For the first time in 35 years, iconic cars will not gather for Durango’s Motor Expo this summer.
Durango Old Car Club members decided not to organize the car show this year, but it’s not necessarily the end of the Father’s Day tradition. The show could be back in 2019, Co-President Steven Wylie said.
“We love doing it. For some reason, last year, it just burned us out,” he said.
The Durango club broke the news to disappointed regional car groups earlier this year and delivered letters to downtown merchants to inform them of the club’s decision, he said.
When many events were moved from Main Avenue to Buckley Park about seven years ago, the car show was one of a handful of events permitted to continue to close a large section of Main Avenue, which speaks to its popularity, said Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Business Improvement District.
“We will miss that event; it brought people downtown,” he said.
Events that close down blocks of Main Avenue draw people into restaurants and bars, but they tend to be less beneficial for other businesses, such as art galleries, Walsworth said.
Tad Brown, owner of Fired Up Pizzeria and Mountain Tacos & Tequila, couldn’t say how the absence of the event might affect weekend revenue. But he said it was unfortunate the show won’t be held.
“It’s a great day, and I think that it will be sorely missed,” he said.
It is difficult to gauge exactly how well attended the event was because it was free and people were welcome to come and go through multiple gates, Walsworth said. Last year, the show drew about 240 vehicles to Main Avenue.
After the club decided not the host the expo, Wylie received calls from motorheads in Las Vegas, Denver, Salt Lake and Albuquerque, who were curious about the show’s fate, he said.
Volunteers were interested in helping with the show, but Durango Old Car Club committee members said guiding new people through the process of organizing the show would likely have been just as much work as hosting the show themselves, Wylie said.
“We would have to just take them by the hand and show them,” he said.
The event also faced increasing requirements from the city around trash collection, directing traffic and other rules, which have challenged organizers, he said. There are about 10 people on the event’s organizing committee, he said.
“Every year, they (the city) came up with something new they wanted us to do. ... We didn’t have the manpower to do it,” he said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
