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1960 Ford Thunderbird - Owner: Don Davis

August in Central Ohio means lots of car events. This week is no exception. There's a big slate of shows Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

PLEASE NOTE: There has been some confusion regarding the LHS Class of 69 Car Show at the Moose Club on Sugar Grove Rd in Lancaster, Ohio scheduled for this Saturday. The event is marked "Canceled" on the Events tab of the Ohio Car Shows and Cruise-Ins Facebook group. The son-in-law of the person putting on the show has assured me that it is still on for Saturday and is NOT canceled.

Monday (August 14):

Tuesday (August 15):

  • No Events Found

Wednesday (August 16):

Thursday (August 17):

Friday (August 18):

Saturday (August 19):

Sunday (August 20):


For the most comprehensive list of future events in Central Ohio, check out the "Save the Dates for 2023" page. There's also a quick link in the menu at the top of the page.


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NEWS AND NOTES

This past weekend was one of those rare occasions where TWO different cars received Best of Show awards on two consecutive days. Read on to find out what cars got back-to-back BOS awards.

Der Dutchman Cruise-In:

Der Dutchman had 231 attend this past Thursday's cruise-in. I was a little surprised more cars didn't turn out. The weather was great.

Creative Auto Sale/Advanced Auto Parts Car Show:

Creative Auto Sale, LLC and the Advanced Auto Parts store in Marysville, Ohio hosted its August car show Friday evening. There were 27 cars in attendance. The show raised $200 for the Milford Center Food Pantry.

This month the Advanced Auto Parts store manager picked his four favorite vehicles to receive a trophy. One of the trophy winners, Eddie and Rita Hampshire, drove from Indiana to attend the show.

Here are the manager's picks:

Gary Zuck Memorial Car Show:

The American Legion Post 677 in Lithopolis, Ohio hosted the very first Gary Zuck Memorial Car Show on Saturday.

Gary passed away in May of 2022. He was a member of Post 677. Over the years, he was instrumental in organizing car shows at the American Legion Post there in Lithopolis. Gary was also a member of the Lancaster Old Car Club and acted as Technical Advisor for the '55 Fords in the Crown Victoria Association.

The show on Saturday registered 84 cars. There were awards for the Top 30 vehicles, five awards for years 2000 and up, eight specialty awards, and a best of show.

Judging was done on a scoring method with the top score being 40 points. Two pairs of judges looked at every car and determined its point score.

Here are the "Just Because We Like It" specialty winners:

The Best of Show award went to our good friend Russ Annis and his 1967 Chevy Chevelle.

Honor Flight Vance Outdoors Car Show:

Auto Smarts Radio and Vance Outdoors teamed up on Saturday to host its annual car show in Obetz, Ohio.

The show had more than 125 cars in attendance.

All the proceeds from the show go to Honor Flight. This year the show raised $123,500 for the organization.

Here are some of the vehicles from the show:

Dale Pearce received the Ladies Choice award for his 1950 Chevy 3100 pickup.

The Best of Show honors went to the 1955 Chevy 210 belonging to Bob Kraft.

Tomato Fest Car and Bike Show:

Ohio seems to have a plethora of festivals over the course of the summer. There's the Pumpkin Festival, the Strawberry Festival, The Walleye Festival, and the Bratwurst Festival just to name a few.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio bills itself as the Birthplace of the Tomato and has held an annual festival in honor of the fruit since 1966.

Part of the festivities is a car and bike show which as in previous years is hosted by the Big Dawg and the C-Town Cruisers.

This year the show registered 60 cars. Awards were presented to the Top 30 plus Best Truck, Best Motorcycle, Most Potential/Rat Rod, Junior Cruiser, and Best of Show.

The Best of Show award went to Barry McPeek and his 1932 Ford Five Window Coupe.

To see more cars and bikes from the Tomatofest show, CLICK HERE.

Dub Pub Car Show:

The Dub Pub Restaurant in Dublin, Ohio hosted its second Annual Car Show on Sunday.

