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More scheduling juggling was re-
quired when we discovered that the
Marriott Hotel had scheduled a wed-
ding for Saturday evening – when we
had planned our dinner and evening
program. Rather than ruin someone’s
wedding, we just switched our dinner
over to Friday night. It’s nice when
you can be flexible.
It was not possible to have an
early set-up at the track on Thursday
afternoon, so SAAC-24 actually was a
three-day convention. Friday morning
was a zoo, with people lined up before
6 a.m. and anxious to get through reg-
istration outside of the track and then
get inside through a tunnel so they
could find a paddock space, set up for
the swap meet or get to the 8 a.m. dri-
ver’s meeting.
The driver’s meeting began on
time, as did the First-Timer’s Class.
Open track run groups got sorted out
and the swap meet took shape. Before
anyone knew it, it was time to high-
tail it back to the hotel because the
evening program started at 7 p.m.
Carroll Shelby was on hand at SAAC-
24. He seemed intent on making it to
every convention following his heart
transplant. His comments seem to
have adopted a “wise old man” facade.
Shelby was joined by Cobra Team
driver Bob Johnson, a fixture at SAAC
conventions whose comments are al-
ways entertaining; Bernie Kret-
zschmar, who was one of the
fabricators who built R-Models and
Trans-Am notchbacks; Shelby Ameri-
can sales manager Tom Conley; and
Herlita Natividad, Carroll Shelby’s
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Spring 2016 79