The10th year of Motor the Mountain Car Show in McCloud’s Hoo Hoo Park gets a bigger draw of both entries of more variety of vehicles, and more spectators every year. But even with few unforeseen circumstances, the show was once again, a smooth success.
Cooler weather brought out more families and seniors to stroll through the grassy park with lines of colorful (and old rustic) classic, antique, rebuilt, fancy, and newer vehicles of all kinds.
The McCloud Firemen’s Association’s pancake & egg breakfast sold out fast and the McCloud Community Resource Center continued feeding the crowds with their lunch of BBQ hotdogs and hamburgers throughout the rest of the day.
If people got through checking out all the cars, there were also some fun vendor booths selling crafts, plants, jewelry, pottery, and kettle corn for people to enjoy.
According to Sybil Stewart, one of the car show committee coordinators, there were 170 pre-registered vehicles signed up this year. There were 40 different towns and cities represented. The furthest participant drove 293 miles to come to this event.
“It was a wild show. But not just because of the vast variety of vehicles. First it was the power outage throughout the town until about 11:30 and then the incoming storm made for an eventful entertaining day in so many other ways.”
Later in the afternoon, gusts of wind came blowing though knocking down the McCloud Chamber of Commerce’s canopy where they were registering vehicles, selling raffle tickets, and t-shirts. The canopy over the breakfast tables where the McCloud Firemen’s Association was cooking breakfast also got blown over. Volunteer Eileen Bauer said that everyone in the area immediately jumped up to help fix the problem quickly. No injuries to people or vehicles were reported.
Announcer Geeia with Wildwoman Sound kept the fun going all day. There were raffle drawings for prizes from the Chamber throughout the morning, including a 50/50 raffle. Geeia also held a dance contest were a few women and children came up to compete by doing the dance to the 1958 song, “Willie and the Hand Jive” by Johnny Otis. The old video was pulled up to show how it was done. The winners, MJ Butler from Weed and Pam Hinton from Burney (who had her 1960 Ford Thunderbird Ultimate Classic Car with a sunroof in the show), split the winnings which was $5 and bought more raffle tickets. (They also were thrilled to get their picture in this article)
There were two different types of awards for the winners at Motor the Mountain Car Show:
One is from ten local sponsoring businesses, each picking their favorite vehicle and present the winner with a trophy of a wood framed 2024 car show poster in an 11 x 17-inch frame, with a plaque at the bottom stating the business who chose them.
The other 8 awards were judged by 4 car connoisseur experts known as ‘gear heads’. Coordinated by Raymond Nicholas, the other judges were Rod and Brian Thomas, and Mike Brundge. This car show does not use categories for types of vehicles. Judge Rod Thomas says of going over the entries and producing the winners, “There is a massive selection of cars this year. I am sure that the arguing will start when we all get together to compare notes. We are not expecting to throw any punches in our tough decisions to pick the winners today, though.”
| Category | Winner | Vehicle | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Foreign Car | Jamie Borjon | 1959 VW | |
| Best Custom Car | Stefanie Boudro | 1969 Ford Ranger F100 | State Farm Insurance |
| Best Pick-Up | Dan Wilson | 1968 K-30 | |
| Most Original | Don Hamilton | 1966 GTO | Don Erickson Fuel |
| Best (1990+) New Car | Gerard Pelletier | 2001 Chrysler Prowler | Central Credit Union |
| Best Paint | Jack & Carollee Erbland | 1936 Ford Coupe | Longhair Auto Collision Works |
| Best Under Construction | Rick Cabitto | 1963 Chevy II | |
| Best in Show | Rob & Beth Wright | 1969 Chevy Camaro | Bjers Automotive Repair |
Business Winners
| Business | Winner | Vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| Black Fox | James Mitchell | 1970 GTO |
| McCloud Market | Don Hamilton | 1965 Pontiac GTO |
| McCloud Hotel | Lehel Garami | 1932 Dodge Bros Speedster |
| Echo, Whiskey Tactical | Kevin Brooks | 1965 Cadillac Coop Deville |
| McCloud Millworks | Roger Carrel | 1966 VW Bus |
| McCloud River B&B | Jack & Pat Totman | 1955 Bel Air |
| McCloud RV Park | Dusty Wilson | 1972 Plymouth Scamp |
| T.R.A.D. | Russ Margiotta | 1941 Willy’s Coop |
| Bogeys | Michael Lee | 1955 Chevy 210 |
| Coldwell Banker | Jennifer Tryon | 1955 Chevy 210 Gasser |
This year’s Best of Show winner, Rob and Beth Wright’s pro touring car; 1969 Chevy Camaro that has a LS3 engine with a T56 transmission, that took 3 years to build, will be featured on next year’s posters and t-shirts. Steve Richardson from McCloud designs the artwork for each year’s Motor the Mountain Car Show.
Lots of car clubs’ members came up together. The stories and car talk made the day remarkably interesting to even the non-car enthusiasts.
Dressed for the part in 1964 bellbottoms, 18-year-old Luke Sutterfield from McArthur came with his father to enter his 1964 Ford Thunderbird that he bought just a couple of weeks ago. “I love cars. We already showed our car in the Cool April Nights show in Redding.”
Ben Garcia of McCloud showed his 1968 Jeep Kaiser M715 half ton. He said that there were 4 of the Kaisers made and they used them in the Vietnam war and then this one became a brush fire truck in Central Point, Oregon after the war. He got it in an auction and wants to make it into a tow truck and get back into the towing business.
Charlie Kramm of Redding was showing his 1977 Chevrolet K 10 step side. His dad bought it new in 1977 in Siskiyou County, so he felt compelled to come and show it here.
This is Don Tryon’s first time to McCloud. He brought his 1955 Chevy 210 High Boy Grasser called “Bad Behavior from Trail Oregon. “I just show it off. It is a drag car. I have owned it for 8 years. If I give it too much gas it gets airborne or what we call, ‘a wheelie popper.’
Everybody finds their favorite car. Local McCloudians who come every year (and have shown their own vehicles in the past) pick what they think is the best.
Asking a few McCloud residents:
Randy Ives fell for the gray Chevy pickup that was converted to diesel.
Phil Walsh’s favorite was a 1964 white Cadillac.
Mike Lingsch fell for Brian Rogers’ 1941 GMC. Rogers bought it 40 years ago and rebuilt it completely. He did everything but the paint job on it.
Mary Lingsch was drawn to the green 1965 MG TC. “I really like them because I had one many years ago.”
The whole show ended, people left, and the park got cleaned up just in time to miss the big lightening storm that dumped rain and hail throughout the late afternoon and evening. The show was a success in many different ways this year.
- Governor Newsom’s Legislative Push: Reshaping California’s Policy Landscape
- Documentary Film HORSE of NATURE ‘Officially Selected’ by prestigious EQUUS Film & Arts Festival
- California Insider: Siskiyou Sheriff Explains How Toxic Pesticides in California’s Legal Weed
- McCloud Market: Where Community and Commerce Thrive
- WHY Doesn’t Our County and State District Have an Advocate Like THIS WOMAN?
I love this. Great job. Were so blessed to have you Shareen.