Classic Car show ready to rumble in TD Saturday, Aug. 14

Parade of Champions for the Show in the Shade in 2019.

Organizers of the classic car Show in the Shade are expecting 200 to 275 entrants as enthusiasts are set to display their vehicles at Riverfront Park in The Dalles starting on Saturday, Aug. 14th. 

Cars will be arriving in town on Friday, Aug. 13th and likely cruising the Second-Third street '“gut” that evening.

Cars will be on display starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and the Parade of Champions awards will start at 3 p.m.

The Dalles Rotary Club organizes much of the event with help from the Mid Columbia Car Club. Rotary also holds a raffle that brings thousands of dollars in local scholarships to graduating seniors at The Dalles and Dufur high schools.

Entry fee for cars is $25.

The cars will be judged on Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. And participants will be able to register for the show at Burgerville on Friday, Aug. 13th. Entry fee for cars is $25.

“We’re really excited about this,” said Charla Fraley with Rotary last spring. “I am working on the trophies right now.”

She attended an organizational meeting for the Show in the Shade on Tuesday, June 1. 

Rotary’s Ron Nelson said the event has helped raise some $150,000 through the years for scholarships. 

“We missed out last year,” Fraley added, as COVID-19 curtailed large gatherings.

The big change this year will be moving the Show in the Shade to Riverfront Park as Sorosis Park is under rejuvenation. 

Nelson said the change in venue had him a bit nervous as the car show crowd and normal users could overburden the facility in the event of high temperatures invoking swimmers to hit the river. “It would go really well too,” he said. “It’s a significant change.”

Nelson was excited to announce that top fuel funny car racer Twig Ziegler and his vehicle plan on attending the event. 

Ziegler raced professionally from 1970 to 1976, holding the world speed record in 1973 at 6.29 seconds for the quarter-mile, or 229 miles per hour, according to a story written by Kathy Ursprung in the Ruralite.