From the Fernandina Observer
April 28, 2021

AMELIA ISLAND, FL, APRIL 27, 2021 – Since its inception in 2017, the Grand Motoring Hangar Night has thrilled audiences with the breathtaking confluence of cinematic art and automotive excitement. This year, however, the festivities kick into high gear with a slew of special events throughout the evening.

As the southeast’s premiere source for automotive films, Grand Motoring has screened some legendary movies such as “Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman,” “The 24 Hour War” and “Steve McQueen: The Man and Le Mans.” This year’s featured film, shown alongside a series of acclaimed shorts, takes moviegoers inside the illegal, underground world of U.S. transcontinental racing with “APEX: The Secret Race Across America.”

Following thrill racers Alex Roy and Dave Maher as they tear across America in a BMW M5 in pursuit of a new coast-to-coast Cannonball record, and narrated by Ice-T, this film shines the spotlight on the secretive world of transcontinental racing.

Star Alex Roy will be on hand during this year’s Hangar Night to introduce the film and answer questions from the audience. “I’m really excited to share this film, and I think it’s going to be eye-opening for a lot of people who didn’t realize this whole culture of cross-country racing exists.”

But more than simply the films, Grand Motoring Hangar Night is an opportunity for participants to view some jaw-dropping collector and classic cars on display. This year, two separate rally tours will end with a checkered flag at Hangar Night, adding to an already exciting evening.

The first, Hagerty’s Amelia Island or Bust Tour, will end their multi-day rally at the event for the fifth consecutive year. Starting off outside of Baltimore on May 15, this rally will criss-cross the backroads of the southeastern U.S. before roaring into the finish line at Hangar Night.

The second rally is the Amelia Island region’s home-grown “Coastal Motoring Tour,” organized by Concours LLC. Launching from the legendary Brumos Collection, and running through some of the area’s most scenic highways and byways, the Coastal Motoring Tour will arrive just in time for Hangar Night.

Use the button below to register now for the Coastal Motoring Tour. Space is limited. 

Morgantown, WV. - ​Ready for a great way to kick-off your post -Covid Amelia  Island Concours weekend? Concours LLC is excited to announce  a motoring tour that will take place Thursday the 20th of May, leading up to the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance that happens on Sunday the 23rd of May.

"We started talking about how we needed to do a drive up the coast and thought we could do that and then head to the Grand Motoring Hanger Night & film festival.  Then some others said they hadn't been to Brumos Collection yet. As I started digging into it we decided to just wrap it all in package, plan the thing invite some friends.  Then it grew legs!" according to Bernard Martin at Concours LLC.
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After enjoying the incredible  displays at the Brumos Collection, we'll be departing for our drive up the coast. We are sure you are going to love the incredible coastal views of th drive. You'll get a short  break to take in the views during our ferry ride at the midpoint of the drive. Then we continue the final leg to dinner and movies. 

The evening takes flight at the Fernandina Municipal Airport with hors d'oeuvres, a special 'Floribbian' dinner, a cash bar, and most importantly, a beautiful display of our touring cars at the Amelia Aerodrome as the Sun sets.  We will be served dinner before the public arrives which give us plenty of time to take in the cars and ambiance.

The evening continues at the Amelia Aerodrome with a unique experience for automotive enthusiasts as we enjoy the Grand Motoring Hanger Night "film festival"!   It's going to be all about the passion of this car hobby.

Tickets are $95 per person.  You single ticket gets you admission to all of the following:

• Brumos Collection - 2:00pm
• Ferry Ride - 4:30pm
• Floribbian Dinner - 5:30pm
• ​Grand Motoring Hanger Night - 6:oopm
• Film Festival - 7pm
  

More details will be released to registered participants.

According to Wayne Long at Concours LLC, "We wanted to keep this affordable and accommodate everyone's busy Amelia schedule but also do some good and rain money for a local charity."
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Do you realize that you can now get antique plates for cars made in 1994? 25 years may not seem that long ago to some, but to others it's by-gone era with the growing following.

Several people in local Western Pa and West Virginia Car Clubs had been interested in attending a Rad er car show but discovered that that many where not friendly to out-of-town guests: There was not a host hotel or any help for visitors.

Bernie Martin, from Concours LLC, was asked if he was interested in lending a hand with planning and that's how Concours LLC got involved.

"Thats what we set Concours LLC up to do. Develop new automotive events!" according to Bernie.

