Annual vintage vehicle show to draw crowd to Fairgrounds on Saturday

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Kustoms, bombs, gassers, old hot rods and muscle cars — what better way to round out the Independence Day weekend than with a nostalgic motorized feast for the eyes?

Thousands who dig old bikes and boats, choppers from the 1940s to ‘60s, bobbers and café racers, vintage trailers and speed boats — and of course classic cars — are expected to gather Saturday at the fourth annual NorCal Knockout at the Solano County Fairgrounds in Vallejo.

The event focuses on pre-1970 cars made in America, from classics and survivors to customs. The show also celebrates the old race cars of a bygone era.

Last year’s show featured more than 300 cars and 40 motorcycles, and because organizers have seen an increase in show participants and attendees every year so far, the 2013 edition should be even bigger, said Hank Forrs, one of the show’s founders.

Forrs said many cars from outside the area will be in Vallejo this year. “We have a lot of people from San Jose, Hollister, Sacramento, Clear Lake … a lot of people that haven’t been here before,” he said.

One of the biggest attractions: a raffle to win a 1965 Plymouth done up to look like an old racer. Tickets for a chance to win the car will go for $10.

“It was a huge success last year, so we thought we needed to do it again this year,” Forrs said. “We invested a lot of money in that.”

Among the many old race cars that will be displayed, some vintage dragsters will be present. “We have some interesting cars from the Fresno area,” Forrs said. “We have about six or seven dragsters this year, and some brand-new built racers that are going to debut at the show.”

Many car shows feature pinup girl competitions, but not the NCKO. Instead, it has a hairier feature: the Moustache Contest, which premiered last year and had more than 30 contestants.

This year there will be two categories: “Knockout Moustache” and “Gnarly Moustache.”

“The winner from last year will be there, but wants to give someone else a chance to win, so he will not be contending,” said Korena Goldstein, NCKO co-founder.

Forrs and Goldstein said their focus since starting the show has been to keep it “family friendly,” so “you can bring your whole family.”

Old cars not your thing? That’s OK, there’s music, too.

Musical entertainment will be throughout the day with three bands and a DJ filling the down time in between.

The bands are all from Northern California. “Before I had bands from Sweden, or from SoCal, but these three bands are exceptionally good,” Forrs said.

“You pay 10 or 15 bucks just to see one of these bands, normally, (and) now we have three of them on stage. It should be a lot of action, full speed ahead, the whole time on stage. It should be a lot of fun.”

And if you plan to stick around to the end of the show, you may want to consider earplugs when they fire the engines up at 4:30 p.m. “It should be a fun cackle-fest,” Forrs said.

If You Go
The NorCal Knockout will be Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission is $10, and parking is $10. Show car registration is $25. For information and schedule visit www.norcalknockout.com.