By Jim Bloch
Hang onto your hats and insert your ear plugs.
Hot Wheels Weekend is thundering into Marysville Aug. 23-24.
The car show, live music and a pin-up competition on Saturday, Aug. 24 is the main attraction with more than 800 cars and five live bands playing in the city’s new amphitheatre in Marysville Park.
Chris Troy, one of the organizers of the event, is hoping for the same number of classic cars, hotrods and customs this year.
“It’s going to be an awesome show as usual,” said Troy.
The two-day event celebrates American car culture in all of its wacky glory.
The festivities begin Friday evening at 6 p.m. when the annual cruise takes off from the Village Green Plaza on Gratiot Ave. and continues around the city until dusk.
That’s when the Hot Wheels Drive-in Movie Theatre opens at the plaza showing Cars 3.
“A big, fun family movie,” said Troy.
Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox from the TV show CHiPs are celebrity guests.
The car show opens to the public at noon on Saturday. Port Huron-based vocalist Barbara Payton will sing the national anthem.
“The celebrities this year are Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox from the 1980s TV show CHiPs,” Troy said.
The show, featuring the adventures of two motorcycle officers from the California Highway Patrol, aired on NBC 1977-1983.
The two stars will be greeting fans, posing for selfies and signing autographs noon-5 p.m. in the gazebo in the park’s southeast corner. One of the motorcycles from the show will be on display.
Organizers invited police agencies from around the state to bring their cars to the show and park them around the gazebo.
“It’ll be a sort of celebration of the thin blue line,” said Troy. A number of agencies said that will bring antique police vehicles that have been restored.
The live bands will provide the soundtrack for the car show.
Swongers, out of Minnesota, open in the new amphitheatre at noon, followed by the Miss Marysville Pin-up Contest. The Detroit-based rockin’ blues band Twistin’ Tarantulas play at 1 p.m.
“They were the first band ever to play at Hot Wheels Weekend,” said Troy.
Jerrod Petteys and the Headliners, a rockabilly band from Charleston, SC, take the stage at 2 p.m. The Delta Bombers, a four-piece rock and blues band out of Las Vegas, plays at 3 p.m. George Bedard and the Kingpins, from Ann Arbor, wrap things up at 4 p.m., playing a mix of blues, surf and rock.
New this year is a charge to show your car on Saturday.
“Our costs have gone up,” said Troy. “So we’re asking for a $20 donation to show your car and keep the event rolling along.”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
