Mustang 40th Anniversary Celebration, Thursday April 15, Nashville, TN.
Thursday at the track had quite a few events: The opening ceremonies, which included Jack Roush, Carroll Shelby, Steve Saleen, John Force, Edsel Ford II, and some of the designers of the first Mustang. Jack Roush did a flyby on his P-51 for the open, and was then on hand to give out autographs along with then others above. Pretty cool dude if you ask me.
Now somehow Don Brink managed to get he and John Malloy hooked up with 'Roush's people', and they were asked to escort them from the airport, along with Jack, 100 MPH+, lights going....nice work Don! I'm impressed the Roush cars could keep up with John's 347 stroker. Just wish I had been there earlier on Thursday!
The Open Track event ran 130 bucks, but it was well worth it. They had the turns closed off, so you had to come off the stretch and hit a road course-like turn at each end, but it didn't stop anyone from nailing it on the course. I was surprised to see as many vintage people racing as new...serious stuff.
I could not believe the amount of people there on Thursday. The first day of a show is usually slow, but this was bigger than most weekend ones I've been to, by far. The weather was great, and we had about 15 cars there on Thursday for the SSP class.
One thing everyone was really looking forward was the cruise to downtown Nashville Thursday night. The MCA had arranged to have the downtown area blocked off for Mustang parking only, and the SSP cars were to lead the crowd in with lights going. Everyone was supposed to get parking passes that allowed them to get into the blocked off areas...since we were leading the parade, all the SSP's got one, then a couple of the convertibles leading the parade with us. There was parking downtown for only a few hundred cars, and when 600 or 700 showed up at the cruise spot, you knew it was going to get ugly. 4 people were picked out to dispense passes, which quickly became an act of self preservation for those giving them out, because everyone wanted one! I think at one point I saw one of the guys running up a hill with a mob after him for those parking slips! Anyway, no one got hurt, tempers calmed down, and ironically I don't think the cops even checked them downtown..they just waved everyone in! Turned out to be a great time.
Here's a look at some of Thursday's events.
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| Opening events. A host of speakers get things rolling. |
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| Here come the real stars of the show. 2 new Mustangs, 4th gen, GT convertible roll to the stage. This is the third time I've seen the new one in person, just keeps looking better! |
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| Ford hot air balloon on hand on track infield. |
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| Here's Jack Roush in his P-51 for the opening ceremony, complete with barrel roll. |
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| John, Jack Roush, and Don pose with their cars and Jack's P-51..Nice shot! (Don Brink photo) |
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| Jack signs John's decklid, the car just doubled in value! (Don Brink photo) |
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| Nice shot of Jack's P-51. There's no mistaking these planes when they fly over. (Don Brink photo) |
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| Speaking of Roush, this coupe had the crown drooling... |
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| A couple of the vintage racers on display. |
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| Here's a look at the church parking lot where the melee, err, cruise was supposed to get staged. You can get a feel for how packed it was. There was still an hour to go before we were supposed to leave. The weather was absolutely perfect out. |
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| The crowd gets restless. Jim Young performs mob control, and several states were called in for mutual aid, including the FHP, Texas DPS, and Santa Clara CA SO! |
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| I'm not sure how the Fire Dept. wound up in the middle of it, but it always seems to somehow! |
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| Scott and Teresa pose with their FHP car. Don and Mark lurk in background. Nice lineup. |
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| The crowd starts to get, err, restless. |
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| Stu Blank's Santa Clara Sheriff's car puts on a nice light show..the infamous yellow parking passes are now being scalped for hundreds of dollars on eBay! |
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| Awesome lineup. As we roll into downtown, I think the lights and cars really threw some of the locals for a loop, especially in the more 'non-tourist friendly' sections...I heard one guy standing outside a bar yell 'dammmnnn' as we went by, at which point he promptly dropped his beer....kind of summed it up. The twilight made for a nice way to show off the lights though. |
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| Tony Scharp's Texas DPS car puts on a nice show at the entrance to downtown. |
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| How's this for a photo op? Right in front of the Hard Rock. The street was closed all the way up. |
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| Here's a flip side view, my car next to Dale Amond's NYSP car and Ron Mahoy's ISP Mustang. Nashville stadium in the backdrop. The guys on the end with the GT had it all decked out so we let them sneak in with us. |
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| Slightly different view, Don's car in front. |
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| Teresa poses in front of the Hard Rock! |
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| Back at the hotel...everyone of course still talking about the cruise. Time for a couple of cold ones. Two more days ahead, how do we top this? |