A Message from the President

Dear Members,

If there are any members in this club who have attended every event we put on this past year, they must admit it was a very good year for the club's members. We had the usual lineup of the tech sessions, the rallies, a golf outing, a March fish fry, and several drive-and-dine events, not to mention the Chicago auto show trip and others. But several events really standout for their total success and large participation.

The latest event to reach top shelf status was the Fall Rally in Door County on Sept. 20th, thanks to the efforts of the Pearson family and Dee Murr. We had over 20 cars on the roster, including MBCA members from Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. We had great weather, good food (and drink), and a nice day to tour the Maritime museum and run the rally. Sunday we concluded with a wonderful brunch/award session at the Cherry Hills resort.

In June, Pete Samolinski hosted an excellent drive-and-dine up in Wausau, where members had a nice lunch at a steakhouse, and then dessert at Karl Middlehauve's place. Karl is one of the top Mercedes restorers in the U.S., and was recently written up in the Star magazine.

In May, Nancy Pearson and Bill Sirny put on an Autocross event at State Fair Park, and everyone who attended had more than a few runs through the cones, to compete for prizes in several divisions. Again, we had more than 20 cars show up.

And at the March Fish Fry at Meyers restaurant, Concours Motors awarded one of our members a brand new C300 4-Matic Mercedes to use for a weekend. That event was alswell attended with close to 30 people.

In April, Mike McKinney of Black Forest put on a top notch tech session, with George Murphy giving us a slideshow lecture of the finer points of Mercedes servicing and care. George is one of the top service consultants in the U.S., and writes a column for each issue of the Star magazine.

Why am I telling you this? Because many of you are missing these events.... It's too late to read about these fine events in the Badger Star, and then do the head slap - "I coulda had a great time at that event!"

My Thanks to the members of the board for a great year, their efforts paid off well with some really nice events during 2008. Frank Lubinski did an excellent job guiding the board this past 2 years, and he now will serve as Treasurer. Dan Hellenberg will continue as board secretary, Ron Sdun will continue as Membership chairman, and Bill Sirny as a director, and Andy Stockhausen will step up to be vice president. Jim Pittelkow will join the board as Jim Loseke and Jim Stowell retire from the board.

We are already sorting through a bunch of ideas for 2009 events, and it will be difficult to top the events we had last year. But we will give it our best efforts. Stay tuned for more fun this next year.

Jerry Zajicek
MBCA-Wisconsin Section President