Yes, we had a booth the 2nd annual Motor City Hot Rod and Racing Expo in Novi March 22-22. For those of you not familiar with this Expo it is a trade show open to the public. This Expo is intended to give local suppliers a place to show their wares so different vendors where there at this show then the Autorama. I attended this Expo last year. It was heavy into drag racing so I did not think it worth the expense and effort for WHRRI to have a display there. At the last minute Ed Frank convinced me WHRRI should have a presence. Ed was right again!
I called one of the organizers to discuss the show and my concern about its heavy drag racing orientation. He agreed that they have drag racing covered but they want to Expo to cover all forms of racing and have reached out to several non-drag racing vendors to attend the show. While it is still not the place to go to find the latest Miata parts there were vendors there covering Mustang and Camaros track day cars. We had one vendor stop by to tell us he rebuilds British sports car engines as well a total vehicle restorations.
We had a very good event and learned a lot. The first thing we learned was a 10 by 10 was not big enough for the crowd we attracted! For the majority of the two days we here shoulder to shoulder bumping into each other getting handouts and talking to people. The number one interest was Open Track Days with a lot of questions on non-competition driving schools and car rentals. We gave out a ton of OTD flyers. A couple of vendors stopped by to ask for a stack of flyers to have at their shop.
All in all a good weekend. We are planning on going back next year with a bigger display. This has changed our thinking on the Autorama display update as now whatever we do at Autorama needs to work at the Motor City Hot Rod and Racing Expo.
In case you have not heard Autorama was a success also. We were so busy there we ran out of $5 off coupons and OTD Flyers. Not to worry, Dorothy worked magic and had a fresh supply in time for the Motor City Hot Rod and Racing Expo.
Jim D.
