OVLR at the British InvasionSeptember ____th, Stowe Vermont
Background: 
Starting the third Thursday in September every year, beautiful Stowe, Vermont, plays host to a dazzling collection of classic British Motorcars. Bentleys, Morgans, M.G.'s, stately Rolls Royces, sleek Aston Martins, Jaguars and Rovers. All contribute to more than forty classes of cars. From high brow to low slung, the gamut of British auto history is well represented. They come in by the hundreds to compete in two major car shows - People's Choice and the Concourse D'Elegance. Truly a British invasion of fabulous proportions in a magnificent, world-class alpine setting. Stowe has a British flavor and provides the perfect setting for such an event with; rolling hills, spectacular fall foliage, and wonderful winding roads to entice the British car enthusiast. The British Invasion has evolved to become one of the Top Ten Events in Vermont, and one of the larger all British car show on the East coast (British Car Day in Bowie Maryland is the largest). The participants are primarily from the US and Canada but we also get participants from the UK with over 600 cars on field, and approximately 1000 total. It has always been an international event, and has gained in popularity each year. Some of the sponsors include: Meguiar's Products, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars/Foreign Motors West, Classic & Sports Car Magazine, Rovers North, Triple C Motoring Accessories, British Marque Car Club News, Merrill Lynch, Yankee Candle Company & Car Museum, and Land Rover of North America/The Automaster. Over the years, Land Rover participation has grown from three Land Rovers to a point where Land Rovers out number any other single type of vehicle there. Last year there were nearly fifty Series vehicles in attendance. OVLR has always had a large presence at the Invasion, and for the past several years has been there with the Club Expedition Trailer in the centre of the Land Rover display.An account of the 2000 British Invasion can be found at http://www.ovlr.org/OVLR.events.stowe00.html. This includes the newsletter article and press coverage of the Land ROver presence at the Invasion from other newspapers.When:
September 13-16th.
Activities Rovers North has run a Trials course at the Invasion ($20 fee) with some pretty nifty prizes for the person who scores the lowest in navigating through all of the canes.
And then there are the Peoples' Choice awards, where we all get to vote for those vehicles that truly represent the more interesting parts of the Land Rover community. In 2000, Dixon Kenner won the Series Land Rover category, while Dale Desprey's Gin Palace won for Range Rovers. And then there is the matter of a particular Jaguar which is always neglected!
Then there is RoverPolo. A new event introduced at the British Invasion last year, and played by several teams with great enthusiasm. This event was created by Chris Francis after seeing a television advertisement stating that only some Japanese vehicle could play polo. Well, RoverPolo was born. RoverPolo is difficult to describe (go to http://www.roverpolo.org for pictures, links and a quicktime movie of the game being played), but is essentially polo played with brooms, a large beach ball, and Land Rover, preferably over stressed 109 pick-up's with a dicey rear half shaft, yet solid enough to win the game! The idea is to drive in circles with the passenger trying to bang the ball towards the goal line, while the other team is trying the same thing. Driving over the ball is a no-no. The local northern Vermont weekly rag "7 Days" has a column that repeats snippets from other papers. This is from Stowe Reporter, September 21. We have not seen the original Stowe Reporter article so we don't know if this is verbatim or a paraphrasing that puts a "7 Dats" spin on the things.... "Stowe was recently home to the "British Invasion," a weekend festival that pounded hard on our Anglo heritage; one of the events was a Land Rover polo match, billed as the "first on the planet." If this idea sparks anxiety instead of amazement, then fear not: "Drivers were restricted to first gear, so there were no injuries to vehicles or players."
"We can't help but notice that Stowe and environs may be the only part of the state where there are enough Land Rovers to fill out a polo string and enough folks who know the rules to hold a decent chukker. Still, Land Rover Polo may be more fun to play than to watch: "The event proved so popular with participants," we're told, "that even when the crowd left to look at vintage cars, they played on." "No matter who reported this event we should to point out that none of the participating rovers were from anywhere near Stowe or it's environs... real Stowe Rover owners would never be seen with riffraff like us.... Well guys it looks like we may eventually get to park on the other side of the barbwire fence on the field. Christine Rose received a personal note via e-mail from Christopher Francis organizer of the British Invasion welcoming us all (yes he quite vividly remembers us).As last year, OVLR may be hosting our own dinner rather than dealing with the confusion of making reservations for a constantly changing total. Experience in the past has shown that with the competition from other groups of people, that this gets very stressful for the restaurants, and it is far easier to take matters into our own hands. Details will be available at the Club Expedition trailer on the Saturday of the event. Sound like a good idea? As it would be prudent to give him some approximate numbers in advance please drop me an e-mail if you would like to join us on this unofficial OVLR fine dining experience - oh and lots of beer swilling too! Also as a followup to keep our frugal members a little richer (more beer money) OVLR will be offering our classic tube steak lunch (with condiments) on Saturday at the OVLR trailer and a little breakfast on Sunday for those who get up before 11:00am and offer to help. Don't wait too late to e-mail me for this wonderful club offer (you still have to pay for it yourself though) or it may fall through the cracks. Hear from y'all soon, Reservations/RSVP:If you will be attending the British Invasion, you will need to pre-register beforehand with the British Invasion organizers at http://www.britishinvasion.com The cost of registration for the event to bring your vehicle onto the field is US$45. There is a lesser charge if you park outside and walk in.
Christine would also appreciate knowing if you will be attending any of the meals so she can get a fairly accurate count of people
Activities:Besides looking at a huge number of cars.
