Triangle Chapter Activities and Stories - 2022
Triangle Chapter Holiday party, December 4, 2022
Our traditional Holiday party was a success with 35 members attending. Many thanks to Bob Safrit for hosting the event at the Stag Club which was decorated for the holidays. Marilee Sanderson and the social committee organized the event with decorations, table arrangements, hors d'oeuvres, and before dinner drinks during the social hour. Jean Soehnlein arranged a great meal catered from Piper’s Tavern. The meal choices on the buffet were Chicken Cordon Bleu and Salmon, potatoes, and green beans. There were choices of different cakes for dessert. Every year we participate in a game called “Dirty Santa”. Each couple brings a wrapped gift that has a value of at least $10 and must be edible! We have automobile trivia questions which are answered and discussed as names are drawn, gifts selected, gifts unwrapped, or gifts stolen. Each member is called upon to answer a trivia question and then go to the gift table to pick one of the wrapped gifts and unwrap it at their table for all to see. The next member can then either steal a gift or go to the table and choose a new gift. This year the vote was only two steals. For many years we have had a “Pink Elephant” disguised as a gift. The member who discovers they are the recipient of the Pink Elephant has the duty to return it next year, wrapped in a mysterious way again. This year the elephant was disguised in a Jack-in-the box with a pink elephant instead of a clown. In addition, those attending brought unwrapped Toys for Tots! The toys were be taken to the Marines Toys for Tots drive in Wake Forest.
Chick Fil-A Cruise-in, November 12, 2022
Thanks again to Jack Agayoff for organizing the Triangle Chapter Cruise-in at the Chick Fil-A on Capital Boulevard. This is the 16th time we have held this event. Jack indicated there were 20 vehicles including 18 Triangle cars and 2 potential member cars. The Chick Fil-A is enjoying great deal of customer popularity with two lanes of drive thru and an filled restaurant. Many customers took the time to enjoy looking at our vehicles. The oldest vehicle displayed was Riley Reiner's 1930 Model A on its first time out in 18 years. Glenn Ott and his son John drove their 1931 Packard on an adventure from Creedmoor. Also there for first time appearances were a 1967 Corvair Corsa and a 1958 Metro. We enjoyed the day with good conversation and a Chick Fil-A coupon for a sandwich. Here are a few pictures from the day. 
Above photo courtesy of Roger Burbage
Jack Agayoff's '59 Retractable Riley Reiner's 1930 Model A 
Riley and Dean Bill Warner's Packard
Bob Gahr's Corvair Corsa Warren Daniels ford Street Rod
Triangle Chapter at the Medal of Arts Ceremony, October 20, 2022
Five Triangle Members provided their antique vehicles to deliver dignitaries to the City of Raleigh Arts Commission event honoring Raleigh awardees' for extraordinary achievements in the arts. Andrea Irby organized the drivers and vehicles and provided her Mustang as one vehicle. Other members providing vehicles were Jim Gill, Joe Parsons, Barry Kitchener, and Dan Fuccella. 
See photos of the event including members vehicles taken by Chris Facey and Willa Stein at:
shareable dropbox link
Triangle Chapter at St. Thomas More Academy, October 11, 2022
Four members of the Triangle Chapter were invited by Kate Kirkpatrick, Instructor in Humanities and Agricultural Arts, to bring their antique vehicles to the St. Thomas More Academy High School for part of their class on the 1950s. Triangle members bringing vehicles were Mike Petersen 1955 Dodge, Dean Tryon 1959 Buick, Dan Fuccella 1950 Willys-Overland Jeep and Denny Oestreich 1957 Chevrolet. Mike Petersen provided a presentation on titled, 1950s The Golden Age of Automobile Styling. To see Mikes Presentation Click HERE. After the presentation the students were invited to view the vehicles and ask questions. Many rides around the campus were given. We discovered that the new cars the students are familiar with no longer have ash trays, cigarette lighters, wing windows or pull up to open door handles.
Mike Petersen Presenting "1950s Auto Styling" at St. Thomas More Academy
More Pictures from event taken by Kate Kirkpatrick are at:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QuFwC8OOVASyKKsMYzoD_RMKHrxONw2H?usp=sharing
Triangle Chapter Ice Cream Social, August 14, 2022
Many thanks go to Tom and Debbie Pruitt for hosting the this years Triangle Chapter Ice Cream Social at their new home. There were about 50 members participating with many driving their Antique vehicles. Tom and Debbie had prepared their home for serving the ice cream, toppings and desserts brought by members. Jean Soehnlein arranged for the drinks, dishes, and utensils. Tom and Debbie arranged their porch and garage with tables and chairs for everyone. A short meeting was held to discuss upcoming Triangle events and opportunities to show and display our cars.
