Mustangs and Fords in the Park IX
Saturday July 16, 2005

Pictures from the show can be found here:
Mustangs and Fords in the Park IX

Mustangs and Fords in the Park IX Car Show  by Vic Bustabade

It was an automotive extravaganza, a cornucopia of cars and just a really good time for all of those who attended.  In spite of the 107 degree heat that day, a large percentage of our club membership and many from various places around northern California and northern Nevada showed up to have a wonderful day at Hagan Park.  In all there were 143 cars attending.  Folks, I think we have a record!  The day stared early at about 6:30 when the first wave of volunteers pulled in, parked their cars and got right to work.  It wasn’t much later that our first participants showed up looking for those valuable shady spots under the trees.

By 9:00, our show was in full swing with music, food, vendors and cars as far as the eye could see. We had a great variety.  Here’s just a few.  How about a Mustang II Cobra and then a real Cobra driven by Mario Andretti.  Heads were turned by a 1948 Chevy truck (yes, I said the “C” word) powered by a supercharged big block Ford 514.    In case things got out of hand there were two CHP Crown Vic’ cruisers with their respective officers.  Actually they were there to do some PR for us car enthusiast types.  The day would not have been complete without Tom and Jan Arnold’s Ford GT and then to make things even better a friend of Tom’s showed up in his GT which is colored the exact opposite of his.  I thought I was seeing things.  I personally had a great time meeting many new acquaintances from all around.  I saw some extremely fine examples of cars from bone stock late model Mustangs to a highly modified Torino and then on to a meticulously restored Lincoln Continental.  Every car had the same thing in common, the pride of its owner.  I need not say any more.

Throughout the day our crowd of car people were treated to a great variety of music provided by DJ Productions and fed by some really great people at Hot-Digity-Dogs and the Splash Shack.  Boris kept things moving with the raffle.  The number of prizes was in excess of 200 items.  I was so happy when I won that gallon jug of hand cleaner.  I just wish I would have had it in the prior week when I was up to my elbows in Mustang grease.

We awarded  26 First Place and Award of Excellence plaques and a Best of Show-Mustang and Best of Show-Ford trophies.  Judging for the awards and trophies were done by peer vote.  Several of our club members won awards in their respective classes: Jim Beisner, Dan Zanelli, Ed Meyers, Tim Coppin, Jim Frank,  John & Debbie Burge and Jan & Tom Arnold.  Best of Show-Mustang was awarded to Don & Star Meyers for their Shelby Mustang.  Best of Show-Ford was awarded to Dale Turnage for his hot-rod Ford Pick-up. Congratulations! 

To sum things up, this show was an absolute success.  I received so many positive comments as I went around talking to people.  Our members pitched in and went the extra miles to help out wherever it was necessary.  There were even a few of the kids doing their part.  It would be an understatement to say the teamwork was excellent.  Our sponsors were so generous.  I wish I could list them all again but the list is too long to even start.     At first brush, Ken, our treasurer reports $2600 over and above our expenses.  This is going to do a lot of good for the Towe Auto Museum and the SPCA which are organizations we’re sponsoring with our show.  It is such a pleasure to do something really good for our community.  So, until next year, it was a really great experience