"We're using the Doubletree Hilton in Cranberry Twp, PA as our host hotel.  We just used the same facility last summer for the Alfa Romeo Owners Club 2020 Convention and they really work well with automotive events."

"We then turned to Allegheny Country Parks which hosts a series of free concerts on Sundays in the Summer at Hartwood Acres.  We suggested we wanted to bring Rad Era cars and park in the grassy parking area used for the Polo Matches. We asked if they could book us a Rad Era band for the evening."

"In other words, lets have an 80's - 90's themed car show in the afternoon and let the audience hang around into the evening and put down their blankets in the natural amphitheater of Hartwood Acres. The team at Allegheny County Parks was excited and enthusiastic to make it happen and things really just fell in to place from there!" said Bernie

Arrangements have already been made to install a second stage just for the Rock n Rad event and there will most definitely be Rad Era music all day.

Other things in the works include awards and some special display cars. 

Pre-Registration is only $20 per car and will include some special collectible gift bag items.

Sponsor tents are available.  The tents are uniquely situated to be at the crest of the Hartwood Ampitheatre bowl which is also the crest of the hill for the car show as well.  It presents a very unique opportunity to entertain your customers for an entire day at very unique event. Contact bernie@concoursllc.us or call him at 412.996.5700 for more information.

Concours LLC is very excited to have been invited to help plan and organize this inaugural event.  Let us know if you plan to be there.  www.rocknrad.com

PITTSBURGH, PA (December, 2020) Like many large-scale events this year, the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix was affected by the pandemic. Ten days of car shows, races and motorsport parties were canceled, but that didn’t stop the Grand Prix from delivering a meaningful donation for our charitable partners.
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This past May, the PVGP announced it was canceling its 2020 Race Week events and “Shifting Gears” to encourage its car club partners to get out on the road in the safety of their own cars. The result – more than two dozen events were held throughout the summer and fall, raising $60,000!

We applaud our racers, volunteers, car club partners and event participants who got involved and made incredible efforts to keep the Grand Prix spirit alive. From staging events to donating their 2020 registration fees, the response was overwhelming and vital to our charity mission.” said Dan DelBianco, PVGP executive director.

Joseph S. Martz, president of Merakey Allegheny Valley School, said, “thank you for all you did to make lemonade out of lemons, we are incredibly grateful to the PVGP and its supporters for putting your hearts and souls into the “Shifting Gears” campaign.”

Jesse Torisky, CEO of the Autism Society of Pittsburgh, exclaimed “during this pandemic autistic people haven’t stopped being autistic and they need our services now more than ever and likewise, the PVGP supporters have not stopped working – we are humbled by their tireless efforts.

Sixteen racers generously donated their 2020 race entry fees, crossing the finish line with a whopping $10,450 donation! PVGP Chairman Jim Dolan was the first racer to make a donation and said “this has been an unprecedented display of what community involvement is all about and I thank everyone”. Stu Long and the team at Nelson Ledges staged a Test & Tune in August to benefit the PVGP and added $1,150 more!

Karen Hanchett and Patrick Martin staged two Motorbike Tours to Jamison Farm in Latrobe that raised $1,200. Bud Osbourne and the Western PA Triumph Association worked on these tours and the PVGP July Countryside Tour that raised $2,030.

The Rolls Royce & Bentley Club raised a grand total of $14,080 through three separate events. Greg & Christie Farrell hosted a party at their home in June, raising $1,400. Bentley Pittsburgh hosted a car show at their dealership in Wexford in September that brought in $7,950. With an auction of her Handmade Glass Art Terri Hohmann added $3,530, and Rolls Royce Club President Chris Davis’s neighbors’ “Little Miss Cookie Squad” baked and sold cookies weekly this summer for $1,200.

The ALFISTI Alfa Romeo Club pledged $1,000 from its July Over the River Tour. West Penn Miata Club raised $800 with its own kick-off style Rallye. Jack and Cathy Dernorsek led the 3 Rivers Region Model A Restorers Club on a Red Belt Tour in August that brought in $465.
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Land Rover North Hills sponsored the October 24/25 Fall Car Show at Pitt Race Complex that raised $2,100 the same weekend that the Western PA Triumph Club and Gary Fredo hosted a road tour netting $1,555. To get the PVGP over the $60,000 mark the Greater Pittsburgh MG Club donated $1,000 from its membership.

