Special Thanks to Flat Track MN

Vintage Torque Fest - Saturday about 4pm

So I walk up on these guys and they are standing around shooting the breeze, laughing, having a good time.....and one of them says - "hey are you the guy that invited us down here?"

"Yeah......why?"

"Cause this is the best thing we have been to man! We are coming back next year and we are bringing a LOT more people"

I said cool - and they would not let me leave til I had my own personal temporary knuckle tats.....

something they had already done to themselves earlier in the afternoon.

These guys "get it"

They know that the future of this event can be strong....as long as we all get along - have a positive attitude and come together for a purpose - to have fun and help out the cause.

These guys were down with it. We hope you will be as well in 2012.

Anyone that is local (to Cordova Dragway) - and wanna have a good time - check out this event Aug 6

http://www.runwhatchabrung.com/

http://www.flattrackmn.com/

Too much going on - what to do....what to do

Man - there is a lot going on next week.....locally there is the get together by the Erie Car Club 4th of June at Bens shop in Fulton.

Then the Road Block happens in a Chicago suburb called Yorkville - really great show with some gooooood music. This one is put on by the Blacktop Barons - one of the coolest clubs in the midwest! This one is June 4th 10am-4pm

If you happen to stay in Chicago - go check out the motorcycle swap meet in Morris IL on Sunday.

OR if you are really into vintage motorcycles - you should come on over to Iowa and see the Vintage Rally and swap meet!This one is happening all weekend long at the newly relocated motorcycle museum. And there is a hill climb in Anamosa on Sunday as well - so that should be a really cool time!

I am gonna go ahead and head over to Detroit - the Road Devils gave me a personal invite and I am honored to be able to hit a show that it put on by some local clubs in the area that have been doing this long before it was fashionable. Some may know that the Billetproof Detroit show has now turned into Sins of Steel....so I hope to be able to go hang out with some friends....make some new ones and make some gas money. For anyone that does not think there is anything going on next weekend.....you are just silly.

http://www.blacktopbarons.com/

http://www.nationalmcmuseum.org/

http://www.walneckswap.com/

http://www.sinsofsteel.com/

Future of Torque Fest.......

Vintage Torque Fest hopes to come to Maquoketa again in 2012. However, there are other offers on the table that must be considered. Vintage Torque Fest will be making the final decision within two weeks. Vintage Torque Fest and Helping Hannah's Heart Foundation want to thank everyone for the support and kind words received over the past month. We know that Vintage Torque Fest will be a fun filled event for auto enthusiasts and general public for years to come, but have to consider the best options available that will help benefit Helping Hannah's Heart Foundation. The ultimate goal of Vintage Torque Fest is to fund this foundation, in order to help families in Eastern Iowa that have children with heart problems. Anyone with suggestions can contact John Wells at vintagetorque@gmail.com

Off To Indy - Mecum Auctions

For those that dont know - my other job is working for Mecum auctions....there is gonna be some GREAT signage available there next week - if you have not had a chance to check it out - man....you need to! Oh - and there will be 2000 cars auctioned off from all over the country as well! I will be gone for a while - if you need to get in touch - email through facebook or vintagetorque@gmail.com

http://mecum.com/

They came out to represent!

The car clubs that showed up to the Vintage Torque Fest were from all over!Here are the clubs that had members there to represent!

Los Punk Rods - Kansas City, MO

Oliver Built Group - Des Moines, IA

The Choppers - Burbank, CA

Road Devils - Detroit, MI

Swiss - Speedway, IN

Rollin' Coasters - Monroe Center, IL

Midwest Street Rod Assn. IL

Lone Wolves - Milwaukee, WI

Hot Heads - Eau Claire, WI

Kropdusters - Cedar Rapids, IA

Asphalt Fiends - Bettendorf, IA

Fugitives - IL/WI

A-Town D-Bags - Aurora, IL

Corn Creepers - Des Moines, IA

Rat Rod Farmers - Malvern, IA

Possum Dodgers - St. Clair, MO

Bitchin' Beaters - Frankfort, IL

Double-D Speedsters - Cannon Falls, MN

Tin Militia - Lake Villa, IL

Hot Rod Hillsters - Otho, IA

Tin Butchers -Poplar Grove, IL

Chrome Czars - Chicago, IL

Rat Bastards - Fox Valley, WI

Smokey Hollow Twisted Pistons - Lodi, WI

Slackers - Chicago, IL

Bare Bones - IL

Skunk River Cruzers - Colfax, IA

Voodoo Kings - Streator, IL

Bad Fun Drivers Society - Hanover, MN

Salvage Saints - WoodridgeNobodys Heros - Chicago, IL

Stardusters - Mead, NE

Suedes - Fargo,ND

Custom Auto Crafters - Freeport, IL

Voodoo Villains - South Dakota

Bottom Knockers - Louisville, KY

Half Fast - Chicago, IL

Coronados - Maquoketa, IA

If we forgot you - let us know!

