On June 18-22, 1997, the Winged Warriors/N.B.O.A. held their 23rd annual National Meet in Sweetwater, TN with Mike and Peggy Atkins of Tellico Plains as hosts of the event. It was another immensely successful event which began with the club members arriving at the headquarters hotel on Wednesday afternoon and a gathering to get re-acquainted with everyone that evening. On Thursday morning, the cars lined up for a trip to Athens so the members could take a very thorough tour of the entire fiberglass boat-building operation at the SeaRay boat factory. That afternoon everyone toured the Lost Sea Cave with a grand finale boat ride out into the nation's largest underground lake. The evening was spent at an arcade in Athens showing off driving skills (or death wishes?) on the go-cart track.
Friday morning, the group took off for Athens with a police escort. The cars were left on display in a scenic park while the members walked over to the Mayfield Dairy for a tour of the facility and sampling of their ice cream afterwards. Upon leaving the Dairy, a police escort once again lead us through Athens and on to the Savanna restaurant for our lunch reservations. After lunch, the cars headed up the mountain to our reserved parking lot at the Webb Brothers Store, where 71 of us were loaded into rafts and given paddles and sent down the Hiwassee River on a five-mile ride.
Saturday was spent at Rule Vale as guests of the Conasaqua Volunteer Fire Department's Rod Run/Car Show. We added a very long and impressive Lifesaver-colored line of winged cars and B-bodies to their exhibit. Upon leaving the car show and Rule Vale, the members headed out to the Atkins' farm for a hog roast and an evening of fun and games. We held our usual raffle with some very nice prizes for all, a belt toss, remote control car races, trivia contest, model car contest and a spark plug change.
Sunday, we held our traditional farewell picnic in a scenic park with a lake nearby. Award winners were announced and presented with their trophies: Best Of Show went to Wayne Perkins with his Plum Crazy #99 Charlie Glotzbach Daytona replicar and Long Distance Driven went to Bill Kuenkel of Ankeny, IA who made the trek to Sweetwater with his beautiful Sassy Grass Green 1970 Cuda Convertible.
A great time was had by all who attended and we are already looking forward to to next year's meet!
These are some photos from the 1997 National Meet. You can "click" on the image to see a larger version.
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Vitamin C SuperBird, 440 with black bucket seat interior, owner Mike Atkins, Tellico Plains, TN. |
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Red 1969 Road Runner Convertible, 383 automatic with black top, owner Stan McGuire, Des Moines, IA. |
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Custom silver/gray SuperBird, 440+6 4-speed, custom silver interior, owner Milton Wood, Chelsea, MI (special note: decals on the car are left-over from the previous weekend when Milton raced the SuperBird in Nevada for 85 miles at 100 MPH). |
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Red 1969 Charger 500, 440 4-speed with black bucket seat interior, owners John and Vicky McBride, Cherryville, NC. |
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Silver Daytona with red stripe (very rare original color combination), 440 4-speed, red bucket seat interior, owners Bob and Sharon Malcom, Peebles, OH. |
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Red 1970 Charger 500 R/T with Daytona wing added, 440 with black bucket seats, owner Don Kypreos, Carpentersville, IL. |
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Lemontwist SuperBird, 440 4bbl 4-speed, white bench seat interior, owner Richard Kelley, Ft. Wayne, IN. |
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Limelight SuperBird, 440 4-speed, black bucket seat interior, owner Rick Edwards, Walton, KY. Rick has been to every Winged Warriors National Meet (total of 23) to date! |
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Tor-Red SuperBird, 440 automatic, black bench seat interior, owner Lynn Hartman, Greeneville, TN. |
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Group shot of the wings. |
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Salmon 1965 Belvedere II, 273 automatic, black bucket seat interior, owner Danial Marr. |
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Red 1971 Charger, 383 4-speed, black vinyl top and white bucket seat interior, owner Kevin Buchegar. |
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Group shot of the wings at Sunday's picnic. |
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Tor-Red SuperBird, 440+6, 4-speed outside the SeaRay boat factory, owner Sue George, Boone, IA. |
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