26th National Corvette Convention
For those of you who were unable to attend the convention below is an account of what happened………although some names and exact details may have been omitted to protect the identity (and reputation) of those involved.
Convention Day 2 – Cruisin’ the Valley
Saturday morning saw an early start for some to begin preparations for the day ahead while others chose to work on their beauty sleep. In order to try and avoid losing anyone during the scenic cruise it was decided to break into smaller groups for the day. Seven groups of approximately 10 cars each made their way through the picturesque scenery of the Barossa Valley to the first stop at Birdwood some 45km away. The National Motor Museum at Birdwood provided the ideal backdrop for the morning tea break with a fantastic spread been supplied by the Birdwood Lutheran Church Auxiliary. Some took the opportunity to view the wide array of vehicles on display at the museum as well as the large number of XU1 Toranas that were also on show outside the museum. We then returned to our cars and rumbled out of the grounds en mass for the return trip to our lunch destination at Lyndoch. The Country Kitchen from Angaston did an excellent job of lunch and everyone enjoyed the chance to check out the vast array of Corvettes circled around the perimeter of the oval.
Originally when the convention was being planned it was proposed that lunch would be held at the Collingrove Hill Climb track near Angaston but unfortunately there were only limited numbers of Corvette owners who were interested in testing their skills on the track which didn’t make it a feasible event given the level of support services required eg, fire and ambulance officers, track marshalls etc. so the decision was made to cancel the event and move the lunch venue to the Lyndoch Oval.
After lunch was designated as free time for everyone, some chose to explore the many wineries in the area, while others decided to return to the Barossa Resort to take advantage of the time to spruce up their pride and joy before the Show ‘n’ Shine scheduled for the next day. A makeshift car-washing facility was set up outside the Novatel and Mothers car cleaning products were kindly supplied to help bring people’s car back to showroom condition. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing…aka..Nanna napping….ready for the night ahead.
At 6:00pm people began to board the buses that were provided to take them to the Wolf Blass winery near Stockwell. After having the opportunity to try some of the many wines on offer we made our way into the Barrel Room for dinner. In the Barrel Room we were privileged to have on display examples of each and every generation of Corvette ever produced from AJ and Julie’s1954 C1 through to one of the stars of the show Performax’s C7 which was brought all the way from Queensland.
The evening’s entertainment included an interesting presentation by Sharon and Bob Middleton which described their long involvement in racing from speedway through to the touring car masters. We also got to watch an exciting video of the thrills and spills encountered in truck racing after which we were introduced to race driver George Miedecke and told about his racing career. One of the highlights of the evening was the chance to listen to Mr Wolf Blass AM welcome us all to the winery that bears his name and to hear about his involvement in the wine industry. As a sign of respect to our host many of us wore a bowtie…….but without all of the formality that would usually accompany it. Bob Butler then took on the role of auctioneer to try and raise some money for Foundation Shine through selling everything from Corvette memorabilia to signed bottles of Wolf Blass wine. Throughout the night we were also entertained by the band ‘The Left Overs’ who successfully got lots of people up dancing.
After dinner the majority of us headed back to Rowland Flat on the bus while some dedicated helpers stayed behind to clean up the aftermath of the night…..thank you all very much!