The 2016 Driving Events are underway and the month of May had many very successful events. I hope that there were reporters at the first Miata autocross (3 MGs despite the rain), the Spring Tune-up (28 MGs), the Spring Brunch Drive (9 MGs and 8 Other Makes a.k.a. OMs), and the Spring Chicken Rally (22 MGs and 4 OMs). We should all say “Thank you very much” the next time we see Jim Compton, Cowboy, Wilbur Mennell, Brian and Rose Dubin, and George and Jana Phariss and family. Without organizers, rally masters, to tour chiefs our events would not have been the success that they were.

Looking forward, the June events were already covered in my last column. MG 2016 in Louisville, KY promises to be the highlight of the driving season with hundreds of MGs, from pre-war MMMs to the 1980 MGBs and probably some of the newer MGs that were never formally distributed in the US. It may be too late to register by the time this newsletter drops in your mailbox by the street or on your computer. But you can still come just to the cars at the Thursday show and it would probably still be worth the trip (about 5 hours from Chicago). John and Ann Schroeder are leading the Sunday caravan and we (Reinout, Henneke, and Emma) will be at the Lincoln Oasis (the last oasis in the Tri-state, just before it merges into I-94 through Indiana) at 10:30 am on Monday, June 13. I am a little superstitious but since the 13th is not a Friday, we’ll be all right… I hope. Note that in the previous newsletter stated 10:00 am but to escape he morning rush hour we moved it up by half an hour.

And then comes July, with two, kind of new or different events. There should be more information in the announcements in this newsletter. But just to recap, on Saturday May 16 we’ll start a garage tour at the garage of Bob and Marianne Anderson in Barrington. No MG but fabulous cars and a beautiful place. Then we move to Derrig Designs, also in Barrington, makers of all kind of automotive and related signs. (I think that they made the large metal sign that the CMGCC had a few years ago) Phil Derrig will show us his facility and museum, which was once described to me as;

every sign you ever saw, think you might have seen, or will see in the future. From there we’ll tour to Gurnee, IL (maybe one more surprise stop on the way over) to the home of Ray and Mardee Costa for Ray’s Morris and MG picnic.

On Sunday, July 31, Ray and Sue Hansen and Chris Edmonds, will host the 4050 Tour. Ray and Sue are preparing a tour, probably more or less along Lake Michigan that ends at the Burnham Park Yacht Club in Chicago where Chris is the commodore and which is located right by the Planetarium and Northerly Island and where there will be special dedicated MG parking. A few years ago Ray and Sue’s Tour started there and you can’t think of a location for a nice luncheon with a prettier view of the skyline of Chicago than right at the restaurant in the harbor of the Burnham Park Yacht Club. Chris is a member of the CMGCC and was featured in his newly restored red MG TD in the May 2015 of the Driveline. The 4050 Tour will be THE event to celebrate the 40th and 50th anniversaries of our clubs, in style. That style is of course driving. Driving is what we’ve done in the past 40 and 50 years of our clubs and celebrating this with a drive to such a premier location is a perfect opportunity to remind us all that one of the Cs in the names of our clubs stands for Chicago. Even if your MG is temporarily out of commission, or, as some the founding and early members, you don’t own a MG anymore, this will still be the event to come and celebrate the club anniversaries. The officers of the VMGCC and CMGC hope to welcome you on Sunday, July 31

August has may events also, but I will save my pitch for the next issue of the newsletters.

I invite you to contact me at 847-342-9804 or reinoutvogt@gmail.com if you have ideas, suggestions, concerns, or comments.

"The more you drive, the more you smile".

-- Reinout Vogt