The 1st Annual B&M / McLeod / Hurst / Classic Motorsports Group Charity Car Show was held at the B&M Facility in Chatsworth, California. With an early jump-start to the day, registration opened before 7 a.m. as attendees began to line up. One beautiful car and truck after another passed through registration and lined up in the street, behind the B&M buildings, inside the warehouse, and in the neighboring businesses. The broad range of vehicles on display was incredible. Street rods, musclecars, classic trucks, late-model Camaros, Mustangs of all body styles, Mopars, Corvettes, a Pro Gas car, and a Studebaker were there just to mention a few. Fuel-injected, nitrous-equipped, supercharged, as well as normally aspirated big-blocks, small-blocks, inline-sixes, and 12-cylinder engines were displayed by the over 200 entrants. The paint and finish on the vehicles ranges from black to white and every color in the rainbow, including many flame jobs.
Factory tours were conducted throughout the day of the B&M headquarters and manufacturing facility, including the operation of the B&M converter dyno known as EDDL. There were also raffle prize drawings for the many wonderful prizes provided by numerous performance manufacturers within SEMA.
In spite of the 90-plus-degree heat, everyone seemed to enjoy the festivities. Everyone knows it is difficult for the judges to pick the awards since there were so many really nice vehicles to choose from. The club members from the Oldskool 66 Cruzers Car Club of Southern California did a great job judging the vehicles, and with the help from the B&M staff, the final winners were determined. The trophies were very special as well, featuring the original B&M Mechanical Man logo along with the famous Hurst Shifter emblem and the B&M Precision Sport Shifter polydome emblem. The trophies were finished off with the McLeod Industries logo along with the Classic Motorsports Group logo bracketing the name of the award. Calling these a unique award would be an understatement.
The trophy theme represented the number of years of B&M's existence with 50 special recognition awards and four major awards to recognize the 54-year history of B&M. The major awards were as follows: the McLeod Street Twin Show Stopper, presented to the red '32 Ford belonging to Ken Sapper; the Hurst Competition/Plus Cream of the Crop, presented to Les Junos' beautiful red Plymouth Savoy; the Oldskool 66 Cruzers Gold Standard, presented to the '46 Chevy two-door coupe belonging to Tom Evans and Joann Beaver; and the B&M Best of Show went to the lime green '41 Willys coupe, driven in by Gary and Lupe Peever. Congratulations to all of the award winners throughout the day. During the final hour of the festivities, the major raffle prize drawings were given out and Nate Shelton, Chairman of B&M, presented the big awards with Dave McClelland announcing the winners. As the day came to a close the sound of the engines starting to begin the journey home, Chatsworth rumbled to life. As all things must come to a close, it was an exciting event with many happy attendees. Whether from winning raffle prizes or for winning one of the special awards, the recurring comments included, `See you next year'!
For more information please contact: B&M Racing and Performance Products at 9142 Independence Avenue, Chatsworth, CA 91311, USA.
Ph: 818-882-6422,
Fax: 818-882-6694,
or on the Web at www.bmracing.com