{"id":33698,"date":"2023-04-25T15:38:58","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T21:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/land-of-enchantment-car-show-draws-crowds-of-car-enthusiasts\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:12:49","slug":"land-of-enchantment-car-show-draws-crowds-of-car-enthusiasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/land-of-enchantment-car-show-draws-crowds-of-car-enthusiasts\/","title":{"rendered":"Land of Enchantment car show draws crowds of car enthusiasts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Cinco de Mayo car show will feature a variety of classic, custom and lowrider vehicles. (David Edward Albright\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Nearly 200 entrants showed off their \u2018sweet rides\u2019 at the 39th annual Land of Enchantment Car Show, held Friday through Sunday at McGee Park in Farmington.<\/p>\n

Northern New Mexico Streetrodders president Danny Bost said the show was one of their biggest and most successful.<\/p>\n

A large crowd roamed the McGee Park pavilion, admiring the vast array of classic cars, trucks and motorcycles. The three-day event featured a swap meet, a silent auction, raffles, vendors and live music.<\/p>\n

From antiques, hot rods, dragsters, motorcycles, lowriders and both old and new trucks, the array of colorful vehicles drew a large crowd. The event featured 31 classes for vehicle owners to enter, including muscle cars, several street rod classes, antique and restored vehicles, custom vehicles and classic Mustangs and Camaros.<\/p>\n

Best in show was awarded to Sam Gonzales for his 1938 Dodge.<\/p>\n

\"Denver
Denver Dennison, owner\/driver of a 1968 Camaro dragster. (David Edward Albright\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Stephanie Dennison said the car show was \u201cexcellent.\u201d She and her husband showed their 1968 Camaro dragster, with its Brad Anderson blown 466 cubic inch Hemi motor. Stephanie and Denver Dennison run Thumper <\/a>\u2019<\/a>n\u2019 Company Racing and Repair in Bayfield.<\/p>\n

Denver Dennison, who built the dragster, said it cranks out 4,500 horsepower. He hits the drag strips in Albuquerque, Phoenix, Denver and Paris, Texas, and has blasted through the \u00bc mile in 3.56 seconds at a top speed of 210 mph.<\/p>\n

About the car show, Denver said, \u201cI love it. It\u2019s great to see all the people out again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Bell showed his 2017 Camaro, with a four-cylinder, 2.0-liter motor that will \u201cpush out about 275 horses.\u201d He said he chose that motor for both economy and performance, and he gets about 50 miles per gallon with its eight-speed automatic transmission in his daily driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, we\u2019re having a blast,\u201d Bell said of his time at the car show. \u201cIt\u2019s always fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

His Camaro was entered in the modern custom class. He and his kids completed the car\u2019s paint job and airbrushing.<\/p>\n

Bell said there was a story behind the custom paint job. The hood featured his family and the sides represented several friends who suffered from PTSD or depression and committed suicide. \u201cThe special paint job depicts the demons they dealt with as they tried to get right in their heads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chris
Chris Bell and his children created the custom paint job on his 2017 Camaro as a tribute to his deceased friends. (David Edward Albright\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Larry Whaley and his wife, Joyce, drove their 1941 Ford pickup from Albuquerque. \u201cI started on it in 2009 and finally got it running in 2014. Whaley drives the restored truck to car shows around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the way back to Albuquerque, the speedometer will roll over to 43,000 miles,\u201d Whaley said. They\u2019ve been to Fort Worth, Texas, and plan a 1,000-mile trip to Springfield, Missouri in two weeks.<\/p>\n

Whaley chose a small block 350 cubic inch motor for the Ford because he knew he could get parts anywhere. \u201cI wanted to drive it, and I knew that if I broke down in Timbuktu, somebody\u2019s going to have a part for a Chevrolet engine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been to two cars show in the Four Corners this year and was in Aztec last fall for a show. \u201cI\u2019ve won a few trophies \u2026 but, you know, the cars are neat, the people are neater,\u201d Whaley said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n

\"Larry
Larry Whaley and his wife Joyce, drove their 1941 Ford pickup from Albuquerque for the car show. (David Edward Albright\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

John Braatz said he came down from Durango primarily to see Kirk James Blues Band perform, but he was keeping an eye out for El Caminos because his son has a 1980 model. He wanted to see what others had done with theirs.<\/p>\n

Michael McCallister, who played bass in the Kirk James Blues Band at the car show Saturday, said he has played off and on with Kirk for 23 years, but been a part of the band more consistently for the last two to three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible set of cars \u2026 I was blown away. I\u2019m a closet car guy, oh yeah, big time. I\u2019m a big fan of the 70s muscle cars \u2013 Challenger, Charger, Nova \u2013 all that kind of stuff,\u201d McCallister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a blast playing, great crowd \u2026 good reception for the blues \u2013 perfect for a car show,\u201d he said. The band played renditions of artists from The Allman Brothers Band, Jimi Hendrix and others.<\/p>\n

Based in Durango for many years, Kirk James is a Dallas native. He plays Texas-style blues with distinctive phrasing mixed with bottleneck slide. Over the years, he has headlined regional venues and opened for Los Lonely Boys, Eric Johnson, Al Di Meola and John Lee Hooker.<\/p>\n

Local band, Twisted Rebels, also performed, playing classic hits by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Santana and others.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northern New Mexico Streetrodders boast long history in San Juan County<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[364,799,28,443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-community","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-county-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82307,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33698\/revisions\/82307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33698"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}