2017 19th Annual Camaro Nationals, Frederick, MD June 23 & 24, 2017

[BonzoHansen]

Nineteenth Annual Camaro Nationals
June 23 & 24, 2017

http://www.camaronationals.org/

My favorite car weekend of the year. Frederick is great, and the Fairgrounds are a great place for a show.

[SS Performance]

Do guys from the NJFBOA go as a group and park together?

I'm planning to go, anyone else?

Craig

[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by SS Performance

Do guys from the NJFBOA go as a group and park together?

I'm planning to go, anyone else?

Craig

A few of us that go usually do as we go in the non-judged group. If you want to get judged then you need to park in the section for your grouping.

[SS Performance]

Originally Posted by BonzoHansen

A few of us that go usually do as we go in the non-judged group. If you want to get judged then you need to park in the section for your grouping.

I'm not into the stress of getting judge, just in it for the fun.

[BonzoHansen]

This reminds me, i need to make hotel reservations.

[IROCZman15]

I am scheduled to be working that friday and saturday night, but I'll see about getting off for those shifts. Once I know, I'll book a hotel room. It is a great event. I have gone 2 of the past 3 years to it. I did just check and that is the same weekend as the GM Nationals out in Carlisle, so I am slightly torn now... I usually switch between what event to go to every year.

Keep in mind that 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the Camaro, so there might be something unique planned at the event. maybe

EDIT: I actually might try to do BOTH events this year since they are only about an hour apart.

[ThoR294]

I'd love to go to this and bring my dad.

[SS Performance]

I booked at the Holliday Inn.

Now the tuff question, which Camaro to take? The 70, 02, or 15?

Decisions, decisions, decisions!!! LOL

[IROCZman15]

Decision made:
I booked a room at the Holiday Inn for Thursday night and Friday night.

[BonzoHansen]

Recent announcement

Holiday Inn Conference Center to become Clarion Conference Center

Since moving to Frederick Maryland, the Camaro Nationals has used the Holiday Inn as our host hotel and site of the Annual Dinner and Charity Auction. Our contract is signed for this year, but we recently received news that the owners will soon be changing the franchise from Holiday Inn to Clarion. This will not effect our show in any way, but to get into our block of rooms with the breakfast buffet, you must call the hotel directly. Neither the Holiday Inn or Clarion websites, nor their 800 national phone numbers will be able to access the block...and you would likely find a message that the property has no vacancies.

To reach the hotel, call 301-694-7500, and ask for Susie. Our code to access the block or rooms is MCO.

[dgPltt]

I'm going to try and make this, thanks for the heads up on the hotel Bonzo.

[IROC-MIKE]

I was planning on showing the Fellows Sunoco Car at the Camaro Nats, but received an invite to display at Carlisle in the Race Car Showcase. I had spoken with the Camaro Nats Organizers last year about showing there because the last few years it had been the week before Carlisle. In speaking with Carlisle organizers, they tried to keep the schedule different so both could be attended but the way the season schedule worked out it fell on a bad weekend for peak attendance, so they were forced to move it to the same weekend. When I found out Camaro VIN 001 is going to be at Carlisle. I figured that car (which is currently on loan to GM) was hitting the biggest and best shows on this years tour, so that made my decision. For the last few years the GM Nationals (the former event name) was not as big as the Ford and Chrysler Nats at the same location (which are also one of the best events for those brands), so Carlisle wanted to make it the biggest Chevrolet event on the East Coast. Carlisle is truly known for the Corvette Show which is world-class and in the same league as Bloomington and other major Cirvette events on the show circuit. So to kick off the INAUGURAL event. Carlisle has teamed up with Chevrolet and GM to launch this as the FIRST Chevrolet Nationals @ Carlisle and are going to have some Historically Significant Camaros & Firebirds for this event. I'm hoping that the Camaro Nats is as equally as good of a show for those of you who go to that one and as much as I'd love to do both (since they are relatively close) the car will be in the T Building and cant be moved from when we show up on Thursday morning until Sunday night when they close the gates. Hope to see at least some of you there.

[IROCZman15]

2 more weeks, whats the final count. who is in and what ya bringing?

[ar0ck]

I can actually do Saturday as I'll be finishing up work in Virginia that weekend and have time to kill.

[BonzoHansen]

Me, BTK and Phil will be there. Frederick is such a nice town

[IROCZman15]

Heading down tomorrow mid afternoon. Hope to be arriving at the Clarion hotel around 3pm. They have a 5pm driving cruise through town that I plan on doing also.

I hope this year has a good turnout for Friday and Saturday despite the impending rain. I wish more NJFBOA members would go to this event in the future..... out of many thousands of our club members, only 4-5 of us end up going to this.. why's that the case?

[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by IROCZman15

Heading down tomorrow mid afternoon. Hope to be arriving at the Clarion hotel around 3pm. They have a 5pm driving cruise through town that I plan on doing also.

I hope this year has a good turnout for Friday and Saturday despite the impending rain. I wish more NJFBOA members would go to this event in the future..... out of many thousands of our club members, only 4-5 of us end up going to this.. why's that the case?

They don't like our beer?

Pure car shows aren't for everyone. This is the only one I do. But I get to meet up with old friends and just unwind & relax.


FYI: Firebirds are welcome as well.

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Originally Posted by BonzoHansen

Pure car shows aren't for everyone. This is the only one I do. But I get to meet up with old friends and just unwind & relax.

This. I don't do car shows more than a a few hours. I don't know how to unwind and relax, unlike Scott . I get bored at any car show, and cannot stand ones that limit to one kind of car because it leads to even faster boredom.

I'm still 5 at heart.

[SS Performance]

Went to the show.

