This week Royboy serves up a double dose of interviews. First Ken McClure of the Torques C.C. comes on the show to talk about the Texas Thaw vintage drag races & car show. Then Bret Chrismer comes on to talk about the Southwest Missouri Hot Rod Hundred.
Saturday, April 4th marked the 2nd annual Southwest Missouri Hot Rod Hundred. We gathered up in the parking lot of the Springfield Catholic High School Saturday morning. Approximately 100 cars were there to take part in the 100 mile run. Part 1 of the coverage is the starting gathering of the run and the cars leaving the school’s parking lot. The maps of the run in hand we headed out at 9am to drive some great roads. I was able to leapfrog the group a couple of times to get ahead of the group and get some shots of the cars rolling by.
Friday night I got to the Hot Rod Holiday show and the show was dead. It was cold and raining and a Friday night, these things do not work well for getting spectators to car shows. What I found was a building with a whole lot of great rides on display. Walking around the Expo Center I run in to my buddy TwoTallOkie who had a booth set up, I was next to Dragdaddy (always a treat), Fritz had 2 bubble tops sitting directly in front of Dragdaddy and I so we had some eye candy to look at all weekend. Hanging out in the building were some of my friends that put on the Queen City Riot and I ran in to some other guys you may have heard of named Darryl Starbird & Tim Strange. Since there was no crowd that evening there was time to talk to all the folks that normally would be too busy to be able to talk for long.
Shortly after noon a bunch of us got directions from the Old Geezer Show promoter Bill Baker for a good place to go eat. Turns out his suggestion was a bit odd to outside appearances. The place is named Tractor’s and it’s in a Shell gas station. Well, I’ve eaten at weirder joints.
Although the overall turnout may not have been big, some seriously nice rides were in the mix. Thanks to an unruly tractor owner who wouldn’t move his John Deere we couldn’t get quite the shot we wanted of the Mercs all together, although I did get some later in the day after we moved a few around. The day was full of good friends, stories and good times at the Old Geezer Show.
For the second year in a row I trekked down to Lamar, MO for the Old Geezer Show. A small town with a small show that’s big on quality and awesome people. A horrible forecast kept the attendance down a bit but what was there was pretty great.
Thank you to the first 2 sponsors of my site, quite frankly the only 2 that I’ve asked to sponsor the site so far. If you’d like to help sponsor Royboy Productions and provide the koolest car show coverage to folks worldwide, click here to ask me about it.
Thank you to the first 2 sponsors of my site, quite frankly the only 2 that I’ve asked to sponsor the site so far. If you’d like to help sponsor Royboy Productions and provide the koolest car show coverage to folks worldwide, click here to ask me about it.
The 2014 Queen City Riot is in the books. A dreary forecast which actually did come true for a couple of quick spells may have kept some folks away. The turn out was smaller than expected but I like this show and I will return. The plan was to take the Galaxie this year, but it wasn’t ready when I needed it. So the daily driver it was :). A stop at Hot Rod Garage in Sand Springs, OK will be featured on Thursday on the blog and a new car Feature will be on Friday, now on with the pics from the show!
Thank you to the first 2 sponsors of my site, quite frankly the only 2 that I’ve asked to sponsor the site so far. If you’d like to help sponsor Royboy Productions and provide the koolest car show coverage to folks worldwide, click here to ask me about it.
Saturday was not all about the show, in the evening a bunch of us gathered at a local diner for dinner and stories, the stories continued back at the host hotel and even to a late evening Dairy Queen run because Mickey was not to be denied this delicacy not found in Oklahoma. We partied pretty hard, getting kicked out of the DQ at 10pm, then back to the host hotel for some more kustom fellowship before calling it a night.
Sunday started with some coupons for free biscuits and gravy at the diner then we watched the cars roll in and hung out in the waning hours of the show before packing up and hitting the road back to our respective lairs. I took the opportunity to head with Mickey over to Dewey to Fast AL’s Upholstery to see what was Aaron up to. More on that in a couple of days.
Although the show was smaller than many I attend I was blessed with the opportunity to spend some time talking to some folks that I don’t get to see often enough or when we do we’re in such big crowds that we don’t have time to talk. Lamar presented plenty of time to talk.
Friday night I arrived at the Super 8 hotel expecting something on par with my last Super 8 experience, in which I left a pre-paid room because it skeeved me out so badly. I found this was not the case, a great hotel that looks to be just a couple of years old, very clean, friendly staff and they even hooked us all up with some hot dogs, chili and nachos for free for a Friday evening B.S. session.
I spent most of the evening with friends old and new talking kustoms and car shows, I was told stories of the way things used to be and I longed to be there. Saturday morning I woke at 5am to a thunderstorm rolling through, I rolled over and promptly went back to sleep. Around 8am I woke up, enjoyed the free biscuits and gravy and then headed for the car wash and the show. $10 entry fee at the gate and I was into one of the smallest yet koolest shows that I have seen. Great atmostphere, kool rides, and some great people, it was a good day.
A few months ago I received an invitation in the mail to a show with a funny name, the Ol Geezers Car Show in Lamar, MO. I hadn’t heard of the show before, hell I hadn’t heard of Lamar, MO before and the show was on the same date as the 2nd Iron Invasion and I already had a room booked for that show so I set the post card aside and made a note to promote the show but I was going to Iron Invasion.
Then came the KKOA Leadsled Spectacular weekend. talking to some friends that said they were going to the show with the funny name in the town I’d never heard of got me to thinking. 1st I am good friends with John Wells promoter of Iron Invasion, and I said I would be there… but so would a handful of other photographers. A couple of which would be trying to sell photos to the same magazines as I would be. 2nd, Iron Invasion is a good 11 hour drive from my home, Lamar is 4.5. Iron Invasion was a good time last year, but this was a new show to me, and some very respected kustom guys were going to Lamar. I made a gut call and changed my plans.
I’m glad I did. Now, I do wish I could have been at Iron Invasion, I HATE that I missed it, but I got to spend some invaluable time with a couple of folks this weekend that really was amazing. Sitting and talking kustoms, car shows, shenanigans and more I realized that these little moments in the host hotel parking lots are the ones that mean something. I made new friends this weekend with people that have combined 100+ years of kustom car building and driving. These are good folks to have amongst your friends, they’ve made the mistakes you’re about to make and may help you survive when you make the same mistakes that they have.
Enough of the touchy feely stuff, here’s some photos!
There were so many kool rides at the Ol Geezer show that Wyatt Earp came back to his one time home of Lamar, MO to see them.
Yet another shot of my car.
My buddy Don TooTall Wallin made the 11 1/2 hour trip down to Lamar to hang out with some kustom folks. Don’s car has been shot for a magazine feature by our mutual friend and occasional guest blogger here Dan Podobinski of Dan’s Hot Rod Photo. This car burned to the ground on the side of a road 6 years ago, it’s been a long journey back to life but I think you’ll agree it was a success.
The show had a nice selection of kustoms, cruisers, hot rods, a couple of muscle cars, trucks and handful of classic rides.