Thanks for all the support - we have no car show - without the cars - THANK YOU

OLIVER GROUP did an amazing job - sorry if there was confusion

hey - in that last post I totally screwed up the way I worded some things.....
What I should have stated is that The Oliver Group did an amazing job - some of the volunteers who are NOT part of the Oliver Group failed to pull their shifts.
This created total chaos and it was no fault of The Oliver Group.
When people sign up to do a 2 hour shift we really do count on them for their time.
Unfortunately there were some who decided to get the free entry, free shirt and then simply not report to do their duty.
That is what happens sometimes. But the Oliver Group did the best they could with what they were given.
I want everyone out there in internet land to know that I screwed up on that last post and if I would have had someone proofread my posts I would be better off.....

Vintage Torque Fest 2011 Wrap Up

Gratitude - that is what I have today....I am grateful that the good Lord above brought us all together to celebrate. (Can I get an Amen!) I am grateful that so many people selflessly gave their time and money to come to the show - spectators and especially volunteers.I am grateful to all the car clubs who recognize that this is a unique event-and if they do not support it - it will go away. I am grateful to all the vendors that came from New York to California, as well as those that chose to set up in the swap meet area. I am grateful for the artists that contributed pieces to the art show - without this we would have lost money at the show. I am grateful that the local community opened their arms and welcomed us without judgement or fear. I am grateful to my wife for working so hard with me to make this dream a reality. I am grateful to my children for understanding that I can not always be there for the special dates because I am on the road promoting Vintage Torque Fest. For all the people that came out - thank you - we truly appreciate it.

The list of individuals that went way above and beyond the call of duty is far too long to list and I hope to be able to thank all of you in person when I am in your town throughout the year. But we can not let this event go by without recognizing the car club that gave us the money to start the entire show - Los Punk Rods from Kansas City. They continue to support the show and they are like lost brothers to me and I can't thank them enough. The Coronados car club from Maquoketa were amazing. The entire club were behind the scenes for months leading up to the event getting legwork done that I simply did not have time for. Rich Current and Dave Stockham both have really gone beyond "helping", and it should be noted that only a few of the guys in the car club could even get their cars into the show since this was a pre - '65 only car show. The members did not care - they knew that this would be a great thing for Maquoketa and they set THAT as the priority. The Oliver Group was in charge of all the volunteers and had everyone actually reported to their shift I am confident that the show would have run much smoother. Lefty aka Bruce Oliver did not stop all day - and his wife Darlene seemed to be everywhere helping out as well. Rocky & Dane came to the rescue countless times as well - either getting things on the track or working the front gate, it seemed they were there from the very beginning until the doors were locked. Again - there are so many people to thank....but I would wind up writing a 5 page document if that were to happen. So overall - thanks to all that helped contribute to the show.

In this world that is infatuated with numbers, winners/losers, the question that keeps on coming up is "how many cars were there?" and "How many people were there?" We simply dont know. We can take a really good guess though. There were 545 car registrations given out, but there was a bit of a communication problem with some of the volunteers when they were checking in cars. During the main part of the day on Friday we did not hand out car placards to those that were entering. This lasted about 3-4 hours. I had people coming up to me on Saturday asking for the car placards and I would tell them -"You got those when you drove in." They said they did not- so we suspect about 40-50 cars got in without getting the car placards. And we also need to take into consideration that not all the pre registered vehicles showed up. The forecast of rain on Saturday made some stay home. So with the pre registered vehicles that did not make the trip and the cars that did not recieve their car placards I would say we had about 575 vehicles. I have checked this number with others that go to shows all around the country as well and they feel that is an accurate number - some said 600 for sure....others said 550 - but all said over 500. Overall the event turned out amazing and we hope to be able to come back to Maquoketa.

As it stands right now, there are negotiations between the Jackson County Fairgrounds, Bob Wagner (leases the track in Maquoketa), and Torque Fest to try to make this happen again at the same location.
Thank you for supporting the show and we hope we can make it happen again in 2012.
John Wells