3S National Gathering

3000GT/Stealth National Gathering

2004 National Gathering (photo by Alan Sheffield)

Quick Info

First Meet	August 9, 2002 Elkhart, IN
Latest Meet	June 19-24, 2012 Indianapolis, IN
Next Meet	July 9-14, 2013 St. Louis, MO
Max Attendance	234 (2005)
Committee Members	Original: Jeremy & Tiffany Gleason Current: Lori Sheffield Alan Sheffield Bob Melton
Past Locations	Elkhart, Indiana Indianapolis, Indiana Memphis, Tennessee St. Joseph, Michigan St. Louis, Missouri Stevensville, Michigan
Website	http://www.3sng.org

The 3S National Gathering (3SNG) is the largest annual event for the Mitsubishi 3000GT and Dodge Stealth platform in the world.

The origin of the 3000GT/Stealth National Gathering can be traced back to the DSM Shootout in August of 2001. Two members of the 3S community, JeremyG and TiffanyG, had just purchased a 1991 Pearl White Dodge Stealth the month prior to the shootout and were attending their first car event ever. Not long after, Jeremy and Tiffany met many other 3000GT/Stealth owners, including: XWing, Hans91GT, Trevor, RacerX, Dave Best, 3SX (now 3SX Performance), Matt Monett, Eric Bowden (SUTHNR) and several others. A conversation started between them about gatherings. Eric Bowden told Jeremy about the East Coast Gathering and Jeremy mentioned how cool it would be to have a national event just for 3000GT and Stealth owners and their cars. They discussed the idea of having many racing events, a car show, and more. The ultimate goal each year would be to find a “Best All Around” 3000GT and/or Stealth. Eric wished Jeremy luck.

Not long after, a thread started on 3000GT/Stealth International discussing national car events and how awesome it would be to hold a nation-wide event just for the platform. Many people voiced their opinions and thoughts on the matter, but no one had volunteered to take on the task of making it a reality. After giving it more consideration and several weeks of persuasion and discussions, Jeremy talked Tiffany into giving it a try. The only stipulation that they made was that the event needed to be held in their hometown in order to make the undertaking less work and to minimize the risk. Together they made a post asking if anyone minded if they took lead on the project. After no objections the 3/S National Gathering was on its way of becoming real.

Making a gathering of this size was completely new territory to both Jeremy and Tiffany. They had no idea what to expect or how many might attend, as they were new to the community, only had the opportunity to meet a few other 3S owners at the DSM Shootout, and had never attended any other 3000GT/Stealth Gatherings. At the time, they were hoping to be able to get at least 50 cars show up.

After they had announced their plans with the dates for the first National Gathering set, the topic became a huge conversation piece throughout the community (much to their surprise). Several people stepped up to help, including those who Jeremy and Tiffany had never met. One volunteer was Matt Saskin (3SI member msaskin), a then 17-year-old from California who was willing to design the website and registration form for the event. He made the drive from California and arrived several days early to help with the final steps. Without Matt’s help, the first National Gathering would have been very difficult for Jeremy and Tiffany to pull off.

The History of the 3000GT/Stealth National Gathering

2002 3S National Gathering (Elkhart, Indiana)

Dates: August 9 - August 11, 2002

2002 3SNG Logo

August 9, 2002 had arrived, the small town of Elkhart was in awe as nearly 180 Dodge Stealth and Mitsubishi 3000GT’s invaded the small town. This was such an amazing sight! Never before had this many 3000GT and Stealths been together in the United States. Although the event didn’t go 100% smooth (registration was a disaster, all the events started late, and they were way too many events scheduled in such a short amount of time) it was still the talk of the town and the 3S community for the next several months.

The official vehicle and participant registration statistics from the 2002 3S National Gathering recorded:

2002 3SNG Banner #1

2002 3SNG Banner #2

Vehicles

Total Registered: 178 (from 29 US States + 2 from Canada)

Car Show: 136

Car Wash: ~100

Participants

Guests: 114

Autocross: 46

Road Course: 15

Drag Race: 59

Drag Spectators: 240

Car Show Spectators: ~400

2003 3S National Gathering (St. Louis, Missouri)

Dates: July 9 - July 13, 2003

2003 3SNG Logo

On the final day at the banquet it was announced that the 2003 National Gathering would be held in Saint Louis, MO. The local chapter was to plan and run the event with guidance from Jeremy and Tiffany anytime they needed it.

The event was well planned and they had made many improvements to the event. It was considered a success and fun was had by all. The event was changed to 5 days so all events could be more enjoyable. The NG was also taken to the next level by having the events held at Gateway National Park. Having the events at a nationally known track set a new standard for all future locations. The event ended up hosting 183 cars.

