Welcome to the 2007 B.E.A.T.

British Euro Auto Tour

10^th. Anniversary

April 21-22, 2007

Phoenix – Flagstaff, Arizona USA

150 Registered Drivers Plus Navigators

In Arizona when we check the weather, it really means we want to find out if it’s going to just be hot and sunny or really hot and sunny. So when I checked the weather for the weekend of the tour and found out there was a 30% chance of rain I really gave it little thought. I sometimes think the weatherman deviates from his usual sunny forecast just to see if anyone is listening. Saturday morning, 3 a.m. when I got up, clear windy skies. Nothing to worry about I thought. An hour later just as Janice & I were greeting Rob Lester & Coty Mirinda to get ready to drive to the registration point, the rain had started. Wow! Rain, the first time in the history of the tour. What problems would it entail? Handing out the “goodie bags” and final registration was a little more work as we had to work from within the U-Haul truck instead of forming several lines of drivers and speeding up the procession. Once on the road towards our first stop, the clouds parted and in Wickenburg, soft tops were being lowered and drivers and passengers were all excited again. On this tour, we were very excited to have a photo-journalist join us. After writing two articles on British car ownership, it was very easy to persuade Coty to join us. Janice & I put together a list of “volunteers” to provide a navigator’s seat for Coty throughout the tour. So, on each leg of the journey, She was treated with a different ride in some of the most exciting British / European classics available. So join us and click on each of the above icons for a pictorial journal through Arizona. From Phoenix we traveled northwest to Wickenburg. After hot coffee and donuts and special parking for our group we then proceeded to Prescott by way of Skull Valley to enter Prescott on the west side to find “Whiskey Row” blocked off and special parking only for our group. We had lunch in Prescott by using the special “B.E.A.T. BUCKS”, discounts that were granted at six local restaurants waiting for our group. Leaving Prescott, we traveled over the Mingus Mountains and through Jerome to our next destination, Riverfront Park in Cottonwood. While in Cottonwood, enjoying cold drinks and ice cream, Rob Lester was busy taking individual pictures of cars and their drivers and the pictures were presented Sunday morning during the group breakfast so drivers could insert the pictures in the provided, Special 10^th. Anniversary photo frames. From Cottonwood some of the drivers decided to proceed through Sedona and into Flagstaff by way of Oak Creek Canyon and enjoy the special scenery provided by that route while others decided to drive through Cornville and into Flagstaff. Upon arriving at our overnight facilities, Little America, we checked in to our very spacious rooms and got ready for the Saturday night “Happy Hour”. During this time, Steve Gram was busy collecting camera media cards from drivers so He could display the pictures taken during that day’s drive. These pictures, over 1250 collected are what make up this web site. A special thanks to Matt Williams for designing and hosting our site and all the work necessary to display several years of pictures. The pictures were displayed Saturday evening on large screen TVs for the group to enjoy and then again Sunday morning during breakfast. Every driver received in his or her “Goodie Bag” all the fun stuff that makes a tour enjoyable ~ t-shirts, ball caps, license plates, rally book, dash plaque, B.E.A.T. Bucks, raffle tickets & the current edition of “Vintage Motorsports” magazine. A special thanks to Mike Silverman and his organization for supplying that great magazine. During the group breakfast Sunday morning, a total of 75+ raffle prizes were handed out to drivers. During this time, Stephen Golde present to the group His design for the “Governor’s Trophy”. For several years Stephen has designed special trophies for the tour and this traveling trophy, in memory of Roger Guzowski, original founder of the B.E.A.T. drive, was awarded to one of four drivers that have been on all 10 tours. Those participants are Lance & Tham Johnson, Stephen Golde, Ken Schmidt / Deborah Cooke & Mike & Janice Goodwin had the opportunity to win this traveling trophy for a year. The winning drivers were selected and Ken & Deborah, will display the trophy until the next tour, April 19, 2008. A super big thank you goes out to all the volunteers that assisted in making the B.E.A.T. drive the success that it is. Please enjoy the pictures from this year and previous years drives and plan on joining us April 19-20, 2008 for our next driving tour.