2011 Bloomington Gold
St. Charles Illinois

The Solid Axle Corvette Club had a booth in the Mega Center, staffed by SACC President Max Brockhouse, mostly assisted by Mary Rae Brockhouse, Central Great rivers Chapter Secy/Treas, and actually only occasionally by Midwest Rep. Jack Hollada, DC.

The guy with the red hat is not real.

While strolling out into the Gold Field I spotted this solid axle.

This '57 "Mystery Corvette" is alleged to be a test mule.

Next stop was to gawk at this '55 that was lonesome for a new owner.  Asking 55K

The 1961's were the honored guests, called the Gold Year 1961,  Here you see Dan and Polly Delaney from Illinois.  They have owned the car for 10 years, it was shipped from Belgium to Toronto, then driven to Illinois.  It's had a frame-on restoration, the paint is 29 years old.  It has powerglide and dual quads.  They drive it a lot. 

Notice Polly's crutches - an ankle injury isn't keeping her from enjoying Bloomington Gold.

This is another example of the '61's being honored.  This is Jerry Taylor, also from Illinois.  He acquired this car in 1999, worked to bring it to show status.  I asked, and he said he usually uses the soft top.

While we were walking and gawking we got called over to the Hagerty tent. There we ratchet-jawed with Mid America Motorworks CEO Mike Yager.

We talked about Funfest. For more info click on  "All Corvette Events" on our menu.

And it's one V.I.P after another for us.  Dropping by the booth was Joe Pruitt, CEO of the National Corvette Homecoming in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

For more info go to "All Corvette Events" on our menu.

And yet more VIP's.  With Mary Rae Brockhouse is Steph and Bill Huffman.  Bill is the president of the Michigan Chapter.

Great Hall

This kinda needin' a bath car was a warehouse find, it was near Rockford, Illinois.  The owner passed away about 2 months ago.  The car has sat since 1978.  Bloomington Gold CEO Dave Burroughs told me that it will be used as an educational tool all around the country.

This '55 is owned by Terry Michalis.

NCRS got honored.

We didn't make it.

Here you see the SR-2, and beyond that you can see how large this room is.

Back to the rest of the show..

Mecum Auction was running at full speed.  Here you see two C-1's ready to drive onto the auction block.  Actually there is a solid axle in front of the white one.

I wished I had scaffolding because this picture doesn't do it justice.  These black cars were from a collector and they all went on the block.  I counted five 53-55's, twelve round tail C-1's, and eight duck tails.  And that was just the C-1's.

This is another time that scaffolding would have been nice.  These are C-1's on the certification field.

All these boxes contain the certification files.  Plenty of paperwork, I'd say.

SACC's On Solid Ground Editor Ken Amrick is an expert on auctions, and you can learn all the auction news in the next issue.  Here you see a white '61 that sold for 70K.

For only $299,000.00 you can drive away in this black '57 fuelie.

Here's the old exhaust systems that Mid-America replaced.

This gets interesting.  This fastback is a 1953, and it is being made as the Waldorf Astoria car.  The owner is doing lots of the work, and he has obtained the actual blueprints from the now deceased engineer's estate.

Under the heading of good ol' American entrepreneurship, this is Larry and Linda Stallard.  Their business is My Cool Furniture, from Dayton, Ohio.  By using a photograph, they can personlize the chairs, tables, and benches you see here.  They are displaying the dash of a '60.  BTW Larry drove a '60 in 1968.

That's the stuff I saw.  I enjoyed the show, and I enjoyed visiting with SACC buddies.  I like driving around the area of St. Charles and seeing lots of Vettes and being in one of them.  I am thankful for the members who have allowed me to represent the club.  

Jack 'Doc' Hollada (Holiday)