2015 Velocity Cocktail Party at SEMA! - Invitation Only!

[Mike Phillips]

2015 Velocity Cocktail Party at SEMA! - Invitation Only!

This is an invitation only party held after SEMA Live. This was my third year attending along with Bob McKee and his wife Darlene, Jason, Meghan, Yancy and me.

This year's Velocity Cocktail party was held in a private suite at the Westgate hotel on the 31's floor. You have to have the proper credentials to get into the line and also into the elevator. Once you get past these two hurdles then there's a posh cocktail party with delicious hors d'oeuvres and an open bar.

Here's a few pictures from this years Velocity Cocktail Party. Note most of these were taken using a camera phone and it was somewhat dark in the room. (hey it's a party!)

Yu-Lan Haiso Martin
This is Yu-Lan Haiso Martin known the world over as Sue on Fast & Loud or Gas Monkey Garage.





Dennis Gage
Everyone knows Dennis Gage from his classic handlebar mustache and ever popular TV show "My Classic Car".




Sheila Perkins
Sheila is the Vice President of Sales for MadStache products the TV production company for "My Classic Car" as well as numerous other TV shows and 3D Animations.





Dan Short
Dan is the star and host of FantomWorks on Velocity. Dan has over 31 years in the automotive restoration field. He served in and retired from the US Army.





Joe Zolper
Joe is the Lead Mechanic on Garage Squad on Velocity. He's a great hands-on mechanic and an all around fun guy to hang out with.

From left to right...

Joe Zolper, Bob McKee, Darlene McKee



Lou Santiago
Co-host of Car Fix along with Jared Zimmerman on Velocity and a Seabee Mechanic in the Navy from 1981 to 1997. Lou has been a part of numerous car guy TV shows including, Host for Ultimate Car Build-Off and guest host of Hot Rod Magazine TV, Extreme 4x4, Horsepower and V8TV.com. Lou has been named as one of the five best car builders and master fabricators in the country!





Joe Zolper
Being a gearhead and guy that likes to turn wrenches me and Joe got a long great talking cars at the Velocity Cocktail party.





Christy Lee
Christy Lee is one of the co-hosts of All Girl Garage on Velocity Channel along with Bogi Lateiner and Rachel De Barros. Everyone knows who Christy Lee is and it was a real pleasure to meet and talk with her at the cocktail party with a warm introduction from Bruno Massel. (thanks Bruno)




Mike Brewer
Mike is the lively wheeler dealer on the TV show Wheeler Dealer and it's always fun to talk to Mike at the Velocity Cocktail party. Last year I showed him and Ed a picture of my hotrod 1966 Milk Truck because I knew these two guys meet thousands of people every year, all with a car and a car story, and I knew since my Milk Truck was very unique they would remember it and me and of course they did.




Richard Rawlings
I met Richard a couple of years ago when the Velocity Cocktail party was held on the set of Overhaulin with Chip Foose inside the SEMA show and again at last year's Velocity Cocktail party. Both Yancy and I spent some time with Richard talking cars and business. He's really an interesting guy and there's a lot more to Richard than just the fun guy you see on TV.




Courtney Hansen
I met Courtney a few years ago at the Cars & Cigars car show in LA and again at the Velocity Cocktail Party. Courtney has a long and successful career as a fashion and fitness model including a cover shot on Hot Rod Magazine and Muscle & Fitness magazine as well as other magazines. She's also had a successful career in the TV world including the host on Overhaulin with Chip Foose and Spike TV's Powerblock as well as Great Builds. She's also hosted a travel show called Destination Wild for Fox Sports Network. Besides modeling and her TV career she's also an author with her book The Garage Girl's Guide to Everything You Need To Know About Your Car and the author of numerous articles in various magazines.





Private Suite at the Westgate Hotel
Here's a few shots I took of the main party room...










An adjoining room has it's own private pool (on the 31st floor)




And every room pretty much looks as luxurious as you see here...






I have a number of other photos on my camera taken from the Velocity Cocktail party but as the saying goes...

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...

[axel06]

Very nice, great company to be hanging with, those are some special times

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing Mike.

[Mike Phillips]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing Mike.

Thanks for chiming in Mike.


Everyone takes pictures but most people never do anything with them outside of Facebook and to be honest while Facebook is easy to use if you have a smart phone and a thumb it's still a horrible interface as compared to a real forum.

[Jaretr1]

Thanks for chiming in Mike.


Everyone takes pictures but most people never do anything with them outside of Facebook and to be honest while Facebook is easy to use if you have a smart phone and a thumb it's still a horrible interface as compared to a real forum.

True. Well the forum reaches a wider audience. Facebook is more contained to just your audience. I post pictures on Facebook for my friends to see, I dont care if anyone else sees them or not.

But the pictures are cool. Whats amazing about all these car shows (on TV) is these are just regular people in the industry that have now become familiar faces from these shows. Like Sue in your first picture, what a character she is on the show, and my guess is she is probably like that in reality, but also great at what she does.

[Mike Phillips]

True. Well the forum reaches a wider audience. Facebook is more contained to just your audience. I post pictures on Facebook for my friends to see, I dont care if anyone else sees them or not.

Facebook is important because you reach an audience for that for whatever their reason... they don't do forums. I know lots of guys that don't get on forums any more and just post to Facebook. Nothing wrong with that but it's really hard to share an in-depth article on how to do a procedure on Facebook. When you do post it, there's NO WAY to format the text so it's hard to read and hard on the eyes to read and it's also in a tiny, little box.

So everyone on Facebook just posts pictures and short messages. Again, nothing wrong with that but for anyone trying to learn something a forum is a much better interface.

Big picture... for me at least I need to be on both.

But the pictures are cool. Whats amazing about all these car shows (on TV) is these are just regular people in the industry that have now become familiar faces from these shows.

Like Sue in your first picture, what a character she is on the show, and my guess is she is probably like that in reality, but also great at what she does.

I agree with all of the above. All the people I've met and worked with in the TV world are really just regular people except for two things that make them stand out.

1. They are good at what they do. - Whatever it is. (welding or talking)

2. They are genuinely nice people. - This is something I've noticed all of these people have in common.


Thanks for chiming in Jaret.

[Jaretr1]

I agree with all of the above. All the people I've met and worked with in the TV world are really just regular people except for two things that make them stand out.

1. They are good at what they do. - Whatever it is. (welding or talking)

2. They are genuinely nice people. - This is something I've noticed all of these people have in common.


Thanks for chiming in Jaret.

And you definitely fit both of those parameters!

Nice people are definitely better than not nice people!

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Would love to meet Christy Lee!!! (don't tell my wife )


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Mike Phillips]

Would love to meet Christy Lee!!! (don't tell my wife )

I won't tell...


She is even prettier in person if that helps!

[custmsprty]

Now that's high rolling Vegas Style!