11th Annual Harvest Fields Baptist Church Car Show - Aug. 11, 2012 in Pegram, TN
By Tina Thompson
This certainly turned out to be one of mine and Toby’s most exciting car show days in a while, or at least trying to get to the car show was adventurous.
It’s August 11. Destination: Pegram, TN, a little town about 1 ½ hours from our home. We got up early and were both in our cars at 7:00 am heading down the road with only a quick stop momentarily for gas on the way. I guess Toby was feeling especially frisky this morning because I kept pushing my Camaro to keep up with him as each red light turned green. For those who know Toby, you know that he reworked his engine by adding a blower over the winter months. Of course, he didn’t just buy a blower kit. No, no, no. That’s too easy. He had to buy a blower that required extensive modification and custom work to his car. Although, I was greatly worried this install would turn out disastrous, everything buttoned up nicely and ended up just fine.
Naturally, Toby likes to play around with all those horses every chance he gets and early morning Gallatin must have seemed like an optimum time to have some fun. We made it roughly five or so miles from home when we reached the last light toward a bypass that heads out toward Goodlettsville, TN. True to the other lights, Toby lunged forth on the green and proceeded through the gears. I, in turn, kept up. As he was shifting from second to third something went terribly wrong. White smoke puffed from both tailpipes like a steam locomotive. It didn’t look good. I kept waiting for the whole car to blow up, but instead, white smoke streamed out from underneath the car and came over the top. There was definitely a catastrophe in the engine bay.
He finally eased his car off the road to a parking lot, raised the hood, and discovered the problem was minor. He had popped a radiator hose, and all the bellowing white smoke was simply water and coolant burning off the engine. It took about an hour or so to clean up Butter Bean (the nickname I gave his car) and my car. Yep. My car was splattered with antifreeze that had shot out of his car even though I was a modest distance behind him. At the beginning of the trip, we thought we would arrive in plenty of time to receive one of the dash plaques for first 50 entrants. Turns out, that this may not be the case considering registration starts at 9:00 am and we weren’t even leaving Gallatin, TN until 8:45.
Although, Toby does not like to take the interstate because his car is so low, he relented, and we were on our way to Pegram, TN. Surprisingly, it only took us about an hour or so to get there.
The drive to Pegram, TN was very peaceful and scenic. The town is approximately 8 square miles with a population of around 2200 people. If you blink, you would certainly miss the town and the car show. Harvest Fields made sure this wouldn’t happen today. On arrival, there was a huge sign painted on a bed sheet directing the car show attendees where to go as well as another sign at the entrance.
We were directed to pull around the back of the church and follow the driveway to the parking area. The grounds, as you can see in the picture, were very well manicured. We were allowed to choose our own spots. Of course, we spotted the great RoushQueen and parked across from her. Once we had our two cars nestled into their spots, the chairs and cleaning supplies unloaded from the trunk, and our campsite for the day established, I headed to the church basement to register both cars.
Registration was simple, twenty dollars for each car. There weren’t any classes in this event, just a Top 50 and a few Specialty Trophies (Best Paint, Pastor’s Choice, Best Engine, Best Interior, and Best of Show). I filled out two pieces of paper for both cars. One went on the dashboard, and the other sheet was for the church. If we filled out the second sheet, we got 5 extra points on judging. I got excited about a point system being used. I always feel that my car gets a fair chance to win when there is a concourse style point system in place. If not, my poor plane Jane Camaro is generally not a “standout in the crowd” kind of car. Thankfully, Toby’s car is, so we are covered with or without a point system. To my surprise, we were still in time to receive dash plaques. We were entry 25 and 26.
The day was pleasant, sunny with temps in the mid-80s. There were a few somewhat mature trees around that offered shade for the car show participants. If you wanted to get out of the heat for a bit, the church was serving up lots of great food: hot dogs, hamburgers, BBQ, ice cream, etc. Of course, it was all very reasonably priced. In addition to the food, there was also a silent auction that had a plethora of options such as hand-covered, car-themed photo albums, tickets to places to visit such as the Science Museum, and other typical silent auction items.
