Hampton Car Show Rolls Back into Town

Popular two stage event set to fill Hampton with classic rides and crowds

The popular Hampton Car Show will roll back into town over the weekend, starting with a Friday Night Car Cruise, followed by a day-long Sunday Band Shell bash with live entertainment from the White Sidewalls and DJ Round Mound of Sound. Also at the event will be six food vendors, inflatables, and over a hundred classic cars. It’s certain to be a classic car lover's dream as Franklin County highways and byways swell with Detroit steel and pieces of rolling history through the weekend.

The Hampton Car Show is a grassroots based tradition that was started over 30 years ago and championed initially by Terry Bents and Keith Miller. Organizing of the annual show is now being carried on by Jeff and Tracy Spear of JT Machine & Tool in Hampton, along with a cadre of volunteers and army of supporters. Spear has a long history with the car show and can recall going to the show for the first time at age 16 with his first car, a 1971 Monte Carlo, in 1979 at the fairgrounds.

The line-up for the Friday night Car Cruise complement of the show will start at Faith Baptist Church east of Hampton from 5:30pm, where there’s sure to be some great previewing of classic cars that might be in the show. The procession will then depart Faith Baptist promptly at 6pm, and proceed from there on blacktop through Hansell, Geneva, and Faulkner before arriving at SkyKone in Ackley, a distance of approximately 30 miles. From there cruisers will pilot their classics to the four winds, only to re-assemble Sunday morning from 9am at Band Shell Park for the car show, which will run from noon to 3:30pm, with awards starting at 3:30pm.

Registrations for the car show itself are $15, and over 60 trophies will be awarded, says Spear. Pre Registration is available, but not necessary, with Sunday morning registration running from 9am - Noon. Silver Cord hours are available for youth who are interested in helping out with the event on Sunday, Spear advised us. Spear said last year two students pitched in to help and that they’d be happy to get more to assist this year.

Spear has been hand machining the car show trophies since 1999, adding that the unique touch was “kind of our niche,” and that they, “keep people coming back.” Spear said the custom machined aluminum trophies stand in contrast to plastic ones, and are crafted into different shapes such as engines, gas pumps, flags, spark plugs and similar objects.

Awards are given for categories such as Best of Show, Best Interior, Best Paint, Best Ford, Best Chevy, Best Mopar, Best Truck, and the like, but there are custom categories such as the Just Because It’s Cool Award, and the Norm Holm Memorial Award, for example. The Holm Award is named after automobile enthusiast and 20 year car show volunteer Norm Holm who passed away in January 2021, and the award is given by his widow Eileen and sons Robbie and Michael.

Spear said he wasn’t sure how many cars would register, but said he expects “125 at least.” Spear said most people register the day of the event and so that makes getting a count difficult, but they plan for that and so it all works out. Spear and wife Tracy said they pick up about 10 new cars per year on average, and last year had around 115, with many of those repeat entrants.

Along with being able to see all of the cars and perhaps walk down memory lane, visitors can enjoy food from Wholly Smoke, SkyKone, Funky Pepperoni Pizza, Casper’s Friendly Foods/Mr.Taco, and B_Lo_Zero Sno Cones & Minnie’s Donuts. The afternoon's entertainment will also include live music from The White SideWalls, DJ service from Mike and Heather Holm of Round Mound of Sound, (Mike is the son of Norm Holm) and inflatables for families. Spear said the White SideWalls are a very popular car show band out of Minnesota and their return for the second year was due to the very generous support of their sponsors.

For the occasion and for the third year running, the neighboring Hampton Senior Center will once again serve up iconic "Norm-Rite" sandwiches, a sloppy joe creation named in honor of Norm Holm. And if that weren’t enough, they’re adding in homemade ice cream and a cookie, and making it a meal, for just $10.

The car show had been run for years by a committee, with help from the Chamber, but as enthusiasm waned during covid, Jeff and Tracy took the reins and have been organizing the show ever since. Jeff said he’s greatly appreciative of all of the support they have received from volunteers, sponsors, the Chamber, and the city to make the event possible. Spear wanted to especially thank wife Tracy for her efforts, as well as volunteers Jim & Barb Quasdorf, Taryn Kline, Vicky Ginder, Fonda Weide and Dean Whitmore. Spear said chamber director Bill Hittle was instrumental in helping with logistics and staging, and that the whole affair was really a big group effort.

The United States is reportedly the world's largest market for classic cars, with revenue of between 14 and 15 billion U.S. dollars generated in 2020, according to Statista.com, and over 18 billion dollars expected to be generated in 2023. According to datamasters.com there were five million classic cars in the U.S. in 2021, with most individuals who own classic vehicles born between 1946 and 1964.

Sponsors of this year's Hampton Car Show are GFFC Grant Spear Tool & Die, J-T Machine & Tool, Co., Continental Wholesale, HeadQuarters Styling Salon, Sietsema – Atkinson Funeral Home, Sietsema Family Monument Sales, Scheideman Financial Strategies, Rods & Restorations, Christensen Jewelry, ABCM Corporation, Gruelke Auto Body, Inc., Koerner Whipple Pharmacies, Inc., Got you Covered, E & E Repair, Inc., Dumont Telephone, Spear Rentals, LLC, Mojo Productions, Britt Iowa, First Bank Hampton, Murphy’s Heating & Plumbing, Inc., Dennis and Connie Swieter, Mort’s Water, James Perez - BBT Acquisitions, Sukup Manufacturing, DeBour Electric, Schuman Aviation, 805 Pizza & Chicken, Foley Ink’d Tattoo Studio, The Stumble Inn, Scott & Michelle Murray, SM Enterprises, LLC, First Security Bank & Trust, Hickman Chiropractic, Lance Studer Customs, LLC, Abbott Realty, KH Trucking, Arends Master Detailing, KTPL Inc., Principal Builders, Worden Repair, Auto Parts Wholesale, NAPA Auto Parts Hampton, Ag Resources, Koenen Lawn Care LLC, Hamilton Sandblasting, VanWert Farms, Consolidated Energy, Warneke Trucking LLC, Gorder’s Repair, Beyond Spotless Auto Detailing, Miller & Miller, PC, and D&L Sanitation.

For more information about the Hampton Car Show, volunteering, donating or for Silver Cord hours, contact Jeff Spear at 641-425-4222