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Bellevue, WA - July 13-16, 2000 See the Pictures!  Over the weekend of July 13th through the 16th our neighbors to the south, Mustangs Northwest, held their 20th annual Roundup at Bellevue Community College. This four-day event is a truly massive undertaking that costs them tens of thousands of dollars to put on, thousands of man hours to pull off and is enjoyed by thousands of participants and spectators. This year, for the first time, I participated in the "Judged Show" which was held on Saturday. I was joined in this endeavor by Dan and Jan Klopp with their McLaren Mustang. Following a week of frenzied cleaning and detailing on my part, we met Friday at the Conway Texaco and cruised to the Bellevue Inn for technical inspection. Upon arrival we found a lot full of cars being cleaned, polished and otherwise readied for competition and one technical inspector. After some confusion and delays we succeeded in having our cars inspected. I think that upon hearing the term "technical inspection" I was expecting something more. All of my lights (including the courtesy lights) were checked for operation, I tooted my horn, revved my engine to show that the tachometer was operational and exhibited that my air conditioning blows cold. That was all. I had visions of Dick Knight crawling under my car, measuring tread depth on my tires, checking my brake fluid level and doing a compression check. Oh well, so much the better. Tech was a painless experience. Over the last several months I have been visiting a site on the internet called Stangnet. There I made the acquaintance of a fellow by the name of Ian Chapman who lives on Vancouver Island and is the president of the Vancouver Island Mustang Association. Ian has a 1979 Indy Pace car and we have been corresponding back and forth for a few months. He came down the previous day to participate in the Pony Trails on Friday and we had arranged to meet at the hotel afterwards, sometime around 7:00 p.m., to go out to dinner. Seven o’clock came and went with Pony Trails participants arriving by the dozen but no Indy Pace cars and no Ian. By 8:15 I gave up and the Klopps and I went to dinner. We had a fine Italian meal at Teo’s Mia Roma on Bothell Way. I highly recommend the minestrone soup. Saturday I was up early and got to the college at 7:15. Much to my chagrin there was nobody at the gate to direct me to my correct spot. After cruising a few of the lots, I finally found Dan and Jan, parked my car, registered, then had to find someone to tell me where to park. Several minutes of searching yielded a harried-looking gentleman who politely told me where to go. Finally, it was time to start prettying up my car which took me an hour of elbow grease. As I cleaned, I was joined by other participants: Parked next to me was Bob McLaughlin of Beaverton, Oregon with his beautiful black and gold Cobra II. Next to him was Randy from Aberdeen who commuted back and forth both days with his son in his 1983-turned-1993 striped yellow Fox-body. I met up with a friendly guy in a Roush clone. I met George from Tacoma who also had a Cobra II. In short, everybody was in great spirits and very friendly. There was no sense of competitiveness, just camaraderie. As I waited for the judges to arrive, a man strode towards me purposefully across the parking lot, walked right up and said: "Do you own this white car?" It was Ian. He proceeded to apologize wholeheartedly for missing us the night before. At the appointed time, he was still on the ferry coming into Edmonds and had no way to reach me. He ended up getting there at 9:00. No harm was done and he introduced me to his friends Dennis and Glenn from VIMA. The judges chose this moment to arrive. Again, my expectations were completely different from what I experienced. I was expecting a visiting MCA judge to come to my car along with a local person to assist. In actuality two members of Mustangs Northwest judged my car. They looked under the hood, they examined the paint, looked at the wheels and perused the interior. Then they marked their sheet and walked away. That was IT? I had expected a much more stressful experience. Bob, Randy and I were somewhat concerned about the class we were in so we accosted a gentleman wearing an MCA hat to ask him some questions. As it turns out it was Charles Hampton, the president of MCA. He was very cordial and answered all of our questions. As it turns out, we could have been in either modified or street driven but it was too late to change. Again, oh well. Now two more men with clipboards appeared at my car. They were there to judge my modifications. I had to point out that my 1993 convertible no longer had a luggage rack and they informed me that my headers were considered "undercarriage" and therefore not counted as a modification. Headers are undercarriage?!?! Following a long day of judging, I hooked up with Ian and Dennis and we took a tour of north Seattle and ended up at a nice restaurant at Shilshole Bay marina for dinner and drinks. The ride back was fun as well. Dennis spotted an Austin Healy that he wanted to look at and the proprietor of the car lot turned out to be from Victoria and knew an old friend of Dennis’. It is a small world. Seven thirty the following morning, I was back at BCC. Judged show participants are required to be there both days so I was looking forward to a relaxing day of looking at cars and visiting with people. Bob, Randy and I talked about our chances of winning anything and we all decided that we didn’t stand much of a chance but we would enjoy the day anyway. Liz and the boys joined me and Sunday was a long, warm blur of beautiful cars, nice people, food, sun and fantastic exhaust notes. It was a cornucopia of Shelbys, Bosses, Mach 1’s, GT’s, LX’s and Cobras. Entirely too much for my little brain to comprehend. I have to admit that I probably didn’t see more than fifty percent of the cars there on Sunday, it was too overwhelming after Saturday. I just kicked back and enjoyed myself. At 3:00 the trophy presentation got started. Ian, Dennis, Liz and I staked out a spot in the shade and were joined by Al Schaffler of Mustangs West in Olympia. As the presentations went on, Gretchen Anderson from our club won a trophy. She had entered her well-loved 1967 coupe into the judged show. It was great as this was her first show experience. The class presentations rolled on and Dan and Jan took a trophy in the street driven class. The modified class came up and, lo and behold, I took home a trophy! It was third place, but I wasn’t complaining. Our little club had put three cars in the judged show and we took home three chunks of hardware! Last year we were four for four in the participant’s choice show. We may not have quantity but we’ve got quality. All in all, the Roundup this year was a very good experience for me. It was my first judged show and I feel that my car acquitted itself well. All of the participants from our club took home a trophy. Best of all, I got to meet a lot of very nice people who share my love of cars in general and Mustangs in particular. It didn’t matter if they had a "classic" Mustang, a Mustang II, a Fox body or a SN95. They all were able to appreciate the other guy’s car and express their admiration to it’s owner. A hearty "good job" to all with Mustangs Northwest who participated in putting on the show. Your efforts are much appreciated by me and by thousands of other Mustang enthusiasts throughout the Pacific Northwest, the United States, and Canada. Copyright © 2002 Island Classic Mustang Club. Last modified Monday, 04-Sep-2000 16:43:56 PDT. |
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