CLUB HISTORY

The Great Lakes (GL) chapter formed and signed chapter papers for the Shelby Dodge Automobile Club (SDAC) in 1994 as a result of assisting in the planning SDAC's third national convention (SDAC3) which was held in the Metro Detroit area. At the time the club was formed in had a 11 person board consisting of: Pat Hurley (President), Joe Yurgaites (Vice President - Events Director), Mike Bachmann (Treasurer), and Barry Goodall (Secretary), with George Rule-Greet, Scott Griesmann (Graphics Director), George Kish (Technical Advisor), Tim Kish, Garry McKissick Jr, Chris Still and Mike Stimac. The club in this form held a couple of meetings at a local A&W at the intersection of Hall Rd. & Hayes (it has since been torn down), which had turnouts of approximately 25 cars.

In 1996, GL began monthly meetings (the first Saturday of the month) at Bill's Drive in at Rochester & 16 1/2 Mile Rd (now also gone). Pat Hurley was producing a newsletter at that time also. Forward Force was a short two pages and an effort to notify members of the meeting schedule, items for sale and other such information and was published just twice between the formation of the club and 1996 when Barry Goodall took over as editor with issue #3 in October of 1996. Included with the change of the Editor, the board was simplified to just the 4 positions of President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary and the addition of club dues, which were $12. Forward Force#3 listed 18 dues paying members.

By January 1997 GL was up to 45 paying members. A website was in place (under the direction of Gary McKissick). Carsten Ramcke was also brought into the fold as events director. During this time period GL saw the membership grow and became the largest of the SDAC chapters mainly due to the frequent publication of the newsletter. Meetings, which were still monthly, we now held at the Big Boy on Woodward. Meeting attendance was good with each month being a mini-car show.

1998 started off with a new event for the GL crew - Chase The Winter Blues Away or CTBWA. [Rolls off the tongue quite nicely doesn't it?] There was a small turnout for the first event, which was held in January at Carsten's house, however a couple notable Shelby-philes made an appearance. Dempsey Bowling from Salt Lake City was in Columbus Ohio for a wedding so, Edgar Lucas from Indianapolis swung through and picked him up on their way to Ann Arbor for the meet. Jerry Caviani was there giving rides in his Daytona which was one of the fastest at that time, and a young fellow by the name of Tim Costello arrived and joined GL on the spot. Food was eaten, videos were watched and all bench raced until the wee hours of the morning. Membership dues were raised to $15 in January also. In July the meeting frequency was increased from monthly to bi-monthly the first and third Thursday evenings @ 6:00pm of every month. The meetings were now being held at local Hooter's establishments, the first meeting of the month was in Taylor on Eureka Rd. just north of I-75 South, and the second was in Roseville on Gratiot north of 11 Mile Rd. Joe Yurgaites was stepping down from his role as GL VP because he wasn't able to contribute as much as he would have liked due to distance. His resignation was effective at the same time the first elections were announced in the fall of 1998. The elections would be for club President and Vice President with the vote to be held at CTWBA2 in early 1999. Members unable to attend could send their votes via email or snail mail to Barry.

After the votes were tabulated in early 1999 at CTWBA2, it was announced that Carsten Ramcke and Steve Jarred were the first elected President & Vice President. Terms of office started on April 1 1999. The GL mailing list was started to help in keeping the members updated on late changes to the events schedule and another communication tool for the club. More events were added to the GL calendar for this year also. The Drag Racing nights at Milan and the point’s series with Mark Palleschi (aka The Track Nazi) started. The Drag Nights were held on the last Friday evening of every month at Milan Dragway (about an hour and change from Detroit). The point system was developed which rewarded the fastest elapsed time and quickest reaction time. The top three for each category were given points, and at the end of the season the racer with the most points was the overall champion. They won little more than bragging rights. In the fall of that year another annual event was created by Carsten - the GL Color Tour. Carsten and Barry laid out a route from a carpool parking area just south of the I-96/US23 interchange, which began in the foothills near Hell, MI twisted through the forest area around Unadilla and Waterloo, then led out to the flatter farm areas Norvell and Saline, which led to Wiard's Orchard & Cider Mill southeast of Ann Arbor. At Wiard's a small car show was held on the lawn in front of the orchard complex and the winners received some cider. The year concluded with the elections being announced, with final balloting to be held once again at CTWBA.

The year 2000 arrived and at CTWBA3, again at Carsten's house, Josh Ely was announced as President and Steve Jarred retained his position as Vice President. It was to be a busy year for GL as the SDAC National Convention would again be in GL's back yard, the Drag Series, bi-monthly meetings, the color tour plus the other regular car shows were all on the agenda.

