Car shows are popular for two reasons.
“The car owners really love to show off their cars,” said John Fogg, the Rotary Club’s event director. “And people enjoy going because it brings back memories.”
The 21st April Action Car Show is this Saturday at Swanny Park. Hundreds of classic cars will be on display from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For twenty years the April Action Car Show was organized by the Moab Rod Benders. This year the Rotary Club is hosting the event. Fogg was the right person to manage the show. He’s been a member of both clubs for years. And he has 25 trophies for the cars he has had in show around the west.
Fogg said car shows have a strong nostalgia factor.
“Every owner of a car generated a love for that vehicle,” Fogg said. “They may have met their wife while driving that car.”
Fogg bought at 1968 Shelby GT500 after he served in the Vietnam War.
“I saved up all my money and bought one of these cars,” he said. “I couldn’t afford to keep it. It only got 8 miles to the gallon. I sold it for a family car and regretted it.”
But, he said, as people age and have more money, they can buy that car again.
Fogg did. He now drives a 1968 Shelby GT500 around Moab.
“It takes you back to when you’re wild, young and free,” he said.
He plans to have the Shelby in the show, but it won’t compete for a prize.
“I take myself out of running for a trophy since I’m a judge,” Fogg said.
There will be 30 awards and trophies handed out at the show for cars dating from the 1920s.
Most of the cars will be judged by two different ways: stock or modified.
Stock cars, those that strive to be as true to the original, start with a score of 100.
“You start with the perfect car that would come off the assembly line with 100 points,” Fogg said. “Then you start subtracting points for a dent, or not stock wheels.”
Modified cars have a whole different way to choose the best.
“Whatever car slaps you in the face and grabs your attention,” Fogg said.
There’s also the best in show categories for Camaro (both stock and modified), Mustang (both stock and modified), Corvette, best Chrysler, Hot Rod, Import, Muscle Car, Truck, Motorcycle and Low Rider.
There’s more than the show on Saturday.
Car registrants will also have to rod runs. One to Castle Valley via State Route 128 on Friday and another to the Needles Overlook near Canyonlands National Park on Sunday via South Hwy 191.
Proceeds from the show will benefit the Rotary Club’s projects and scholarship programs. The club provides six $1000 scholarships each year and hosts the Grand County High School’s graduation party. It also helps fund the Grand County Education Foundation and provides dictionaries that are given to each third grader in Moab and Green River.
It took Tim Keogh a few years to restore his green 1951 Chevy truck.
“It’s pretty close to stock,” he said.
This is the third year it will be shown in the April Action Car Show. And while it is entered in the competition, he doesn’t plan to win any awards.
He’s shown his blue and white 1956 Chevy coupe at earlier shows.
Keogh has had a love for classic cars for most of his life. When he was 16 he began driving a blue 1957 Chevy truck.