2003 3SNG Banner #1

2003 3SNG Banner #2

Although the event was a success, after a meeting with the sponsors, a decision was made that the only way this event could be a total success in the future was if a committee was founded and the same people ran the event year after year. After being asked by the sponsors, Jeremy and Tiffany decided to continue planning the event with the help of a committee. They asked John Monnin and Alan Sheffield to help them form the first National Gathering Committee. This meeting shaped the future expectations of the National Gathering.

The 4 of them spent the first couple of months discussing what changes needed to be made to make this event a “national” event that could be admired by all car groups. They came up with the decision that 2004 would be held in Indianapolis, the racing capital of the world, July 14-18. Many plans were made to make this new location much bigger and better than ever.

2004 3S National Gathering (Indianapolis, Indiana)

Dates: July 14 - July 18, 2004

2004 3SNG Logo

All the racing events we held at Indianapolis Raceway Park. A special behind the scenes tour of Indianapolis Motor Speedway was also added to the year’s activities. This included special tours of the entire track, press box, etc. We also made arrangements for the “Official Car” of the 1991 Indy 500 (the Yellow Dodge Stealth) to be brought out on display so everyone was able to see the car that had been in storage for many years. The event was a huge success and to this day is considered to be the best 3/S National Gathering ever. The event also broke a new record with 198 cars.

Due to the success of the event and with only major problem being Mother Nature bringing rain during the drag races, the committee was comfortable with moving the event further away from home. They made the decision shortly after the end of NG04 to move the event to Memphis, TN. The dates were chosen and locations and official hotel were set but due to circumstances out of their control, this location could not happen. This information came extremely late in the planning process. A new location had to be found as soon as possible. After contacting a few other locations the committee decided to move closer to home in Michigan, but utilize a nicer drag strip. That is how Saint Joseph came about.

2005 3S National Gathering (St. Joseph, Michigan)

Dates: July 20 - July 24, 2005

2005 3SNG Banner

The 2005 event was designed to be more of a social setting, and “getting back to basics” while still keeping the racing events high-quality locations. It was also decided to move the car show to the beach and turn the banquet into a picnic at a park instead of at a banquet hall. As the planning was happening Jeremy and Tiffany decided this would be their last event. The event was planned and ended up being a record setting year both on and off the tracks. The car show at the beach was a huge success and enjoyed by all!

Also, a milestone of NG05 was Jeremy’s dream of crowning a “Best Overall 3/S” was also added as a competition. This ended up being the largest event to date with 234 cars!

Following the 2005 National Gathering, and for the first time ever, no future plans were made for the National Gathering. A thread was made on 3si asking if anyone was interested in taking over the event. Hundreds of posts and several months later, no one stepped up. Instead of just letting the event die, Jeremy and Tiffany decided they would lead for one more year but that it would have to be their last. John also had announced this would also be his final year on the committee as well. Alan decided to stay on and help form a new committee to ensure the event would continue. During the planning of this event, a new committee was also being founded.

2006 3S National Gathering (St. Joseph, Michigan)

Dates: June 14 - June 18, 2006

2006 3SNG Logo

Resuming their positions on the committee, Jeremy announced that the 5th annual 3S National Gathering would be taking place once again in St. Joseph, MI . The 2006 National Gathering had a respectable 183 cars in attendance. All events ran with no rain for the first time since the first National Gathering.

It was re-announced during the banquet that future 3S National Gatherings would be headed up by a new committee and that this would be the last year that Jeremy and Tiffany Gleason would be on the committee.

2007 3S National Gathering (Stevensville, Michigan)

Dates: July 11 - July 15, 2007

The new 3S National Gathering committee, which consisted of five members (Josh from Ohio, Alan and Lori from Michigan, Christy from Georgia and Peggy from Colorado, announced that they wanted to keep the National gathering in St. Joseph for one more year. The idea was that this would allow the new committee to get a foothold on how to run the event, and because the tracks in St. Joseph were known to be extremely easy to work with and only required minimal pre-planning .

The 2007 National Gathering has since happened and is in the history book. No official attendance numbers have been released but as far as we can tell, the event was enjoyed by all.

2008 3S National Gathering (Memphis, Tennessee)

Dates: June 17 - June 22, 2008

2008 3SNG T-Shirt Logo

The committee for the 2008 3SNG consisted of Lori Sheffield, Alan Sheffield (Alan92RTTT), Peggy Schafale (Peggy), Josh Anker and Christy Pensinger (Stlth664/cty) . New to the program this year was an inclusion of an extra day to allow for a 'Driving School' event hosted by Race On.

2008 3SNG Logo

The 7th annual 3S National Gathering had a basic registration cost of $100. Some of the events available were drag races ($45), AutoCross ($35), an invite-only road course event ($120), the newly added driving school ($360), and a banquet event with mansion tour ($35).

