July 4 to July 8, 2018 - Atlantic Nationals

[psdunn]

Once again, the Nationals week was an extremely busy time with something going on almost continuously from the afternoon of July 4th until the afternoon of July 8th and the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm, with one exception.  On Friday at around noon, the skies opened up with rain and thunderstorms and, unhappily, this coincided with the first driving event hosted by the GMCC!  Our departure from Dieppe had not left the parking lot before the rains came down and it was clear that the gathering clouds had scared away some would be participants as there were only 10 cars in our little caravan compared to 25-30 cars for this run in previous years.  We drove along Highway 15 to Cap Pelé through the downpour at about 80 kph, careful to avoid the standing water in the grooves of the road as much as possible to minimize hydroplaning.  In Cap Pelé, we stopped at Fred's Diner for a very nice lunch and then proceeded on our annual visit to Michel LeBlanc's incredible collection of signs and memorabilia (automotive and otherwise).  As always, there were new additions and lots of other items missed in previous visits, all of which remind one of simpler, kinder times past.

The main show began on Saturday, the 7th, as the Nationals invaded Centennial Park and our club held our annual show and shine within the Nationals - a show within a show.  We had excellent support from the other clubs within the region, as well as visitors from Ontario and Quebec and our final car count was about 130 Corvettes of all years, models and colours.  This year, we did not have judging and awards for all the classes but instead, presented a club participation award and an award provided by the the Nationals for the Peoples' Choice.  The Corvette Club of Nova Scotia won the club participation award and the Peoples' Choice Award was won by David Ronayne for his 1971 Vette.  In addition, everyone who registered at the GMCC table won a prize during the day.  Following the awards presentation, we drove to the Baci Italia Restaurant for a very nice Italian dinner where the major door prizes were drawn:

$1,000 voucher for tires from Michelin/Goguen Tire donated by Leon Caissie was won by Greg and Debbie Zwicker
Elle earings from André Cormier, La Mine d'Or, won by Amanda Hines
Corvette car blanket, donated by Judy Carroll, was won by Paul Dunn

After dinner, most of the attendees drove out Mountain Road along the National's cruise route where crowds of spectators lined the street to enjoy watching the cars and trucks parade past.

The majority of the Corvettes returned to the park on Sunday to enjoy the day and to attend the awards and prizes presentations.  The presentations began at 3:00 pm and there were many of them to go through as they built up to the drawing for the Grand Prize, a beautifully restored and customized 1966 Chevrolet El Camino.  The crowd was hushed as the name was drawn and when it was announced that the winner was Bertrand Drapeau, a roar went up from the GMCC gang as we realized that one of our members had won!!  Everyone there was thrilled (though not as thrilled as Bertrand) that a GMCC member had finally cashed in on the big one after many years at the Nationals.  Gilles Chiasson also won a major sponsor plaque from Canadian Tire for his 1960 yellow car.  I heard that Roger Cormier also received recognition for his 2015 red Stingray.  All in all, it was another fantastic event.