Grays Harbor’s car show season is in full swing. With the Hoquiam Push Rods’ River Run Revival and the McCleary Bear Festival Car Show already behind us, here’s what’s coming up to keep auto enthusiasts’ motors running for the rest of this summer:
Midnight Cruizers
Saturday, July 14, 9 a.m to 3 p.m.
Market and Broadway, Aberdeen
The Midnight Cruizers of Grays Harbor were established in 1974 and have been putting on classic car shows every year since.
“It has grown about 10 percent each year,” said President Bill Jenkins. Nowadays you can expect to see 150 to 200 cars at the annual show.
Attendance is free. Registration for entries begins about 7:30 a.m. and the show begins at 8, “but people show up early,” said Jenkins.
The first 150 entries get dash plaques, and 40-plus awards will be bestowed.
Food and other vendors will line the streets, and goodie bags and a 50/50 charity raffle will be offered. There will also be door prizes and event T-shirts.
Historic Montesano Car Show
Saturday, July 21, 8 a.m to 3 p.m.
Main Street and Broadway
This show is in its 16th year and now brings in between 200 and 250 “cool cars,” including street rods, muscle cars, antiques and classics, according to Dave Foss, locally known as “the car guy.”
“All money raised goes to the Montesano food bank and other local charities like the Chehalis Valley Museum, the bike helmets for kids program with the Montesano Police Association, and the Montesano Community Center, among others,” said Foss.
When the show first started, it consisted of five or six classic cars in the Whitney’s parking lot. Now, it stretches up Main Street from Pioneer Avenue and spreads west in front of the courthouse on Broadway Avenue.
County commissioners recently decided to forgo the guided courthouse tours this year because of lack of interest last year. The lobby of the administrative building, however, will be unlocked to give the public access to restrooms.
The event coincides with the Saturday Morning Market at Fleet Park, which will offer live music along with food and other vendors.
The car show ends at 3 p.m. with a cruise through town and up to Lake Sylvia State Park.
The Historic Montesano Car Show is organized by a group of local volunteers and brings participants from all over Western Washington. Over 40 awards are given out to participants, all sponsored by local businesses.
Heat on the Street Custom Car and Motorcycle Show
Saturday, Aug. 4, 9 a.m to 3 p.m.
Third and Main, Elma
The 10th installment of Heat on the Street will actually kick off the night before, with a cruise-in party from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Elma Visitors Station at Third and Main, hosted by the Jason Olsen family.
That’s where participants can register their cars or pick up goodies if already pre-registered. The public also is welcome to partake of music, ice cream and other fun stuff — and get a first look at some of the cars that will be there the following day.
The show starts at 9 a.m. Saturday, where guests can not only ooh and ahh over the cars and motorcycles, but also enter raffles, check out the vendor and food booths, and enjoy downtown Elma shopping.
The first 200 car owners registered by July 20 at a cost of $20 get an official T-shirt, dash plaque, Grays Harbor Raceway ticket, raffle ticket and other goodies. All entrants will receive a goodie bag.
More than 20 awards in many classes will be presented at 3 p.m. The public gets to vote on the coveted People’s Choice Award.
Corvettes at the Marina
Saturday, Sept. 1, 10 a.m to 3 p.m.
Westport Marina
Corvettes of Grays Harbor’s Corvettes at the Marina show runs on Labor Day Weekend in conjunction with the annual Westport Seafood Festival and Craft Show.
“We’ve been teaming up with the seafood festival the last couple of years, combining two things everybody likes: seafood and Corvettes,” said club founder and president Larry Benner.
The Grays Harbor car club may be small compared with others, but they do months of work ahead of time, hitting all the Corvette festivals they can find across the region to recruit entries. It’s been paying off.
“My small little club, we had 124 cars last year,” said Benner. “That’s more than a lot of the big clubs bring in to their shows.”
The number of cars varies from year to year, of course. Benner said he’d be “happy every year” with 70 to 90 entries.
“This is one of the more popular shows around because it’s in a town. You’re not stuck in a parking lot or park or something,” said Benner. “There’s shopping to do, and restaurants, and the seafood festival.”
The cars line Westhaven Drive, overlooking the Marina. There’s ample parking throughout the town nearby, and no admission fee.
On-site registration starts at 9 a.m. Pre-registration forms are available at corvettesofgraysharbor.com. The entry fee is $20.
“All of our trophies are handmade out of driftwood and seashells and those little glass balls you find in the water,” said Benner. “A lot of people who win a lot of trophies say ours are the only ones they have displayed on their mantles.”
