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The JCNA "Biennial Meet" was the product
of more than one club member's imagination. As the club grew in stature
during the 1960s and 1970s, members in every Region looked at the annual
championships held by other British car clubs and thought: "We
can do that too!"
The event came together for the first time in 1983 when the Rocky Mountain
Jaguar Club decided: "Now or never!" They picked a date, booked
hotels and got in touch with JCNA headquarters for a sanction. The result,
held at 8,000 feet in Snowmass, next door to Aspen, was the first Biennial.
1983 - Snowmass, Co: The first JCNA Biennial
hosted by the Rocky Mountain Jaguar Club. Close to 100 Jaguars were
entered. More than 200 people came to work, spectate and enjoy themselves.
Most of the worker bees were from the Denver/Colorado Springs area but
the chief judge came from San Francisco and teams of three judges often
represented three different clubs. Although with an accent on the Western
half of the continent, it was JCNAs first true "national"
show. Not only did we have a concours, filling three parking fields
up a slope at the base of a ski run, but there was a rally and a timed
event at a small nearby road circuit.
1983: Jaguar recognized it as such. The speaker at
the banquet, held outside under a tent under Rocky Mountain stars, was
Graham W. Whitehead, president of Jaguar in North America. Slides of
the entries were shown throughout the dinner, reminding everyone of
the caliber of the competition and the guests understood that they were
taking part in a special event, the beginning of a tradition. Most expressed
the hope that it would be repeated regularly in future, bringing JCNA
members and cars from thousands of miles apart, together in companionship
and competition. Their hopes have been realized, every other year since,
bringing us to Phoenix in 2003 for the eleventh biennial event, now
known as the JCNA Challenge Championship. Look at the Jaguars on the
field at the various biennial meets, some of which may have been on
the field in Snowmass, Colorado and picture where this show has been
held since that momentous weekend in
1985 - Lake of the Ozarks :Hosted by the Heart
of America Jaguar Club, Barry Greenstein as meet Chair of this Biennial
offered Midwest hospitality, water-skiing on the lake, rallying around
mountain roads and a cascade of Jaguars spilled around the edge of the
Tan-Ta-Ra resort golf course. Our guest speaker was Rivers Fletcher,
famous author of Jaguar books and vintage racer. More folks came from
the east for this and the number of cars was about the same but there
was plenty of talk about where the next one would be. It was time to
go further east.
1987 - Boston, Ma : Biennial number three took
place outside Boston in the midst of an August drought! Never did concours
entrants spend more time dusting, and dusting again, and again and.
We had a New England shore dinner in Boston Harbor. A larger group of
cars was entered from the many clubs in the Northeastern USA and eastern
Canada. For many members, the guest speaker was the main event. F.R.W.
"Lofty" England had been Jaguar racing manager at Le Mans
in the 1950s and rose to become chief executive of the company on Sir
William Lyons' retirement. Lofty told racing stories for an hour, giving
us a treat that, unfortunately, would not be repeated. The Jaguar Association
of New England did a superb job as hosts.
1989 - Bend, Or : From Boston Harbor, still
looking faintly like tea, we went far west across the continent to the
Inn of the Seventh Mountain in Bend, Oregon, once again in the heart
of a ski area, surrounded by mountains. The distance involved held down
the number of cars entered but the quality of competition was high and
there were a significant number of entries from Canada. Sightseeing
included places like Crater Lake. We were housed in resort condos. At
Bend, the slalom an important part of the program, supervised by Jim
Brown and, for the first time in a sanctioned JCNA show, using the figure-eight
format that has become our championship standard. The Jaguar Owners
Club of Oregon, based in Portland, hosted the show under the guidance
of Barbara Grayson. Guest speaker was Paul Skilleter; editor of what
has become Jaguar World Monthly, the world's leading commercial Jaguar
publication.
1991- St Louis: Stepping back across the country,
the 1991 Biennial went to the Midwest under the auspices of the Jaguar
Association of Greater St. Louis. The location was a first; in the heart
of downtown instead of out in the country. Shiny Jaguars were ranked
in rows under shade behind the restored central railroad station and
not far from the famous Arch by the Mississippi. Members from the heart
of the country brought a sizable number of entries and Jaguar took the
opportunity to display, for the first time, the re-styled 1992 XJS.
Guest speaker was Jaguar's then Public Affairs vice-president, John
Crawford. He startled the audience by announcing that, by the end of
the year, the historic relationship; between JCNA and Jaguar Cars would
be severed and the club would become an independent organization, beginning
in 1992. With dinner on a riverboat and Missouri hospitality, this was
a memorable show.
