Upon my arrival at Holiday Isle on Friday morning, I knew by the crowd already
there that a fun filled weekend was ahead. As the corvettes were assigned their spots for
the weekend, I could tell that Chuck (Club Vice- president) had a big job ahead of him
parking these corvettes. Also some trailers had arrived with none less than a 35th
Anniversary Callaway owned by Rene Cardenas out of Brownsville, Texas who also went out of
his way to pick up his 98 Pace Car convertible along with his family and lets not forget
Patrick & Pam Gordon who drove in from Colorado Springs, Colorado with their 86
corvette.
This
was the 2nd year for Jim Tatomir from Canada who entered the display class. 21 corvette
clubs had folks pre-registered and judged classes are limited to 100 cars. There were
folks in from Canada, South & North Carolina. On Friday evening, a welcome party was
hosted poolside by Rip’s for Ribs and seen mingling amongst the crowd was Dave
McLellan.
Steve & Yvonne Fleming brought their 94 Custom unveiled for the 1st time, Steve makes his own custom body components for the C4 convertibles. By afternoon while the cars were being judged, the crowd was kept on its toes with raffles and assorted vendors, namely Al Sowash from Eckler’s Corvette Parts, Henry Paul gold corvette jewelry and music from DJ Pete Bauer of Memory Lane in Key West, Fl. who donated his time. In the meantime, Dave and Glenda McLellan were walking the area signing autographs, answering questions and choosing their favorite car.
All
in all, 323 corvettes were either Judged, displayed or on view for the public to see. Some
of the finest corvettes in the southeastern United States were judged for their
cleanliness and detail. It was some of the toughest judging the club has come across since
the show began 5 years ago.
Some of the specialty trophies awarded were 1st place club participation awarded to Renegades Corvette Club out of Hollywood, FL. Ladies choice was a display car, a 98 white convertible owned by Jay Smith from Deltona, FL. Dave McLellan’s choice award went to a 1976 Custom painted corvette owned by Stan & Janice Kitching from Sugarloaf Key, FL And the last 2 awards went to Bob Guieb,Jr whose Pace Car Corvette was flooded in Hurricane Georges and the hardship award went to Tony Jackson who had the paint stripped right off his corvette go-cart by hurricane Georges.
 |
 |
Most had a great time and are looking Forward to next years show. On Saturday
evening, some folks attended The Dinner with Dave McLellan and were treated to some great
stories especially the one told by Glenda McLellan concerning how Dave Acquired his new 95
ZR-1 being the 1st owner of his polo green dream car. The nice thing about this show is
that the Florida Keys Corvette Club members decided that any proceeds left go towards
awards to High School Automotive shop students that continue going in the automotive trade
to technical school for they will be the automotive technicians of tomorrow.
All in all the Florida Keys Corvette Club members did a fabulous job.
Copyright 1996 Barbara Spear
