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2002 US Volkswagen Events

This section is for all the events attended this year, and to post the pictures and web site links of the events.

1. 12 JAN 02, Buccaneer Region SCCA, Coastal Empire Autocross Club, Driver's School and Event #1, Sandhill Recreation Area, Savannah Georgia - This event is held near a Elementary school were there is this big open asphalt pad, so the club uses it for a driver's school and smaller events. I had changed over to the Audi wheels for the day for better power and clearance issues. I removed the contents of my trunk to include the spare tire, which is not necessary I found out. The Club walked us thru the features of the driver's school portion and then after we had a little practice we started the event. The event results will be posted on Coastal Empire Autocross Club's web site shortly. Here is the link to their site http://ceautocross.tripod.com. I also took a few pictures when I could and here they are. Link to the pictures, Click Here!

2. 25 to 27 JAN 2002, Savannah GTG, Hinesville Georgia, Well Friday came and I had a whole slew of folks show up from Valdosta Georgia and a few from Savannah. I was a little disappointed about the Southern Volks representation. But anyway, the night started out with cruising to the Savannah Dragway (http://www.savannahdragway.com) we had allot of fun at the dragstrip and of course most of the folks hadn't ever gone down a track, so they were really having some fun. Justin Ahmen had the fastest Dub of the night with a 10.2 1/8 mile time. we also had a Golf VR6 shootout and a New Beetle shoot out, just allot of fun, as the track manager Jeff Harris was a great host. We stayed at the track and left around 3:00 AM. We stopped at a Waffle house for some food and then proceeded to travel back to Hinesville. Everyone stayed at my house and I heard no complaints. We woke up the next morning to go to the meeting area for the Saturday event and waited, and waited, no one else decided to show up so we went back to my house. My wife made us all breakfast and it was skarfed up like you wouldn't believe, we were some hungry dogs. We hung out and talked VWs, watched a few videos, I installed a TT wheel vent into a 1.8T Jetta, played with a New Beetle remote control car, just good old comrade. A few more folks showed up for the cruse to Tybee island. The guys wanted to wash the cars so they left out for the self-service car wash, I followed after a bit of straightening up. Tybee island was great, we arrived there and located a great parking lot by the Main Pier and lined everyone up for the photo shoot. we had a little problem with one of the Corrados, but we all worked it out after a bit. Seems Tre's Corrado has a weak battery and when he had his lights on for the photo shoot, it drained the battery down to were it wouldn't start up the engine. We left at dusk and cruised back thru savannah and then back to Hinesville were we went directly to the Rosenhoff Restaurant, there we pigged out on everything from Jagerschizel to Cordon Bleu. Lots of food and even had a few Colawiesens to boot. We learned of a new Hinesville track that just recently opened up and it was right down the road from my house so we went to drag the VWs some more. The night was fun and most of the guys were paired up with Asian Imports and eventually eliminated, as this was a bracket type of event and if you weren't a drag racer by trade, it was only a matter of time before you either disqualified yourself by either doing better or worse down the 1/8 mile strip. all in all the guys had allot of fun, it seemed to be more of a hangout than a drag race as many a Honda out sporting their moving light shows, neon, and everything in between. Everyone was invited back to the house to crash out there once again and they did. Sunday was a no stress day and we slept in a bit to recover some from the last 2 days. we woke up to breakfast again made by my beautiful wife, this time there was more and we all had a nice meal. Some guys drove off to a one hour photo shop and others just hung out and talked. I handed out the awards for the Best and quickest VW at the GTG. Justin Ahmen with his Golf GLS 1.8T won the Quickest VW with a 10.0 from the Hinesville Raceway, and Gabriel Rivera with his Jetta IV won the Best VW. I would like to also thank Tre Tiernan for getting the word out on the GTG, as if it wasn't for him none of us would have any fun. Here are some pictures of the event. Link to the pictures, Click here!

