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April 18, 2009

Car show grows

This year was at least double, maybe even triple, the size of last year’s show

John Walker

DUNCAN — Almost half-a-mile long strip full of cars lined Main Street Saturday for the second annual Cruising the Chisholm Trail Car Show.

This year was at least double, and maybe even triple, the size of last year’s show, which proves that recessions don’t always stop economic growth.

“I’m so excited,” said Main Street Duncan Director Tammy Johnson, who organized the show. “I don’t know what we’re going to do next year.”

Last year’s show held 165 cars in about three blocks of space from Seventh to 10th Street on Main Street. This year extended the space down to 12th Street. And it was all full of cars, old and new.

“I’m speechless,” Johnson said. “With the weather, I was afraid some might not come, and some didn’t, and leave empty spaces on the street, but there’s no gaps at all.”

The show brought in people from all over the country, even as far away as Tennessee and South Dakota, Johnson said.

Billy Varnell, who didn’t have to travel very far because he’s from Marlow, brought one of his corvette’s to the show. He was pleased with the turnout.

“This is great,” Varnell said. “I usually go to corvette shows, but I’ve been to one other car show and this one has a lot nicer vehicles than that one did.”

Douglas Carpenter, from Waurika, saw an ad for the car show Saturday morning and decided to drive up to see what it was all about. He had gone to the show last year.

“It’s a little bit bigger than last time,” Carpenter said. “I like that.”

Jeff Graham, of Duncan, was also pleased with the size of this year’s event.

“It’s a lot bigger than last year,” Graham said. “There’s some people here from Tennessee. I was shocked to see them drive such a long ways. [Johnson] did an awesome job.”

At about 1 p.m. Saturday, Johnson said that after registration closed at about 10 a.m., there were maybe 350 registered vehicles. Out of that 350, they had about 100 motorcycles.

But that number does not include all the vehicles that kept arriving even after registration closed down.

Registration was so that the vehicles could be judged. There were a total of 100 points to be given to each vehicle, with the exterior having 45 points possible, interior with 20 points possible, engine compartment and undercover both receiving 15 points and the overall appearance getting 5 points.

There were a total of 12 judges, who each had one helper, Johnson said.

Brian Thibodeaux, one of the judges, said that each car will take about five to 15 minutes to judge.

While Thibodeaux enjoyed looking at all the cars, he really enjoyed Friday night with the cruise of cars down Main Street.

“It was wild last night,” Thibodeaux said Saturday. “It made me regret that I didn’t have one of those cars.”

In essence, Johnson felt that the show, which started Friday night, was a resounding success, not only for Main Street Duncan, but also for the city.

“We filled the hotels and everyone wants food,” she said. “That’s got to help the city sales tax.”

Regardless of how much the show helped Duncan’s income, City Councilman Ricky Mayes was ecstatic with the success of the show.

“I think this is great,” Mayes said. “I think this outdid last year, which was a fabulous success.”

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