Clean up on the cars was a bit more work than what we were accustomed to. The pepper spray of antifreeze followed by the touchless car wash really wrecked havoc on all of the nicely waxed painted features of my car, not to mention what the explosion of antifreeze did to Toby’s engine bay, which was also followed up by a rigorous spraying at the car wash. However, the car show gave us an opportunity to completely clean the parts we can get to. Looks like my car will be going on jack stands soon to rewax the undersurface…L Toby’s car got a nice fresh wax from one end to the other, which it needed.
Registration lasted from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, and cars slowly trickled in all morning. There were a variety of the typical car show favorites such as the early model Fords and Chevys. There were also several ratrods, a Grand Sport Corvette, and other custom cars along with a variety of stock cars. In total 47 cars registered for the event. The music was supplied via a radio turned to “Hippie Radio 94.5,” which played some good classic tunes. Another perk was that some of the children of the church walked around from time to time selling drinks.
We had the cars cleaned up just in time for the judging around noon. There was a team of about four or five people. They each had judging sheets in hand. The judging didn’t take a long time.
Taking a break under a tree, we watched the judges go car to car. Conversation was great thanks to our good friend RoushQueen. As usual, Semekia had already made several friends while she enjoyed watching Toby suffer from the misery of his lead foot. She thought about helping him out, but stated that it was better that he learn from his mistakes….
During the downtime between finishing up the cars and awards, we walked around, talked with some other car owners, and enjoyed the day.
I met the 2011 Best of Show Winner and chatted for a while with him about his all original 1954 De Soto with only 44,000 driven miles that he picked up in New York.
My husband also spent a great deal of time talking Mustang with a young man with a very impressive car and even more impressive automotive knowledge, especially considering he was so young. He brought a New Edge Mustang, approximately 2001 model, with a spectacular four-stage custom paint job.
Awards were at 2:30. At first glance, I thought the trophies were divided up in groups of ten, with the top ten being one kind of trophy, the next ten (11-20) being a little different, with even more variety with the next group of ten (21-30), and so on. After closer inspection, I realized that the trophies really didn’t match each other. I believe they were left-overs from the past 11 years, which gave them a nice eclectic look. For fundraising purposes, this is a great way to save money. At this event, the top 50 trophies were each unique. My husband had his eye on what we would have deemed the third rung of trophies. There was a couple with flames on them.
Awards started promptly at 2:30. There were two people at the microphone, one calling names and the other handing him the sheets in order. There were also several children available to hand out the trophies to the winners. They stated that they were handing out the tophies in order of points received. I knew that my car would not necessarily be among the top because there were many other very clean and prestine cars at this show, especially for the turnout. As each name was called, the presenters gave each person enough time to come up and be recognized. I really liked this. Sometimes at other shows, they rattle off names so fast, you just can’t keep up with who won what. They announced the Top 50 first and moved on to the Best of Show. My husband missed getting his “Flames” by having a couple of points too many. I think this was the first time he ever wanted a lower score…LOL…My stock 2010 Camaro SS must not have impressed anyone. Although it is spotless and never driven, my trophy didn’t come until the bottom rung of the 50 along with Semekia’s emaculate Roush. Based on this judging style, I wouldn’t really recommend this show to someone who is serious competitor who has a late model stock vehicle. You won’t be bringing home any big awards from this show.
Below are some of the Top 50 winners.
I didn’t catch the winners of all of the “Best Of” trophies, but a couple of them were familiar.
The Best Paint went to a stock 2010 Grand Sport Corvette with Red Jewel Tint paint.
The Best Engine was won by a man who was parked beside RoushQueen. He brought a black shiny, 60s-model Ford Fairlane.
The Best of Show trophy was won by a man who frequents many car shows. His 1955 Chevy Bel Air is a tribute car to his late wife. It is spotless from tip to tip, top to bottom.
I guess I can mark this day down as another car show done. All in all, the day was pleasant. I was a little disappointed that my Camaro scored so low on the judges sheet. I guess they were looking for modifications, which I never plan to do. My goal is for my car to make a Preservation Class some day. If Toby and I go back, we will definitely only take his car because it is heavily modified with even more to come.
If you are looking for a place to hang out on a Saturday in August with other car enthusiast, then this is a place worth checking out. The church goers as well as the regulars that attend the car show yearly said this was one of the best turn-outs they have had. Spread the word so that their show can grow. Start polishing up your chrome, order a few more bolt-ons, and get ready for the 12th Annual Harvest Fields Baptist Church Car Show in 2013.
