Here’s hoping everyone made it home safe and sound. Was that a great weekend or what? So many great photos out on Facebook and Flickr and Photobucket and wonderful comments from all of you, looks like you all had a really good time. I know I did. Well, grab a cup of coffee and your favorite pastry, here goes…
Started off a little shaky, as Mother Nature threw one serious tantrum on Wednesday. She quickly changed her tune though, and the rest of the weekend was great. After getting settled in, we watched as the attendees started wandering in. Our first event of the weekend was The Early Bird Slots Tournament. We lured 40 attendees to the one-armed bandits and 15 players placed. The top 5 were:
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$150 David Shelly
$100 Jocelyn Thompson
$100 Neil Taylor
$75 Nancy Myers
$50 Brenda Fromhold
Thursday dawned cool and clear and started with a couple runs: Agro and Kerry took lots of you out on the Route 66 Run – with stops in Laughlin, Oatman and Kingman; while John took a group out to the Shelby Museum to drool over some sweet rides. A little bit later, we managed to fill two buses with Dam tourists. From the sounds of it, you all had a great time. After the busy day, we wandered over to The Hofbrauhaus and had some good German beer and wienerschnitzel.
Friday things really warmed up. I watched as Mike, Fernando, Toni and Larry led car after car after car in the morning out to Pahrump, for a date at Spring Mountain. The club cars raced around a bit, then turned the stage over to you for some parade laps around the track. The folks at Spring Mountain were very, very impressed with the way you conducted yourselves out there. I’m thinking we can go and do this again 
After that, many of you headed to the Pahrump Valley Winery for lunch and wine tasting. Afterward, the group split and many of you braved the ride out to Death Valley. I saw some great shots down at Badwater. The rest of you wound your way back to Vegas, some with a detour through Red Rock.
Friday afternoon brought the AMVIV8 Poker Tournament. Competition was fierce among the 22 competitors but the final bragging rights went to:
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$420 David Kim
$252 George Marsh
$168 Mike Francks
As the sun went down, the MINIs and Minis rolled out for the ever popular Strip Cruise. We tried something a little different this time, and avoided all that in depth planning that usually drives us crazy. We staged at Palace and rolled out at 7:30, heading down Sahara straight to The Strip. The lighting was perfect, and the ride was great. We managed to ride all the way down to the Welcome sign then turned around and came straight back. I saw folks counting the cars and waving as we rode by.
When we got back, the Mayhem on The Midway was just kicking into gear. Our AMVIV8 Vendors hosted a great Mixer. A big thanks to all of them – 1904 Photography, Auto Glass Authority, Caboose Trailers, coolministuff, CravenSpeed, Custom Mobile Detail, The Dent Guy, JV Car Wash, Kensington Motor Cars, NM Engineering, Prima Car Care, ShowCarDetailing.com, Stuck On Minis, TCE, toddsmods/Motoring Badges, Turtle Factory, TwistyBitz, Vinyl Styles & Way Motor Works – for making the trip and setting us up with such a great spread Friday night.
During the Mixer, two of our special friends made some AMVIV history of their own – Larry Simpson of the SCMC proposed to Dee Motored of the DMC in Arizona. That wasn’t the only love in the air – David Shelley and Jocelyn Thompson got married. Congrats to all of you!!!
Saturday brought the Show & Shine Benefit Car Show for S.A.F.E. House out at Cars and Coffee. While there were lots of exotics and classic cars rolling around, all eyes were on the MINIs and Minis. Mike and Manny had a blast setting everyone up and getting photos. What a great lineup this year – although, how could it be any other way? Competition was tight and judging was fierce – but only a few went home with the prize:
Best Classic Mini – Ron Dickinson |
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Best Cooper – Reannon Dame |
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Best Cooper S – Patrick Muilenburg |
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Best Clubman – Kathy Finn |
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Best Convertible – Lisa Surber |
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Best Countryman – Kayla Sintz |
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Best in Show – Reannon Dame |
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After the car show, some of you followed Bob and Elaine out on the 95 and up to Mt. Charleston. It turned out to be an excellent day – I saw lots of great photos. The rest of you stayed at Palace and braved the Vendor Scavenger Hunt and turned in all of your poker run sheets. I hear those poker runs were a real hit too. Regrettably, I’ve looked everywhere and cannot find the winners of our poker run. I remember the first placed hand had a Diamond Royal Flush (with a joker) and was the very first person to complete one of the routes – and they won a $100 Station Casinos Gift Card. This is a blog, so if you remember what you had and your prize – please post it
Sometime during this day and again in the evening, some of my SCMC MINIons ran amuck. I was warned about a panty raid sometime over the weekend – foolishly I thought I’d be exempt. You’ve seen the evidence right? Sheesh! Made for a very interesting evening, that’s for certain.
