Club Interests ---> Antiques, Cruisin', Muscle Cars, Race Cars, Barn Finds, Racing, Restoring, Bikes, ATVs, Nostalgia,& Garages.

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Minutes from the August 2009 Garage Club Meeting:

First, we talked about the car show we are hosting. We need more participation. We will have a sign up sheet at the next KGC meeting showing the job positions at the car show that we need help with.  We still need door prizes and items for the Chinese auction, though Goodyear gave us two T-shirts at the meeting. Almost all trophies are paid for, but the “Best of Show” and “People’s Choice” trophies are still open for sponsorship.  Denny also gave out more flyers to anyone who needed some to give out.

The next car show meeting was on Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at R&K Diner for anyone interested in helping. At this meeting we  went over the daily schedule of events, the list of volunteers to date and set up the next meeting which was held at April and Mike Klinger’s house on August 21st. At that time the organizers went through the items we have received and separated them into what we want for Chinese auction, door prizes, or special raffles.

Next, we talked about Knoebels Grove. The date for the club picnic has been changed to September 20, 2009 due to the fact that the pavilion we had last year is not available on September 13th.  We will have the same meal as last year, which will be served at 3:00 p.m.. Melissa will hold the meal tickets until 2:00 p.m, when we will have a short meeting (mainly to distribute the meal tickets, and then we will eat. Guests are very welcome to attend, but since we only budgeted $2,000.00 for the picnic, we will be charging $10.00 for guests who are not members of the Garage Club, but only if they eat at our catered meal. This will cover what we are putting out for meal tickets.  Depending on how many GC members sign up we may need to eliminate the ride tickets.  Once we have a final count for the picnic we will determine whether there are enough funds for ride tickets. We still hope to provide these for the kids. Please sign up as soon as possible as we need to have a head count to Knoebels the week before the picnic. Anyone who wants to bring a dessert please feel free to do so. See Melissa or Alex Trexler to sign up at either the cruises or the next two club meetings.

We put out some dates and information for the Pottsville Cruise and discussed how the Circuit Saturday Cruises are growing. For anyone who wants to attend, but will not be cruising in the Pottsville Cruise, the Club will be hanging out at the Waymart on Market Street. See the article later for more details from the Pottsville Cruise from August 9th.

A review of a suggestion at the last meeting that we promote fire safety and extinguishers in the cars on the cruises.  Kevin Hoffman looked into fire extinguishers at Pfeiffer’s Fire Protection. The fire extinguishers come in red or chrome and in chemical or halon.  The prices include: A 2 ½ lb. “ABC” Chemical extinguisher in Red is $36.72 or Chrome for $18.00 more. A 2 ½ lb. “Halon” extinguisher in Red is $94.00. A 5 lb. “ABC” Chemical extinguisher in  Red is $52.70 or Chrome for $19.00 extra. A 5 lb. “Halon” extinguisher in Red is $141.00.

The fire extinguishers include a bracket and have a 6 year warranty.  After 10 years, you can have recharge them for approximately $16.00.  The difference between the two types is that halon is a gas and there is virtually no clean up  and chemical leaves a white residue.  If you want to order a fire extinguisher please see Chas Pinkerton or Kevin Hoffman.  Everyone must pay in advance for these fire extinguishers and orders will be taken until August 29th. You can also see them at the August club meeting! The Peiffer's have also donated a 2 ½ lb. and 5 lb. fire extinguisher for the car show. Watch for a fire extinguisher demonstration to be held at a future meeting!

We then talked about upcoming club meetings with the Sweinharts volunteering for the October meeting in the Palmyra area. Chris Ives also requested to hold his on a Saturday in September. This was voted on by the members and approved for the first Saturday in September. These can always be viewed on page one of the newsletter.

Upcoming Club Meetings:

The next GC meeting will be held on the first SATURDAY of the month, September 5th. This club meeting will be held at Chris Ives' place in Hegins. Chris says it will be a pool party,  so bring your suits. (No skinny dippin' allowed!) He also says to stay for the day and the group will depart for the Big Block Cruise from there. Bring your rides! Call 570-682-1095 or his cell, 610-972-4256, for directions.

I really would like to thank Melissa, who worked her butt off helping set up the garage and cooking the food, Alex Trexler, Chas Pinkerton, Amy Reichert, my mother, and sister-in-law who all brought some food dishes, Nate Snyder of Mac Tools who brought the big truck in and talked to the members, Beaver Bob who came all the way in from Beaver Springs after making arrangements for some one else to promote his event that evening, Jim from Goodyear Tires who gave us the banners for parking, and each and every member who showed up with or without their ride. It was a memorable event for us and we can’t wait to do it again.

