[mgarblik]

Spent Friday and Saturday at the event. As a fairly "new spectator", a few observations. 1. Swap Meet. The largest I have ever seen to date. I think I have been to all but 2-3 of the 31 events. Less and less of the NOS parts in the swap meet. But more and more of salvage parts that can be cleaned, restored and reused. I few gems in the swap meet but bring your $$$ to buy them. A NOS service replacement 428, and a 4 bolt 400 were a couple examples. Car Corral. Wide variety of cars for sale. None IMO at asking prices that brought much interest. But owners may have been taking offers. Cars from the 1950's to 2000's for sale. Couple examples: A 70-73 TA that was so rusty, I couldn't tell what year it was. IMO only thing salvageable was the trim tag and VIN. for 5K. Possibly the front bumper could have been saved with many hours of work. Not one piece of usable sheet metal on the car. A 69 GTO, with the 2 bbl. economy engine option for $4500.00. In the same general condition as the TA mentioned. Again, nothing really salvageable. All exterior sheet metal including the roof rusted through, Frame, floor, trunk all gone. 3. Vendors. All the usual vendors in their typical spaces. Ames in particular, was very busy both days and under-staffed. I think only 2-3 people actually working the big tent. Many people waiting 45 minutes in line to buy stuff. Vending area in general was busy. 4. Race side of track. Pretty parked up. But not quite to capacity like last year. Tons of bracket cars and what I would consider, street/strip cars. Fewer high end dedicated fast race cars, like quick 16 type cars. I think the open body quick 16 car class only had 4-5 entries. The very fast Pontiac powered race cars, like Frantic 4 were limited to 5 entries. The class car of the event was Mike Cooper with his beautiful Jerry Bickel Pro-Charged Firebird. It ran multiple low 6 second passes@ around 220-225mph with regular maintenance. Smooth, quick and reliable. The next quickest car on the property, Pontiac powered was nearly a second off that pace. 5. Arnie Beswick. Arnie was set-up on the show car side near the grandstands. He was in good spirits and had a steady stream of fans and well wishers both days, all day. He had "Arnie Mart", all set up nice and was signing all his items and anything else a fan might want autographed including their cars. The Tameless Tiger was on display but not started or raced. For 92, he was as sharp and engaging as always. A Pontiac Legend in the true sense of the word. Spend some time with him if you ever get the chance. Final thought: Always the premier event for Pontiac fans. Norwalk facility, staff and operations is the best in the country, IMO. They really want your experience there to be positive and actually do things to make you want to come back. It's not just a bunch of words and BS. Hope that give you a feel for this years event.

I forgot to answer Tom's question about NSS. The field was a little thin this year. Two Non- Pontiacs were particularly impressive to me. There was a 409 powered Chevy that sounded great and was running low 10's consistently. Also an old Rambler that I don't think I have ever seen, running in the 10's with AMC power. They were cool. Several Catalinas and GP's running low 11's to low 13's in that class as well. I don't recall seeing any full size NSS Pontiacs running in the 10's , but I could have missed 1 or 2. Tried to watch them all.