BROOKINGS – Like many another organization noted for an annual show that adds the benefit of being a fundraiser, the Brookings Car Club (also known by its founders and aficionados as the Brookings Car Council) had a forced hiatus thrust upon it in 2020 – courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic: no 28th Annual Car Show.

However, since the 2020 show didn’t happen, that number has been carried over to this year’s event. That has allowed for the use of last year’s logo, with the only change needed being the date. The show itself, however, has been scaled back considerably: to a one-day event, all taking place in Pioneer Park on Sunday, June 13, with no pandemic restrictions.

The decision came after a tough look back to 2020. That led to a hedge-your-bet approach to this year’s show.  

“We met up until February or early March of last year (2020),” explained BCC President Chris Gross. “With the city mandate thing about not having groups of more than 10, I had gone to the city Park and Rec department. They couldn’t guarantee if we were going to be able to use (Pioneer Park) or not.” 

And money became a key issue.

Gross explained that the club “didn’t want to spend the $2,000 or $3,000 on T-shirts with the 2020 car show logo. If the car show wasn’t held, we’d be stuck with the T-shirts and also the awards that have the same logo and date on them.”

Show-n-Shine only

“So this year we met and just started doing the same thing (as we did last year): got the park reserved, got the logo changed, and started talking about what we’re going to do,” Gross explained. “The fact came up again that if we got to the point where we had to cancel again we didn’t want to be at a large financial risk. The same thing as last year, we didn’t want to buy all the T-shirts and awards and not be able to use them.

“So what we decided to do was just have a Show-N-Shine event, which is basically just bring your car and park it – and no judging.”

In the years when the car show was a two-day event, the Show-N-Shine piece was low key, no pressure and took place in downtown Brookings on Saturday. Anybody could bring a car, park it and let people check it out. Not this year; gone also is the 3 p.m. cruise on Saturday.

Gross did admit that not having a contest took a big workload and financial expense off the club. 

“We don’t have to try to recruit 20 to 30 people to help us judge the 100 to 200 cars that we have. There won’t be judging; there won’t be awards; we won’t have to buy awards,” Gross said.

There will, however, be recognition of the auto owners who bring their cars to the show: “The first 100 entrants will receive a 7 inch by 10 inch participant plaque.” Each plaque will be embossed with the 28th Annual Brookings Car Show logo.

Additionally, there is no need to pre-register. Show up from 9 to 11:30 a.m.; sign in; show your car, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. There will be no lining up of cars by the class they belong to.

“We’re not even having classes this year,” Gross explained. “You show up and park and you might be next to a Corvette, a Ford Mustang. We’re not sure how many people are going to come or how much help we’re going to get. We want to keep it real simple.”

For additional information about this year’s show, log on to www.brookingscarshow.org or contact Chris Gross at 605-690-3307.

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.