If you love Cars and Motorcycles, there is only one place to be this weekend, the 22nd Annual East Coast Indoor Nationals. This is the largest Pre-1973 All American Car & Motorcycle Show on the east coast! There will be cool muscle cars, classic rides, antiques, hot-rods, drag cars, and custom motorcycles displayed.
The show is not just for gearhead enjoyment, it has a special mission to raise money for ‘Toys for Tot.' Last year the show raised over $20,000 to buy toys. Let's hope this year they are able to break that!
Special guest Candy Clark will be in attendance, from the movie “American Graffitti.” $10,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to those taking part in the show. There will be auctions, a live DJ, and a vendor area for getting that part you need. Santa will be in attendance for children. It should be a great time for everyone! Be sure to stop by and maybe I will see you there.
Show Admission: $12, Kids 6 & Under Free
Where: Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Rd, Timonium MD, 21093
One of the largest car shows and events in Maryland is taking place this weekend (November 5-6th, 2011) at the Maryland International Raceway, the 16th Annual Import vs. Domestic World Cup Finals. It will feature drag racing, a great custom car show, a huge vendor midway, live music, DJS, and a bikini contest (of course it must be cold for the girls in November!).
The car show should have 500 cars of all types. Cruisers, hot rod, tuners, classics, imports, exotics, etc. So there should be something there to fit everyone's tastes. The vendor midway will have over 2000 different vendors selling a huge variety of automotive products. The stunning model Jessica Barton will host the bikini contest and car show awards to the winners.
In the past thousands of people have attended. It will be a great time, so be sure to go if you are free this weekend.
Maryland International Raceway
27861 Budds Creek Road
Mechanicsville, MD 20659
Today, from 10am-6pm at Capitol Raceway in Crofton, MD there will be the Scion Road Rage Show. It is Free and open to the public. If you are interested in winning trophies or awards, just go to the show! No entrance fees, judging fees, or show fees!
You can race your Scion, Toyota, and Lexus for $5. Any other brand or type of vehicle will need to pay $10 to race their vehicle. There is a gamblers race with a purse of $1,000!
This is kid and family friendly event. There will be a moon bounce, obstacle course, and bungee run along with live bands, DJ's, food, waters, cotton candy.
On top of all this the entire lineup of Scion vehicles will be on hand to test drive at the Scion Road Rage Show. This includes the tiny Scion IQ, the latest addition to the Scion vehicle lineup.
Pits next to Camden Yards at the Baltimore Grand Prix
Baltimore had an amazing 3-day Labor Day weekend with the Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. It had everything you could ask for. huge crowds, good food, checkered flag-girls, tons of media, and a whole lot of fast cars.
In the Izod IndyCar series Will Powers won the Baltimore Grand Prix in a stunning victory. He came out early in the race commanding the track over his rivals and won with 10+ second lead. The win wasn't a complete surprise as he lead the pack during practices. Second place runner up was Oriol Servia, who felt his name helped him in the humble city of Baltimore (Oriol translates from Spanish meaning Oriole. Passing Camden Yards must have been good luck!) He came from a 14th place start. Third place runner up was Tony Kanaan, who rallied from a 27th place start and recovered from an interesting accident where he flew over Helio Castroneves during the warmup session.
In the American Le Mans series Guy Smith won the in LMP1 class, Kyle Marcelli in LMPC, Wolf Henzler in GT. An accident where he lost one of his tires during a qualifying lap could not keep Jeroen Bleekemolen from winning in the GTC class. Amazingly he jumped out of his car grabbed the tire put it into his car and drove into the pits to get it installed. Luckily nobody was injured and nor was Jeroen's Porsche 911 GT3 racing car. A great win for Jeroen!
It's clear this was a great event for Baltimore. “We've set the stage to make this a staple event for Baltimore and the region…We had 160,000 fans over the 3 days.” commented Jay Davidson president of Baltimore Racing Development, the private company that oversaw the planning for the Baltimore Grand Prix. “Baltimore has a successful event to build upon for next year and for years to come.” exclaimed Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, The Mayor of Baltimore. Scott Artherton president of the American Le Mans series added, “For a first time event. Honestly it could not have gone better.”