Local businesses are solicited to provide auction and raffle items, and those same businesses contribute to the goodie bags given to entrants.
All proceeds from the show go toward charities and scholarships. This year, $1,500 will be donated to PAWS of Grays Harbor, and another $1,500 will go toward a scholarship for an area school. The club also donates $500 to the Westport Police Department for its Chief for a Day program.
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Montesano car enthusiast on quest for hardware
You could say the classic hot-rod bug bit Bruce Jones at a very young age.
With roots in Lansing, Michigan (not far from Detroit), both his grandfather and an uncle worked at the Oldsmobile plant.
The family moved to Huntington Beach, California, in 1959. Jones can recall many things from his time there, including hearing the Beach Boys practice in the high school gym. But what really stood out for him were the beautiful, then nearly new, hot rods lining the street.
“We lived in a fairly new tract home, and looking out the dining room window there was a ’57 Chevy black hardtop, and down to the right there was a ’57 Corvette, a ’63 Fastback, and just past us was a ’55 two-door that a guy used for drag racing,” said Jones, noting there was always a puddle of oil under that car. “Next door was a ’58 Chevy with the first set of Cragars I’ve ever seen.”
It was that Chevrolet hardtop that hooked him hard. “I couldn’t wait to get one,” said Jones.
When he was 15, he did — for a grand total of $20 — and named it the Iron Mistress. He spent the first paycheck he ever earned on a used engine from a guy who was a drag racer.
“I did get that one running when I was still in high school,” said Jones. “I had a cousin who lived at the end of the block who was a mechanic, and he helped me a lot with it.”
There was also a local welder. Jones hung around him all summer long, asking him to work on the car, until finally the welder taught Jones how to do it himself.
“I ended up making a good living off of that,” said Jones, a retired machinist who last worked for the Vaughan Co.
His family moved to Washington in 1965, and shortly after that Jones began showing cars. He joined the Olympia Streetrodders around 1973, when the majority of the cars in the club were older than his.
“Everything there was pre-’49 and I got a lot of looks like, why are you here?” he said. He showed them whybefore long: He entered a show in the Kingdome and took second place in the custom category.
Jones now has a shop outside his home outside Montesano. A look at it shows his meticulous nature: The floor is spotless and the walls are lined with awards, news clippings and calendars featuring a lifetime of accomplishments in the car show world.
He currently has four cars, including the Iron Mistress, which continues to draw stares from crowds at the shows. He also has a blue ’55 Chevy sedan with a 327, which he bought brand-new in Aberdeen at Bigelow’s Chevrolet; and a stock small-block ’56 Chevy truck, still a work in progress.
The fourth vehicle is a 1932 Bantam roadster, bright red with power to spare. It contains a 331 Hemi engine, the first ever manufactured.
“They were used a lot for drag racing,” said Jones. “They were made in America, and during the depression they had to pay $15 in royalties back to England. That was a lot of money.”
It was the Bantam that garnered some of the highest honors Jones has ever received. Just two years ago at the massive Portland car show, the Bantam earned third place for a ’32 roadster and the top spot for best overall engine.
Jones also is very proud that his son, Zach, has taken up the tradition. He has a perfectly restored 1968 Camaro with a brand-new LS motor and locally produced custom interior, along with a late-model console.
“People call me meticulous,” said Jones. “You look at that Camaro, and it’s like it just rolled off the showroom floor.”
Keep your eye out for the Iron Mistress and Jones’ other classics at the Historic Montesano Car Show on July 21.
DAN HAMMOCK | THE DAILY WORLD Bruce Jones of Montesano stands behind his 1932 Bantam roadster, one of four classic cars he currently owns and takes to shows across the region.
DAN HAMMOCK | THE DAILY WORLD Bruce Jones of Montesano bought this 1957 black Chevrolet hardtop for $20 when he was 15. He’s been winning awards for it at car shows since he started the circuit in the early 1970s.
DAN HAMMOCK | THE DAILY WORLD Bruce Jones with just some of the trophies he’s earned showing his classic cars for more than 40 years.
DAN HAMMOCK | THE DAILY WORLD Bruce Jones of Montesano stands behind his 1932 Bantam roadster, one of four classic cars he currently owns and takes to shows across the region.
DAN HAMMOCK | THE DAILY WORLD Bruce Jones of Montesano stands behind his 1932 Bantam roadster, one of four classic cars he currently owns and takes to shows across the region.
