State of the Scene

    The weather has been nice, and events are in full swing. Up in Washington, the Seattle-Tacoma area has seen a lot of activity, with huge meets taking place on a daily basis. Chasing Legends just hosted a huge Car Show in Vancouver, with Mark Coleman walking away with 1st Place for Muscle Car Build. Out here in Oregon, we’ve seen a few ourselves, with many more already in the works. Not just meets though, but Car Shows and Races as well. Woodburn Drag Strip just wrapped up their 52nd Annual Bi-Mart Coors Season Opener, with Ryan Bese of Keizer besting everyone else in Super Pro, Steve Kelly out of Camas taking the pole for Pro, Jimmy Herford of Ridgefield taking Sportsman, Nicholas Karr taking Roadster, and Wild Jay Kinnee taking first for Pro Nostalgia A.

    Out and around Portland, KGO has been getting active again, Vstyle hosted a birthday meet for their long time running sponsor Lumbre Snacks, Automobile Passions launched their rotating Cars and Coffee out in McMinnville (locations change, please stay up to date on where the next one is at on their Facebook or Instagram pages), and Tuner Coalition, Bridge City Drivers, and Slipstream have all hosted successful cruises. Down in Salem, both StreetStrykers and Immortals have had success too, a good thing to see in an area that has been troubled in the past when it comes to hosting car events that aren’t ticketed events. Dallas is seeing some action too, with a regular Friday meet that has seen the majority of participants minding their manners well.

    This early in the year, seeing so many groups successfully run events with hardly any hiccups is great to see. It shows not just growth for these groups, but for our community as a whole – and that we have been making big strides in the communities around us to prove that we aren’t the problem that so many have come to view us as. The fact that several of these groups give back directly to these communities helps a lot – fostering goodwill goes a long ways, and gives others the chance to get to know us as people, and not just those jerks that take up parking, have loud cars for no reason, or just arbitrarily break every road law under the sun for no reason (behavior which has also calmed down considerably with these groups running their events.)

    We’ve also got several large events on the horizon. Import Face Off comes to Woodburn this upcoming weekend (you can buy tickets at thefoat.com or day of on premises), NW Corvette Association is hosting their Strawberry Charity Cruise-In on June 14th, Orchards Cars and Coffee is hosting the Clark County Father’s Day Car Show, and many more, including our own events (Golden Age Revival on June 1st and Father’s Day Classics Showcase on June 15th, both supporting Colton Helping Hands Food Bank.)

    I’ll be recapping events in the next monthly State of the Scene update, as well as how your support of Woodburn Cars and Coffee has helped us support our community, so be sure to keep an eye out for the next update.