2008 3SNG Banner

Venues this year included the Memphis Motorsports Park, which is regarded as one of the most popular and versatile racing facilities in the country (hosting upwards of 200 events per year, including the best that NASCAR and the NHRA have to offer). The drag races were held at the NHRA Drag Strip Facility; home of the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series, the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, the NOPI Nationals, the Super Chevy Show, the BTE Million Dollar Drag race and the Pro Street Car World Finals. This facility is considered one of the fastest tracks on the NHRA circuit. Lastly, the banquet was hosted at Graceland, which included an after-hours tour for NG participants only. Platinum tickets were available for those that wanted to see Elvis After Dark, both jets and the auto museum.

Keith (Mobo) Upton, a community member and owner of Performance Imagery, provided professional photography for the event this year as well.

In August of 2008, the 3SNG moved their website from www.3SNationalGathering.com to www.3sng.org.

2009 3S National Gathering (Memphis, Tennessee)

Dates: June 16 - June 22, 2009

2009 3SNG T-Shirt Logo by 3Sfever

Similar to the year before it, the 2009 3S National Gathering was once again hosted in Memphis, Tennessee . The race events were also held at Memphis Motorsports Park. A participant package was available for $100, which included access to the drag races, autocross and road course. A weekender package was also available for $60.

Just after the 2009 3S National Gathering, Alan Sheffield initiated a website redesign contest for 3sng.org. The prize was to be announced, and would be voted on by other members of the community. Around April 2010, the 3SNG website was redesigned to the blue, yellow and white theme.

2010 3S National Gathering (Indianapolis, Indiana)

Dates: June 22 - June 27, 2010

2010 3SNG T-Shirt Logo

In the first time since 2004, the 3000GT/Stealth National Gathering returned to Indianapolis, IN. Different from 2004, however, was that the track events were held at the O'Reily Raceway Park. The schedule for the gathering included a day for registration (June 22nd), a road course (June 23rd), an autocross (June 24th), drag races (June 25th) and to conclude the week: a day for a car show, banquet and award ceremony (June 26th) . The car show was held at the most popular tourist location in Indianapolis, the world-famous Monument Circle.

A full registration for the event ($120) included a t-shirt, access to all events, the banquet and car show entry. A special weekender registration was available as well for $80, which also included a t-shirt, a drag race spectator pass and access to the banquet and an entry to the car show.

2011 3S National Gathering (Indianapolis, Indiana)

Dates: June 21 - June 26, 2011

2011 3SNG Banner

Returning for a second year in a row, the 2011 3S National Gathering would once again be at the O'Reily Raceway Park in Indianapolis, IN .

2012 3S National Gathering (Indianapolis, Indiana)

Dates: June 19 - June 24, 2012

2012 3SNG T-Shirt Logo

For three years running, the 2012 3S National Gathering was held in Indianapolis, IN. Different this year was that the track events were held at the Lucas Oil Raceway Park .

In the past 5 years, the 3S National Gathering has hosted over 1000 3/S car’s. Close to 45 of the states have been represented and many world records have been broken. The event has helped shape current 3/S gatherings and has also helped make many new friends throughout the years.

2013 3S National Gathering (St. Louis, Missouri)

Dates: July 9 - July 14, 2013

2013 3SNG is coming...

After much speculation and anticipation about where the next 3S National Gathering would be held, the NG Committee Chairperson, Lori Sheffield, announced that the 2013 3000GT/Stealth National Gathering would be held during the week of July 9th - 14th 2013 at the Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis, Missouri (specifically in Collinsville, IL) . This gathering will mark the first return of the event to the St. Louis area in nearly a decade.

Registration

Registration officially opened on April 9th, 2013. With it came a revamped website created by Alan Sheffield and an updated gallery of photos from previous 3S National Gatherings.

Prices were also announced with discounts offered for those that register prior to June 9th (one month before the date of the event). Registration before June 9th starts at $100/person, while those that wait until after June 9th will pay around $125/person.

New Events: Dyno Day & Go Karts

Brand new to the 3S National Gathering will be the inclusion of a Dyno Day and Go Karts.

Event Schedule

Date	Event
7/9/2013 Tuesday	Registration
7/10/2013 Wednesday	Dyno Sessions (day) Drag Races (evening)
7/11/2013 Thursday	Road Course Go Karts
7/12/2013 Friday	AutoCross
7/13/2013 Saturday	Car Show Banquet
7/14/2013 Sunday	Departure

Sponsors

• Title: 3SX Performance
• Drag Races: TBA
• Dyno Sessions: Bill Buell (bbuell)
• Road Course: Morgan's Motorsports
• Autocross: Maximal Performance
• Car Show: 3000GT Stealth Supply
• Banquet: Ground Zero Performance

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References