The Garage Club officially welcomes new members:

As Dave Lehr stated previously, "Thank you for joining the Keystone Garage Club. There's a lot of clubs around but we do the cool stuff. Cool meetings at cool places. Cool activities like our Cruise Circuits, selling parts at Carlisle events, drag racing, and dirt racing. Go to www.keystonegarageclub.com for all the club info." Our newest members include:

I have a couple more events that happened this month, but we ran out of room and deadline time for printing. I hope to cover these next month including a GREAT event at Beaver for the “Flashback Friday” event and a day at the Toyo Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. Oh, let’s not forget the Circuit Saturday cruises.

See you next update!

Denny Aungst (GC member #83 and web site administrator)

The October 1st club meeting will be held at Glen & Jason Sweinhart’s shop in Palmyra. Want to host your own meeting? Give us a call @ 570-345-3715.

As you can see in the pics, we had a very nice turnout of hot rods, motorcycles, and muscle that lined the both sides of our “car barn”. Even our overflow parking was close to an overflow. I was told the next week by people who drove by that it looked like a happenin’ event. One improvement we will put in effect next year will be the addition of some sort of rest room facilities. It was an oversight and we hope this didn’t inconvenience too many people. After a couple hours of chatting and eating, we got down to club business.

1. 1) #360 Tim Wixted from Williamstown driving a white and green ’69 350, 4 speed Camaro.
   

2. 2) #361 Bob Hatcher from Mountaintop, Pa, driving a primer ’70 Maverick with a 393 Cleveland Stroker, a 4 Speed Top Loader, and a 9 inch, 3.50 posi rear.
   

3. 3) #362 Joshua Dock from Millersburg driving a black ’01 F150 Lightning Pickup.
   

4. 4)#363 Jeff Archer II from Pine Grove driving a tan ’95 Subaru Impreza with a 2.2 liter swap, RS trim, and suspension upgrades.
   

5. 5) #364 Tim Kiebowick from Pine Grove driving a ’57 Chevy Belair Convertible in primer.

At the Waymart parking lot, you could hang out with Garage Club members who just wanted to spectate or others who needed a break from the cruise. There was no overheating issue this year as most of the route could be driven at the speed limit. The crowd was still exceptionally large, but as before, though the onlookers begged for it, no displays of horsepower were tolerated. Not the greatest of all the Pottsville Cruise events, it was still an enjoyable experience none the less. Lets see more of our members hit the pavement to cruise next August!

Mike Potts then reviewed the Treasurer’s report.  A detailed copy of the Treasurer’s report can be reviewed by any member at any time upon request.

Beaver Bob spoke about his upcoming events. On August 14, 2009 it’s Flashback Friday.  Come on out to see the Nostalgia Super Stockers, JR Stockers and WFO Heads-up.  Gates open at 4:00 p.m.; time trials at 5:00 p.m.; Nostalgia Super Stock qualifying at 6:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. – Show time is 8:30 p.m.  Race fee is $27.00; spectators $15/each or $40/carload. Watch for a write up in a future newsletter. This event was always a blast!

While on the subject of Beaver Springs Dragway and the fun events we attend there, Doug Garrison invited everyone to Beaver Springs on behalf of www.bangshift.com on October 17, 2009 as they are having a day at Beaver.

Chris Ives reminded us that Fall Carlisle is September 30, 2009 through October 4, 2009.  We have 3 spaces for this.  More information to come as we get closer.

The Good Guys show in Pocono will be held September 25, 26 and 27, 2009 at the Pocono Raceway.  Each year they give away 2 cars. One will be a ‘70s era Mustang built by Max G Suspension, featuring the system that was prototyped on our ’65 Mustang.

Anyone wishing to order a jacket or sweatshirt, please see Crystal.  Jackets are $65.00; hooded pullover sweatshirts w/logo on the back are $35.00 and hooded zip up sweatshirts w/small logo on left front are $27.00.  All other merchandise can be purchased from Matt Doyle.

After which our meeting was adjourned and the last of our members left around 11:30. All in all, I had a great time and hope everyone else did as well. Thanks again for confirming to Melissa and I why we enjoy this club so much!

Details of the last meeting:

August's Garage Club meeting was held at Denny & Melissa's Car Barn in Pine Grove. The turnout was phenomenal with around one hundred in attendance.

Matt & I got our picture taken with Rich Christensen after the Armdrop Live was over. Then driver, crew, & supporters headed over to TGI Friday’s for supper.  All in all a great time was had by all.  Matt & I hope to see you the next time he races.  The Blue Meanie is roaming the streets so keep your eye out.  Till next time. Jas Diehl.

