Rogue Valley Street Rods

There were lots of beautiful vehicles and motorcycles – it seems cars and bikes are built to higher and higher standards every year. The balloting was close but the trophy winners at this year’s event were:

People’s Choice – 1934 Ford Victoria Sedan, owned by Al & Mary Rosario, Seaside, OR
Individual Display Choice – 1950 Mercury, owned by Larry & Linda Hanson, Gig Harbor, WA
High School Display Choice – 1968 Mustang, owned by Jeremy Williams, Aurora, OR
Motorcycle Display Choice – Thunderstruck Custom Bikes, owned by Mark Daley, Medford, OR

Clancy Johnson Memorial Award – Ron and Kay Smith, Medford, OR
Club Display Choice – Jefferson State Street Rods, Grants Pass, OR
Participants’ Pick – 1919 Ford Center Door Model T, owned by John Marvel, Rogue River, OR

All of the above trophies, with the exception of the one chosen by the Participants, were chosen by vote of the ticket buying public spectators. The members of the Rogue Valley Street Rods club extend their congratulations to the above winners and thank all of the vehicle owners for showing their cars and bikes. Being able to show these fabulous vehicles is the basis for the event, they are what bring in the spectators and that in turn generates the funds for our donation to the kids of the Child Development and Rehabilitation Center of Oregon Health Sciences University. This year we were pleased to be able to donate $30,000 to the CDRC, a record amount for us. This donation brings our cumulative donations to the CDRC for the 29 years of the show to $306,000. Putting on this fine car show, and regional entertainment event, is a lot of fun but being able to help a bunch of great, deserving children should give a lot of satisfaction to all who have participated in the event.

We want to give a special “Thank You” to the owners of our feature promotion vehicles this year. They were Wally Larson, of Larson Engineering, Medford, OR for showing his awesome LE-1 Groundfighter supercar; Cody Hoffman, Sprague, OR for his “Rod & Custom Top 100 Pick” ’47 Buick Custom convertible, called “Majestic Serenity”; and Mark Daley, Thunderstruck Custom Motorcycles, Medford, OR for his “Twisted” full custom motorcycle. Wow! What a line-up of feature cars.

The event also included a large venue of commercial and product displays that were very popular with the spectators. There were valve cover races, kids’ coloring contests and a huge raffle with super prizes like a rebuilt Chevy 350 engine, a rebuilt Chevy TH-400 tranny, a $500 certificate from Thunderbird Markets, a $500 certificate from Les Schwab Tires, a spray-in pickup bedliner from Lithia Body & Paint and a bicycle donated by Marty’s Cycle and Moore located in Medford. Circuit City did an impromptu raffle on a color television set and there was a drawing for $100 cash for spectators that deposited a ticket in the Commercial Building.

The sponsor group for our event is growing by leaps and bounds every year. The support of our sponsors is sincerely appreciated. Our success is due in large part to their interest in our charity show. The list is long and includes: Charter Communications, Circuit City Stores, Color Tile Supermart, Keller Motor Supply, Mail Tribune newspaper, Radio Medford, Red Lion Hotel of Medford, Shari’s Restaurants, The Maentz Agency, Wells Fargo Private Client Services, Lithia Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge of Medford, Food 4 Less Market, KDRV Channel 12 television, Les Schwab Tire Center of Medford, Patterson Plumbing, Ram Offset Lithography, Sherm’s Thunderbird Market, Get It In Gear Transmissions, Bob Berg, Indian Creek Dismantlers, John Sabol, Krug Electric, Lithia Body & Paint, National Heating & Air Conditioning, Rogue River Mortgage and The Unisource Corporation.

This event is definitely one you want to put on your calendar to either attend or to get in an entry application. Next year will be our 30th anniversary show and we are planning on making it our biggest and best event ever. Dates will be February 17th and 18th. An entry application will be available on this web site or contact the web site administrator for more information.

The hi-lite of the trip to Redding was the usual stop at Black Bear cafe in Yreka for a brunch that will satisfy for the rest of the day, love their plentiful hash browns and Denvers!!! We got to the fairgrounds at noon and were able to park the trailer right next to our inside space thanks to directions from Barbara Harrison, the show organizer.

Even with all her respon-sibilities, she still has time to be friendly and offer assistance when asked. Our set-up gets easier every time we do it (the latest changes helped) and we were all done by 4pm. Friends Butch & Cathy Steele (’34 DeSoto) and Kent & Terry Bruce (’37 Ford 2dr) (both Tommy Carr creations)were there and inside too.

Glad to see Herb & Bonnie Sutton’s nice ’40 Ford conv. across the way. Barbara had made reservations for us at the beautiful Hilton Garden Inn and comped us 2 nights too. We were also treated to 2 event shirts, a great big goody bag, free entry, an event poster and a unique ‘Appreciation Award’, a framed photo of our car.

Friday was spent viewing other’s displays, meeting people,trading tales and talking to vendors. That night we were invited to Kent & Terry’s with Tommy and Debby for marguritas and an all Mexican dinner. Kent’s a good chef, a good host and we really enjoyed the grog and grub. After a quick dust off, Sat.morn, Char and I drove down to Anderson, Ca. to scope out the route to the fairgrounds and get  reservations for our trip to ‘Hot-O-Rama’ at month end.

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Just got back from the Seattle Roadster Show.  This was our first time at this show, and the first judged show the 40 had been to.  We drove up from Medford, OR, spending the night in Centralia, WA.   Left there the next morn, arriving in Seattle about 10am.  Finding Quest Field was easy as I had mapped it on Map Quest.  We were directed to go around to the Safeway Field and get in line.  Met up with friends who were parking their RV’s, for the 4 day stay.  They had already placed their cars inside.  It seemed like we waited a long time, approximately an hour, then the line started to move, we waited some more.  Finally we were on our way, driving down a back alley, crossing over a road and into the Quest Field alley.

Showing our passes, which we had gotten in the mail, into the garage area, or parking area.  We were told to park our truck & trailer, unload the car, and display items in different areas.  Tommy & I waited with the display stuff, while Bunny took the truck and trailer back over to where we had waited in line.  This was a two block walk back for Bunny, plus parking and leaving the trailer, as we would need the truck to get to our hotel.

When Bunny got back we went and registered in, waiting again in line.  They gave us our space number, Bunny went and got the 40, and Tommy & I loaded up the display items taking as much as we could.  Placed up near the front left of the building we got to work, putting down the carpet first, then getting the car place just right, getting out of the way of others, who need to get in.  Bunny went to work setting up the lights for our display, getting electric, as they didn’t have it connected yet.

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This month’s newsletter has some very interesting articles. [ View ]