Sunnyland boys storm the Festivals of Speed at the Orlando Ritz Carton on Grande Lakes! 
Report by Don Kehr

The Sunnyland Chapter was well represented this past weekend at Joe Sabatini’s “FESTIVAL OF SPEED” held on Friday night at the Orlando Executive Airport hangar complex and Sunday at the Ritz Carlton.  We were featured on the front lawn by the main fountain and our setup attracted a good crowd. We got some new SCAMPY kids along with another mentor and believe we will have some new club members as well. It was a very professionally run event with 300+ cars including two Ferraris worth over 3 million each and many Supercars along with the classics. 

The Friday night “Luxury Lifestyle Event” was a $100 ticket and featured the Batmobile driven by Christian Bale to “the Tumbler” and food from high end restraints like Ruth’s Chris. We also met “Eddie Munster” from the hit 70’s T.V. show.

Our group was represented (see picture right to left) by Bruce Kester, Don Taylor, Jamie Smith, Skip Frey, Lou Ronca, Terry Fiest, and Don Kehr.

Not shown included Don Johnson who brought his newly finished Century Coronado done by Old Time Boat Co. and the grandson of the founder of Wise Boat Works from Mt. Dora, Chris Wise who brought his unrestored Wise boat, which the crowd loved!

Thanks to everyone who participated at the show along with Dave Doner, who helped move the SCAMPY donated boat, Craig Hartwig who opened the storage facility for us and Dave Nagel for the use of his truck.

Joe Sabatini, organizer of FESTIVALS OF SPEED, spent a half hour with our guys discussing the future and next year he’d love to have us along the lakefront with maybe a few in the water!  Terry Fiest and Don Kehr both won awards of large Waterford Crystal Vases with bases.

Please forward this message to anyone you think might like to see it, and if you receive it and want to be on future invitations, please e-mail Don Kehr at drkehr@msn.com.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend!



  • Pictures of individual boats with brief descriptions are included in the Tuesday Tour of Vintage Boats
  • Stories and reports will become one of the news posts which are freshly published nearly on a daily basis

This ACBS website belongs to everyone who appreciates antique and classic boats and boating. We hope you enjoy what is already on the ACBS website and think of ways you can be an active part of this community.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.