The Sandhills Motoring Festival (SMF), in Pinehurst, North Carolina, is one of my favorite events and it gets better every year.  I remember sitting in my first National Board meeting in 2016 while Steve Redwine, then Triangle Section President, now SMF VP of Marketing, and Bill Faison, current Section President, made their presentation asking for designation as a special national event.  I went to the event, then known as Pinehurst and with the concours on the golf course, and had a great time.   

Since then, the event has become self-sufficient, the concours has moved to the town streets, but the show, although certainly the culmination and the highlight of the weekend, was only part of the event.  There were activities all weekend, including tours and rallyes, a BBQ, a club dinner, and of course, the final banquet and auction.  Marvin Waters, President and co-founder of SMF, pulled it all together, and seemed to be everywhere at once. 

Eastern Regional Director Doug Geganto and I opted to attempt one of the rallyes and did not win.  In spite of my comments to Chris Smith, VP of IT & Operations and in charge of the rallyes, that the directions were “evil,” we had a great time and laughed our way through our mistakes.  Along the course, we got to see the Sandhills Community College campus.  The Festival generates funds to donate to the Automotive Technologies Program and this year they donated $20,000 to be used for scholarships to the program.

There were so many things to do that weekend, and I got to see many friends I hadn’t seen in so long.  It was amazing to see their smiling faces again.  I’m eager to get out again to visit more places and see more people.  We have many great events coming up. The ultimate event, of course, will be Mercedes Freude at Hilton Head, November 2-5.  If you haven’t signed up yet, I encourage you to do so. I’ll see you there.