With the pandemic raging around the world and most car events cancelled for the foreseeable future many charities are being left with no fundraisers.  Concours marketing leader Bernard Martin recently stepped up to the plate to offer his services to help charities across the country.
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According to Bernie, "The conversation actually started at Amelia Island early this year. Dan DelBianco and I where sitting at the pool late Sunday afternoon and we where more or less reaching the conclusion that we may not be able to hold any. PVGP events this summer.  I suggested that we get all 17 car clubs and encourage them to drive their cars in a series of fundraising rallies. We had just completed hosting the 2019 Alfa Romeo Owners Club convention and had used the belt system around Pittsburgh for a number of the driving tours so we had a ready made tour route with signage already in place."

The Pittsbrugh Vintage Grand Prix has renamed this year theme to "Shifting Gears" as a result of that conversation.

In early Spring Lilly Pray approached Bernie about a project that she had become involved in called "Rally Across America".  Lilly has been a highly respected concours judge for many years and she was the first Ambassador for the effort. The founders of "Rally Across America",  Jim and Wendy Petty, wanted to create a website and social media for their concept of raising $1 Million for charities across the United States by helping car clubs and car aficionados host driving events for their local charities.

Bernie told Lilly that this project was right in his wheelhouse as he was already planning events for the Three Rivers Alfisti to raise money for the PVGP.  

Bernie created the website and social media for the organizations and also create all of the "Rally-in-a-Box" tools needed to ambassadors to create their own driving event.  He tested a number of auto touring and rally apps for mobile devices and included the functions for the Rally Ambassadors. 

The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (PVGP) and its presenting sponsor, the Greater Pittsburgh Automobile Dealers Association, (GPADA) presented a record $410,000 check to the PVGP Charities.

The presentation took place on Thursday, February 14, 2019 at the “Dancing with the Cars” party – the opening preview of the Pittsburgh International Auto Show at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

The check represents the funds raised by the PVGP throughout 2018, combined with the proceeds from the GPADA’s Dancing with the Cars party that night.

“This was the 7th time in the last 8 years that we were able to set a new record for fundraising and the 11th time in the last 14 years.” said Dan DelBianco, Executive Director of the PVGP “we are proud of our growing success and we are so appreciative that the GPADA’s Foundation holds this event and donates the proceeds to our charity partners.

John Putzier, CEO of the GPADA said “our partnership with the PVGP has turned out to be a win-win-win for the GPADA’s Foundation, the PVGP and for the charities. Together we can do so much good by combining the two biggest automotive events in Western PA to generate funds for autism and those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”

Bernie and Wayne where invited to assist Stuart Sobek, the Founder of the upcoming Las Vegas Concours d' Elegeance and Vance Walker,  the LVCE Managing Director, in some of the planning and logistics for their first time event.  Sometimes getting an experienced set of eyes on a new event is a good idea and the guys in Las Vegas have all the trappings needed to host a truly stellar concours.

Before we delve into the details, there's a few things you should know like when is it and what is the story behind the cool art deco logo.

The Helene Award will be presented each year to deserving innovators in the automotive industry for outstanding achievements in the design, development and future of the automobile.

The Concours happens on  Saturday, October 26, 2019, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm  at the Dragon Ridge Country Club. which is about a 20 minute drive from the Bellagio host hotel for the Concours events.

Much of our time was helping develop the field layout, shuttle stops locations, trailer parking locations and discussing how to plan for traffic flow and staging.

Dragon Ridge Country Club has a bit of a Scottish Highlands feel to it.  It's located in the MacDonald Highlands, which are a series of highly affluent residential neighborhoods in Henderson, Nevada in the foothills of Black Mountain. The neighborhood is part of the Las Vegas Valley and it sits on the edges of the McCullough Mountains and overlooks much of Henderson and Greater Las Vegas including the Las Vegas Strip.

Dragonridge Country Club is one of the highest points of Greater Las Vegas. Guard-gated, it is  more than 170 acres of rolling hills overlooking the Las Vegas skyline. It's quite a sight to behold and promises to be an amazing location for a Concours.

Take a peek at the slideshow below and check out some of the initial planning that is being worked on!

via Hilton Head Monthly. By Rebecca Hamilton, 30 October 2018

When he first got involved in Concours, Ianuario was an employee of BMW Manufacturing, responsible for running the Zentrum, BMW’s museum in Greer. He used his connections to get BMW involved in the annual Hilton Head event.

