For 2017, our annual “Summer Daze” event went to the west side of town, hosted at Elliott’s house.    With the hottest summer months behind us, club members funneled in for a huge back yard potluck meal with grilled burgers and tons of sides and desserts.  This crew knows how to fill out a buffet!

Deb brought out her Mustang for everyone to drool over…

And even the youngest club members had tons to talk about.

As the sun began to set, Larry put the final touches on his track setup and the downhill racing kicked off with the GRAB BAG race.

In the end, Tracy had the fastest entry (what was it?  If you remember, let me know) and went home with the unopened case of mainlines.

Not all racing is knockdown dragout… in fact, the whimsical events are often the most fun.  For this year, we held a “household objects” event that included any cars related to objects such as shopping cars, bottle openers, toasters, bbq grills, guitars and even toilets!

In the end, Elliott took the prize with his “Hot Tub” entry.

Next, for the COLOR race, despite the massive entry pool, Kathy prevailed over all racers with her futuristic purple Hot Wheels (Cadillac?) .

In the next event, the German car showdown (open to all German car manufacturers like Mercedes, VW, etc), Bill R. took high honors with his VW GTI (KMart exclusive)!

As the night went on, the “stock car” race brought out fierce competition.  Somehow several members all had a hunch that the popular downhill contender, the blackwall Hot Wheels “Front runnin’ Fairmont” would take the prize.   After the dust settled, the hunches paid off as Patty F (*cough* who was the car owner?) came finished at the top of the heap with her Fairmont.

Finally… all gloves were off as we bracketed the last event of the night… the infamous “OPEN” race.  In this event, ANY Hot Wheels can enter… even past winners.  The Ferrari F40’s and flopper funny cars are always strong entries, but after a surprising final, Peter H. came through with the trophy with his Land Rover.   Unlikely but true…this thing is quick!

This was a great event!   See you in 2018!