Mike McGill’s ’30 Ford Roadster took home a trophy
This was the 11th time this show has been held on the California National Guards Joint Forces Training Base (JFTB) in Los Alamitos, CA and it has gotten better every year. The show featured about 500 hot rods, customs, classics, rat rods and other notable vintage vehicles. The show took place on the flight line at JFTB and a number of old warbirds flew in for the day including General William Lyons’ B-25 Bomber “Guardian of Freedom”, the “D-Day Doll” a C-53 which took to the sky to drop several parachuters, and “Miss Kandy” a P-51 Mustang whose pilot is Darren Moore. Also a number of nice vintage helicopters were on hand as well as some civilian choppers which were giving tours for about $50.
A drone was brought in from March Air Force Base and put on display. Because the military cannot fly drones over the U.S., the drone was taken apart, trucked in and reassembled. The military personnel who accompanied the drone provided a lot of interesting information about the drone itself and how it is flown.
In addition to the many nice cars, planes and choppers available, there were about 100 vendors selling everything from jewelry, bicycles, scooters, and insurance. Many booths were set up by various branches of the military, veterans groups including a mobile unit provided by the Veterans’ Administration staffed with a doctor and nurse which were available to help veterans. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s #88 NASCAR was on display. There were a lot of food vendors which provided everything from ribs and sausages to shaved ice and kettle corn. The weather was perfect and many of the cars were decorated to fit the season – Halloween. Witches, pumpkins, spiders were in abundance.
About 3:00 p.m. the B-25, “Guardian of Freedom”, took off and made a couple of fly overs. All eyes were looking up at this fantastic airplane.
At 3:00 p.m. the award ceremony started. Twenty-two cars were selected to receive a trophy including one trophy presented by the Base Commander and one by the Mayor of Los Alamitos.
At 4:00 p.m. the show officially ended and the wings, wheels and rotors started to leave.
This is a family event sponsored by the Los Alamitos Area Chamber of Commerce and the California National Guards Joint Forces. A portion of the proceeds go to the JFTB Morale, Welfare and Recreation Fund to support armed forces personnel on the base. An estimated 30,000 visitors were in attendance at this annual JFTB open house.
This event is a great way to spend a Sunday; however, some caveats: for car show participants entry onto the base required at least 45 minutes of stop and go driving. Big engines stuffed into old cars don’t take well to this type of driving and we saw at least six cars pull out of line when they boiled over. Cars are also prevented from leaving before 4:00 p.m. So anyone wanting to leave early was out-of-luck.
Next year Wings, Wheels, Rotors & Expo will be held on Sunday, October 27. Keep the date free – this is a show you won’t want to miss. Watch the Wings, Wheels, Rotors & Expo website for info. www.wwrexpo.net.
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