NATIONALS WRAPUP

[GREGD]

Hi to all

The Nationals has been run and won for the SA club, it was a huge undertaking for all of the SA club with 126 entries, 110+ cars and almost 300 people.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all that attended, we enjoyed remarkable weather in Mt Gambier for March and to get sunburn was certainly a surprise, all the venues were good, the food was delicious and thanks to all for the orderly manner members took lining up. The staff at the International were very complimentary and were happy that everything ran so smoothly.

Frew Park was an outstanding venue for our show"n"shine, the cars were arranged with lots of room for the public to look at and appreciate the display. Looking at the number of cars parked around the side streets and the numbers of people walking towards the park was truly amazing, there was a real buzz in Mt Gambier leading to the day and I know that people were coming from many surrounding towns for a look. The children's entertainment on Saturday was well received and the quiz night was a scream.

The convoy to Port McDonnell was taken on an unplanned detour that turned out to be a good thing - it enabled occupants to observe cars twice during the run and many took this opportunity to take photos and enjoy the oncoming specticle. Once we assembled on the foreshore and lunch was consumed the Inter-club Challenge stepped up with "pin the bootbadge on the boot" followed by "tunnel-ball" with watermelons as balls (unfortunately none of the melons broke), "dizzy sticks", "doughnut eating" and the star attraction "musical chairs", I cant wait to see the video footage (I was Mr music). Unfortunately Steve Brazier sustained an injury but has pulled up OK. The overall winner was WA who had to take the trophy back across the Nullabor!!!!

The Barn was excellent and everyone enjoyed a magnificent 3 course meal.

Congratulations to all the trophy winners. All are worthy of their awards. The door prizes were snapped up and well received and the couch winner was very happy.

Congratulations to Glenn L Adams - founder of the SA club - on receiving his Life Membership, it's the first time we have seen Glenn speechless!!!!!!!.

NSW presented their upcoming nationals in Orange celebrating 50 years of motor racing in Australia.  Please support NSW for this upcoming major event in 2010. 
 
Many thanks to the members of the "Holdens of Age" (Mt Gambier branch) for assisting us on the show n shine day.

Many many thanks to the SA members/partners/children who helped out before and during the Nationals without whose assistance the whole weekend would not have been possible.

Thanks once again to all attendees, I know we all had a great time and it was a pleasure to see all enjoying it

Cheers
Greg Drinkwater
on behalf of all SA members

[gp]

Many thanks to the South Australian Club for a great Nationals. We had a fantastic time.

Cheers,

Graham

[zulu]

Yep, likewise, ages since we have been to an away Nationals because of work commitments, we found everyone very friendly and helpful & loved the location and archtec old houses.

Some of the standouts for us, apart from picking up a couple of trophies  was the display day with all of those great cars to look at, the coastline at Port McDonnell where we had the lunch & games, the 12 apostles were worth the stroll and the great company.

Will defiantly be aiming for 2010 at Orange

Cheers, Gary

[graham_fuller]

Thanks to all concerned the nats were great, catching up with friends and playing cars what better way to spend Easter. Had a great trip, now to fix the sump full of water.
Cheers,
Graham
PS. See you all in Orange.

[Ed]

Thanks to the SA crew, I had a great time.

Back in a minute...

Cheers

Ed

[TTV6FC]

Hee Hee Hee Ed.....that's ED57FE right?....hee hee hee.

[Jockster]

It was nice to see all of the FE's and FC's down here in the Mount, there were certainly some very nice cars, my own personal favourite (other than my old one lol) was Ed's wagon, photo's don't do it justice, it is a really beautiful car and a credit to you Ed. I was also impressed by the huge number of kilometres that Surferboy has covered in his wagon, towing a van, that must be one very reliable car.

[Ed]

Hey Jockster
Thanks for the kind words,
I was overwhelmed by how well received the wagon was.
There were over 100 great FE/FCs gathered in one place, each car had its own history and own unique appeal.
I found it extremely difficult to complete the entrants choice ballot, 3 places were not nearly enough.

Cheers

Ed

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

3 places were not nearly enough.

Tell me about it there was a fair amount of scribble on my paper, choices changed as I found more cars that I liked.

[surferboy]

g'day jockster

must admit we didn't end up towing a caravan across (its still in the "project" stage of its rebuild)

Brad & Gemma towed thiers across and back, and Daggs & Carrots towed one behind thier FC to the Vintage caravan get together and visited for the Nats and are cruising around for a while before driving home.

All the West Aussie cars drove the trip across the Nullabor to return home

Our holiday covered 4,700km to Mt G and 3,600km to get home taking 26 days
The wagon didnt miss a beat for the whole trip (we actually cured one off those odd noise problems we had for two months before the trip but couldn't find the cause)
It was a GREAT weekend and we would do it again tomorrow if we could 

  & Cathy