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Founder’s Day, Jax Wax, and a Pig Out

Counting Der Dutchman, I did four events this weekend. I'm a little pressed for time this week so I'm going to use a little different format to report on each event.

Here we go:

Founder's Day Car Show 2019

Location: Downtown Marysville, Ohio

Date: Friday, 8-16-2019

Registered vehicles: 137

Awards: Five special; 10 Favorite

Comments: The car show, hosted by the Mid Ohio Cruisers, was part of the Bicentennial Celebration of the founding of the city of Marysville.

Part of east and west 5th Street (State Rt 36) and the surrounding roads through downtown were closed for the event.

I guesstimate a crowd of somewhere between 5 and 10 thousand people attended the event Friday evening.

The celebration included kids activities, zip-lining, vendors, food/beverages to purchase, and live music. McGuffey Lane was Friday's featured band.

The Awards

Club Favorites:

Not Pictured:
1965 Chrysler 300; Owner: Curtis Conklin
2015 Corvette; Owner: Gene Brumbaugh

Special Awards:

Mayor's Choice
1956 Mercury Medalist
Owner: Marvin Sayler

Police Chief's Choice
1970 Plymouth GTX
Owner: Steve Braun

Fire Chief's Choice
1958 Corvette
Owner: Ron Boylan

Sponsor's Choice
1951 Ford Pickup
Owner: Les Brown

People's Choice
1929 Ford Roadster
Owner: Mark Hartnell

Between registration and the 50/50 raffle, The Mid Ohio Cruisers raised a good hunk of change for two Marysville charities.

The only downside to the show was the 5000 bug carcasses on the front bumper and windshield of my car from the drive home.

Jax Wax Car Show

Location: Jax Wax facility and adjacent airport parking lot on 17th Avenue in Columbus, Ohio

Date: Saturday, 8-17-2019

Registered Vehicles: 243

Awards: Top 75 and four 6 ft "Best Of" trophies

Comments: This was my first Jax Wax car show. I was surprised to see the newer model cars seemed to outnumber the older classic cars by a 2 to 1 margin. Mopar seemed to be the most popular brand.

Here are my pros and cons of the show.

Pros:

  • A nice big parking area that allowed for every other space parking. It was nice not to have to worry about banging any car doors.
  • Good assortment of food trucks.
  • "Live" entertainment
  • Interesting raffle prizes ($100 bill, Flex polisher, air conditioning unit, and a car)
  • Lots of vehicles I hadn't seen before

Cons:

  • Long registration line. I bet I stood in line for almost 30 minutes to register. They only had one woman writing down the vehicle information into a notebook. I can only imagine how cramped her hand was after 243 entries. Jax Wax really needs to come up with a more efficient way to do the registration.
  • While it was great to have a large parking area, it was quite a ways away from the Jax Wax facility where all the action was going on. In the parking area, you couldn't hear the band very well and you definitely couldn't hear any announcements. It kind of felt like you were in the Siberia of car show lots. If you want a parking space in front of the Jax Wax building, you better arrive before 8 AM.
  • One of my pet peeves is late starting award ceremonies. Saturday's awards were 20 minutes late starting. And before the awards were presented, another 20 minutes went by with the raffle prize drawings.

The Awards

Here's a sampling of the Top 75 trophy winners:

6 Foot "Best Of" winners:

Best Old School
1959 Cadillac Coupe
Owner: Drake Litteral

Best New School
Ram Pickup Truck
Owner: Ryan Mager

Best Attention to Detail
1972 Chevy Custom Camper
Owner: Creative Mobile Interiors

Best of Show
1955 Chevy Pickup
Owner: Ted Wierzbicki

Powell Cruize-in & Pig Out

Location: Downtown Powell, Ohio

Date: Sunday, 8-18-2019

Registered Vehicles: 161

Awards: 12 "Choice" and "Best of" trophies

Comments: Sunday was my seventh and by far strangest downtown Powell Sertoma Cruize-in & Pig Out car show.

Last year I criticized the show for taking the better part of an hour to pass out 120 "Favorite" wall plaques. To get that many awards presented in an hour, just the person's name and car number were announced. I suggested that maybe 70-75 "Favorites" might be a more manageable number.

This year the Sertoma Club decided to forgo "favorite" awards altogether and pass out wall and dash plaques to anyone who registered a vehicle. While it definitely shortened this year's awards presentation, it did give the show a very weird vibe. Almost a third of the cars left before the trophy presentation. If you didn't think your car was worthy enough for one of the special trophies, there was no incentive to stick around -- especially given how hot it was on Sunday.

I sure hope the Powell Sertoma Club goes back to giving out "Favorite" awards next year.

Here are some of the vehicles that registered but didn't receive one of the special trophies.

Trophy Winners:

Best Paint
1973 Plymouth Duster

Best Interior
1959 Ford Skyliner
Owner: Steve Southard

Best Engine
1969 Corvette
Owner: Craig Grunkemeyer

Best Survivor
1930 Ford Model A

Best Import
1969 Land Rover Series II A 88
Owner: Ted Ranstall

Best Street Rod
1947 Ford Coupe
Owners: Fred & Wanda

Police Choice (Not Pictured)
1972 De Tomaso Pantera


Mayor's Choice
1968 Chevy Chevelle
Owner: Andrew Van Ert

Fireman's Choice
1954 MG TF 1500
Owners: Brian & Jennifer Adams

Boy Scout Troop 428
For all their help and support of the show

Most Unique (not pictured)
1932 Ford
Keto Moore


Judge's Choice
1974 Datsun 260Z (GM LS3 engine)
Owner: Justin White

Best of Show
1970 Ford Torino GT
Owner: Chris Kraner


Other Shows and Cruise-Ins

The Der Dutchman Cruise-in out in Plain City had 160 plus cars on Thursday, 18 of them being first-timers.

Mark September 12 on you calendar. Like last year, Wayne has picked that date to set a record of 300 cars. Here's hoping the weather cooperates.

I received a complaint about the judging at the Aladdin Shriners show in Grove City, Ohio on Sunday. If you attended the show, please feel to leave an opinion about the judging in the comment section.

5 thoughts on “Founder’s Day, Jax Wax, and a Pig Out

  1. cliff small

    Kim, if I forget and talk to Wayne of Der Dutchman, on his end of the year banquet, " IF " he is going to pass out plaques again this year, I wonder if it would be a problem to get the year put on them....just a thought

  2. Matt Rittenhouse

    I was at the Aladdin Shrine Center show on Sunday. I don't get too wrapped up with judging and winning trophies, so I may not have the best perception of how the judging went, but here are my observations. My car and all of the cars around me were judged by one person who looked over the cars front to back. He didn't spend an inordinate amount of time looking them over, but it seemed like he looked at everything. I don't remember it being advertised as a trunk open show, but someone did come around and let us know to open our trunks just before judging began. I didn't get a tally of cars in attendance, but I would guess maybe around 50 cars were in attendance and they awarded top 35 plaques and one best of show trophy.

    1. Kim Hawksworth

      Matt, Thanks for your take on the judging. The individual I received the feedback from is an experienced car show participant who has also judged so he knows a little something about the process. His main complaint was that some very nice vehicles were overlooked for award while some less than stellar vehicles received one. Would you agree with that assessment?

      1. Matt Rittenhouse

        He would probably have a better perspective on that than I would. The winners seemed to be a good mix of new and old vehicles, which was nice. I didn't recognize each car that won, so I can't speak to his specific complaint. The cars that I did recognize were all pretty nice cars though. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

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