Lindahl Park beside the Westlock Pioneer Museum will once again be chock full of vehicles of all sorts when the 27th annual Westlock Wheels of Class Show and Shine hits the grass this weekend.
The event returns to town on July 13, said Wheels of Class president Tom McMillan, and is open to anyone who has a motor vehicle they want to show off.
It doesn’t matter the age, type, or even what shape it’s in, so long as you think your vehicle is worth showing off, you’re welcome to bring it out, he said.
The day starts at 9 a.m. when registration kicks off, before opening up from noon to 4 p.m. for public viewing. At 4 p.m., the awards presentation takes place.
While awards are handed out every year, McMillan said the show and shine is not a competition in the conventional sense.
“It’s semi-competitive, but a lot of the people go there just because they like cars and want to be with other people who have a similar interest,” he said.
Instead of having judges assess each vehicle based on set criteria, the awards are based on what the participants and spectators think of what they see.
Categories are based on the type of vehicle, or the model year, but other than that it’s all about each person’s individual tastes.
The spectators’ choice trophy covers all the vehicles on display, and again is subjective, based entirely on what tickles the spectators’ fancies.
In the more than a quarter century the event has run, McMillan said the show and shine has drawn from 50 vehicles to nearly 200.
“We haven’t quite broke that yet, but we’re hoping to sometime before too long,” he said.
When it comes to the types of vehicles that have graced the stage, as it were, virtually everything has made an appearance — from restored early Ford Model Ts to high-performance race cars and tractor-trailer cabs.
McMillan explained the allure of taking part in a show and shine is often the result of an attachment to cars or other vehicles that began when the driver was young.
“In my personal opinion, everybody’s always had a connection to a car of some type,” he said. “Throughout our history the car is kind of a magical thing that got everybody travelling places and a lot of memories were made in a car.”
Then there’s the motivational aspect.
A lot of people have a desire to rebuilt or restore a car, either as a hobby or because it speaks to their sense of nostalgia, he said. However, life often gets in the way and those desires can go unfulfilled.
Attending a show and shine can help revive that spark and push someone to get back to working on that car sitting in their garage, or at the very least allow that person to live vicariously through someone else’s hard work, he said.
But in the end, it’s really all about being part of a community.
“It’s just a fun afternoon of getting together and talking cars and looking at cars and sometimes meeting old friends you hadn’t seen in a while,” McMillan said.
For more information about the show and shine, or the Wheels of Class club in general, call McMillan at 780-349-9415.
