Our Club has enjoyed some really great events since my last article. We just returned from the very successful St Ignace Car Show and this event was super. Held in conjunction with the Illinois Club, we had over 45 Vipers in attendance. Eight states were represented including Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, Iowa and Michigan. I guess we could even call this an international event because Markus Reinhardt from Germany also joined us in St Ignace. The five day event from June 25 thru June 29 was packed with goodie bags, photoshoots, good (and a lot of it) food and beverages, parades, Casinos, awards, a Viper cruise to Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Saturday’s car show events and a very beautiful dinner-boat cruise of the Straits of Mackinac and Mackinac Island. Our own Father Viper, Roy Sjoberg, was this year’s Guest of Honor for the St Ignace Car Show. Congratulations to you Roy for this well deserved honor ! Thank you to Alex and Kristina Ristanovic, President and Secretary of the Illinois Region, for all their tireless work with this event and a great job. And especially thank you to all of our friends and new friends who attended and made this a truly great event. See you next year !

But before St Ignace, May and June were packed with more great events that ushered in this year’s driving itinerary. Our inaugural Ohio weekend tour May 16 through the18 surpassed all expectations as our hosts Bill and Diane Hodel pulled out all the stops for an exciting and fun filled weekend. This tour started at the ‘Hodel Estate’ for dinner on Friday evening then continued on Saturday through the eastern hills of Ohio, through Amish country and visits to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio. It was pretty cool to get the ‘thumbs up’ from the local Amish kids as we toured through their beautiful countryside. Of course, this event came with good driving, great food and good friends – we couldn’t go wrong. A special thanks to Bill and Diane for their hospitality and a great job.

Following right on the heels of Ohio, was our annual Escanaba Fun Run and Car Show the weekend of May 29 through June 1. Our hosts, Steve and Sue Nelson and Keith and Shelly Boye once again pulled off another great event of ‘spirited driving’ and great cars and more good food. Congratulations to Frank Berle for winning the most horsepower trophy measured on the chassis dyno. This makes the second year in a row that one of our MCVO members has won the trophy. Rob Butryn won it last year. Hmmmm … Traverse City residents seem to have a lock on this trophy.

Just before St Ignace, Ron Stene, our Motorsports Director, brought us back to the Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, Michigan on June 20 for another successful event. Twenty cars had the opportunity to hone theirs skills on the track under the watchful eyes of our very qualified instructors. This makes the second year in a row that Ron has guided us through a successful Gingerman event. Get your cars ready and plan to join us next year won’t you. Thanks to Steve Dreyer of Autoform for his continued support of our Club at Gingerman. Also, thanks to Ron and all of you who participated for making this a special event.

Our annual Chelsea Proving Grounds autocross is scheduled for Sunday July 20. Please refer to our website event calendar located at www.mcvo.net for details and sign up today. It’s a blast – guaranteed! Also don’t forget our monthly cruise nights scheduled on the 3 rd Wednesday of every month. Also please refer to our website for additional details on these events and all other future events.

This is a reminder to all our members to please sign up for the upcoming Viper Owners Invitational in Detroit combined with the Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle.Remember the host hotels will be the Motor City and the MGM Grand hotels in downtown Detroit. What a great week this will be coming right on the heels of the Woodward Dream Cruise. Registering for the VOI 10 is as easy as going to our website at www.mcvo.net and clicking on “Tenth Viper Owners Invitational”. Get your reservations in soon.

See you on the road . Let’s get out there !!