September 2018 REmarks

Hello Everyone,

August 26th was the Geneva Concours. I wanted to thank everyone that helped and participated in a great event. Peg and Claire Ball were a huge help and Steve Laske did a fantastic job! The participants were awesome. Many of them had to get up before 5:30am to get their car’s and themselves ready. We had car haulers to “daily” drivers that had to be packed and driven through the morning fog to get to Geneva. All of the cars looked amazing. Some people had shown their cars before but many had never so this was quite an experience in what to bring. You would be amazed in what can fit in a Cobra.

Steve had requested the show promoter to put us near other sports cars. Sure, there were McLarens, Ferraris, and Corvettes around but they granted Steve’s request by placing a vintage Porsche 906 race car owned by Bobby Rahal at the intersection near our street as well as spec Miata, an open wheel and an old Datsun. They all looked great, especially the 906. Those cars sounded good when they were pulling them into place but were all silenced when Scott Sanada pulled in with the mighty V8. It was like our little way of saying “we’re here”. I can only imagine if Paul Musschoot’s award winning corvette wasn’t towed in but was running the same time Scott’s Mustang was.

There was a ton of spectators and we received a lot of attention and praise from the public. With that success it was brought to my attention that we could have used some more informational material to hand out to people; I completely agree. If you have any ideas and time to help us out, the region would certainly benefit and appreciate your time and effort.

It was nice to talk with people that participate or used to participate with the Chicago Region in so many different ways. Events that draw from all of our areas are great because “sometimes” it shows everyone that drivers aren’t elitist that won’t talk to other people, that track day people do more than want to drive flat out, corner and specialty workers are more than beer drinking, fume smelling race car junkies, autocrossers can do more that live all day on 6 minutes of adrenalin, road rally drivers don’t get lost or bend the speed limit all the time and lastly, the current RE is a fun loving and super sarcastic “fun with cars” kind of person, naw, just a smart ass.

Chris Gregor
Regional Executive
Chicago Region SCCA