<VV> Conventions

[Rick Norris]

I just spent the week as a volunteer worker at the POCI or Pontiac Oakland Club International Convention held for the second time here in Charleston WV. Several of my old school car buddies are Poncho drivers.

The weather was HOT! as it was over most of the eastern half of the country. There were a lot of nice cars and one old 1910 Oakland complete with driver and wife decked out in 1910's finest duds. This car won as the oldest and would have won as most original except the owner had installed an electric starter from a Toyota! He was caught firing it up by a judge. He said it was too hard to use the hand crank. Very nice car though.

Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick was present with several of his race cars and Marvin Panch was there with his 1960 Pontiac NASCAR stocker like the one he won the 1961 Daytona 500 in. It was a faithful repro as the original was lost in a wreck long ago. It does have some original parts from the original car as Smokey Yunick had them stored in his garage. Google it.

Except for the Marque this convention was not unlike ours. Guess what the biggest headache was?? Trailer parking! Arguing over what "stock" is sounded familiar too.
They try to have a class for everything which made it confusing.

>From what I could see CORSA has the convention organization and judging down way better than these folks. Also, knowing where to be at what time seemed to be an issue even though they were issued a schedule.

All in all it was a good if tiring time. The heat made it worse but, it only rained one time and not very much at that.
I had a great time jawing with all the folks. I was popular as I was one of the "water boys" selling cold bottled water. 

The Corvair connection here was I met Charlie West's daughter and husband.
Also met Ronnie and the Daytonas as they were the featured music act. I think Ronnie is still stuck in the 60's!

Rick Norris
#36 Sunoco Corvair
www.corvairalley.com