Tom opened up his antique car garages for everyone to look over his car collection.
Zooland Car Show August, 2022
By Courtney Johnston
I thought you might be interested to learn of Harlow's (his car is named Harlow) recent trip to the AACA Regional event at Zooland. The biggest accomplishment, was this was Harlow's longest trip ever, 163 miles! I made it on 1 tank of gas (12.5 gal) for a new record high 13 mpg. Hard to start cold, but she pulled strong and steady all day. I met David Clark, who has an immaculate 1941 Buick Super Phaeton Convertible, just like the one featured in the recent Hemmings Classic Cars, only David's is a beautiful shade of blue. It a AACA Grand National Senior winner and is perfection. The first car like that I have ever been close to. The other original pre-war was a real clean 1940 Ford Tudor. The Zoolanders are very friendly, hospitable people and they run a good show in a small park downtown. It was packed at about 150 cars. It’s a show worth travelling to.Since there were only 3 original pre-war cars, guess who won 2nd place? David got Best in Show, the Ford was 1st and Harlow got 2nd. Pics enclosed. Harlow also won the "Longest distance driven" award. A real accomplishment for an 85 year old car. "When Better Cars are Built......" For a Guy who doesn't want to deal with trophies, this Guy sure has a big smile!
Keeping One Old Buick on the Road,
Courtney
Triangle Chapter Car Display at the Oaks June 11, 2022
Five Triangle Chapter members displayed their vehicles at the Pruitt Heath Center (The Oaks) during an activity day at the center. The staff had arranged games and activities for the residents and their visitors. Participating members included John DiPietro (Avanti), Ray Bader (1978 Monti Carlo), Dan Fuccella (1950 Jeep), Alvis Speight (1958 Metropolitan), and Denny Oestreich 1957 Chevy. This was the same site as the spring display a year ago.
Sandhills Motor Festival Pinehurst, NC May 28, 2022
Jim Gill and Andrea Irby attended the Sandhills Motor Festival held in downtown Pinehurst. This is an example of the car shows that are occurring on weekends. The display featured a mix of vehicle including some classic Antiques and a even a new Ferrari.
Triangle Chapter 2000 Car Show April 30, 2022
After nearly three years due to Covid caution we pulled off a successful Triangle Chapter Car Show. Our venue at the Wake Tech North Campus at the Hendrick Center for Excellence provided a good backdrop for our show. We had 72 Vehicles registered with a mix of 29 Authentic, 12 Modified, 9 Historic Preservation, and 17 Driver Participation vehicles. There were vehicles from 1925 thru 1997 entered.
The facility was prepared in the early morning with tables and chairs provided by Wake Tech. Registration lead by Helen DiPietro started at 9 am with entrants driving through the Wake Tech Wake Tech garage to register. After leaving the garage the entrants drove to the sow field where Triangle members assisted to park their vehicles. Judging started at 11:30 with six judging teams selecting the winning vehicles.
(Thanks to Andrew Giambalvo for the pictures).
Activities of the day included looking at the many great vehicles and talking with the owners. There was also an opportunity to tour the Wake Tech Center for Automotive Excellence. This facility provides students with the opportunity to learn automotive repair and maintenance in first class facility. One Take A-Par-T demonstration was led by Riley Reiner with spectators watching the disassembly and reassembly and the driving off of our 1917 Ford Model-T. The assembly time was 10 minutes 27 seconds with many Triangle members participating. Eight young people attending the show participated in Youth Judging. Mike Petersen and Joe Parsons helped the youngsters to learn about judging. (See Joe Parsons story about Youth Judging below). Two food trucks provided car show participants with snacks, drinks, and lunches.
At 2:15 the awards were presented with Andrea Irby doing an excellent job of announcing. Jim Gill crafted all the awards. By 2:30 the show was over as we advertised.
Thanks to the many Triangle volunteers for organizing, registering, parking vehicles, judging, making this a special show. A special thanks to Joe Parsons and Warren Daniels for recruiting sponsors. Thanks to Dan Fuccella, Jim Gill and Mike Hess for being Car Show CO-Chairmen.
See the Sponsor List below. Please say thank you to our sponsors when you have an opportunity.
