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members came out just for the day. Some with their car in the field, some just to see the cars on display. And of course, we exchanged more: Great to see you! How’s Emma? …

The last event before the Friday night awards banquet was the Funkhana, ran by our friends of the CMGC. It was one of the nicest Funkhana’s we’ve done because it followed a historical theme, American Independence (it was a few days before the 4th of July), and the activities and challenges were related to the story: having a cup of tea, crossing the Delaware river, and some battle activities. And of course, the verbal instruction was with a British accent. Emma had the privilege of having the FLOCMGC, Kerry Hickenlooper,

(spouse of the CMGC president) as the navigator for the Funkhana. It was a lot of fun, especially when Kerry was steering, while I was operating the pedals with my hands up in the air: Kerry, turn the wheel more left. No, you go slower Reinout. Too much to the left, turn the wheel back. Now you are going too slow, speed up… I don’t think that we did very well, but we had a great time.

John Twist, speaker at the banquet, had great stories about how he got involved with MGs, went to England to learn how to work on MGs, and became one of our most enthusiast, talented, experienced, and entertaining MG specialists. There were many, many awards, too many to list and recognize them all. But there’s one that I would like to tell you about, let me explain. The car show trophies are determined by popular vote. That means that all participants walk around with a ballot and a pencil and cast their votes for the best MGs in its class. Some participants may vote for a MG in their favorite color, for a MG of their best friend, or for the one from ’See you at the GOF?” And that’s precisely how Emma got first place in the Premier Class. Thank you very much.

For us the GOF was just two and a half days long but if we think back to all the friends we saw again, all the friends we made, and the fine MGs we saw it seems so much longer. It must be longer, how else can you condense so many great experiences in such a short time. However, it isn’t. That’s the way MG conventions are. And how many fine MGs did we see? I don’t have the final list but here were about 120 registrations. Most of them with MGs: about 20 pre-war, at least 50 T-Series and the rest ZA, As, Bs, Cs, Midgets, RV8, and F (the post-Abingdon sports car that competed successfully with the Miata in many markets, except the USA).

Therefore I would like you to think about next year: GOF Central will be St. Louis, MI, and the MG2019 (NAMGBR) in Traverse City, MI. The NAMMMR annual convention in Bowling Green, KY next year will be our first one that is not in conjunction with another MG event. We’re already making plans and look forward to more of: How have you been? Good to see you?…

Thanks to Ray Costa and the VMGCC for hosting the event, to the CMGCC for the help with some of the activities, and to Sarah Richey for the NAMMMR ice-cream run and dinner.

~~ Reinout Vogt

See you at the Triple M Annual Meet, the GOF, and MG 2019

Photo credits:
The good photos are from: Chris Cooper (10-11), Don Ross (9), Dean Hickenlooper (3), Sharon Powell (7)
Reinout made the other ones