Going for the "Duntov"

07/21/2023 - It was finally time to begin the 1,093-mile trek to French Lick, Indiana, for the NCRS National Convention. Staci and I loaded up the Corvette and headed North. The two-day drive ended at the beautiful French Lick Springs Resort in the mountains of Indiana.

We parked the trailer and checked in, and the next morning moved the car from the trailer to the staging area for the operations check for Monday morning.

Secured in the parking garage, I gave her a quick cleaning .

After that, we had some lunch in the beautiful Rotunda before hitting the Casino.

The next day, the Operations judging began in earnest. As luck would have it, the light bulb in my ashtray burned out, and I lost ten judging points. Hopefully, that would be the only gremlin for the week.

Once the Operations check was complete, I drove the car into the convention center. There were so many Corvettes that we ended up in the lower area. You can see my car just beyond the blue convertible in the foreground. There were over a hundred Corvettes for the National Convention for Judging.

Staci and I enjoyed the Convention for several days, with tasty food and good friends.

Finally, July 27th arrived, and the judging for my car began.

The car was judged in Five categories: Operations, Exterior, Interior, Chassis, and Mechanical. Each category took about one hour with two judges doing a thorough inspection.

As soon as the scoring was complete, I knew where I stood. I breathed a sigh of relief, hugged Staci, and a moment later, the National team leader, Chuck Berge, a man I've come to know and respect over the last two years, came over to offer his congratulations.

We had done it! Scoring a 98.1%, we had earned a National Top-Flight!

Moments later, I broke the news to my good friend Dan Martin, the mechanic responsible for this amazing feat.

What an incredible accomplishment. I had realized my dream of bringing this car from a dusty storage unit all the way to the pinnacle of the Corvette restoration world. The NCRS Duntov Mark of Excellence Award.

That night the Awards banquet was a wonderful celebration. The man responsible for the success of the Corvette, Zora Arkus-Duntov, has passed away, but follow on engineers and GM's, legends in C4 model and beyond in the world of Corvette, the great Dave McClellan and Davy Hill were both on hand and signed my Duntov plaque.

I was still in shock at what we had accomplished.

From this:

To this:

Quite a journey!

On the way home, Staci and I celebrated with a stop at Mecca: The Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky. We also took a tour of the Corvette assembly plant next door. I highly recommend both if you ever find yourself in the vicinity.

It's been an exciting ride for the Gar Wood Vette. Thanks for coming along with me!

Copyright 2024