Triangle Triangle Chapter 2022 Car Show Youth Judging April 30, 2022
By Joe Parsons
Our chapter hosted its annual car show on April 30, 2022 at the Wake Tech Community College which opened the Hendrick Center for Automotive Excellence/Hendrick Automotive Group. It is a huge educational center for automotive mechanical and body shop education.
One of our Triangle club's highlights at each of our shows is the Hagerty Youth Judging where children have an opportunity to judge three cars with help from an expert judge. Mike Petersen was the instructor for the youth judging this year. Mike has 361 AACA National judging credits and has judged at every AACA National in 34 states. Mike has been a member of AACA for 32 years and for nine of those years he attended all AACA National shows. Mike is the AACA Chairman of the Specified Class Committee, a member of the Judging Committee, the National Awards Committee, and the Class Acceptance Committee.
The youth judges enjoy giving the car owners their award ribbons for first, second and third. You can see their judging forms, name tags and red Haggerty hats which they really liked.
Perhaps the little girl leaning on her dad’s car was too young to be a judge (It is really a doll.)
A highlight of youth judging is the presentation of T-shirts and a small trophy. No matter their age they all enjoyed the judging experience. Club member Dan Fuccella works with Hagerty each year to obtain the shirts, hats, name badges, judging forms ,coloring books and crayons. The trophies are not part of the Hagerty package of supplies, club member Jim Gill makes these small trophies for the youth judges, probably their first such award. If you would like more information on having your own youth judging you can contact Dan at (919-349-5911).
Bentonville Battlefield Tour March 26, 2022
Eight Triangle Chapter members attended a tour of the Bentonville, NC Civil War Battlefield tour with demonstrations and narration about the battle. Two Buicks were part of this tour, Courtney's 1939 Buick, a Buick Regatta. Other vehicles included Jim Schreiber's 1963 Ford, and Allen and Anne Moody's 1957 Chevy Truck. The tour started at the Bentonville Battleground Museum, near Newton Grove, NC and then we drove out short distances to four significant battle locations to hear about the battle progress.
Dressed in their Civil War reenactment uniforms with authentic weapons were Triangle member Courtney Johnston and Fred Burt, Lt Col US Army (ret.) They demonstrated their Confederate uniforms and the civil war weaponry. They also provided an overview of significant events of the Battle of Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865. Both of the presenters had ancestors who were in the Civil War.
Bentonville was the last major attack made by the Confederate Army of Tennessee lead by General Joseph E. Johnston to stop the Union Army lead by General Sherman from reaching the railroad junction in Goldsboro. Bentonville is the largest battle ever fought on NC soil. The Battle of Bentonville in nearby Johnston County NC was the last full-scale action of the Civil War in which a Confederate army was able to mount a tactical offensive. This major battle was the only significant attempt to defeat the large Union army of Gen. William T. Sherman during its march through the Carolinas in the spring of 1865.
As a result of this battle and the loss of Fort Fisher the Union Army was able to secure the eastern portion on NC and proceed thru Raleigh to Durham where War was ended in NC on April 17, 1865 with Johnston's surrender. There were an estimated 16,000 Confederate troops under Johnston versus 20,000 Union Troops engaged in the battle. It is estimated there were 4,133 casualties during the battle.
There are 28 roadside historic markers that identify significant events of this in the Bentonville area. You should visit this location if you are a history buff. Thanks to Courtney and Col. Burt for the informative tour.
Triangle Chapter Chili Cookoff March 19, 2022
The Triangle Chapter’s Chili Cook-Off was held at Joel Hoffman’s home on March 19, 2022. Thirty-two members attended. Picking up from where we left off in 2019 the turnout was a great for resuming our social activities. The weather was good for driving antique vehicles so there were 15 parked along Joels driveway. Joel had his garage open for members to look at his projects. There were tables set up both inside and outside.
Members brought ten chilies, five corn breads, and six desserts. The Chili lunch was served buffet style with everyone tasting several of the chilies. The names of some of chilies varied from Wendy’s recipe, family favorites, names that contained heat warnings and other hints of gentle content or danger. With the corn breads and a side salad the mix made a great lunch. After eating, everyone voted on the awards for best chili, hottest chili, best cornbread, and best dessert. The award for Best Chili went to Bob Gault for his now famous bear chili. Prizes were presented in decorated bags painted by Jean Soehnlein.
Many thanks to Jean Soehnlein for organizing the event and preparing the awards. Thanks also to Joel for hosting us in his home.