The show registered 122 cars. Up from 78 cars at last year's inaugural show.

Proceeds from the show went to support the Back the Blue K9 Unit of Dublin, Ohio.

Awards were presented to the Top 35 vehicles plus Best GM, Best Ford, Best Mopar, Best Corvette, Best Import, Runner-Up Best of Show, and Best of Show.

These are the "Best of" award winners:

Runner-up Best of Show went to Mark Evans and his 1969 Chevy Camaro SS.

Russ Annis and his 1967 Chevy Chevelle SS for the second day in a row took home Best of Show honors.

Lewis Center Buffalo Wings & Rings Car, Truck, & Bike Show:

The Crossroads Events team was in Lewis Center, Ohio on Sunday for the monthly car show hosted by the Buffalo Wings & Rings Restaurant.

The Camaro was the Spot-Light car for this month's show. Mark Lester's 1967 Chevy Camaro RS-SS was the Spot-Light Car winner.

The Larry Bicker Daily Driver award went to the 1981 Chevy Camaro belonging to Tim Richards.

Tim Raines and his 1951 Ford F-1 Restomod went home with the Best of Show award.

Real Church Car & Bike Show:

There were 86 cars that registered for the Real Church Car & Bike Show in Pickerington, Ohio on Sunday. The show helped raise money for the charity "God's Garage".

Chad Herrick's 2018 Dodge Charger Dayton 392 received a Top 10 pick.

For the second day in a row, Bob Kraft's 1955 Chevy 210 took the Best of Show honors.

Hot Summer Nights Cruise-In:

Downtown Bellefontaine, Ohio on Saturday evening was the site of the Annual Hot Summer Nights Cruise-In. More the 300 cars were in attendance.

The cruise-in presented plaques to the "Favorite 50" cars. There was no best-of-show award.

Here is just a small sample of the cars that attended the cruise-in.

42nd Mopar Nationals:

I can't conclude this week's report without mentioning the 42nd Mopar Nationals that took place at National Trail Raceway all weekend and some of the after hours parties.


A big thanks to the following folks for sending photos and info about this past week's events:

  • Jeff Shankle
  • Dave Bratton
  • Chad Herrick
  • Frank Russell
  • Frank Sanborn

I hope everyone has a good week! I'll see you again next week with a new list of car events and News and Notes report.

Central Ohio Forecast
68°
Cloudy
7:21 am7:26 pm EDT
MonTueWedThuFri
73/61°F
77/59°F
73/59°F
72/59°F
75/55°F

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NEWS AND NOTES

Der Dutchman Thursday Cruise-In:

Not much to report this week from Der Dutchman. Only 53 cars attended the cruise-in on Thursday thanks to scattered showers in the area. Not one drop fell on the cruise-in, however. Jeff Shankle and his Phone stayed dry the entire evening so no car photos were missed because of the weather. 😎

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Richwood Bank Coffee and Cars Cruise-In:

With two other events in Delaware, Ohio on Saturday and the threat of morning rain, attendance was light at the Richwood Bank Coffee and Cars Cruise-In. Those that did attend not only got a free cup of their favorite morning beverage but were also treated to a demo of Kevins Towing's "heavy rescue" truck. What an impressive piece of equipment!

At the end of the cruise-in, the bank held a drawing for three door prizes. The top prize was a bucket of car care products and a bottle of Henry McKenna Bourbon Whiskey. As luck would have it Adam Lester, the winner of the top prize, rode his Harley to the cruise-in. The bottle of whiskey made the return trip to the bank in his car well worth it.

The Richwood Bank's next coffee and cars is scheduled for September 3, 2022.

Vettes, Rods, and Classics

The Capital City Corvette Club hosted its annual Vettes, Rods, and Classics Car Show at the Creekside district in Gahanna, Ohio on Saturday. Proceeds from the show benefit Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

The club registered 183 vehicles. As in past years, the rods and classics are judged separately from the Corvettes. Awards are presented to both groups along with a Best of Show winner chosen for each group.