GC member Carol Diehl checks out a rival club’s event:

Hello Readers! Think back to the year 1969---tie dyed shirts, beads, bell-bottom pants, and flowers in the hair, jute necklaces. And flowered shirts. Well that was the atmosphere of The Jukebox Cruisers “Woodstock Theme” car show & clambake held at Phifer Ice Dam Park in Weissport (a suburb of Lehighton) on Aug 15. It was cool to see all the outfits from that time span. Brought back memories (I know I’m telling my age). It was a bright sun shiny day with music from that year playing continuously. The local Lions sponsored it and they were dressed for the occasion with dyed shirts, beads, and headbands. Really a nice atmosphere! There were no classes for the cars. And the exhibitors did the voting. I believe there were about 200 cars at the show. I am only giving pictures of the Jukebox Cruisers cars so you can see what that club rides. Enjoy! Carol Diehl, member #359.

Rain pounds the ’09 Great Pottsville Cruise event yet again:

both pictures and article by Carol Deihl & Denny Aungst

Hi Readers, its Carol (#359) back again with news an pics for you. As you all now the Pottsville Cruise was held August 5th-9th this year. Some of our members attended. I was lucky enough to get some pics (the one of the bicycle I think is really neat) to share with you. The cruise started out fine but close to an hour after it started rains came and caused it to come abruptly to an end. Drivers raced their cars home to be dried and put away till the next outing. However the cruise events still continued after the rain stopped. The flamethrower and the light show (even a motorcycle came in with lights) were great to see. And as usual it all ended with beautiful fireworks.  Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics, Carol (#359)

Pocono Drag Lodge reunion becomes the “Woodstock” event of nostalgia drag racing:

both pictures and article by Denny Aungst

As has been discussed previously, GC member, Charlie Hulsizer of New York, promoted a reunion of the Pocono Drag Lodge alumni and nostalgic drag racing fans. Mike Potts helped him from the start and even went up with Dave Lehr to clean brush from the track for the event. Well, it happened on Saturday, August 15 and to call it “Woodstock” may be a bit of a stretch, but not by much. We got a later start than planned when Dave Lehr and I headed to Bear Creek. Dave’s rollback lost a rear differential by the Minersville exit. I ran home and picked up a truck and trailer to get his gasser to the show.

As we arrived, you can see the congestion by the included photos. The hopes of at least a 50 car turnout was a large underestimation. Picture one half mile of drag strip lined on both sides by vintage drag cars and show cars. Some legends attended like Joe Amato with his original drag car (which was converted to a street rod) and Bruce Larson (driving his ‘32 Ford truck with a Buick nail head).

As Dave said to Charlie, “Congratulations on your huge success. I think you did a fantastic job and the little irritations of an unexpected SUPER TURN OUT were just part of the coolness of the event. I know none of us thought it would turn into Woodstock. We got there at 10:30 and the only way to describe the feeling when we hit the track was like driving into a sea of people and rods. At the time, we couldn't see anywhere to unload, park, pee, etc but who cares. This was fricken cool ! Look at all the people! Look at all the cars! It was the best dam traffic jam I'd ever seen. Somehow, your VOLUNTEERS parted the seas and got us through and parked.”

The final words:

Again this month I had some help bringing you a top notch newsletter. Carol Deihl and Jasmina Diehl did a fine job writing some articles for this month’s issue. Thank you for making my job easier. Besides, it’s nice to read about some of the events I didn’t get to attend. Do you want to help as well? Please do! Just write something up and let me know. We’ll help you put it in print.

Garage Club members participate in the “Arm Drop Live” event at Maple Grove:

We got the car off of the trailer that Matt borrowed from Johnny Whiskey's (member #172) parents. We then set up our pit area. Matt of course did some "meet & greet" & talked to Bob B., who looked pretty groovy with his peace sign t-shirt.  Of course, you knew by looking under the hood of his White 74 Chevy Vega that all bets were off once he got on the track.  Matt then went up to the staging lanes to attempt to get in a few time shots. He was only able to get in one time shot & then it started to rain. Everyone in the pit area was then huddling under their canopies trying not to get soaked. It stopped raining & it was announced the track was going to be dried & then resume activities. Of course, just after Matt towel dried off the Blue Meanie, it started to pour. After a short time, the day’s activities were cancelled. We waited it out for a while so that we could pack up when it wasn't raining buckets. Eventually the rain stopped & we had two rainbows. We cooked some burgers on the grill for supper, pulled the car under the canopy for the evening & headed off to the Alpenhof B & B.

We arrived on Saturday around 8am.  After driving through the gate we saw a 1969 Red Chevelle with a license plate that stated “mullet”.  I’m not sure if that meant the car was all business up front & the party was in the back or if the owner was referring to his hair style.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see the driver so it is one of life’s mysteries for now.  We headed to our pit & cooked some hot dogs on the grill for breakfast. 

Matt's friends, Scott & Lauren, stopped by. They were coming to the area to deliver a jeep to a girl that had just purchased it from Scott. Scott tried to get Matt to sell the blue camaro to him. Matt promptly used one of his “Lehr-isms” & explained to Scott that the camaro is his calling card & is what he is most known for.  It is not for sale; he’s going to be the final owner.  Also, Carol Deihl (my mom) & Robert Petery (members #357) came down to Maple Grove to support Matt & our other fellow Garage Club members. 

