2010 High Performance Pontiac Show And Go

The 30th Annual Event Drew Some Top-Quality East Coast Pontiacs

From the April, 2011 issue of High Performance Pontiac

By Thomas A. DeMauro

Photography by John McCartney, Thomas A. DeMauro

Mother Nature smiled upon the 2010 High Performance Pontiac Show And Go (HPP Day) to celebrate its 30th year. Though the sky was threatening early on, there were periods of bright sunshine on Saturday May 22, 2010, and the local Pontiac fans responded by joining us for a day of showing and racing at Raceway Park in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey.

On the show side, there were several rows of familiar Pontiacs driven in by participants who have made the pilgrimage to Raceway Park a yearly tradition. It wouldn't be HPP Day without seeing Robert Schmeider's '87 Firebird getting polished to within an inch of its life, Richard Oliver's ever-changing '78 Macho Trans Am, Jack Romano's wildly flared '69 Firebird, Mike Spizziri's opulently optioned '69 GTO convertible (previous years) or pristine '69 GP, or Joe Portagallo's '67 GTO and the rest of the Staten Island crew. Though we are sure we missed a few more diehards, regardless of the weather-born schedule shuffling over the years, these are a few of the faithful who have been competing at HPP Day regularly.

These annual favorites were interspersed with some rarities, freshly finished restorations, and modifieds. Another pair of loyal participants is Ken Colacino and Nunzi Romano, who display showstoppers each year. Ken showed his original 1-of-16 '62 421 SD Grand Prix and Nunzi his '61 B/Stock 389 SD Bonneville convertible.

As you can see, competition on the show side was as intense as it was on the strip with many pristine machines vying for First in class and a shot at Best of Show Restored and Best of Show Modified. Since the event was on a Saturday, only muffled cars could run on the strip, but there was an unmuffled Pontiac class offered on Sunday for those who wanted to make noise and be quick in an effort to win a payout.

For Saturday's race, there were four Pontiac classes, plus a New Generation GTO High Roller Race and SLP Fun Classes. Like the show side, the race draws some hot shoes that have competed at this event many times over the years. Jamey Horton racing his '66 Tempest, Mickey Easse lead footing in his '66 2+2, and Richie Hoffman doing the same in his '86 Grand Am bring back memories of HPP Days gone by. Richie raced to victory on Sunday running unmuffled-a day that also marked the return to HPP Day of engine builder and HPP contributor Jim Taylor and his "Scalper" '65 GTO race car.

Given its mid-May date in 2010, HPP Day was a great way for racers to blow out the cobwebs and make shakedown passes for the season to come, and for show participants to detail their Pontiacs after a long winter and possibly win a trophy for their efforts. Follow the photos and captions to get the details on the exciting Pontiacs that we found at HPP Day and take a look at the Final-Round Action sidebar to see how your favorite racers fared.

The dates for the 2011 event will be posted in the Raceway Park schedule at www.etownraceway.com in late January 2011. We hope to see you and your Pontiac at the 31st annual event.