Car Shows and other fun stuff of 2008
May 4: Fireball lands at the 6th Annual FordLovers.com West Coast Nationals. It was a beautiful day as we showed our cars in Sacramento Raceway Park's pit area. That's my dad's 1932 Ford Model B sedan in the foreground with Fireball in line behind it.
My dad had the distinct pleasure of holding a pair of Hooters... girls. So, yes... I guess you could say my dad's got a nice pair of Hooters, there.
I, on the other hand, was relegated to holding the camera while the two lovelies stood in front of Fireball. Still not a bad view, I must say.
After all was said and done, though, Fireball would end up driving away with 2nd place in the Racing/Competition category!
May 24: The Friends of the Folsom Zoo show-and-shine.
Into each life a little rain must fall... such was the case for the Memorial Day weekend Saturday car show to help raise money for the Folsom Zoo and Sanctuary. In one of the few accurate weather forecasts of the year, showers were the order of the morning. Fireball has a wiper motor, but I don't mount the wipers on the car. So I applied Rain-X to the windshield and headed off to join the other brave souls. And, for the first time since I started taking Fireball to car shows, my wife and the kids dropped by to enjoy a barbecue and free admission to the Zoo.
No awards to be given, just a nice way to help raise funds for a good cause. Despite the damp weather, it made for a very pleasant day.
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May 29: I'm one of the winners of a CarDomain caption contest! With John Coyle on the Bullrun, it took a while for my prize to arrive. After a couple of e-mail exchanges John Coyle sent his apologies and said it was on its way.
I received my swag on July 26: John Coyle and the CarDomain folks definitely made the wait worthwhile. A really great selection of t-shirts and a Bullrun cap! All of the neat stuff can't improve my looks, but I appreciate it all the same!
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May 30: This time I was at a small car show put on for the benefit of a local Lowe's Home Improvement Center's corporate customers. Commercial customers were invited to vote for their favorite car, and Fireball came up the winner! For my efforts, I ended up with a $50 Lowe's gift card. Considering the amount of nuts and bolts I bought at Lowe's during the construction of Fireball, it was most appropriate. I used a little of the gift card to buy sheet aluminum to accurately re-create the correct headlight covers.
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(Above pictures thanks to my very good buddy and fellow CarDomain-er Led Zeppelin )
June 7 : We attend the Pre-Father's Day car show by the Over-the-Hill Gang in Elk Grove, CA. Neither my dad or I came away with any awards, but we enjoyed a pleasant day in the park all the same.
Nearly 400 cars were parked on the well-manicured lawns all around Elk Grove Park. The sign on the right went unenforced despite the groundskeepers going into cardiac arrest.
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June 14: Christian Rods and Customs holds their 2008 Sactown Kool Summer Dayz show to benefit the National Kidney Foundation, and Fireball comes away with an award "Just 'Cause It's Neat". (No, really... that's the category of the award!) |
July 12: Mustangs and Ford in the Park XII. Fireball sits proudly amongst some very fine machines, awaiting judging in the Special Interest category.
I lost the award in favor of one very cool 1971 DeTomaso Pantera. Given the supreme quality of the Pantera (okay, and the fact that it is valued at close to $80,000... 20 times as much as what I have invested in my Fireball), I find that perfectly acceptable.
(Once again the above pictures thanks to my VERY good buddy and fellow CarDomain-er Led Zeppelin )
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August 8: Sutter Street Merchants' Show. A little courtesy Show 'n Shine for the historic Folsom merchants. (Thanks yet again to fellow CarDomain-er Led Zeppelin for the pic! You'd think the guy was a professionial photographer or something...) |
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AUGUST 11: Project Fireball and my CarDomain site are chosen as the July winners of the "Mobil-ize Your Ride Page" promotion, and earn a cool $1,000!!! The site was a little slow to post public news of my win, but Jen's complimentary blog post of August 16 more than made up for the wait, and I received my $1,000 check on August 20! That's validation enough for me!
Oh, and the fact that the win put me in the running for an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 Daytona 500, well, it didn't get much better than that!
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September 2: Fireball and I participate in the River City Region Shelby Club's "End of Summer Car Show". Lots of gorgeous Shelby Mustangs and Cobras. My Galaxie certainly doesn't compare to those, but Fireball comes away with First Place in the "Other Ford Powered" category!
October 3-5: Fireball once again invades the NSRA 2008 Golden State Nationals . Another fun weekend for me, my dad, and a lot of good friends. Only around 1300 cars made the trip this time, but it was a nice show. The weather, for the most part, was cooperative. Here are some pics I found on the internet of me driving Fireball out of the grounds at the close of the event. It isn't often I get to see myself driving the old Gal...
October 5: Fireball wins awards on another site! Fireball was chosen as a Sponsor's Pick for Best Domestic in Online-Car-Show.com's 6th competition . A trophy and an XM Satellite car/home radio are my prizes! Pretty awesome!
October 24: The last "Vintage Friday" of 2008 at Sacramento Vintage Ford. Just a great opportunity to spend some time with my dad and other car nuts. My Galaxie is, of course, on the left, while my dad's 32 Roadster is pictured on the right.
That's it for 2008. I wonder where the time has gone?
Of course, I didn't add anything for attending this year's San Jose Grand Prix (since it now no longer exists) or Reno's Hot August Nights (since I didn't work in Reno this year), but there were still plenty of others to attend. 2008 was a great year!
