Hi Group,

Next weekend, Thursday July 3 is going to be the “Independence Day Explosion” at Thompson Raceway Park. With a total purse of $ Big Money!! plus there’s some real “Heads Up” racing going on! The U.M.T.R with the Wheel Standing Bumper Dragging Stick Shift Cars. Gates open at 11 am and racing starts at 6. For more information, go to www.ThompsonRacewayPark.com or www.umtrnorth.com
Gathering of the Eagles XIII will not be held this year as the timing was not good to get all the A irplanes in and with the bad weather of last year profits were hard to find! Hopefully next year we can view some our vintage airplane and vintage cars at the same time.
1st. A nnual Cruise-In for a Cure sponsored by Jeffs Garage at 1199 East Street in Fairport Harbor on July 11, 2009. See list for details!
The York Reunion ’s 8th. Annual Muscle Car Madness will be held on July 10th. and the 11th. A t the York Expo Center in the York Fairgrounds in York , Pennsylvania . See the list for Press Releases.
July 17th. to the 19th. will be the big Car Parts Swap Meet, Car Show by Dave & Ed’s in Canfield, Ohio . Believe me, if there is a part to be had or sold, this is the place to do it. Just make sure you have a comfortable pair of shoes on cause there is a lot to see!
Back to the 50’s weekend will be held from July 3rd. to the 6 this year and it also gets bigger and better each year! A Cruise you just do not want to miss is also coming up. The Saxonburg Big Cruise 2009 put on by the Kruzin Knights Car Club.
The Steel Valley Super Nationals out did themselves again this year, was it a blast or what. Show Cars, Drag Cars, Funny Cars, Dragsters, Burnout Contest, Show & Drag Bikes and some things that defy description! This show just keeps getting better every year!
With the weather being like it has this year, you might want to check it out before leaving home. I have added some new weather links on Big A l’s weather page that you might find VERY H A NDY!!!! Go to www.BigAlsList.com click on “Weather” and in the Ohio section check out Big, Bigger and Biggest. These links have some really good radar views for our area!
Just a note to some of you Event flyer tossers. Look at your Flyer, about 25% of the flyers don’t have enough information to find your Event. Then to top it off, many of you don’t put a contact phone number or E-mail address. HELLO!!!!!!!!!!! A nd another thing to consider, with us old farts getting into the today’s world of technology most of us have a GPS. This means we need a real address with a number and a street name. With the price of G A S, I don’t want to cruise all over a city to try and find your event! Help us help you. If you need to cancel your event, send me a note right away and if I’m not out on the road at the time I will post it for you. Thanks!
Just a note to some of the promoters. I received an E-mail from one of my people about what is listed and what is delivered! Please update your cruise information with me so that your listing is accurate. This is a common response about how a lot of cruisers feel;

“Last night we attended the Wellington McDonald’s cruise. Your ad was helpful in letting us know the details, when, what time, etc. (We love the website!) But when we arrived, there was NO dj! McDonalds doesn’t like the fee the dj wanted for the ’09 Season so they just decided to not have one. How nice of them. The show was 6-9 but by 7 it was cleared out. The dj sets the mood of a show, ya know? The whole situation made everything extremely boring.
We had hit the Mr. Mike’s cruise (Middleburg Hts.) last month on a Friday. We arrived and that one also did not have a dj as listed. Needless to say there was 4 cars total. The owner is a nice guy and eagerly told us “See you next week!” after we ate and were leaving. We haven’t been back.
I was even surprised to see that Porky’s in Mansfield just pumps out music from the radio into their lot. No effort there either.
A family member also told me that Wink’s in Barberton is cutting their music off at 8pm. Cruisers begged the owner to at least have the dj play until 9pm and he obliged. For decades Wink’s was pumping the tunes via band or dj ‘til 10pm. That’s when they would announce the 50/50 and then everyone would head home. I understand it’s under new ownership but this is disappointing news.
I know the economy is bad but this problem is sucking the life out of the cruises. If an establishment wants our business it’s nice to have a little entertainment and for them to put some effort into it. It’s like the old saying, “Ya gotta spend money to make money.” Is it getting so bad that we will eventually see a boombox on a card table at a cruise???”

Big A l’s List Car Corral, Classifieds, and Wanted pages have been getting new items daily, check them out to see if there’s something