Mopars in the Park, Minnesota 6-5-2010

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We had our Big Mopar show this weekend up in the Twin Cites Area, this show has grown every year and I heard this weekend it is now the 2nd largest in the country and the largest in the Midwest even though the weekend was crumby and rained it still was a good turn out. Grand Marshall was Bob Cahill the God Father of the Hemi and with out a doubt one of the Main Key guys to the Chrysler Racing Program with out him alot of these cars and racers wouldnt exsist. He is 95 years young and a blast to talk with I was lucky enough to get to spend alot of time with all off the special guests this weekend and hear stories that my cheeks are still hurting from tonight from laughing so hard! I also was able to hear stories about Mr. Cahill bringing his company car in to test things and have new performance items added almost weekly and so many more pricless stories. Needless to say it was a Great weekend and one I'll remember forever.

The highlight for me was displaying my Butch Leal 1967 Dodge WO23 HEMI Super Stock, this was the first time Butch had got to see the car since it was restored. Another great part was Butch signing my Certificate of Authenticity and getting Bob Cahill to sign on as the witness.. Ive included pics of this and of the other famous race cars in the building wish I could have got more but it was a busy weekend and rainy.

Other Special Guest on hand were, Judy Lilly "Miss Mighty Mopar", "Akron" Arlen Vanke, Don Grotheer, " Mr. 4 Speed" Herb McCandless, "Ramchargers" Todd Coddington, "Dandy" Dick Landy's Family, Roland Leong, and Bob Cahill. All great people and a blast to talk to and some of the nicest people you could ever meet.

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[MosportGreen66]

keep them coming Andy!

[Xplantdad]

Very cool stuff Andy!

[L-79 Nova]

Must have felt like you died and went to match race heaven!! Ron....

[mockingbird812]

Wow and <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 26pt"><span style="color: #6633FF">WOW!!! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/drool.gif[/img]</span></span></span>. What a line up of <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">HEAVY HITTERS</span></span></span>! Thanks! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[CC Rider]

Wow, talk about lots of history sitting in that room!

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It was truly a special day.. Butch originally started out racing with Chevrolet as did many of these guys. It was very neat to hear stories about the old Impala's and Z11's 1 of which Butch recieved he also had a spare complete aluminum front end that his dad got sick of see in the garage so one day he decided to throw it out one day!!! Butch was very close to H.L. Shahan and he kind of took Butch under his wing and later introduced Butch to Bill Thomas and Butch raced with them until Chevrolet pulled the plug in late 63'. There are some very interesting reads on Butch's site www.butchleal.com

Great stories about all the greats. Grumpy, Strickler, Sox, Martin and all the others that were so great in those days.

I think it would be very cool to try to get some of these guys to come to this years MCACN show. Id be more than willing to help put it together it would be great to get a good display of all makes and models of vintage race cars and the drivers and then have a story telling session for the public.

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Here are over 800 pictures to the show...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midwestmopars/