June 2009

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POCA Fun Rally Reno

by Emilia Seiferling

Wednesday morning found Jim and I up early. We needed to load up the truck for our trip to Reno. Yes, I said truck. Jim was not up to driving the Pantera for the trip. He was still on medication for the stomach bacteria that was finally diagnosed a few days earlier. His stomach was too sore to handle the clutch in the Pantera. I had offered to drive the Pantera, but my offer was only good for freeways or softly curvy roads, no twisty or in town driving in traffic. The truck was great for holding everything! It was nice not to have to fit everything into a soft-sided duffle bag! The drive was an easy one, up Highway 80 to Reno. The traffic was light the entire trip. There was some construction being done on 80, but we were never stopped; only slightly slowed down in a couple of places. We decided to stop at Cabela's in Boomtown for lunch and a look-see. We have been to several Bass Pro stores, but not a Cabela's. The Reno's Cabela's is big, but not as big as either the Dallas or Charlotte Bass Pro stores. But Jim did manage to find a used shotgun to buy. We would return on Sunday to start the paper work for the out of State purchase of a firearm. Being an outdoor sports store, they had elk, venison, bison, wild boar, and ostrich on the menu.

We arrived at Circus Circus after lunch and checked into our room. I was not expecting much of a room. I thought it would be a worn room with a tacky circus motif. I was very happy to walk into a nicely decorated room with plenty of closet space and a bathroom with great water pressure! I only wish that I had asked for a higher floor in order to have a better view. There was also great parking provided for the POCA group. The area was roped off from the general public and had 24-hour security. They did allow non-Pantera vehicles from our group to park in the area after showing their POCA badges. That made it easy to join in on the scheduled drives. The freeway access to I-80 was very easy, only a few blocks to or from the freeway, no across town driving needed.

Our time in Reno was very busy. There were several different drives that you could do. There were two track days in Fernley. There were dinners and the hospitality room. There was a very informative tech session about carburetors. (Jim said it was good and wished he had a video tape of it, but it put me to sleep, literally, so I left to go take a nap in the room).

We only had one day on our own, for dinner, which was Wednesday. We opted for Italian. We went to Johnny's a couple of miles from the hotel. This was a restaurant that had been recommended by Tom Vona. This is a wonderful place! We had great food and great service. The menu is quite varied. Jim had one of the many veal dishes and I opted for one of the daily specials, sausage lasagna, both were very tasty! Since dinner was most of our entertainment for Wednesday night we split a decadent chocolate dessert, a sogno nero. It was an excellent choice; even though we were not sure what it was when we ordered it. Thanks Tom for telling us about this place. When we were about to leave Forrest and Judy Goodhart walked in for dinner. They said that they come there whenever they are in Reno.

Thursday we did the drive to the Tahoe Ridge Winery and Wally's Hot Spring. It was a beautiful drive and an informative tour of a winery. Wally's had a nice lunch for us. Only a few people actually used the pools at Wally's after lunch. We headed back to the hotel via a scenic route to rest up for the evening activities. That evening we opted for dinner at the Silver Legacy and the Comedy Show. At dinner we were seated with Reno-Tahoe members Gene and Norma Elliott. Good conversation made for a very enjoyable time. The Comedy show was great fun.

Friday we did the self guided driving tour to Virginia City and then to the Fernley Track. Our plan was to go to Virginia City, look around and to visit the Radio Museum and then have an early lunch. The drive to Virginia City was wonderful since there was no traffic on our drive up the hill to Virginia City! It was too bad that we were not in the Pantera for that part of the drive! We arrived at Virginia City earlier than expected, so our early lunch became a late breakfast at the Palace Restaurant. Again we had good food and service. We found out that the Radio Museum was not open that day so we headed to the Track earlier than planned. We did have some roadwork delays on this leg of the drive. We arrived at the track just about noon. We got to see Lamar's car on the track. He and his son were switching off driving and having a great time. Their time on the track was cut short by an oil leak. Jim had brought his helmet and long sleeve shirt along in hopes of getting a ride. Mike Drew was the ride man that day. Jim enjoyed the ride enough to consider doing a day on the track next year. The Fernley track was very well received by all the drivers. It got much better reviews than either Las Vegas Speedway or Pahrump. Jim described the track as one where you felt you were actually going somewhere, as opposed to driving around a large area with a lot of turns. It is the same feeling the F1 drivers have when driving the course in Spa. We returned to the hotel to clean up for dinner at the National Auto Museum. This dinner event had almost everyone at the Fun Rally in attendance. It was a class act for a car club gathering. How often do you have the entire museum just for your group! The Italian dinner buffet was good, but they did run out of the fudge brownie desserts and had only the cookies at the end. I guess they weren't warned that the Pantera owners were an eating bunch!

