Judy & Dick Yanko of the NCM Staff and, as usual (and much appreciated), Janet Curran (C5R#W0477) took charge and with the significant help of Kevin Muench (C5R#Z5327) and others put on a terrific event.

Buzz Fyhrie (C5R#W0564) gets the "came the farthest" award but Gael and I came the next farthest -- and we came in a C5 (so there, Buzz...)

Friday, July 20th

Three guys, three C5s -- only one woman -- and one belt buckle....

Here we are just before taking off on an awsome cruise down the Pacific coast to Bodega Bay. That's Ray Barbour and his Torch coupe, Chaz 'n Gael in their Black Roadster (rented for the weekend) and Frank Noerr in his Nassau coupe.

Eat your hearts out! The scenery on the cruise was spectacular!

The tour ended at the Sears Point Raceway. The practice sessions were over for the day so they just waved out little three-car caravan in. Ray mentioned that Lee Anna O'Daniel (C5R#X3075) and her other half Don had brought their motor home up from San Luis Obispo -- so of course we drove up and banged on the door; unaccountably, they let us in...

Lee Anna, the perfect hostess, brought out snacks and tumblers of a great red wine. Who'd want to leave?

Surely not Ray ...

... nor Frank ...

... nor Chaz, nor Don. After a reasonable visit (hours, gallons..) we all departed and returned (slowly and carefully) to our respective beds.

Saturday, July 21st

...and Dick & Judy Yanko representing the National Corvette Museum,

...and the first ranks of Corvettes in the Corral. The location was superb; we were up on the second highest hill overlooking the raceway.

Ever wonder what a 98 pace car would look like without the Pace Car decals?

Here's Veronica Munro's (C5R#Y4904) great ride; but where's the elusive Ronnie? She was working corners at the track all day and all that we saw of her was RRAPTUR.

Yeah, it's a rental; but it still looks terrific!

Even before the sun burns off the morning fog ("I left my heart....") the setting for the Sears Point facility is beautiful. That's the BMW tent just below us; more about that later...

This shot is looking down the hill and to the right of the Corvette Corral. It's the paddock/concession area.

Here's the start/finish line:

Here are this year's arch rivals taking the track for practice. That's the #26 Saleen and the #3 Corvette C5R.

This is Kevin Muench (C5R#Z5327), Gael and Buzz Fyhrie (C5R#W0564). Kevin and his wife May hosted the Registry dinner on Saturday night at their home.

Jo Anna Buckingham (C5R#X1788) and Erroll McMahan (C5R#Z5588):

I don't know who this is, but if you gotta take the baby to the races, this is definitely the correct rigging:

Since none of us were supposed to be in it, I didn't position myself to photograph it and I, sadly, have no pix of the parade lap; but wait until the bottom of this page to see what "sadly" means....

This is Steve Merenkov's (C5R#W0385) project car. If there's an aftermarket performance or appearance enhancement out there, Steve's put it on this beauty.

This is Steve (himself) with Janet Curran:

Here's Roy Larrick (C5R#W1175):

...and Jim Wilkinson:

...and Len Atlas (C5R#X1916):

Here's Len negotiating the purchase of the only solid axle car to show up on Saturday. This red '60 roadster is a "fifty-footer" (looks good from fifty feet away). Len passed...

This is Janet Curran's "other half", Mike. I don't know why he looks pissed; I think he has an excellent chance at the "Ugliest Hawaiian Shirt" contest....

Up the hill from the corral is the grandstand for Turns #2 and #3. Great vantage point to watch the racing. Here are the TransAm racers exiting Turn #3 at the beginning of the first lap of the race:

Later in the day, the Prototype, GTS and GT classes took the track for practice and qualifying. Here are my best shots of our favorite cars during qualifying. Ron Fellows at the wheel of the #3 C5R and Andy Pilgrim at the wheel of the #4:

Swinging to the left:

...and more to the left:

Here's Buzz Fyhrie with our hostess, May Muench:

The house:

Mary Barbour:

Here's our host, Kevin Muench chatting with Andy Pilgrim. We were blessed by visits from Andy and Johnny O'Connell from the C5R team and David Farmer, Bobby Sak and Scotty White from Speedvision World Challenge racing.

Here's Bobby Sak:

This is Kevin, Johnny O'Connell and Buzz Fyhrie:

...and here's most of us:

Before dinner, Janet made announcements about the raffle for the evening and turned the mike over to Johnny O'Connell to answer questions.

This was the best opportunity I've ever seen to hear from a C5R racer how it is to be on the team. Johnny spoke and answered questions for a half-hour or more.

Here's David Farmer (badly focused, sorry..):

Here are three shots submitted by Buzz Fyhrie. The first is Johnny O. with Kevin and May Muench:

the next is Kevin with Andy Pilgrim:

...and the other is 'most all of us in front of the pool house:

Sunday, July 22nd

Didja notice the riding crop? That's right, she's bad.... Is she a Corvette fanatic? Here's her ankle. You decide.

Here's 3/4ths of the picture I most wanted on the trip. For the HardCore Vetters out there I promised a picture of Lee Anna, Ronnie, Janet and Gael. Never found Lee Anna at the same time so here are Ronnie, Janet and Gael. Be afraid. Be very afraid...

Kevin Muench's C5 is in Ft. Lauderdale. He smuggled his ride in as the new two-wheel Corvette:

Here are Registry members Tom Mabry (C5R#W0654) and Perry Bird (C5R#X2281):

All the Corvette drivers, the C5R team and the World Challenge drivers joined us in the NCM tent for a generous autograph session:

And, finally, I got a picture of Scotty White (C5R#X1686) to show up; for a while I thought he was invisible to pixels!

I don't know if the planned Ugliest Hawaiian shirt contest was ever judged but I think we have some winners anyhow...

Before his race, David Farmer (C5R#W0120) took the time to come up into the Corral and chat with a bunch of us. He's a young man committed to his craft -- and a privateer at that!

Just before the start; a pretty good crowd at Turns #2 and #3:

For the first thirty laps or so, this is the way it looked. The Saleen leading the #3 C5R around the track with the #4 car a few seconds behind...

But then, on about lap 32 (as I recall), Ron/Johnnie passed him and THIS is how that two-car battle looked for the rest of the race:

As you all know by now, the C5Rs finished #1 and #2 in class and #5 and #6 overall. Another great win for the team; we're very proud of them!

So, in addition to the heroes in the races, here are our Corvette Corral Heroes, José and Lisa Velazquez from Castro Valley, California:

If you'd like to drop them a line (and encourage them to add a C5 to their stable), you can email them by clicking HERE.

Note: To see Charles Adamson's great pix from this event, click HERE.