PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

The summer is almost over and we’ll be restarting our monthly meetings at the Bordentown Community Center on Sunday evening September 13 at 5pm. Hopefully, everyone enjoyed their vacations and spending time with their families. I know I did.

There are a few events that have occurred in the last month, and some upcoming events that I’d like to touch on. First on the event calendar was the National Impala Association Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina that took place on July 26-30. Eight of our club members attended. This was hosted by the NIA with the tireless help provided by the Tar Heel Late Great Chevys. The convention and activities were very well organized. I arrived just in time to attend the drag races at Rockingham Dragway. About 13 owners had signed up to race their cars, some being driven and some towed. As we were the only ones there, anyone could make as many passes as they wanted. In the bracket racing eliminations, Verne Frantz won the event for the second year in a row with his ’63 Impala Sport Coupe, narrowly taking Allen George’s ’62 Blue Screamer. How ‘bout these guys… Do they know how their cars are going run, pass after pass or what? Verne’s skill in bracket racing earned him the Top Prize of a ChevroletService art deco wall shelf. Way to go Verne!

Since our newsletter editor, John Lucas, attended the entire convention, he’d like to share his thoughts about it later in this newsletter. For those unfamiliar with the NIA, they are based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and is headed by Jody Anderson. His passion is ’64 Chevrolets of which he owns two. They recognize ’58 – ’70 full size vehicles only. One national and one regional convention are hosted by the NIA each year. Our board had an impromptu meeting to discuss the prose and cons of becoming affiliated with the NIA. This will be a topic for discussion at the September meeting. So if you have an opinion, this is your opportunity to voice it. You can make the difference.

Next, was the John and Dawn Dennery picnic on August 8th, which never fails to please. Even though I arrived late, I can see and appreciate the effort that John and Dawn put forth. It was nothing less than stellar. I can only imagine how long it takes John to hang some, but not all of his Chevrolet memorabilia on the fence that surrounds their property and Dawn handling all of the house and food preparations. Additional narrative and pictures will follow in the October newsletter.

Then, there is Tom Merring’s new addition to his fleet, a ’60 Sport Sedan, aka Flatty. When I first saw her, you could barely tell there was an engine under the hood as the car had been stored in an open garage. Every leaf, twig or piece of plastic had blown its way under the hood. There’s a short article that Tom wrote in the ‘Whatcha Working On’ section of this newsletter. But on that note, I have to say thanks to Tom’s perseverance and ability to overcome obstacles, he was able to make Flatty road worthy inside of two weeks. Flatty made the round-trip(1400 miles) to the Woodward Ave Cruise in Detroit, most of the time running at 75mph. Stay tuned for an update. Great job Tom!

I’ll expand on the Woodward Ave Cruise in next month’s newsletter.

And last but not least, is the Fall Foliage Run and Steam Engine ride in Jim Thorpe, PA on October 17-18. Please see the timeline and motel information in this newsletter. Lou DiPietro is handing the pre-paid train tickets and dinner reservations, so please give him a call to confirm.

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