We have a special day planned for Jim Wangers return visit to the Bay Area with the GGGoats!

See flyer included in this newsletter and be sure to save this date for a special day to enjoy GTOs and get special insights from the Godfather of the GTO - Jim Wangers.

Those who were there last year left wanting more. So, we have arranged for MORE! We will have an expanded presentation period this time, since 2 hours wasn’t enough in 2001. More Details are in this newsletter.

Don’t miss this great opportunity!

2.  John Mekisich talked about June Good Guys event We are the host club. The form needs to be turned in as soon as possible. John will put together a work schedule for the event. If you work, you will get a free t-shirt, paid entry into the show and a BBQ. More information to follow in the May newsletter.

3. Jim Lent talked about the cruise to Korbel and the Micro Brewery. The event is on Saturday April 6th We will leave at 8:00 AM. You can fill up in Sebastapol in the morning. The Stipanov’s will have pastrys.

4. Jim Lent contacted the Central Pontiac car club and invited their club to Pontiacs in the Park with Jim Wangers event on May 18th. Jim handed out the sign up sheets for the event. The parking might max out. You need to get there early. Jim Lent also needs a count for the buffet on Saturday night. Lolly Mayeda asked about the timing of selling the raffle tickets. It was suggested to sell them during intermission. We discussed purchasing Jim Wangers a polo shirt with the club logo. No final decision was made.

5. . Russ Louthian talked about the Day at the Races Saturday, August 18th. Tickets will go on sale in May. He also was going to check to see if the Begonia Festival was still happening on September 8th in Capitola. It will be an all day event.

6. A Poker Run was discussed for the club anniversary on October 5th. We will talk more about that at our next meeting.

7. Carol and Marvin Sakamoto gave us information on Cherrys Jubilee in Monterey on September 6th, 7th and 8th. There is an outdated flyer on website that can be used to sign up for this year. You need to get reservations at a hotel soon if you plan to attend.

8. The club congratulated Ralph Tashjain on receiving the Miller Genuine Draft Winners Circle Pick award for his 1965 GTO at the Goodguys in March.

9. Nostalgia Days at Sears Point is on April 20th and 21st if anyone is interested.

10. Jim Lent was congratulated on his GREAT job as News Letter Editor. Good job Jim.

11. Next meeting to be held on Wednesday, May 1 at Harry’s Hofbrau in San Leandro.

Join the Golden Gate Goats in making this a GR888 Pontiac Weekend. On Friday night (5/17) we will have a welcoming dinner for Jim Wangers. We will meet at 6:30 PM at the Black Diamond Brewing Company which is located at 2330 North Main St. in Walnut Creek. The club pays for Jim’s dinner and you pay for your own meals.

Saturday, May 18th finds us gathering at Civic Park, at 1375 Civic Drive , in Walnut Creek. Detailed maps will be available on-line and in next month’s newsletter. There is no reserved parking, so getting close there to 9:00 AM should guarantee a good parking spot. The park has plenty of grass area, mature shade trees and even a children’s play area. This is a “bring your own lunch” event, so bring a picnic lunch or maybe visit the Burger King or other restaurants that are within a couple of blocks of the park. We plan to have Jim Wangers, the GTO Godfather, start his presentation around 12:30 and we have the hall reserved until 4:00 PM, so you can get a great amount of detail from Jim and have time for some question and answers during this fun filled afternoon. Jim Wangers will also have copies of his book and other GTO memorabilia for sale that day.

Dinner - Saturday night. We have arranged for a private patio area at the Cantina restaurant on Saturday afternoon. The fixed price buffet meal will have a chip & salsa bar, salad bar and chicken and steak fahitas bar. This will all be provided for a single price of $15.00 per person, including tax and tip. We will also have a private bar to purchase your beverages for the meal. The Cantina is only one block from the park, so we will walk there and leave the cars in the park. We are making arrangements to have the cars watched in our absence to prevent any problems occurring to your special GTOs and Pontiac A-bodies. A separate parking lot is available for overflow traffic and non GTO or A-Body vehicles, so don’t use the excuse that your car isn’t running to miss this event. Please indicate on the application form if you plan to attend the dinner and how many people in your party.

Event Raffle - As usual we will have a raffle of club merchandise and other cool items. If you have items you would like to donate for the raffle, please bring them to the event or a club meeting.

Goody Bags - We will again be assembling Goody bags on the Day of the show. Business owners or club members - do you have items you would like to donate for the bags or raffle, like pens, tablets, small wrapped candy items, etc.??? If so, please contact Jim Lent (510-799-6096)

As many of you already know, Golden Gate Goats is the host club for the Good Guys 9th Summer Get Together at the Pleasanton fairgrounds. This has proven to be one of our largest event to date with 50+GTOs in attendance last year. Our club has become one of the largest GTO clubs in the nation with approximately 200+ current members. The enormous amount of exposure we get at this show has played a large part in helping us increase our membership. Good Guys management was very happy with the job we have done as well as the fact that we pretty much blew 'em away with our

level of participation! They invited us back for this year’s show during last year’s show! For a niche club such as ours, the opportunity to host a show of this caliber is a really big deal!

