JAX Good-Guys

[Grandadeo]

Anybody heading to Jacksonville, FLA this weekend for the Good-Guys third attempt at a good location in the Sunshine State.  We plan to get there mid-day Friday.  BTW I don't believe it's Good-Guys that has the problem here in Florida, it's these darn fair weather hot rodders that won't go across the street for an event much less 5 or so hours away from their comfort zone.

Lee

[HOTRODSRJ]

it's these darn fair weather hot rodders that won't go across the street for an event much less 5 or so hours away from their comfort zone.

Lee

Lee...you make an interesting point, but the other GGs events are growing like wildfire...so why is this one any different?  I used to work for Goodguys and have participated behind the scenes of the FlA shows as a Rep.  The Orlando show was always overshadowed by the rest of the activities in Orlando and Tallahassee was in the middle of no-where....nothing to do and podunk city?  Not even descent restaurants.

I think its all about location...location...location.  Simply put, Florida is NOT close to anything but water.  It's a haul to get there from anywhere?  I think Jacksonville will be better because it's located to major highways and north in the state.  I also was NEVER impressed with facilities in either location.....nothing special.  Just take a look at the Cruise-the-Coast mess!  Grown to 6500 cars and popular even in a hurricane ...so I am not so sure about "fair weather" having to do with this at all IMO.

Should be interested in seeing what happens.  Actually I am hoping they come back to Atlanta.  They left Atlanta due to facility issues but now Bruton Smith would easily put up the Atlanta Motor Speedway (like the others at Charlotte, Texas, Las Vegas, etc) for a Goodguys event for sure and there are plenty of rooms now in that area...something that prevented the move there before.  Their stint here unfortunately ran into several years of bad weather and then the park went belly up to boot with no guarantees of a place to hold the event.  That's why they left.

Anyway.......I am working a Roy Rogers Kids Ranch benefit show this weekend.  You have a great time and drive carefully.  Report back and let us know what happened.

[Grandadeo]

Got back from JAX around 9:00 PM last night, we decided to ride A1A south for a while.  All-in-all I'd say the meet turned out good, it was hot but this is Florida in the summer.  This site worked well but lacked grass and TREES to get some shade.  The prime parking was up close to and around the stadium if you got there early enough otherwise you were out in the blacktop parking lot.  That's were we spent Saturday.  Sure glad I had my mullins with the EZ-up for shade.  I haven't been in the downtown JAX area in years and was impressed with the stadium and the whole downtown area around the river.  Never did hear a total number of cars, the TV was saying 2000 but I don't think it went much over 1000.  Minimal swap meet and mostly over priced cars in the car corral - a few good deals but I think most of the sellers were just fishing or dreaming.  New product vendors were around and under a covered area of the stadium which worked well.  Gary Good-Guy seemed happy with the whole event.  The rumor was that they have a 3 year deal with a 5 year option.  Sure did get alot of TV coverage.  I think the spectator gate did well, certainly better than the two former sites.  Being a holiday weekend may have hurt the rod turnout with people having other things going on with family at home.  But as usual a state that should easily be able to have a couple thousand cars show up at a big meet performed as expected.  I agree that the location on the border will bring rods down from the other local states which helps with the final count and are great to see.  The only reason I keep harping on the turnout is that if these organizations don't see an adequate profit they'll pull out.  Then the guys who didn't bother going anyway will be whining cause they are being neglected by the big guys.  Overall I'd give JAX GGs  a 7 1/2 which isn't bad for a first time location.  They just need to fire the person who made up the directions to the stadium included in the preregistration package.  Unless you are a local you wouldn't have a clue that the 20th street expressway off I-95 is now the MLK Expressway. There are a bunch of pictures posted on HAMB of the meet.  My rock chip special is number 202 in the pictures, even shows a piece of the mullins and  the EZ-up.  I did win one of the give away prizes.  $200 worth of VHT paint.  That's alot of spray cans.

Lee