cheezthis wrote:Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out or supported the event this year. The event was at full capacity, and we had Acura there as well.
My personal highlight was meeting Gary, taking him around in the db8, and driving the tl sh-awd 6spd on track. My event highlight...Gary's presentation. It makes you feel like all this hard work year after year was worth it.
Its us that owes you and the entire Expo Comittee and Sponsors the thanks. This was my 6th year returning to Expo and I cannot think of anything that I could have improved on with this event. I know this year was exceptionally grueling for you guys and I will speak for the group here and say "we really appreciate all that you guys do and sacrifice to make this happen." For all those that attended, you should feel a small sense of pride that you are part of the best group of car guy's on the Planet. This event proves that year after year. Hopefully we will have many more in the year's to come.
I also felt a huge sense of Pride when Gary stood up to speak. As a nearly 17 year Acura/Honda employee, I felt vindicated slightly after all these years of wondering why Coporate just wouldnt notice our grassroots movement. I felt as though we had finally arrived! And I couldn't had been happier for it.
*I'm about to ramble here* I'll admit when he spoke of Shigeru Uehara I got a lil emotional. That man is hero to all of us. I had the privelige of meeting Mr Uehara in Chicago a few years ago at the "Ride and Drive" Launch of the S2K CR put on for Honda employees. He was just there singning autographs at a table, hangin out. When I saw I freaked out and had to meet him. The line in front of him was at least a hundred deep and I was on a tight time schedule with my general mngr. Ater over an hour of waiting I still hadnt got in front of him, my boss was mad at me because
I missed a lecture I was supposed to attend but I was unphased and determined. When I finally got in front of Mr. Uehara he was obviously looking tired and stonefaced, signing S2KCR posters. When he asked to spell my name in very broken english for an autographed, I stopped him. I pulled out my cell phone and showed him a picture of my R and proceeded to thank him. He dropped his sharpie and his faced lit up! I gave him my phone and showed him how to scroll thru the pics. He was like a kid in a candy store. He stopped everything he was doing and I could see the passion in his eyes. (I am getting a lil emtional right now just thinking about it) He told me about how much fun he had working on that car and how he hoped another one would appear in the future. He asked me if I could come back later so we could talk more about it but I couldn't. I was flying back out that same day and was unable to return. I ended up getting in alot of trouble over it with my boss over the time I spent waiting and have not been invited to attend anymore of these events since but that one was worth it too me.