The band Reelin' in the Years made its return to the show as the featured entertainment. If you haven't had a chance to hear the band, you should. They are one of the best local bands in my opinion.

The Best of Show award for the Rods and Classics went to Pat Jackson and his 1954 Chevy 3100 pickup truck.

The 1969 Corvette of Craig Grunkemeyer received the Best of Show award for the Vettes. Craig has the distinct honor of having both of his Corvettes receive the top award at the Vettes, Rods, and Classics show. His 1967 Corvette convertible won the Vettes BOS in 2017.

Here are the "Special" award winners starting with Jim McGruder with the Esoteric Detailing Award.

Mark Lester and his 1967 Chevy Camaro received the Best GM Award.

Not pictured:

  • Club Participation Award: Corvette Crew
  • Gahanna Parks and Recreation Award: Ryan Daniels - 2005 Chevy Colorado pickup
  • Best Mopar: Larry Ward - 1983 Dodge Truck D150
  • Best Ford: Phillip Lake - 2018 Ford Mustang
  • Corvette Car Award: Dan Shillingburg - 1965 Corvette
  • Jegs Award: Joel Charriez - 1993 Mazda
  • Mifflin Twp Fire Chief Award: Chris Zigan - 2011 Corvette
  • Mayor's Award: Larry & Vicki Tisdale - 1956 Chevy Bel Air 2 Dr Post
  • Best Import Award: Ryan Daniels - 2019 Honda Monkey
  • Wheel Craft Award: Jeff "Chubbo" Williams - 2016 Corvette Z06
  • Coughlin Chevrolet Award: Jim Van Paepeghem - 1967 Corvette Convertible
  • UBS Muirfield Wealth Partners Award: Cal Berkey - 1957 Ford Thunder Bird
  • ISCO Award: Tom & Brian Scott - 1996 Corvette Grand Sport

To see more cars and scenes from the Vettes, Rods, and Classic Show, CLICK HERE.

Powell Cruize-In & Pig Out

Larry Coolidge and the Powell DT Sertoma Club held its 30th Annual Cruize-In and Pig Out Car Show in downtown Powell, Ohio on Sunday.

This year's show registered 111 cars. Unfortunately, the forecast for a 10% chance of rain turned into 100% around one o'clock.

The rain lasted for about 90 minutes. Nothing is more frustrating than getting your car completely dried off from the first shower only to have another shower come through a few minutes later. Thank goodness the sun came back out in time to dry the roads by the end of the show.

The Sertoma Club presented award plaques to the "Top 50" cars and trucks along with six "Special/Choice" awards and a Best of Show.

Here are the "Special/Choice" award winners:

The Best of Show Award went to Matt Reed with a 1968 Oldsmobile 442.

CLICK HERE to see more from the Powell Cruize-In and Pig Out.

Vanity Club Heels & Wheels Car Show (July 30th)

Bob (aka Country) sent me more information on the Heels & Wheels Car Show from July 30th.

The show had it's best attendance ever with 81 cars registered. Bob estimated that another 20 cars showed up but didn't register. Eighteen of the club's "Hotties" were in attendance.

Here is the Best of Show winner and a few other cars that attended the show courtesy of MoBear Photography.

Other Area Car Shows

  • The Commercial Point, Ohio Karting Classic Show on Friday registered 87 vehicles. Best of Show went to a Mercury Cougar. Tom Stewart's "Orange Crush" Chevy pickup received a Top 25 award.
  • The Heart of Ohio Antique Center in Springfield, Ohio added a swap meet to this month's cruise-in on Sunday. Approximately 80 cars were in attendance.
  • On Sunday, Dale Pearce and his 1950 Chevy 3100 pickup took 1st Place honors at the Vineyard Columbus East Campus Car Show in Pickerington, Ohio.
  • The Kenton Moose Lodge Show on Saturday registered 98 cars.

I want to once again thank Jeff Shankle, Dale Pearce, and Bob (Country) for their help preparing this week's report.