After everyone went out and had dinner we all converged for one more big gathering – The Party at The Palace. Sponsored by MINI USA, MINI of Ontario, White Roof Radio and the SCMC – this little soiree was just what we all needed after a lively weekend. Live DJ, photo slide show, lots of hors d’oeuvres and mini desserts, merriment and mingling among the MINI/Mini throng – a good time was had by all. Karaoke performances by SCMM’s Derrick Morris and SCMC’s Karen Day were the big highlights! During the Party we also announced the winners in the Attendee’s Choice Car Show. Here they are:
RABBIT – Most Likely To Get a Ticket: Ricky Aguilar |
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SPIRIT – Person That Most Embraces The Spirit Of MINI: Brenda Fromhold |
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When morning dawned, some of us recovered enough to head out to the SCCA Autocross. Others ambled out to Amboy for a ride with Stan, Fernando and Toni. I really wanted to take that ride, but had a heck of a time getting moving. Again, I saw lots of photos from this trip and it looked like a blast. Then there was brunch at Shakespeare’s, which is always a good choice for us locals. There were the few of us that just could not get our motors running. You saw us limping around the garage and stumbling into the cafe. You also didn’t holler any greetings to shatter what was left of our skulls, which was very nice of you.
All in all this weekend was an amazing time. I saw lots of my old friends, and made many new ones. I loved everyone’s rides, even though you wouldn’t park up on the roof so I could snap some pics of all of you. Maybe next time. The hours flew by so fast, there’s just never enough time to do all the things you’d like. Judging by the grins and all the happy comments – I’d say we can chalk AMVIV8 – The Ocho as one for the record books. Thank you so much to everyone for coming!!
13 Responses to “AMVIV8 Event Wrap Up”
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May 27th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Had a great 6,388 miles in 4 weeks. The Dragon in western NC/TN. Then to Colorado Springs met up with some 5280 mini’s and off to Black Hills SD. Back to Colorado, met up with Eileen from NE and my Colorado friends and we headed across the Rockies thru Utah to Las Wages at AMVIV8. Thanks for all the hard planning as we do HelenBlitz in Georgia every year we know the head aches that comes. Well enjoyed meeting new friends and old ones. Off the 12th June for New Hampshire MOT, August back to Winter Park CO, Sep Mickey & Mini’s Orlando, FL and Oct will be in Arkansas to run the Pig Trails! Til next year, Thanks!
May 27th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
This was my first AMVIV and it was awesome, but next year I will have to bring my car!!
May 27th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Our first AMVIV won’t be our last! Spectacular cars; great owners, Las Vegas as a vista with the surrounding area and Hoover Dam as a backdrop, what’s not to love??
May 27th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
We have attended the last five AMVIV. This one was by far the most fun! Thank you Jules and committee for doing an outstanding job! My congratulations to all of you for the hard work that went into this terrific event. Also, it was great to be back at the Palace Station!
May 27th, 2011 at 7:10 pm
This was our first AMVIV event as we have only had our MINI for just about a year now. What an awesome job by all the staff from SCMC in all aspects of planning, preparation and delivery! Thanks Jules for all you’ve done. It’s a genuine pleasure to see and feel just how much you and the others care about your event and that everyone is afforded such a wide variety of play-time choices to be able to have such a great time on their vacation… Clearly your success is the result of endless effort, communication and cooperation amongst your Club members. We had a great time with our friends from MCM, met some really nice new folks along the way… Our Club has even begun an annual Karting adventure as a side-bar to all you guys have set up for us to do. We will definately be back for more next year! Congratulations on an outstanding event!!!
Take care and see ya next year,
Jon and Joanie Brothers
MidCal MINIs – Clovis, CA
May 27th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
This was our first AMVIV event as we have only had our MINI for just about a year now. Excellent job by SCMC in all aspects! Thank you Jules for the terrific job you did. We had a great time with our friends from SCMM, made some new friends along the way. We will definitely be back next year! Congratulations on an outstanding event!!!
See y’all next year,
Alan and Mary
SCMM
SoCal
May 28th, 2011 at 6:24 am
This was my fist AMVIV and I enjoyed every Mini Minute of it! It wasn’t hard to get into the spirit and want to be involved in everything that was offered, an impossible task with so many great choices. I met alot of great people and saw some gorgeous Mini’s. Thanks to my fellow SCMC members for all the hard work!
May 28th, 2011 at 8:21 pm
This was our first and it won’t be our last. Had a great time. Didn’t do to many of the activities but what we did was fun. Really enjoyed seeing all the cars and what people had done to them. Thanks for all your efforts and look forward to seeing you next year.
May 29th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
Our fifth AMVIV and counting…thanks to all that made this one of the best.
See you next year year.
May 30th, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Jules and co,
thanks for your solid efforts making AMVIV8 such a success. I would have loved to stay for the Autocross event, however a long trip home beckoned.
the Spring Mountain event was some of the most fun I’ve have in “Mayhem” since I bought him. you’ll defintley see more “Canucks” at this event next year!
May 31st, 2011 at 4:02 pm
This was our first AMVIV and will not be our last. We made new friends and had a great driving adventure. The location was very good and those who organized the events did a fantastic job.
Cris and Lea,
San Diego, CA
May 31st, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Hi everyone:
Just wanted to let you know that I finally go the pictures up from the weekend including the Mt. Charleston run. See this website and click on the folder called AMVIV8
http://calledtocreation.smugmug.com/
Enjoy!!
June 1st, 2011 at 3:50 am
Our thanks to the Sin City MINI Club for a great event! We went on several high speed runs and enjoyed them all. The weather was great (we arrived mid-day Thursday). Still more to see next year.
Alan & Diane
Blu*Pug
San Jose