The Soo Line Cruises Car Club's 22nd annual Show & Shine Car Show held on Saturday was their biggest show yet.
Club President Jarrod Stroeder said they ran out of registration forms.
"We planned for around 260, and we last we counted, when we ran out of forms, we had 268 registered cars, so that was one of the largest, if not the largest car show we've ever had and some of the businesses around town were saying, as far as spectators in attendance, that was some of the heaviest foot traffic they've had downtown at any one of these car shows. So we're very happy with how everything went and we just couldn't be happier."
Vendors were located on Souris Avenue between the RBC and MNP Place.
"There was a lot of foot traffic going through there and the vendors have expressed that they were happy with how things went. We're also really happy with the variety of food choices that you could get. In years past, sometimes it's just been like a hot dog or a hamburger or a pop, and that's it, whereas this year, local businesses had their different foods out. There were some healthy options as well, which is always good, so it's not just eating a greasy burger. It was excellent."
This year's event also included some firsts, such as a raffle held as part of the fundraising goal of $2,500 for the Weyburn Theatre Community Service Cooperative, which will be presented at a later date.
"The raffle was a huge success. We learned a lot about what to do and some things on what not to do. Some of our prizes were pretty popular. Almost 800 raffle tickets were sold, so that was pretty pretty impressive, for the first time, with no advertising beforehand," Stroeder shared. "I think that's something that we'll continue to do in future shows to help raise money because it's just such a good incentive and it gets people engaged and helps people stick around too because you want to know if you won or not."
With a third prize category added last year, the 'Young Gun' award, to the Participants Choice and People's Choice, two more categories were added this year.
"We added Club's Choice, so the Soo Line Cruisers went around and found a car that we liked and thought was deserving of the award, [a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS], and then we also had the 'Furthest Distance Traveled', to come to our show, and a lady brought her show truck [a Green and camo Chevy K1500] from Brandon, Manitoba, so we were pretty excited about that."
He said the People's Choice had a record number of ballots cast at this year's event, which was awarded to the owner of a White 2024 Ford F450 with Anylevel lift kit. The Participants Choice award went to a Black 1947 Chevy Torpedo Black Fleetline and an International/Cabover.
"We counted more ballots this year than I think we did in any previous year. So people were definitely taking the ballots and finding their favourite car and putting their number down and bringing it back."
"Our Young Gun award went to a young lady from Radville and she was 18 years old and she brought a pink GMC [1500] truck, it was pretty nice. It was awesome, and it's really good to see both young people getting involved in the community as well as women, so it was great and she was well-deserving of the trophy and I hope she brings it back next year to try and represent it."
In addition to the Exotic Car Club from Regina, the Saskatchewan British Car Club also attended.
"We encourage car clubs to come as a group, kind of how the Soo Line Cruisers like to do when we go to shows, to go as a group. If various car clubs want to contact us beforehand we could maybe reserve some spots for them."
Stroeder added a thank you to the City of Weyburn and everyone who worked behind the scenes to ensure the downtown area was ready for the event.
"It was really nice. The streets were swept, the trees were pruned, the flowers were blooming. Everything was just really, really done nicely downtown. So we really appreciate that."
