Wurstfest to attract the best cars to Boulder City this weekend

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By FRED COUZENS

VIEW STAFF WRITER

This Saturday, Wilbur Square Park will become a parking lot, but not just any ole parking lot.

It will have more than 200 classic cars that make up the Hustler Car Club show, one of the numerous events to be held there and across Colorado Street in Bicentennial Park as part of the Sunrise Rotary Club's annual Wurstfest.

"Registration is at 9 a.m. and the show starts at 10 a.m.," said Randy Connell, who helped regroup the club about five years ago after the club, founded in the 1960s, laid dormant for a number of years. "The show is open to everybody in the Las Vegas Valley, which means we'll have classic cars, street cars, hot rods, motorcycles, just about any kind of vehicle. We even have an entry that's coming from Calgary in Alberta, Canada."

Connell, who retired seven years ago after working as a sales executive for a local paper company, said he likes coming to Wurstfest because it's unlike the more than 40 other shows the club participates in each year.

"What's unique about this show is that there's no DJ, no music, no noise," he said. "It's just a relaxing day in the park."

As treasurer of the Hustlers, Connell has two cars -- a '32 Ford two-door sedan and a two-door '55 Chevy Bel Air that he keeps in mint shape -- that will make into the show along with Boulder City club member Bruce Bartlett's '48 Chevy pickup truck.

"The '32 Ford was rebuilt sometime between 1988 and 1992 by a friend who sold it and then I bought it about three years ago and put a new engine in it about three weeks ago," Connell said. "If anyone wants to see it up close, it'll be parked on the corner where the water turbine is."

The members of the club plan to award a memorial plaque to someone in the club for their outstanding entry in the show.

"We don't have judges other than those people with cars get to do the judging," he said. "It's peer judging. They write down five names and the one with the most entries is the winner. Everybody that turns in a tally sheet gets a dash plaque, which is what everybody likes to get anyway because they're becoming a collector's item."

Connell says the club is made up mostly of men 55 and older and is the official car club at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway drag strip, a place where he said, "they perpetuate quite a few things out there as far as shiny cars go."

For cars that can cost $70,000 or $80,000 or even as high as $150,000 with the latest technologies -- interior upholstery jobs of $10,000 and paint jobs up to $12,000 are not out of the ordinary either -- it's hard to imagine any kind of defect, but precautions are taken anyway.

"We're a large purchaser of pizza boxes," Connell said. "What we do is buy the boxes, we don't open them but leave them flat, and slip them under the cars to catch any oil drips. That way the park stays nice and clean."

Wurstfest is not just a car show but also a lot of other things, including the cooking and serving of more than 4,000 grilled brats, sausages and hot dogs.

Of course, you need something to wash down that milieu of meats, so there will be sodas, piña coladas, margaritas and ice-cold beer.

And if none of those choices grab you, then don't whine, just drink wine out at Southern Nevada Wine & Spirits tasting booth, which is a new attraction this year.

Eating and drinking is one thing, but nobody wants to just sit there and munch and sip without entertainment.

That's why the Dummkopf's polka band will serve up favorite Bavarian ballads from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and a little later, at 7 p.m., Tommy Rocker will put on his "Conched Out" show in Colorado Street.

In between, there will be a silent auction from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. followed at 4 with the ever-comical live auction featuring Boulder City's own Doug Scheppmann and Rich Baughman, who, according to some publicity material "will be on hand to add zest, zaniness and fun to the live auction event."

"We look forward to seeing the community come out for this fundraising event that helps our kids," said Sunrise Rotary President Mark McGinty. "These funds go to the cost of holding the All-Night Party for seniors at Boulder City High School, which has proven to be a safe and effective event in its own right."