Central Ohio Forecast
68°
Cloudy
7:21 am7:26 pm EDT
MonTueWedThuFri
73/61°F
77/59°F
73/59°F
72/59°F
75/55°F

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This week Central Ohio has a jam-packed Friday and Saturday line-up of events. Twenty-three events are on the schedule between those two days.

The marquee events this week are the Vettes, Rods, and Classics Car Show in Gahanna, The Vance Outdoor Car Show in Obetz, and the Powell Cruize-In and Pig Out in Powell.

NEWS AND NOTES:

Rain on Thursday dampened the Der Dutchman Cruise-In in Plain City, Ohio. I received word that only 26 cars braved the scattered thunderstorms and showed up last week.


Shaun "Big Dawg" Saunders and the C-Town Cruisers partnered with the Pharisburg United Methodist Church in Marysville, Ohio for a car show/cruise-in on Friday evening.

The show registered 50 cars. A free-will offering 50's style diner was served.

The Best of Show Award went to Janice and Sam Foos and their 1957 Ford Skyliner.

For the other award-winning cars and trucks and more photos from the Pharisburg United Methodist Church show, click here.


The Vanity Gentlemen's Club in Columbus, Ohio was the scene of the Heels & Wheels Car Show on Saturday afternoon. As you can guess by the location and name, it was not your traditional car show.

The Gentlemen's Club registered a total of 55 vehicles. The $15 registration fee also included a door prize ticket. I've got to say those were some of the better door prizes I've seen this season.

Everyone who registered a car got a chance to vote on awards for their favorite Vanity dancer. Since this is a "G" rated website, I won't list the name of the awards. I'll leave that up to your imagination.

The dancers did all the judging. Their pick for Best of Show was William Brown's 1979 Ford Mustang Pace Car.

To see the other award winners and more cars from the Heels & Wheels show, Click here,


At the other end of the spectrum from the Heels & Wheels show was the Purple Door Cruise-In at the Grove City Methodist Church.

The show busted its previous attendance record of 135 cars by registering 174 vehicles on Saturday.

Best of Show honors went to our good friend, Jeff Shankle, and his 1951 Ford F1 pickup.

See more photos from the Purple Door Cruise-In (thanks Dave Bratton).


The Life City Church in Pickerington, Ohio registered 80 cars on Saturday. Registration and everything else I'm told was free.


On Sunday the Buckeye Rod Builders hosted the 41st Annual Poor Man's Nationals at the Pastime Park in Plain City, Ohio. Just like in 2019, the event was free and open to all makes, models, and years. In other words, it was a big cruise-in. And big it was with over 245 cars. Just goes to show trophies aren't necessary to attract a large gathering of cars. Just offer some door prizes, a 50/50 raffle, refreshments, a good location, and some nice weather and they will come.

Click here for more photos from the 41st Poor Man's Nationals.


And finally, The C-Town Cruisers were out at The Point on Main Sunday afternoon for their monthly show at the restaurant. The Cruisers registered a little over 60 cars.

Steve Kidwell received the Best of Show award with his 1965 Pontiac GTO. Charlie Seymour and his 1967 Nova took the Ladies Choice honors.

If anyone has info from the Cardo's Pizza show in Pickerington, please feel free to post it in the comments section.


If you'd like to be notified by email when a new posting appears, click the Subscribe link at the top of the page. This is a non-profit website. Rest assured your email address will NEVER be sold to marketers. There's no risk of more spam mail in your inbox if you subscribe.


6

It's another good week of Central Ohio Car events.

NEWS AND NOTES:

The weather couldn't have been any better this past weekend and it showed in attendance. As someone said, Central Ohio finally had a spring this year instead of going directly from winter into summer.

Der Dutchman had another strong showing. More than 270 cars turned out for the Thursday cruise-in at the restaurant in Plain City, Ohio.

Friday evening in Marysville, Ohio, The Creative Automotive/Advanced Auto Parts monthly show registered 29 vehicles.

The show raised $173 for the Milford Center Trinity Chapel Food Pantry.

