2004 Michiana Mopar and Friends Car Show

The 2004 Michiana Mopar and Friends Car Show was held on August 22, 2004 at George Wilson Park in South Bend.  It was a very strange show this year.  Running a car show is a large task and, as participants of the show, we do not know much of what is going on behind the scenes.  With that said, this review is written through the eyes of the participant.  Upon arriving to the grounds, I drove by the participant entrance and had to turn around.  This was easy to do because there was no entrance sign easily visible from the road.  A good estimation would be that 40% of the cars also missed the entrance.   Upon pulling in, we paid the $15 fee, received our door prize ticket and parked our vehicles. Around 9:00, we were told that judging would begin at 9:30 and we were pleased because we thought that meant the awards might be given out a little early.

Nice door prizes were given out and the DJ played a wide variety of music.  Around 1:00 p.m. they got the cars for the burnout competition lined up and there was a slight delay because the fire truck hadn't arrived yet.  The fire truck arrived around 1:30 and managed to block the view of over half of the people who had staked out positions to watch to contest.  The burnout contest started around 1:40 and ran for almost an hour before the winner was decided by the crowd.  Check out this video of one of the best burnouts, performed by a Monte Carlo:

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BURNOUT VIDEO - 500kb

After the burnout, there was an auction for various tools and accessories and they gave out the 50/50 prize.  At 3:00 the awards presentation started.  They had at least 40 separate classes, with three awards in each class.  About half-way through the presentation, there was a pause...and things went downhill from there on.  When they finally made it to the Best of Show awards, they had mixed up all of the winners and there was a silence for about 15 minutes.  About half of the cars left during the awards presentation because no one knew what was going on and they weren't saying anything specific over the PA.   Once the final award was given, they drew the names of the door prize winners and it was over.

Overall, this is a good show, but with better communication (signs, announcements, etc), it could be a great show because they give out so many nice awards and door prizes and they have activities to participate in throughout the day.

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