2708 miles later, Ive returned home and all I can think about was how amazing this past week has been. To say Focus Rising 14 was a success would be an understatement. We had 54 guests at our Welcome Dinner on Thursday evening which is a record for us, and a lot of new faces showed up as well. Then at our Dyno Day at McNews Automotive we had over 30 cars show up and 10 dyno. Another record. Looking at the show on Saturday, we had 134 cars registered on the showfield and of course, that was another record for us. Then you add in the special vehicle presentation to FR by Holman Moody, the TrackSTer on display at our awards, and Ken Anderson from Mountune as our guest speaker and it was all epic. Sunday we had a fantastic turnout at the autocross where many Focus and Fiesta owners showed what they can really do in their vehicles compared to the higher horsepower Ford vehicles in attendance. Evan even took FTD in a stock Fiesta on sticky tires! To top that off, during the club challenge presentation, we won first place yet again! This time by 37 cars over second place! To say Focus Rising is becoming a legacy might not be too far off. So now that Im home and remembering all of these great moments, they still dont compare to all the times in between where I got to see some old friends in person once again. Thats what makes this event so special. We are like one big dysfunctional family that sees each other once a year and somehow we dont kill each other. lol With all of that said, I want to extend some thank yous to many people that helped make Focus Rising 14 the success that it was. Ron Myers. Ron was the man behind the scenes. While I dealt with people and event planning, Ron dealt with sponsors and tangible like the logo and shirts. Without Rons help and experience, there is no way Focus Rising would have happened. Matt Gagnon and Jeremy Gillings. Both of these guys stepped up at the last second to assist me with car show judging and the awards ceremony when my other judge couldnt make the event. The car show judging wouldnt have happened without them because I wouldnt have made it through all those cars in time by myself. Karl Weber, Jamie Parton, and Joseph Eggert. These three guys helped out with many of the preparations for the food during the awards banquet. Joe stepped up at the last second ad well to do some extra store runs for items when we needed. Mary Flinn. What did Mary do? A little of everything! Whenever I needed something to be handled, I simply asked Mary and she was able to assist. I could always rely on her in a pinch to help with those small, but critical items. Laura Grimshaw Hale, Rachel Pérez, and Denise Farrar. These three helped assemble the goodie bags on Friday afternoon, and with over 100 bags, it would have taken forever without their help. I know there are many more people that assisted in other ways, and some of the people above did more than just what I listed, so if I forgot your name, I do apologize. The biggest thank you I want to give out is to everyone that attended! Without such a great group of people who wish to join our event every year, we wouldnt be able to keep making it better as the years go on! Weve already started to kick around ideas for FR15 as we are still shooting for that 200 cars mark. Hopefully next year will be that success! So once again, thank you to everyone! I had a blast and I am glad to say I am a part of the Focus Rising family. Ill see everyone again next year. -Jason
Posted on: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 19:33:42 +0000
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