|
Red Rock Rendezvous
2001 VCOA West Coast Meet -
Sedona, Arizona
September 28-30, 2001
By Dave Barton
The weather was warm and the rocks were definitely RED at this year's
West Coast VCOA Meet dubbed "Red Rock Rendezvous" in beautiful Sedona. The Cactus Chapter of VCOA hosted this years National Meet. Adventurers from far and wide gathered at the
Radisson Poco Diablo Resort. The full count is not clear, but this writer took note of close to 50 Volvos onsite from a 1956 444 to a brand new V70 XC.
Friday the 28th brought a seven-hour drive from Southern California. My 245 was not feeling well… it lunched it's turbo on the way back from the last San Diego VSA drive on September 22nd. But a stroke of luck… my wife was out of town for a week and her 740 Turbo was just sitting there saying,
"go ahead, take me to Sedona."
I arrived at the resort in mid-afternoon on Friday to find about twenty cars already there, most of them already spit-shined and looking great. So, not to be too embarrassed by 500 miles of dead bugs and road goobers covering my car, I unloaded my detailing goodies and shined up the 740 so as not to look out of place.
The dining and festivities were very nicely done and credit is given to Cactus Chapter President Randy Pace and his great chapter members who worked hard at making us foreigners feel welcome. The concourse was held on Saturday in the parking area at the front of the resort. A great collection of fine rides was present.
Some of my personal favorites… Steve Hilbert's 1st Place winning
Modified 1971 1800E. Steve also won the Loose Odometer Award since he drove out from New York!
There also was Dino Areostatico's highly modified red 1996 850R. He took
1st Place in the 850/S70/V70 Modified Division, as well as Best of Show for
Late Production Modified. And of course, Robert Messing's immaculate and extremely modified 1966 122 took 1st Place in the 122
Modified Division, and a very well deserved Best of Show for
Early Production Modified.
The winner of the High Mileage Award was Gerald Hill's 1966 1800S with 953,000 miles! Our very own Orange County resident Ian Hattie took
1st Place in the
240 Stock Division with his 1983 242 Turbo. There were too many other great cars to list them all.
There are always lots of new friends to meet and new Volvos to see at a national event. VCOA President Lee Cordner came out from Northern California and presided as
Judging Master… complete with his judging helmet. Gretchen Adams VCOA Vice President and Events Director and her husband David came out from New York to help keep the event on track and to greet us all.
Sunday morning brought the Poker Run with a drive through the beautiful canyons of Sedona. It truly would have been tough to pick a more beautiful venue for this year's VCOA National Meet.
|
