 160 people, with even a few leftovers for lunch on
Sunday. All of the attendees received hats courtesy of SAAB USA, and several
lucky attendees received the new 9-3 Sport Sedan Press Kit, fresh off the
presses. Our thanks to Lehman, Kelly, Eisenhauer and Hunt Valley SAAB for
their support of our weekend. We also want to thank Lititz Auto Service,
Viking Automotive, S&S Automotive, Dennis Sweeney SAAB, Radial tire, SAAB
Club of North America, Busted Knuckle Garage, Griot's Garage, The SAAB
Network, Lincolnway Sales and Service, WASSAAB, Bill and Joanne Clark and
George Basehore for providing all of the great prizes. Also we want to thank
The Deer Lodge in Mount Holly Springs for handling our group (over 70+) for
Saturday night's dinner.
Lastly, thanks to each and every one of you who got in your SAABs
and trekked to Central Pennsylvania this weekend to make this event so
tremendously successful. Without each and everyone of you helping, we would
not have reached our goal. It was one of my goals to greet everyone
throughout the weekend, and if I have missed anyone, I truly apologize. I
hope that if you were at the event, I had the opportunity to welcome you or
say good-bye before your departure. I know I did miss a few folks as the
duties of the day kept me somewhat busy. I also know that I made some new
friends, and hope that you did as well. We hope that you will put this
event on your calendar in 2003, scheduled for May 16-18th.
In the next few days, I will be forwarding a survey to get your
comments and ideas on making next year even better. My stroll throught the
vendor area on Sunday afternoon indicated that while the rain certainly
hampered sales in general for most of the vendors, more than a few I talked
with said that interest in SAAB items and sales was the strongest it had
ever been. (No kidding.) I also found more SAAB stuff this year than in
year's past, and alot of it came home with me. We hope that as we continue
to bring SAABs to this event, that we will see even more vendor attendence
and support. Without cars and participants, there is no economic incentive
for vendors to come to the show. With your help, we are working to change
that.
We are also working to compile a catalog of photos from the event.
We ask that if you took any photos over the weekend and would like to
include them in our electronic photo album, please forward them to me. We
anticipate burning a CD for everyone once we get enough to capture the
week-end's events. We will also be posting the event to our new website
(courtesy of Carl Levine) in the next couple weeks. In the meantime, work
begins on next year's event.
Work is already underway for taking more SAABs to The Pittsburgh
Vintage Grand Prix in July, and based upon the responses during Saturday
nights dinner, we will be keepng everyone posted on our progress on this
event. Tom Cox and The SAAB Vintage Racing Group has expressed strong
interest in taking a car to the event, and we want to be on hand to show our
support for their effort. Stay tuned for more information as it develops.
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE HELP.
Respectfully yours,
Marc A. Fails, President
Central Penn SAAB Club
president@centralpennsaab.com
reposted from e-mail by Michael Heyse
posted by 141.156.231...
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