Some time after 11:00, it was announced they were going to begin time shots.  Shortly after that you could smell high octane fuel, & burning rubber.  You knew it was racing time.  Matt managed to get three shots in on Saturday.  They were all in the low 12’s.  His fastest mph was 12.08 at 117.25mph.  I guess Denny will have to change the 100mph Club page again. 

There were a few cars at the car show in between the staging lanes & the pit area.  I think they were expecting a bigger turnout as they chased us from parking in the grass on Friday because the car show was going to park there.  On Saturday, it ended up being spectator parking.  

Jim M. came to the Grove with his Black 69 Chevelle SS.  I’m not sure what Jim does for a living, but I personally think he is a ninja on part-time basis.  I tried to get a picture of his car at the pit, on the track, the staging lanes, etc. & I couldn’t catch that man anywhere.  Matt stated Jim was running in the 10’s.  Matt, Carol, & myself kept our eye out to get some pictures of him with his vehicle.  He managed to elude us all day.  Therefore, I apologize for not having more details about Jim, but I am sure he represented KGC in great fashion & should be congratulated if you happen to see him. 

The drivers were called up to the track for a meeting.  The air was thick with anticipation.  Rich Christensen announced that over 300 racers showed up to participate in Arm-drop Live.  Beaver Bob (member #80) was spotted taking pictures while Rich Christensen was explaining the rules & letting us know who would be in the final classes.  A total of $6500 was collected. Rich Christensen let the drivers vote to decide if the money would go to one person or be split.  By a unanimous vote, it was decided the money was going to be split between 4 classes.  Rich then announced all the drivers who would be competing in the final eliminations.  You could hear cheers as driver numbers were called out.  Bob Bowman was fortunate enough to make it into the final eliminations.  

Our friend, John Royer, came down on his BMW motorcycle to show support.  He was ready to join the pit crew & throw ice under the car, change a tire, etc.  Since I was the only member of Matt’s pit crew, I would have gladly accepted the help.  At the very least, I would have had John pull my son’s old wagon (the pit wagon) filled with gas can, air tank, oil, tire gauge, tools, etc.  (Hey, the darn thing was heavy.)

The final eliminations went rather quickly.  A jet car ran the track in between one of the groups.  A Chevelle hit the wall during one of the eliminations.  From the looks of it, there wasn’t serious damage done to the vehicle.  You could hear the crowd cheering each time a driver got closer to the big win.  Some of the winning cars were eliminated for being too fast.  Bob Bowman made it down to the final few in his group.  He beat a motorcycle, a black 68 camaro with yellow stripe, but eventually he lost to a woman named Tina in a 69 Camaro.  Bob did an amazing job-Congrats Bob!!

The winners were as follows:  Group 1 was won by P.J. Thomas, Group 2 was won by Randy Mehefko, Group 3 was won by Daniel Witmer, Group 4 was won by Kris Kurzweg, and the Quick 8 had no final due to the rain. 

Club businesses continue to sponsor the club newsletter:

To help pay for the publishing cost of our new, improved newsletter, we are accepting paid advertising. It's cheap, too. $60 gets your business card size ad in 12 issues of the newsletter and a placement on the website. If your business wants to advertise with us, get a business card to Denny at w31@comcast.net or 570-345-3715 and he'll get your ad scanned and installed on the site.

100 MPH club updated:

Dave Lehr is still collecting time slips. Want on the list? get your time slip to Dave. Vehicles must be street legal, inspected, through the mufflers, with D.O.T. tires.

He also added,” When I'm an old man, sitting in a retirement home, telling yarns about my younger days, I'll always remember the 1st Pocono Drag Lodge Reunion. As for your issues for next year, I've got one more suggestion. Have a special area for the "REAL DEAL" vintage race cars. You ended up with the historical cars spread out through out the track. Some were that nice, I didn't know they were an original until I asked. Those 61 - 62 Vettes on the shut down hill really should have been up by the starting line. Those were real Pocono cars. Thanx for a good time, Charlie.”

Jesse Abdo also showed his supercharged Nova with Lloyd George as co pilot. He stated, “All i have to say is ‘AWESOME’! Anyone that missed out on this, I feel bad for. Cars and scenery were incredible. I would say there were about 300 cars. From Hemi Challengers to model a coupes with big block Chevys to amx's with cross ram intakes. I can't wait to see Denny’s pics. I’m still excited and can't wait till next year.”         Rick Hafer was also in attendance. Dave Lehr even landed one of only three awards presented that day and the gasser engine compartment was in a 15 second clip on WBRE’s newscast. Congrats!