Saturday started with the POCA Presidents breakfast. There were about 20 people in attendance. The POCA Board and chapter Presidents exchanged information and suggestions. There was lots of positive feed back about the event. The breakfast was tasty and it was good to be able to names and faces together.

The car display was held about three blocks from Circus Circus near the Reno Arch. There were about 65 cars on display. There would have been more but several cars were not at the event due to weather concerns or driver health problems. The photo shows a birds eye view of the display. The display broke up a bit early due to a rain shower, only 28 of the cars had windshield wipers, but 29 had custom license plates!

Next year we need to fill the second plaza in the rear

After the display, we headed out to check out the other big sports store in Reno, Scheel's. It is the biggest sports store of that kind we have ever seen. They have something for just about every sport you can think of, plus two aquariums, a large stuffed animal display, and even a Ferris wheel in the center of the building and an airplane hanging from the ceiling! We had lunch there. It was ok, but the lunch at Cabela's was better.

Saturday was the big Awards Dinner and Raffle. There was a keynote speaker, Jason Easton. He was on the Speed series "Bullrun". He spoke about the behind the scene action of the show. It seems that it wasn't exactly as seen on TV. There was a lot of discretion on the part of the producers as far as the results. Jason didn't say it was rigged, but there was a lot of scripting of results!

The raffle was a huge success. CP did win some items, but none of the big items. We will bring them to the next few meetings to use as raffle items. We were ready to transport large items home in the truck, but that didn't happen. Judy McCartney won the afghan, in the De Tomaso colors, that I made. That was the xxx afghan that I have made for a Pantera event. The number of persons who told me that they hoped to win the afghan in the raffle surprised me. Jim and I sat with some of the PCNC members who were at the Fun Rally. It was another good evening of food and conversation.

Sunday was the day to head home. We packed up and then went down for coffee and doughnuts. We said our good-bys and thank yous then headed home. We stopped at Cabela's to do the paperwork to get Jim's "new" used shotgun shipped to a gun dealer in California. Our Chevy Colorado truck got pretty good mileage on the trip, 23 mpg going to Reno and 29 mpg going home. Gas in Nevada was 20-30 cents a gallon less than at home. Next year we'll be in the Pantera!

Yet another great time made possible because we own a Pantera!

Wanted: Articles for CP Newsletter

If you have attended a car function of any type, please write about your car adventures and send it to jes@riverdeltawireless.com to be included in the next Capitol Pantera newsletter. If newsletter articles are not received, then it will be more of Jim & Emilia's automotive adventures or "The Motoring Mouth"

Summary of the June 2009 Capitol Panteras Meeting

The monthly meeting of the Capitol Panteras found four Club cars in the parking lot of Mimi's. That meant there was real competition for the "Driving for Gas Money" even if only one of them was a Pantera. The winner this month was Nancy & Mike Haney, who was competing against John Worsley, Ken Montgomery and Rick Carlile. Those in attendance, but without their Club Car were: Jim & Emilia, John McNamee and Bruce Maddox. That means four consecutive meetings for Bruce who hadn't made a CP meeting for about five years prior to this!

John Worsley and Mike won the raffle. The prize was a custom CP ball cap made and donated by Treasurer John. There will be four more of these rare, collectible headgear at future raffles. They are available only in black or red. Must be present at the next CP meeting for an opportunity to win one of the hats! (We promptly borrowed John's new hat to wear at the POCA Fun Rally).

