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There is a saying that “With age comes wisdom”, but concerning how smoothly the Beach Blast 9 car show went, hosted by us here at Mike Kelly’s Cruise News on May 18th, I’d rather say “We get by with a little help from our friends”. Of course our friends include the show sponsors; All-Midwest Sales, a major parts manufacturers representative company owned by fellow enthusiast Ron Hassel, and Advance Discount Auto Parts, who has always been our door prize sponsor but this year also stepped up the ante and added increased funding. While we have learned many ways to improve the show over the years, it was again volunteers from the Vintage Vehicles of Florida that gave us a MUCH appreciated helping hand in taking care of the parking procedures up front, and Shorty Crocker at C&D Golf Carts once again supplied us with cool custom carts to help get around.
Once again the Beach Blast was limited to the first 200 vehicles, which was met through pre-registrations about a month before the show date, as usual. Though the actual show took place on Sunday, May 19th, things officially got started on Saturday in front of the Holiday Inn Cocoa Beach host hotel. Parking for the spots on the winding brick promenade was again handled on a first-come first-served basis, with vouchers given to the first 50 vehicles Saturday afternoon. Then Saturday evening from about 5:00-9:00 pm DJ Butch Johnston helped us crank up the kick-off party by spinning the tunes and making announcements. Additional lighting was brought in, and we began handing out the registration packets, which included magnetic dash plaques, one free event T-Shirt (once again featuring original artwork by Adam Icenogle), plus a participant voting form and instructions about show particulars. Everyone seemed to have a good time dancing, talking, and getting a jump on checking out all the great show vehicles. We had planned to also have a party in the Holiday Inn’s lounge for The Winston NASCAR race, but unfortunately we found out they did not receive the FX cable channel that was broadcasting it. Those who did care to see it though had to look no farther than the sports bar directly across the street. Between line dancing and being sociable as always, Jennifer Johnston also sold tickets for the Saturday evening 50/50 raffle drawing. Sunday morning we were delighted to have more great weather greet us upon waking up. We began parking those with promenade vouchers among the lush tropical landscaping at 9:00 am, while other vehicles settled into the spaces up front. Throughout the day everyone was invited to sample all the Holiday Inn has to offer, including the big pool area with a neat “Pirate Ship” children’s section, shuffleboard, the sandbox style children’s play area, and of course direct access to Cocoa Beach. In the afternoon there was live entertainment on the covered Ocean Deck with the island sounds of a steel drum player, plus food and drinks available not only on the Ocean Deck, but also at the pool-side bar and drink vendors along the promenade. DJ Butch Johnston once again played more great 50’s and 60’s classic tunes, while his wife Jennifer again headed up the 50/50 raffle duties much to the delight of winner J.T. Reynolds of Lakeland, who went home with an extra $578 cash. Starting at 3:00 pm the door prize drawings started on the Ocean Deck, with lots of useful items given away thanks to Discount Auto Parts. The awards presentation followed right after that at about 3:30 pm, and again we had our own special trophies. For the Top 40 we mounted slick 1:24 scale die-cast 1959 Cadillacs on a wood base, with an upright plaque featuring the event artwork. The Specialty awards featured a variety of die-cast vehicles. For the Best Paint, Best Interior and Best Of Show we mounted 1:18 scale purple 1939 Lincoln Zephyrs patterned off the full size car called “Scrape”. For the Best Engine award we went with a neat cartoonish 1:18 scale 1957 Chevy, which was painted candy red with huge rear tires and a monstrous blower poking up higher than the roof, while the Cruise News Choice award featured a 1:18 scale Cragar edition gold 1970 Chevelle. Thanks again to All-Midwest Sales and Discount Auto Parts for sponsoring the show, and making it possible. Though All-Midwest Sales doesn’t deal with the public directly, when you buy performance products through various stores around the state odds are they helped get them to the shelves. Of course we all know Advance Discount Auto Parts has hundreds of stores throughout the state, and they have always been involved in various automotive events, so keep them in mind when it comes time to make your purchases. While we see many old friends and familiar faces at our show each year we also see many new participants, and we’d like to send out a big “Thank You” to everyone. Watch for the announcement of next year’s show, and the beginning of pre-registration in our January, 2004 issue. We hope to see you all there next year for another fun time at the beach! CN Top 40 Winners: Specialty Awards: |
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