Myself along with Jim Lent & John Phillips will be the event coordinators. I will be the pre-show contact and the three of us will be working together during the event like we did last year. We will

be spending whatever time is required, at the next two club meetings, to plan for this event. 2002 will be our sixth year as the host club. The previous events went off without a hitch as I am sure this year’s event will as well. Like fine wine, we are improving with age. It takes a lot of member involvement to make this work.

I would like to thank all of you that have worked the previous shows for all your hard work. I am sure all of you will want to participate again this year. Let’s make it our goal to make this our largest

event ever. One of the many benefits we receive as the host club is our choice of where we want to park. Plan to come on out and work the show, you will have a GRRR8 parking place for the day!

Let me go back to early 1997 when our club was but a few months old. Club member John Phillips was at the right place at the right time and was instrumental in introducing us to the Good Guys.

John also belongs to the P-Town Pushrods, the club that hosts many Good Guys shows each year. He found out that P-Town was not going to be hosting he upcoming Muscle Car Nationals as they were already doing three shows and their members are heavy into rods. John called me immediately and we were able to get the "gig" so to speak. Without John’s help, we never would have been given this opportunity. Thanks a lot, John and I hope I got the facts close to correct!

Those of you that have not yet participated must be curious as to what "hosting" the show entails. Here is what is in store for ya! Our day begins early. We rendezvous in front of Specialty Sales on

1st street in Pleasanton at 5:30 a.m.! We leave promptly for the fairgrounds at 5:45 a.m. We drive to our club parking area near the museum and park the cars. The fairgrounds are very quiet until the exhaust note of 20,000 GTO horsepower fills the air, along with blipping throttles as we back em in. Unless you plan to cruise the fairgrounds, this will be your spot for the day. Good Guys event personnel will meet us here and outline what we need to do. We have done everything in previous years from helping with the special areas to directing traffic inside the fairgrounds. Whatever

assignment we get is always a good time. Our level of participation determines how long we each need to work. I anticipate one hour per day per person. Those of you with cars in progress, come on out and join in the fun! As more information comes in, we will do a work schedule and post it via e mail and on the website so each of you knows exactly where you need to be and when so you can maximize your fun at the show.

1) Complimentary admission both days to members that work the show

2) Reserved parking at one of the best locations in the fairgrounds. Every participant will see your car as they register at the GGuys Gazebo! Literally thousands of people will come by to drool over your car each day of the show!

3) One complimentary event T shirt per worker and additional shirts can be purchased at Good Guys cost ( $10.00). Our club logo will be in color. The shirt will have last years big winners and is always very colorful.

3) BBQ hamburgers, hot dogs, chips & fixins are provided for members and their

families each day. (Club members Rick Daley and Blair Locke have once again volunteered to do the BBQ for both Sat. and Sun.)

Just bring a side dish, or dessert and your own beverages of choice.

Those of you that will be at our April meeting can let me know then or you can sign up with me via e-mail immediately. (mitygto@aol.com) We cannot have too many volunteers to work the show. My final deadline to get everything back to them is May 3rd, just after our May meeting. Once again, if you are working the show you do not need to register (pay) as you get in complimentary. You can work either day or both days. I will have a work schedule for each day. Don’t be shy, let’s really pull out the stops and make this our best turnout ever. If any of you have questions, or want to volunteer you can call me at (650) 349-2095 or e mail me MITYGTO@aol.com or better yet, let me know at a meeting. The sooner you let me know, the easier my job becomes. PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME IF YOU CAN ARRIVE AT A LATER TIME. WE ALL NEED TO BE THERE EARLY AS IT IS THE ONLY WAY WE CAN MAKE IT WORK!

Thank you for your understanding and support. To those of you that don’t attend many club functions, this one has evolved into the BIG DADDY of them all so to speak. As I mentioned, it is a two day show and we are there both days so if you are busy one day, you have the other! It is impossible to talk this show up too much! To my knowledge, this is the largest muscle car oriented show on the west coast. We may be the only GTO club in the country hosting a show like this. I urge all members to come on out and join the fun!

Once again, we will be discussing this event in great detail at the next two club meetings. With our April meeting in Redwood City and our May meeting in San Leandro, we will have a great opportunity to pre-plan for this event. We got a jump on this at our March meeting by beginning sign ups there. Lots of room for everyone. This hopefully will result in a record number of cars along with a new attendance record. Let us set an aggressive goal of 100 cars to attend. I will be e mailing all the car mags letting them know that we are coming out in force. They are always looking for GTOs to do articles on and we have some mighty fine examples of the ORIGINAL MUSCLECAR!

Plan to be there!

2 1/2 teaspoons dried Italian Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
6 ( 4 ounces ) skinned, boned chicken breast halves
Vegetable cooking spray

Combine first 5 ingredients, set aside half of herb mixture for basting during grilling. Brush remaining half on chicken.

Great with grilled corn on the cob. Quick and easy, mmmmmmmm good.........

*************************************