We still have several annual passes for the Towe Auto Museum. The new name for the Towe is the California Automobile Museum. We received the passes, since CP is a supporter of the Museum. You must be present at the July CP meeting to receive a pass!

John McNamee announced the Concourse at the Presidio in San Francisco on Sunday, July 20. It is limited to 200 cars and 2000 people. Tickets are available on line.

The group voted to buy $100 worth of raffle tickets at the POCA Fun Rally in Reno. Any prizes that might be won will be brought to CP meetings and used as raffle items or as auction items if they are bigger items. The purchase of some raffle tickets was requested, since each POCA chapter president is given a large pack of tickets to sell. Because we will have only three members (Jim, Emilia, Lamar) at the Fun Rally this year, that makes it quite a job to sell tickets!

Rick announced that the TVR has been accepted in HMSA. He will be racing the TVR in the Portland Historic Race, July 10-12. With the HMSA acceptance, he will be eligible to run the Wine Country Classic Historic Race. Rick's TVR is one of only three racing in North America! It is Ford powered, so he can run it with several "Ford" racing groups.

2009 EVENTS CALENDAR

Capitol Panteras Events in Red

June 20 Car Show in Arnold

June 21 EuroSunday, Stockton, Peet's Coffee - 5765 Pacific Ave

June 28 EuroSunday, Sacramento @ The Pavillions

July 3,4,5 Mini Nats XXVI @ Thunderhill

July 12 EuroSunday Marques- MV Agusta / Aprillia / Lamborghini / Audi

July 14 Capitol Panteras meeting at Mimi's

July 20 Concourse at the Presidio - San Francisco

July 26 EuroSunday, Sacramento @ ?

Aug 1-2 Festa Italiana, Sacramento, http://www.italiancenter.net/

Aug 2 Festa Italiana Car Display on Sunday - Chairman, Jeff Budelli

Aug 9 EuroSunday Marques- BMW Bikes / BMW Cars / VW

Aug 11 Capitol Panteras meeting at Mimi's

Aug 13 "The Tour", downtown Carmel @ Noon. http://www.pebblebeachconcours.net/Tour.htm

Aug 14 La Dolce Vita http://www.montereybayconcours.com/

Aug 14 Concorso Italiano, http://www.concorso.com/default.asp

Aug 14-17 Monterey Historic Races, Laguna Seca http://www.montereyhistoric.com/

Aug 22 EuroSunday, Sacramento @

Aug 29-30 Summer Heat Open Track, Shelby Club at Sears Point

Sept 8 Capitol Panteras meeting at Mimi's

Sept Brunch Run to Thunder Valley, Chairman John

Sept 13 EuroSunday Marques- Models Day

Sept 27 EuroSunday

Oct Italian Car Show, Alameda. A benefit for Special Olympics. No entry fee for exhibitors.

Oct 10 18th Annual Car Show, Rio Vista - Chairman, Jim ( lunch at Foster's Big Horn)

Oct 11 EuroSunday Marques- Ford GT, Cobra, Mustangs

Oct 13 Capitol Panteras meeting at Mimi's

Oct 17-18 Fall Classic, open track at Thunder Hill. Shelby Club.

Oct 25 EuroSunday, Sacramento @

Nov 8 EuroSunday Marques- NSX / GTR / Supra / ISF / pacific Rim

Nov 10 Capitol Panteras meeting at Mimi's

Nov 22 Euro Sunday, Sacramento @

Dec. ? Capitol Panteras Christmas Party - Hosting duties available

Please keep us informed of other dates and activities.

Jim & Emilia Seiferling
Co-Presidents, Capitol Panteras
http://www.capitolpanteras.org
jes@riverdeltawireless.com
#1575 [JHSTBAD]
#7114 [JIMS CAT]
WB6BET-Jim

KI6YYT-Emilia
Life goal: To be the person my dog thinks I am.

"You're never too old to do goofy stuff."
~Ward Cleaver