Here are the cars that received awards this month:

Overflow parking was needed for the Empty Pocket Cruisers Armed Forces Day Show on Saturday afternoon. The club registered 178 cars at the VFW Post 4931 in Columbus, Ohio.

The Most Patriotic Award went to Frank Deering and his 2000 Corvette. The 1953 Chevy 3100 pickup truck belonging to Dean Maisenbacher received the Best of Show award.

For more photos from the Armed Forces Day Show, Click Here.

Larry Waters was kind enough to send some photos from the Harvey West Memorial Cruise-In at Alumcreek State Park beach on Saturday. Approximately 50 cars turned out for the event.

The 1948 Chevy Pickup owned by Sam and Barbara Parks in the bottom photo was built by Harvey West.

The Mid Ohio Cruisers hosted their second show of the season at its new Burger King location off State Route 31.

The club registered 72 cars, however, closer to 90 cars showed up during the evening. The Burger King doesn't have an abundance of parking so there was some concern as to where all the cars were going to park. The club did a good job of spreading the cars to part of the lot at Turkey Hill next to Burger King, and the street and daycare facility behind the restaurant.

The Hilliard Historic Village at Weaver Park in Hilliard, Ohio was the venue for the inaugural Conkey Classic Car Show on Saturday. The show registered 65 cars. The show presented eight awards from Shiniest Wheels, Kids Choice, to Best Exterior. All voting was done using a QR code through a smartphone (interesting). All proceeds from the show went to the Conkey Charity for Covid Victims. Congratulation to Tim Foremen and his 2016 Camaro SS convertible for winning the Best Exterior award.

Cruis'in the O'Reilly Auto Parts on Harrisburg Pike in Columbus is the final show in this week's News and Notes report. Approximately 60 cars participated in the show on Sunday. Kevin Foust and his 1941 Dodge WC 40 took home the Best of Show award.

Central Ohio Forecast
68°
Cloudy
7:21 am7:26 pm EDT
MonTueWedThuFri
73/61°F
77/59°F
73/59°F
72/59°F
75/55°F

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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.

Continue Reading

2

Friday morning the index finger on my right hand encountered the supercharger belt on my Camaro. This gave me the opportunity to meet two very nice Columbus Police and Fire Department paramedics and spend eight hours in the OSU Medical Center Emergency Department. Let me just say the entire incident won't top my list of brilliant moves.

Since typing at the moment isn't very efficient, this week's report will be a little shorter than normal.

Der Dutchman

Starting with Der Dutchman, the cruise-in set a new attendance record this past Thursday.  The restaurant registered 147 vehicles braking the previous record by four cars.  More than 20 were first time participants.

The Thursday cruise-in has become so popular this season that the restaurant has added a second port-a-potty!

Boot's from Auto Smarts Radio stopped by again this week with his BADD '57 Chevy.  He invited Bill Fowler (see arrow) From Baer Brakes to come out.  Bill brought some Baer shirts with him that were raffled off at the end of the cruise-in.

  Continue reading...

As I wrote in last week's Upcoming Events post, my goal this past weekend was to participate in four events.  With rain showers cancelling the Der Dutchman cruise-in on Thursday evening, that left three shows in three days to do!  Here's the big report I promised from those shows.

FRIDAY NIGHTS UPTOWN

After attending the first two Jack Maxton Friday  Night Cruisin', I decided to change things up this month and attend the final Marysville Friday Nights Uptown.

The Friday Nights Uptown is a monthly community block party put on by the city of Marysville from May through August.  The August event has traditionally included a car show organized by the Mid-Ohio Cruisers car club.

I estimated a crowd of well over 1000
people attended the event Friday evening.

Along with the cars, there were 11 food trucks to satisfy everyone's culinary tastes, bounce houses for the kids, and live entertainment from the band Wille Phoenix and the Soul
Underground.

With a $10 registration fee, the car show registered 72 automobiles. There were no door prizes, however, the show did have a 50/50 raffle.

One of the first things I noticed about this show were number of vehicles I was seeing for the first time this summer.

Read more

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