1993 - Mahwah, NJ: The Jaguar Touring Club
organized this biennial at Jaguar's North American headquarters in Mahwah,
New Jersey. Close to 150 entries were there, setting a record for the
concours, staged in Jaguar's parking lot. A Slalom was run in a separate
section. Cars on hand included the famous Green Hornet prototype, once
the personal transportation of John Lyons, son of Sir William. Everyone
attending had a chance to tour the headquarters building with its unusual
architecture. A unique dinner evening was arranged on board a tour boat,
which circled the Statue of Liberty and cruised partway up the East
River to the Brooklyn Bridge before turning around and offering the
spectacle of lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center, which still
dominated the skyline. Old friend Rivers Fletcher was guest speaker
again.
1995 - Milwaukee : The association of a car
club and a zoo could have negative connotations but Wisconsin Jaguars
Limited, hosts of the biennial meet in Milwaukee, had a better idea.
They staged their own concours and the 1995 biennial at the Milwaukee
zoo. Classic Jaguars were dispersed along walkways and outside cages
of other exotic beasts. Zoo visitors wandered freely among the Jaguars
while judges took notes and checked for authenticity. It was a successful
show, which also offered, naturally, a brewery tour and a taste of Lake
Michigan whitefish. Surprisingly, it was at Milwaukee where a number
of more unusual Lyons products were entered, including two Austin Swallows,
a C-type, a D-type and an XK-SS. Jaguar Cars sponsorship as more in
evidence with a special booth set up for Select Edition Jaguars.
1997 - Stratton Mountain, Vt: The Jaguar Association
of New England once again took up the challenge of organizing the biennial
event but moved well away from the August heat in Boston, basing the
show at the Stratton Mountain ski resort in Vermont. Entries came from
as far south as Florida and from Ottawa to the north. The resort featured
a quaint replica of a street in Switzerland with little shops and restaurants,
all of which were available for shopping and recreation during the meet.
Concours entries were parked strategically throughout the facility and
tucked in corners near the shops, offering tourists a good chance to
check out the beauty of the cars. Slalom fever had struck the club by
then and the famed figure eight course was set up on the upper level
of the hotel-parking garage. Vermont countryside and local brand-name
outlet stores kept the shoppers busy. As it turned out, this was the
last show to have the name "Biennial Meet."
 1999
- Colorado Springs :
The growth of the Biennial meets through the years
had made them more and more difficult for a single JCNA affiliate club
to set up and operate. In 1998, the Board of Directors named Barbara
Grayson from Oregon as Special Events Coordinator and gave her the task
of managing the 1999 biennial, which was called "The International
Jaguar Festival." She based the show at the historic Broadmoor
Hotel in Colorado Springs, marketing it as the vacation of a lifetime
for JCNA members and families. Her volunteer organization made up of
members from several clubs, set up a rally on mountain roads, a slalom
in the parking lot of Pikes Peak Raceway and a group tour up Pikes Peak
with the road closed for us!
Closing the week was the concours where Jaguars were
arranged on a grassy golf course slope 2500 feet above Colorado Springs.
Everything from an SS 100 formerly owned by Dave Garroway to the newest
XJ 220 glistened under cloudless early-autumn skies.
Click
to for pictures and articles
(courtesy South Florida Jaguar Club)
 2001-
Franklin TN :
Following the Colorado Springs event, JCNA re-named
the show the "JCNA Challenge Championship. "The 2001 organizational
assignment went to Jerry and Kathy Nell from Wisconsin. In search of
history, they found Franklin, Tennessee, site of a major Civil War battle
and offering a fully restored 19th century downtown area surrounded
by modern hotels and only a few miles south of Nashville with its music
and night life.
On the day of the concours, more than 175 Jaguars
were on hand, lining the quaint streets and arranged in a circle in
the central square. Featured was the largest number of Jaguar C and
D-types ever assembled in one spot and including some famous cars with
long lists of racing accomplishments.Once again, a rally and slalom
drew big entries. Most folks also visited the nearby Jack Daniel's distillery
as well as hitting the music bars in Nashville.
Click
to for pictures and articles
(courtesy South Florida Jaguar Club)
2003: Phoenix, Az.
To celebrate the tenth edition of the event, Phoenix
and the surrounding scenic desert and mountains seemed a perfect choice.
The rally visiting the famous Sedona's Red Rocks, a taste of the old
west at a ghost town and the concours held in Phoenix's Heritage Square
were some of the highlights enjoyed by well over 100 jaguars driven
from as far as Canada and the East Coast. In charge of making it all
happening, "local" Dennis Eynon, JCNA director Lisa Hendrix
and the Jaguar Club of Central Arizona crew elevated the JCNA biennial
meet to new standards of organization.
Click
here to visit the 2003 JCC special section
2005 : Atlanta, Ga
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