Saturday, July 23rd, Downtown Hays Development Corporation (DHDC) had the honor to help host the inaugural Thunder on the Bricks Car Show.
As registration opened, it was a quiet and overcast morning. But, once the sun came out, 229 cars and motorcycles rolled into Municipal Park in Downtown Hays to be admired and judged making this the largest car show Hays has ever seen.
Visitors enjoyed viewing an impressive variety of stock, restored, modified, and custom cars plus motorcycles ranging from a rusted, but beautiful, antique truck to a car covered front to back with pennies. With each entry most likely averaging $40 to $50,000 in value, close to ten million dollars worth of rolling stock could be enjoyed
A crowd favorite was the 1921 REO Speedwagon that served as the Hays Fire Department’s first motorized fire truck. It was brought all the way from Wichita Falls, Texas, and was awarded the Fire Chief’s Choice Award.
Cars were brought from all over the state of Kansas plus Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas as well. The show was hosted in conjunction with Bargains on the Bricks, the annual Downtown Sidewalk Sale.
The success of this show is owed all to Harold Bettis and Rod Roy who came into my office six months ago to tell me it was high time Hays had a decent car show. After some discussion about how we could help each other they hit the ground running. Their team pulled off an incredible event.
DHDC wants to thank each volunteer, sponsor, entry, vendor, and spectator who came out to be a part of this special event. The goal was to create a family orientated event in Downtown Hays and to be able to give back to the community.
DHDC is excited to announce that the profits from the show, a sum of $4,000, will be given to local charities and organizations in Hays including Cancer Council of Ellis County, Hays Fire Department (to go towards the purchase of the REO Speedwagon), DSNWK, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Options, and NCK Tech Automotive Technology Program.
This will definitely be an annual event for Downtown Hays and the Thunder on the Bricks Committee looks forward to reaching their 2017 goal of 300 entries!
Sara Bloom is the Downtown Hays Development Corporation Executive Director.