IT'S SHOWTIME
Jan 24, 2008
Author: Bobby Martin

After a great outing at the Hampton Roads Auto Show in Virginia Beach VA, (my first time there, by the way) I'm off to the Buffalo Auto Show February 6th through the 10th.

The Virginia Beach area (Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, and of course, Virginia Beach) is a real hot area in the auto industry. They are desperately seeking new techs! Sean Brickell, Executive Vice President of the HRADA (Hampton Roads Auto Dealers Association), told me that if he had 75 techs ready to work, he could find them jobs the next day! So I was called in to motivate area high school students to either continue with their automotive careers or to start one. The Virginia Beach Convention Center is only a year old, and it provided a tremendous backdrop for the show.

They had live TV coverage by Channel 3. Reporter Cristen Crowley and I did four live segments from the show floor. The first one was at 6am Saturday. I felt like Matt Lauer.

Buffalo will be different. The main thing is that the mighty CAP CHARGER will be featured on the show floor, right along with the other new Dodges! I'll speak on Wednesday morning at a special breakfast for the salespeople. The highlight will be the Auto Tech Competition Awards Banquet Thursday evening. I'll be around at various other times to answer questions about the race car and do autographs and stuff. One cool kick is a scheduled radio interview with Sandy Beach (the guy's name). The thing about that is I used to listen to Sandy when I was growing up in Lewiston, New York, which is real close to Niagara Falls. He was one of the hottest DJ's in the area.

You've heard about all the changes with drivers and sponsors this year. It's brutal out there. I'd love to join the party by making an announcement here. I can't because things aren't finalized yet. If everything goes okay, it'll be one of the "majorest" announcements I've ever made. We may be racing soon, so the cat'll be out of the bag.
Stay tuned.