Carsten hosted CTWBA4 (sadly for the last time as he relocated to Ohio) where Tim Costello picked up the mantle of President with Bill Gamalski stepping in as Vice President for 2001. In May a few GL members headed out to Michigan International Speedway to cheer on the Car and Driver One Lap of America participants. Four GL members were lucky enough to be corner workers and got a ride out to their corner by Brock Yates himself. According to eyewitness accounts, Brock had the Land Rover (his course car) tipped over to obscene angles during his delivery run. The 2001 Dyno Day was held at Advanced Chassis Dyno in Sterling Heights. Points for the Drag Series were awarded for attendance (3 pts.), participation (3 pts.) and those with the top 5 horsepower numbers received points (5 pts. to 1 pt. 1st to 5th). Andy Walus bagged 11 pts. that day with a 17 psi run of 241hp - 250lb/ft in his '86 GLH Turbo. In all 6 cars ran towards the points series and 18 members were present. Steve had his grill and cooked up the traditional hot dogs for lunch. Andy's haul of 11 pts. also gave him an unassailable lead in points and he won the Drag Series with 49 pts. Barry Goodall placed second with 30 points in his Daytona and Paul Velliky came home third with 28 points. Shelby Dodges were present at the Woodward Dream Cruise at the Ferndale car show. Ferndale Car Show organizers contacted Jeff Anderson about a Shelby display. The GL tent was set up in the parking lot of the Secretary of State on Nine Mile Road about a block east of Woodward. 7 Shelby Dodges were in attendance. Joe Yurgaites won the Neon Challenge at the Mopar Nationals in his 'slimer' Neon Coupe through track psychology and judicious use of the white paint. At the Color Tour John Long won the car show with his '92 Spirit R/T, Scott Haverkamp placed second with a '91 Shelby Daytona and George Korbat was third with his '87 Shelby Lancer. In November a second Dyno Day was held with 12 cars rolling up onto the platform. Andy Walus again came away with the top number of 266hp now at 19psi of boost.

Randy Salk hosted CTWBA5 this year and both Tim and Bill retained the positions of President and Vice President respectively for 2002. Additionally, dues were raised to $20. Tim Costello and Craig St.Pierre had been watching the progress of the Chicagoland SDAC club car and cooked up the idea about having a "Chapter Challenge" at SDAC12, where chapters could build or use a member’s car to compete against other clubs at the convention. An '87 Shelby Charger was donated to the club by Craig St.Pierre and was "imported" from Canada and work was underway. It all paid off as GL won the first SDAC Chapter Challenge over entries from the National Chapter (rented Neon), Lonestar Chapter (member's '87 CSX) and archrival Chicagoland (New Yorker). The car then headed north right after the convention and wasn't to be seen until the next year. Jeff VanSolkema authored a series of articles, which outlined the installation of a TIII motor into a 2-door L-body. [His articles were later republished in the National SDAC newsletter]. GL was again at the Woodward Dream Cruise, again at the Secretary of State parking lot on Nine Mile. 8 Shelby Dodges were in attendance plus Joe Yurgaites' '69 Road Runner. The Color Tour was quickly upon us, which led to the nominations for the upcoming elections.

2003 opened with CTWBA6, again at Randy's house, where Craig St.Pierre was elected President and Jeff VanSolkema Vice President. This marked the first time that the board had and international flavor as both Craig and Jeff are Canadian. The GL Club Car made the trip south to be stored at Jeff's house in preparation for SDAC 13. The car was scheduled to be converted over from TI to TII and have some legacy issues from the previous year's event ironed out. A new event was jammed into the GL calendar with the Annual GL Picnic in Dearborn at Ford Field (not the Detroit Lions stadium). Held in May, the first event was unseasonably cold, attendance was low due to the weather, but all who showed were warmed up by the food provided by the event sponsor T-Mobile. GL meetings were changed from the bi-monthly Hooters affairs, back to once a month, now on the first Saturday at Pasquale's on Woodward North of 13 Mile Road. The June CEMA show was quickly upon us where GL had a small but enthusiastic turnout. GL'ers were then off to SDAC 13 in Baltimore where they successfully defended the SDAC Chapter Challenge title against the mighty Chicagoland Chapter New Yorker. Immediately after returning from Baltimore the car was parked in preparation for a spring '04 refresh. In early August, the club attended a new event (and skipped the Woodward Dream Cruise) the Dunlop Neo Classic held in Columbus Ohio. The two-day event had a car show, drag racing and autocross available to all attendees. Craig St.Pierre hooked up with Barry Miles and the Omni From Hell (Dave Zelkowski's old One Lap GLH) and put some frowns on the faces of some of the Viper owners who were holding a national meet there. The Fall Dyno Day was held September 20th with a small turnout and only three cars participating (due to many members cars being in some state of repair) on the Dyno at Advanced Chassis & Dyno. In Forward Force issue #52 Barry Goodall announced that "a sucker, er volunteer" was to take over as editor of the newsletter. The GL Color Tour was also covered in Issue #52 - 17 cars were on hand including long haulers Dean Stillie, Art Smitter and the lucky Aaron Miller who had a lower ball joint pop out on his Shelby Charger while at speed. Aaron and the car were fine and continued along the route after some emergency roadside repair. Issue #52 covered the SDAC-GL vs Ontario SDAC drag day. Three GL'ers including Chris Hadre took on the best that Dean Stillie's bunch had to offer. Sadly for GL, the Ontarians posted all the quickest times of the day. With the Color Tour over, and the year heading into winter, GL continued their monthly meetings and began preparations for CTWBA7 for the spring of '04.

CURRENT

The club current has 68 dues paying members and continues to publish the Forward Force newsletter (approximately six issues/year). As of April '04 the board consists of Craig St.Pierre as President, Jeff Van Solkema as Vice President with Mike Bachmann and Barry Goodall continuing in their roles as Treasurer and Secretary respectively.

Do you want to join? A membership form is HERE