With a brief article in the March 20, 2008, Lake Geneva News, an era has come to an end.  After the untimely death of her husband and partner, George, in April 2007, Jan Kreissl pushed on with the 30^th Annual Lake Geneva Classic Car Rally last September.  It would also be the last as Jan has announced that it is now time to bring it to a close.  This rally has been a mainstay of our Northern Illinois Regional Group touring calendar for at least 21 of those 30 years and to many of us was a highlight of the year.

 

Shortly after Corinne "Rinny" Kreissl was born on August 5, 1975, her parents George and Janice purchased a 1939 Ford Tudor that was to be her car sometime in the future.  George, who was born in the back seat of a 1936 Ford on the way to St. Anne’s hospital in Chicago, had learned to drive in a similar black 1939 Ford.  But the morning after they brought the car home, Rinny became seriously ill and was rushed to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.  Sadly, it was determined that she had Biliary Atresia, a terminal liver condition.  The following summer when Rinny was able to come home she loved to ride in the ‘39 Ford, sitting on Jan's lap and constantly keeping her hand on the gear shift knob.  The route they traveled was around Geneva Lake and for some reason always in a counter-clockwise direction.

 

After Rinny lost her battle in 1977, George and Jan had thoughts of some type of tour to commemorate and relive those trips around the lake.  A decision was made to add a poker rally theme to make the event more fun and the American Cancer Society was contacted for assistance.  The first rally, consisting of 27 vehicles, was held on a rainy September 17, 1978, starting at Popeye's in downtown Lake Geneva.  A car show was added to the rally in 1980 with Playboy Bunnies assisting in the awards presentation at the Playboy Club ski chalet.  Two hundred and sixty vehicles participated, nearly 10 times the number only two years earlier.  For the 10th anniversary rally in 1987, the concept of zones was introduced for dealing the poker hands.

 

Over the years many new events were added in conjunction with the rally:  a parade of classic cars from downtown Lake Geneva; flyovers by vintage airplanes; a "Taste of the Car Rally at Richardson's"; an antique wood boat show and antique outboard motor display at the Abbey Resort in Fontana; a dance called the “Hubcap-Runningboard Ball” at the legendary Riviera Ballroom on the Lake; the Eddie Cash show; a silent auction and other fund-raising efforts; a clown show for children, and many others.  The rally grew larger nearly every year:  470 cars for the 3rd annual rally, 750 for the 11th, 1,000 for the 22nd, and 1,100 for the 24th.  Over the 30 years, the rally raised nearly $675,000 for childhood cancer research.

 

Newer members of the club may not realize that George Kreissl was formerly a member of the Early Ford V-8 Club and submitted articles about the Classic Car Rally for publication in the V-8 Times.  We have found reports from the 2nd through the 6th rally reported in the V-8 Times.

 

The first known mention of the rally in the Road Chatter was in October 1980, but it was not organized as a formal tour until 1984.  In that year Marty Duling suggested that the club make a donation of $100 to the American Cancer Society and distribute the poker hands to anyone who attended a tour to the rally.  That tradition continued through the 30th annual rally.  Marty was instrumental in organizing or leading the early tours to the rally and for several years he and Leah volunteered as dealers at one of the card stops.  Marty was well known for finding interesting routes up back roads to the Lake Geneva area.  For several years Joey Novak or Rich Doligale served as coordinators for the rally tour.

 

In 1994, after Marty and Leah had left the Chicago area and moved to Kentucky, I somehow inherited the job as coordinator of the Lake Geneva Classic Car Rally tour.  While I counted on Marty to come up from Kentucky and lead us up to Lake Geneva for a few years, eventually I assumed that task as well.  In 1997 our tour was expanded to a three-day event with NIRG members participating in either the entire rally or portions of it to their liking.  Early on I started a tradition of approaching participants who may possibly have had a cocktail at lunch to solicit additional donations to the Cancer Society so we could increase our number of poker hands.  I’m proud that over these 14 years we have donated several thousand dollars on top of the $100 annual contribution from the NIRG.

 

Since Carolyn began helping me plan and conduct the tour to the rally in 1998, we have tried hard to make it a fun and exciting weekend.  Each year we tried to find new and interesting routes to the Lake Geneva area, different hotels and restaurants to visit over the weekend, and different mixes of the locations and routes to play our cards.  For the most part, we tried to stick to the “traditional” route of counter-clockwise around Geneva Lake.  We had a great time doing it and truly looked forward to this event every year.  We also fondly remember the great hospitality shown to our group many times by Earl & Gene Heintz at their cottage on Lake Como.

 

The classic car show on Sunday at this event was quite large and interesting.  There was also an extensive program where awards were given for poker hands and many door prizes were given away.  NIRG members have certainly come home with plenty of door prizes, but we know of only a few who received plaques for winning poker hands:  Nancy Novak had a winning hand of four 10’s and a 9 in1992, Nell Kozmic took 7th place in 1996, Carolyn won 9th in 1999 and again in 2005, and finally Carolyn won a $200 prize for the low hand last year with two jokers, an ace, a three, and a five.

 

As we said in the beginning, an era is over.  We support Jan for making that tough decision and congratulate her for the tremendous efforts she and George devoted to this cause for 30 years.  Plans are not yet formalized, but we will continue our NIRG tradition and hold a poker run to Wisconsin in September this year to remember the great times of the Lake Geneva Classic Car Rally.