Cruise was a mess. I didn't get a map (not that it mattered can't read and drive). Got lost.

Friday not much turn out.

Friday night auction had some really nice deals. I would have purchased more but can only fit so much in the trunk.

Saturday was really nice lots of cars good turn out.

Clarion hotel (formerly Holiday Inn Express) kind of sucked. Over priced for what there was and the A/C in my room didn't work worth crap.

I'll go again but just for Saturday.

Just my .02

[IROCZman15]

Sorry, took me a while to upload photos and write this up.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/123927...57682865219433

Had the car prepped and packed up for the most part Wednesday night. Headed out around 10:30 am on Thursday. Hit a mess of traffic just into PA by Bethlehem on rt 78 and was nervous about the dead-stopped traffic building up engine and trans temps, and for that nerve-wracking hour...shockingly everything stayed cool as it should have (180 engine 160 trans). Got to the Clarion hotel right around 4;30pm and checked in after fueling up nearby. Got in line for the "kick-off cruise" and got a map/directions at the drivers meeting. I'm guessing it was about 100 or so cars (only camaros) that went on the cruise. The initial 3 miles was a mess because trying to get all these cars out of a VERY busy traffic area with multiple lanes and traffic lights was crazy. As per the typed out directions we proceeded just a few miles away to a nearby park, where the group reconvened and THEN headed out on the cruise. I have a few videos I took (in the link below) of us lining up at the park and many of the cars rolling out. The cruise was AWESOME once we got rolling. It wound through lots of country roads, through covered bridges, past amazing scenery, and had plenty of terrain for people to get on the loud pedal. At the conclusion of the 90-120 minute cruise it ended back at the same park, and there was a BBQ. I did not attend since I had dinner plans with my wife and we had a long trip and needed food and showers. Hung out a little bit in the parking lot at night with the group.

Friday, woke up, breakfast at the hotel, and checked weather forecast. Since this was the weekend of the big storm heading up the coast everyone had been worried. I headed over to the fairgrounds around 9:30 and my wife decided to spend the day shopping and other things around the area. Since I had not pre-registered weeks ago, I was not allowed to go into the 3rd gen class that is judged by judges... I had to go into the class where participants at the show vote for their favorite car in each category. Mine was class 39 (Modified 1982-1992 Camaro). I was VERY disappointed that nobody was in my class (not just Friday, but Saturday either). Took me about an hour to clean off the car from the 7 hours (in total) driving the day before. Friday's turnout was pretty good despite being a weekday work day for many and the threat of rain. It only actually showered once while I was at the show mid morning so that made it a great day and the grass area never got swampy. There were the usual AWESOME cars in the Legends Class of the main building, and many cool rides scattered through the crowd. I took lots of photos and talked to a lot of people throughout the day. Went back to the hotel around 4:30 and then went out to dinner with the wife into downtown Frederick. Downtown is definitely an historic vibe with brick buildings, architecture and many restaurants built into the area. Later in the night I hung out in the parking lot (which usually gets rowdy) with Bill, Scott, Phil, and a few others and we slugged down many beers. Other crowds of people had full blown makeshift liquor bottle bars setup on truck tailgates, music going, a blender making mudslide and mixed drinks, cigars, etc. Rain came along around 1am so that was it for the night.

Saturday after breakfast and a quick dry-off of the car, my wife and I drove over to the show which had MANY more people/cars in attendance. This year, they also had a special 50 car invitational display (that Scott and Phil were part of). Basically they had invited 50 camaros ...one from each production year... to be showcased. great idea indeed. I think about 45 of the 50 cars were present. I hung out with the NJFBOA guys throughout the day and took photos as well. They did awards around 4 and that took a longgg time ( 1 hour) . After that, the wife and I swung back to the hotel, loaded our stuff up, and hit the road home to NJ. It was a niiiiice ride home with only one dinner/fuel stop. I was sad/disappointed that on the ride we saw a half dozen or more trucks towing enclosed trailers with camaros from the show inside them. I wish these fellas would drive their damn cars instead of trailering them to an event, unloading them, showing them, reloading them,and then trailering them home. That is NOT my idea of fun. All in total, I put 630 miles of the car in those 3 days and even with NO air-conditioning and some spots of traffic, I loved every moment of it.

Check out the photos and videos by scrolling through my album. Sorry some photos are duplicates and some may be out of sequence since I used my iphone7 and a Nikon camera they uploaded a bit scattered. I'll try to go in the album one day when I have time and remove the duplicates/blurry photos.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/123927...57682865219433

here are the vids from the cruise :
(taken with iphone 7 on window mount.. I am ordering a Go-Pro in a few weeks)


- getting to the park and waiting to regroup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyTcrl0kKlo

- waiting in line to roll out while watching other cars begin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tKEId76zLg

driving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1ZqK0HQS1A

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/123927...7682865219433/

[KevinW]

Very nice pics! This is on my bucket list. I see a bunch of nice camaros at the hotel, was there overnight security? That is my biggest worry about staying there. I will have to get the original engine back in and then make the trip! maybe next year :sigh:

[IROCZman15]

no, theres no roving security at the hotel, but there are enough car worriers (like you and I and everyone else there!) that enough eyes are around throughout the night. everyone there is very respectful of eachothers rides and its a community type vibe there at the hotel. nothin to worry too much about.

[dgPltt]

Originally Posted by IROCZman15

no, theres no roving security at the hotel, but there are enough car worriers (like you and I and everyone else there!) that enough eyes are around throughout the night. everyone there is very respectful of eachothers rides and its a community type vibe there at the hotel. nothin to worry too much about.

Awesome pictures, thanks for posting them. I wanted to make it but had something come up last minute. At least I got to see it through your pics. Your car looks great too btw.