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access, the emphasis on local traditions, the beautiful weather in June and the volunteers that run this event. They also do a great job of inviting vendors and sponsors who make this a festive affair for the community. Some of the vendors were Skinned Knuckles, Jim Krogle, Fibertech, Farmers Insurance, King of Glory Lutheran Church, Tuff Skin, Rotary International, Morgan Stanley, Riteway Auto Paint and Bodyworks, HatGuy.com, Bazil Chiropractic, Auto Club of Southern California, Fan-Sport, Crusty’s Die Cast, and Bartwood Construction. Further down the aisle there were other vendors, including Words on the Go, K2CNC, Pit BBQ Catering, Toyota of Huntington Beach, Boys and Girls Club, Kettle Corn, Fountain Valley PD, Kiwanis Club of Fountain Valley, OSH Hardware Store and Connell Chevrolet. Stretching around the corner were Time-Warner Cable, Tire Pros, McJacks Corvettes, Len Nordmann Paintings, The Dr, Crevier Classic Cars, Beach City Paintless Dent Removal and Ecology Auto Parts. On the far turn were situated Union Bank of California (the title Sponsor for the car show), Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce, Fountain Valley Recreation Center, Star Realty, Euromasters Classic Cars, and Non-Surgical Spine Care Center. It was an interesting and eclectic mix of local and non-local sponsors and vendors.
The car show itself was located on the grassy soccer fields and this made walking much easier. The vendors and sponsors surrounded the cars and it was self-contained. There were about 280 cars on display and about 400 car owners and their families. The crowd was estimated at somewhere between 2000 and 2500, though it is hard to get an exact amount as there was a lot of foot traffic. Many people use Mile Square Park for walking and jogging. Each side of the square park is a mile long, so the length around the park is four miles. Many of the joggers joined the throngs who came to see the cars. There is a pre-registration fee for exhibiting cars and that with the sponsors and vendors fees, paid for the cost of the show and raised money for various civic functions and charities. There is no cost for spectators who can park on the grounds or on the street for free and there were no barriers around the show and no admissions charge. All around the perimeter of the show people put up tents or folding chairs under the tree lined walkways. This isn’t a large show and isn’t intended to be and one can see everything up close and personal in a day, without becoming exhausted. The car exhibitors, vendors and sponsors are very easy to talk to and they all have interesting stories to tell. Jim Krogle set up his booth with his paintings. He specializes in beach scenes, which includes surfing, hot rods, woodies and you can see more on his website at www.jimkrogle.com. Three enterprising and creative ladies are Monica Serratos, Rossin Lopez and Dody L, who were making customized plastic license plates to order at Words-On-The- Go. “We were making decorations for a cake and thought we could do this for license plates,” said Monica. You can see more of their work at www.wordsonthego.com. The last artist was Ken Nordmann who does canvas paintings and had quite a few people admiring his work.
A special display was a fuel dragster owned by Ken & Son Racing and owned by Kenny Upton. They race the dragster at Fontana Dragstrip and the whole family was present to show off the race car. Joe, Ralph and Richard Del Rio have been in the upholstery business for 30 years and showed off their work in boat and car upholstery. Farmers Insurance and the Auto Club of Southern California represented the car insurance business. Car shows need insurance and these companies can help. They told me that they would come to any show that they could schedule, so when you hold your event, call up the insurance companies and ask them. They will make your event a better one by being there. Representing Farmers was Melissa Watanabe, Sandra Terry, Gina Weinheimer and Lauri Glagovich. Israel Garcia and Joan Lauti came from the Whittier office to represent the Auto Club. Four lively spectators were Julie Delaney, Barbara, David and Jeff Rucker. Julie had a 1950’s Poodle skirt and the accompanying ensemble and look. She fit in well with the music, played by DeeJays Dan and Dana Kendro, a father and son team, who played songs that we all loved from the 1940’s, ‘50’s and ‘60’s. The OSH Hardware Store tent had a long line of people waiting to play the Roulette Board and win a prize. The wheel was operated by Rick and Will, the manager and assistant manager and they gave away a wide selection of things from their store, located in Fountain Valley. Will Mynar brought his Pit BBQ Catering, a Richard RJ Jones barbecue franchise and fed the throngs of people for a very reasonable price. Before he entered the food business, Mynar was a manager for the early space program at Rockwell that put a man on the moon. Earlier in the day it was the local Kiwanis Club of Fountain Valley that served breakfast, a huge plate of eggs, sausage and flapjacks, for $5. The owner of the Fountain Valley Bowl, Dave Osborn, stopped by to say hello to Mynar. The bowling alley is located in the city and is home to a major Professional bowling tournament once a year.
The man in charge of organizing the Fountain Valley Car Show is Pete Haak and though he is very outgoing and helpful, it proved hard to talk to him about the event as he was going from one area to another, solving problems and welcoming people. Three very personable volunteers were Marty LaPlante, Joe Soresi and Linda Gray, all from the Seniors Center. Ernie Butler was there representing King of Glory Lutheran Church. “We’re here to help support local events,” Ernie said and pointed to several other booths where members of the Church were manning. One of them was Bernd Steinebrunner who set up the Morgan-Stanley tent. Bernd also has his own investment business. Few were as animated and enthusiastic as Max Kusnetz, who owns Riteway Auto Paint and Bodyworks. The shop has been in business for some time and can handle vehicles and trucks up to 36 feet in their paint booths. “We are doing this show for the city and Pete Haak,” said Max. I saw Max talking to just about everyone and he seemed to be the guy to get to know at the car show. Jim Ragsdale went to swap meets with his wife and always got sunburned, so he thought a good business opportunity would be to have a hat business. His booth was filled with hats, caps and head covers of all sorts and he sells at shows almost every weekend, but car shows are his best. His website is at www.hatguy.com. I ran in to Ken Hillberg and Bobby White. Hillberg is a member of the Western Timing Association (WRA) and they race nostalgia midgets at their races. He told me that he didn’t bring any of his midgets to show as they were on the trailers and he was heading off to a race. It’s always a treat to see Ken’s cars, especially the Bill Vukovich cars. The show had a wide range of cars for all tastes, including a very nice ’40 Packard 110 Station Wagon and a ’40 Merc Convertible. Close by was a ’59 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer Convertible. Bob Quinn and Manuel Duenas showed me their Tuff Skin product that is sprayed on truck beds and helps to keep them from being damaged. They also support the Crusin’ for a Cure car show in September, at the Orange County Fairgrounds.