Many drivers commented on how great the weekend went. Will Powers winner of the Baltimore Grand Prix noted, “That was the best podium ceremony of my career!” Other drivers lauded the event as well. “I couldn't believe the incredible number of fans who came out all three days. Street courses are always a good way to draw a good crowd, and the way the circuit was laid out… reminded me of the huge events we've had at places like Surfers Paradise, Long Beach, and Toronto… I know we as drivers loved racing in Baltimore.” said Helio Castroneves on ESPN.com. Tony Kanaan, third place runner up, “It's a beautiful track, bumpy and interesting.” Oriol Servia “This track is a challenge for both drivers and engineers… I think it is fun.” Scott Artherton on all the positive feedback from drivers, “Race car drivers are the first ones to offer up an opinion. Normally it is not constructive and normally it is not good.”
Fans were extremely pleased with the event as well. “It's awesome. I go to a lot of these races, Long Beach, St Petersburg, Indianapolis. Top-notch street course for sure!” said Peter Romero, an Albuquerque Lawyer and immense race fan. “This could be the second crown jewel in the IndyCar circuit…This venue is nicer than Long Beach. It's crazy! It's a perfect storm for a street course.” referring to all the hotels and accommodations located around the track. Many other fans and spectators were equally pleased and enthusiastic about the weekend.
Even with all the delays on getting the track open on Friday for practices, issues seemed to get resolved for the rest of the weekend. “It's part of the growing pains of dealing with a new track and new race.” said an Andretti Autosport team member whom I spoke with about the delays. The general confusion among the staff seemed to be resolved as the weekend went on as well. Everything was smoothed out by Sunday.
This was the first big racing event for the Mid-Atlantic region since Washington DC had a Grand Prix race in 2002. IndyCar and American Le Mans feel this is a market that needed to be tapped and judging from the crowds, they could not have been more right. It was truly amazing the sheer number of people all weekend.. The energy was sky-high everywhere. The event was blessed with great weather, as it came after Hurricane Irene and before an immense amount of rain in Baltimore the following week. The fans, drivers, media, and policy makers of Baltimore have spoken and many hope racing will be here for a long time to come.
The 1st Annual R&H Car Show that took place on July 16th, 2011 to benefit The Children's Guild was a great success. The staff and coordinators raised $2,100 for the worthy organization.
Over 100 vehicles of all types came out to R&H Toyota's brand new service center in support of the Children's Guild. Including motorcycles, hot-rods, muscle cars, and imports. There were 87 participants in the judging portion. I am sure was quite difficult to judge since they were some amazing vehicles there. Such as Trevor Boone's '01 Honda Accord with a polk audio system, lambo doors, and playstation. A beautiful purple Kawasaki ZX1400 owned by Markus with every imaginable upgrade possible. Some of my personal favorites at the show were a beautiful red Jaguar E-Type, Ford GT, and even a Ferrari. A certain writer would love to own these!
There were also some great activities at the show. Both Mobil1 and Shell had racing simulators setup for attendees to try out. Trying out the simulators was quite fun and more difficult than I thought… just like real racing! When I exited the Mobil1 simulator the guy exclaimed “Harder then it looks, huh?” Sure was. Shell and Mobil1 also had their race cars on display at the show along with the simulators. It was great to see the vehicles up close.
“This was entirely a employee concept and they worked very hard to put this together.” said David Russell, General Manager for R&H Toyota. “Everyone knew different people to bring to the show. Vendors really stepped up to support this as well.”
The Children's guild is definitely an organization that needs people to step up to support it. It serves the needs of children with trauma disorders, autism, or disabilities in the Maryland and Washington DC area. Currently they are working on opening up several new schools in the area. Any added support is much appreciated.