3. 15 - 17 FEB, 2002 - 1552 design Winter Treffen, http://www.1552design.com/news/winter.htm - well I headed out to Sarasota Florida early Friday morning. I had a good trip, and arrived at the Hotel aroun 4:00 PM. Some other folks were already there, and I unloaded the car. I brought up the Recaros that Joe Kent bought for his MKIII Cabriolet. Some guys from Houston helped me carry the stuff up to the 4th floor (Rm 409). I hung out with the guys down at the parking lot until about 9:00 PM and I started to get hungry. I was also getting tired and needed to wash the car up a little, so I went out for a bite and a wsah. I found a really good Self-service Car Wash right down from the Hotel and ate at Dairy Queen. A guy (Tony) stopped by to check out the car while I washed it and we talked for at least an hour. I told him about the events that were going on and he said he would try and attend to get some ideas for his 2000 GTI. Saturday I woke up and headed out with Daniel and Mary, along with guys from Houston and local VeeDubers, we arrived at the Dragstrip around 8:00 AM and started to pile into the Dragstrip outter area, over 100 VW and Audi Showed up at the Dragstrip event. After it was all said and done, about 4 VW of all kinds either had some trouble or broke a part, when I was leaving the Strip I saw a flatbed truck recovering a Jetta IV. Anyways, Saturday I also met up with Fred and Kenni Kennard of Houston. They drove down their beautiful Silver 2001.5 V6 Passat wagon, (facelift version), love that car Kenni. Anyway I went out to the 1552 Design shop to hangout and talk, met up with a bunch more guys, talked my ass off. after the Shop thing we all were fairly hungry, and went off to Hooters, but we only paked there and walked over to Longhorns (Steak house). after dinner we all went out to Cheatas, a night club located North of our Hotel. Stayed out a little late, but it was all good. Sunday was the show, excellent turn out, I had a headache, but survived it all. The car was fairly clean (thank God) and I just did a few things, but not my normal routine. I must say anytime I was around the car and people saw me, they wanted to talk about something. I must have talked this whole weekend about VW, it is enough to drive you crazy. I love it. Anyways I was really happy with the peoples comments and everyones attention to the car. I took the 1st Place in Golf IV and received $10 as my prize, cool! Needed some money for Dinner. I also was approached by Performance VW at the later part of the show, they said they wanted to do a feature on the car and asked me what my plans were for the weekend. I told them I wasn't leaving until Monday and asked me if I would bring the car by the 1552 Design Shop around 12:00, of course I said , No problem. We had the car out on the Photoshoot for about an hour and I must say they know how to take those pictures. I learned something after all this. Anyway the drive home was great and I even got to stop in Orlando to have some dinner with my brother Steve. Cars I loved at the Show were, Brad's MKII, Zerind's S4 w/Sportec 19", Red Jetta IV w/black rims, Joe's VR6 SC Cabby, Adrian's Audi All-Road 2.7T, This Dark Gray new Audi A4 with Sportec wheels, and of course I can't remember them all, so I took some pictures of the ones I really liked. HERE ARE THE PICTURES

4. Deployed to Kuwait for 6 months, returned 15 November, 2002

5. On my way back from Kuwait I got to take a break in Europe for a week. I visited Gary Handa, who gave me a place to crash out for a few days and also picked me up from the Airport a few times. Thanks Gary, I really appreicate everything you did for me. Anyways I got to take a look at Gary's project, his Golf IV, I have posted these few pictures on my site, here is a quick link, HERE!

I flew down to Frankfurt for a few days and hung out with old friends there and also took in another tour at Autostadt and the VW Factory. The best of all I got to drive the Touareg. What a SUV that is, huge, I mean it is huge. I felt very at home in it and I must say I am going to hold out and get one of these when they start selling them here in the USA. Here are the pictures. I also got to see the R32 and the Phaeton. Wow was I in heaven. Anyways I came back with some scaled down models of the Touareg and Phaeton to remember the trip by and a few other nice VW toys. Thanks again Gary for all the hospitality!