“Paul was instrumental in obtaining BMW as a founding sponsor of the event,” said Carolyn Vanagel, president of the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival. 

Ianuario — who has been collecting cars for 50 years — will showcase four cars from his eclectic collection, which includes cars from 1908 to 1972. Festivalgoers will be wowed by his 1908 Cadillac Double Tulip Touring, the first American automobile to win the prestigious Dewar Trophy. His 1908 Cadillac Double Tulip bodied Victoria Touring is the only one known to exist today.

He’s also showing a 1910 Chalmers Detroit. Only manufactured for two years, the model won 89 major competitions, including the 1909 Indiana Cup and the 1910 Glidden Tour. Collectors say that fewer than a dozen of the cars still exist today.

The third car, a 1912 Hudson “Mile A-Minute” speedster, is believed to be the first car built in America advertised as a “purpose-built race car.” Ianuario’s speedster is one of only five original remaining today; in 2011, he drove the car onto the racetrack at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to mark the track’s centennial.

The final car Ianuario will display is a 1929 Packard 645 Dietrich Bodied Individual Custom Convertible Coupe, a one-off design by the incomparable Raymond Dietrich. It was built especially for Lloyd W. Smith, the CEO of what is now Chase National Bank. The Packard had a radio installed in it at the time of its manufacture, making it one of the one of the first automobiles with this accessory; it’s one of the earliest “superheterodyne” radios known to exist. This Packard’s custom body has never been removed from its chassis and it has only 31,000 miles.

By Bernard Martin

When Wayne and I started this Concours LLC endeavor, we agreed on several groundrules:

• Any event we product has to be fun for those attending
• Any event we produce has to be profitable for our vendors and sponsors
• Any event we produce has to be welcoming to the media and bloggers and make them feel part of the team
• Any event we product should appear to happen seamlessly, no matter how complex the logistics are behind the scenes. 
  

When we get emails, like this one from Ford Heacock below, and phone calls from some folks we highly respect, and see very kind things written in articles about our events, we know that that the six hours of planning was more important than the six minute solution we could have tossed in and hoped for the best.

At our events we operate on keeping everything simple.  It's called K.I.S.S. by most. We don't ask a volunteer or judge to do anything more than a couple things that they can check off on the fingers of one hand. Otherwise people will  forget things if its too complicated.  This especially holds true for any first year event: You don't know what you don't know. 

At the end of the day, it really takes a team of great people to make a succesful event.  It takes every person on the team jumping in to lend a hand. 

We certainly had an "all hands on deck" moment last May.  We experienced the second highest amount of rainfall since the "1000 Year Flood" that closed the Greenbrier for a few months after the June 2016 high water mark destroyed so much of the facility.

We had watched the weather closely on Saturday and decided that we should be clear of rain during the Concours on Sunday.  We made the call at 2pm on Saturday afternoon. We would not need to implement our "rain plan" that would have required moving cars into the building by late Saturday afternoon.

Sunday was indeed beautiful, albeit slightly overcast, with only a few raindrops at the beginning of the Concours. Perfect weather for the photographers actually. What we had failed to pay close attention to was the severe amount of overnight rain.  I recall Wayne calling me as I was finishing some showfield marking about 10pm at night on Saturday.  The rain was coming down in buckets.  As I walked back to the golf cart for the last time, I told him we where finally ready for tomorrow and I was not going to make it to the Gala but was going to take a hot shower, have a glass of wine and get some sleep.

We could still handle that easily and but needed to take care of the other half of of the showfield classes.

We still needed a place to put five more judged classes.  Fortunately, the golf pro suggested the idea of putting cars in front of the main entrance to The Greenbrier.  We where very fortunate to have originally planned to use the front entrance for our show.  We pulled out and dusted off the very original plans that called for putting some iconic 20-30's era cars right in the middle of the roundabout and the brass cars under the roof.  We had a plan. We could park all the classes and have a show.

But how do we notify everyone?  It came down to the effort of the judges.  What an incredible group of judges Paul Ianuario assembled.  Each group called their class, told them where to go and when to unload.  The Volunteer hosts who had been to other car shows really pulled out the stops and made if happen.  OODA loops!

It really does take a lot of people to make an event success.  You've got to have a team and a that team you have to trust to do their jobs to the best of their own discretion. 

It's the people that mean alot to us. It's the people that should mean alot to your and your efforts doing a car event.