There were rows and rows of sports cars, coupes, roadsters, one boat on a trailer, station wagons, muscle cars, pick-ups and modern as well as antique cars. There were Fords, Chevys, Oldsmobiles, Austin-Healeys, Volkswagens, Buicks, Dodges and more marques on display. There were touring cars, sedans, El Caminos, Cadillacs, motorcycles, vintage bicycles, customs, delivery vans, a tandem bike and hot rods on display. Gary Hickman waved to me and anyone else who came near. He was manning the Rotary International booth and he wanted to get his message out to people. The local club has twenty members and is celebrating their twentieth year in Fountain Valley. There are 1.2 million members in Rotary International in 137 countries and they exist to help their communities and those who need help. Their website is www.Rotary.org. Representing Bazil Chiropractic from Huntington Beach was Grisell Martinez and she said this was Bazil first year at the show and they are excited to participate. Joe Fantore and his son Randy came from Torrance, California, to open their Fan-Sport T-shirt booth. Joe has done as many as 30 shows a month and sells 60,000 T-shirts a year. “I bought the rights to the names of the racetracks that are on my shirts,” Joe told me. He has the logos from Irwindale, Lions, Orange County International Raceway and many more. Joe used to race against the best in Top Fuel dragsters back in the 1970’s at the same dragstrips that he now owns the right to use their names on his T-shirts. Originally from Michigan, Joe added that the T-shirt business is driven by the economy. Russ Salviuolo came from San Diego and goes by the name of Crusty’s Diecast. He’s been selling die cast cars for seven years and does 200 shows a year, though this is his first year at the Fountain Valley car show. I wondered about the nickname, because Russ is outgoing, friendly and loves to work with the public.
The main attraction at the show was Tom McEwen and the Yeakel Plymouth Special top fuel dragster. Tom is a long-time Fountain Valley resident and drag racing legend, who is known by the nickname “Mongoose.” His races against Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, George “The Bushmaster” Schreiber and other colorful racing personalities were the highlight of the Golden Age of drag racing. Tom was the mongoose, an animal that hunted snakes. Don and George were the quick striking serpents of the sport that struck terror in their opponents. Their duels were climactic and thrilling and we remember them to this day. The restored Yeakel Plymouth Special top fuel dragster is the project of Frank Baney, Jim and Paul Rossi, Ronalle Baney, Dugan Yeakel and Chuck Goebel and their friends and family. Dugan is the son of Bob Yeakel and Frank is the son of Lou Baney. Lou and my dad worked together on the first Hot Rod Show at the Armory in 1948, a legendary hot rod show, something unheard of in the day. After that successful SCTA sponsored hot rod show, other groups of hot rodders organized their car shows all over the country. The Fountain Valley car show followed in the footsteps of that legendary event. Baney went on to run the Russetta Timing Association when the SCTA refused to allow coupes to run at their desert dry lakes timing trials. Dugan did off road racing as well as run in the Baja 500 with the Ford Motor Company team headed by Bill Stroppe in the 1970’s. McEwen is with Drag Racer Magazine, which is located in Orange and has a circulation of around 70,000. I moved in and out of the sponsor’s booths to the cars and then back again. Some of the more unique vehicles, ones you don’t often see, were a delivery truck, ’25 Chrysler Touring car, ’48 Packard, ’37 Buick Roadmaster convertible and a ’31 Graham sedan.
Another first time sponsor of the Fountain Valley car show was Bartwood Construction and Home Restoration Company. They have been in business in the Fountain Valley area for 26 years and were represented by Phil Roberts and David Cantoran. Ron Liboon showed us the new CNC cutting machine produced by his firm, K2CNC. The machine is very small and compact and can cut out patterns, logos and other designs using the computer programs created by the company. Roger looked long and hard. His wife, Judy Rohrdanz, could see that her husband, a retired engineer, really wanted to have this machine in his garage. The show cars lay in neat rows on the grass. Families set up chairs and invited interested spectators to come and talk with them about their cars. This show is very informal and relaxing, not at all stressful as some of the other shows are. I passed a few El Caminos, Mustangs, Corvettes, a nice ’56 Lloyd, more convertibles, a VW Van and a cool ’48 Merc. This is an eclectic show with enough variety to keep everyone interested. I particularly liked a ’65 Chevy stock drag car, a ’62 Rambler American and the ’65 Pontiac GTO. We could use more Ramblers on the road right now with the gas prices the way they are, but the GTO purred pure power. A ’67 Ford Fairlane looked much better than my memory served and the ’55 Ford Thunderbird had sleek designs that have never been improved on. Standouts also included a ’68 T-Bird 4-door Landau fixed top, a ’65 Dodge Dart, and a ’53 Studebaker Pick-up. There were some striking Chevelles, Bel-Airs, a ’70 Plymouth Barracuda, a ’72 AMC Javelin and an interesting ’58 Volvo PV444. Approximately 280 cars were on display, but it was the weather, the area, the grounds and the relaxed, friendly people that made this car show a huge success.
Gone Racin’ is at [email protected].
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