June 5-7, 2025 Bloomington Gold
World Wide Technology Raceway
Madison, Illinois (Illinois side at St. Louis)

Walk into Bloomington Gold's Special Collection.  The first car you see is this spectacular 1962, and long time SACC member Greg Rohde is the owner of this now famous car.  The theme of this Special Collection is "Last Year of Production".  The Special Collection display did not let anyone down.

Greg's interest in Corvettes started when he was dragged by his older brother (just kidding, no young boy is dragged to car racing) to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  His first Corvette was (and is) a 1958 two top, dual quad, 4-speed.  As indicated he still owns it.

The owner would not sell it, but Greg was patient, and in 1990 it was his.

The car has been lovingly rehabilited by Greg, it is his pride and joy. 

To learn more about Greg and his now famous car click HERE.

A big part of Bloomington Gold is the Special Collection.  As noted above, the theme of this year's Special Collection was "Last Year of Production".

The three '62's were the star of the show in the Special Collection, (my opinion, anyway).  As you can see, it was the last C-1 to
be built.  This stunning '62 has 39,530 miles on the odometer, and this figure is believed to be correct, according to
documentation.

The owner purchased it in 2021 and then it started it's upgrade.

As I mentioned above, the theme of this year's Special Collection was Last Year of Production.  For us Solid Axle types,
the last year of production was 1962.

These three examples were simply superb, actually they were special plus - they were in the collection.

(Front to Back) the cars were from Virginia, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Bloomington Gold Certified means a lot, and the judging is not perfunctory.  The focus of the judging is based on how the car resembles the way it left the factory.

I counted 12 solid axles there in the judging area.  As you can see, the judging was under the roof, and it was a long, long raceway type structure.  I was told by a reliable source (one of the judges, who is a SACC member)  that last year's Bloomington Gold had just over 50 cars being judged, while this year there were over 70 cars being judged.

Waiting first in line to be judged was this 1953, number 188.  I am not a judge, but it looked factory quality to me.

The car is from Arizona.

Now is the day for judging.  I caught up with James, the owner of #188.  He has owned the car since last December, noting that
it was a birthday present for the wife.  Anyway, James was correcting the mat in the trunk so I got this action picture.

The car was restored by Ken Karlson.

I asked James how he thought his car fared in the judging, and he told me that a judge told him "beautiful car".

Also being judged was this Honduras Maroon 1962 sporting beige interior.  Clark is the owner since 1986 and he did much of the restoration.

This black '61 was going for Survivor judging status.  It is a fuelie and pictured are owners Michael and Mikey.  It is
owned since 1985 and he drives the car often.

Mikey is pointing out a spot the Mike needs to wipe clean.

Spiro has owned this silver blue '58 fuelie since 2009.

I am far from being an expert, yet it looked superb to me. 

I didn't get the chance to speak or photograph the owner, but what is not to like about this Pennant Blue 1954 that sports
tan interior?

I don't know how the judging went for this Missouri car, but it looked pretty sweet.

And didn't I get up close and personal with the judges looking over this 1957 Venecian Red Illinois car that
is accentuated by beige interior.

I did not get to speak with the owner.  Ok, in truth it was very busy right there so I shot the pic and quickly moved away.

Now as heading out to the outdoor vendors you have to go past the seminars.

The seminars were conducted both days.  Presenters were Bryce Burklow, Steve Garrett. David Burroughs,
Kevin MacKay, Mid America Motorworks, and Steve Walker.

Out in the swap meet area, there was parts and tools, but only one artist, and that was Jeremy.  The business is
Apex Art and Design, and Jeremy was painting this Corvette.

He offered to let me paint one dot in the grill area, but I figured that somehow I would mess up his picture, so I declined.

So after watching artist Jeremy working his craft, I went to the back of the large sized booth.  I met Kaitlyn, and
she summed it simply.  She said that Jeremy paints and that she does everything else.

This is the main reason why we were there.  We were vendors in the Indoor Vendor Building.  I shot this picture right after we set up the tent and covered the table with the table cloth.  The public were to come the next day.

The next day the show opens!

(left to right)  Gerri Hollada and Mary Rae Brockhouse, club Secretary.

The indoor vending area was way smaller in size than what we had at last year's venue.....but, we were able to have a booth in there, in spite of the fact that there are less spaces.  (Maybe we have connections...Ok, maybe that is an exaggeration).  Mind you, we did not have the big vendor spot as in previous years, hence no solid axle car sitting there as eye-candy.  So the next day after I shot the above picture we covered that table with new logo apparel, and we had good sales to happy members.  Also, we signed up new members, which brings up another point....There was a time when the folks at a swap meet had a checkbook in their pocket.  Well, those times have passed and we must keep up with the times.  So now our club has a card reader, so credit card = now, not a problem.

Mid America Motorworks was there with this C-3 cut-away.  It was cool.  I had a good conversation with Michael Yager, and
he seems to be doing fine.  His Dad, Mike Yager, had to miss this event as he was just out of the hospital when we spoke.  But on the plus side, Michael said that Mike is improving right along, and in fact he was discharged from the hospital sooner than they had anticipated.

We want Mike to completely recover!

So there was other things going on, cool things - like driving on the raceway track, even enjoying the annual Horseradish Festival at nearby Collinsville, IL.