Atlantic
Nationals 2007 ( July 10 - 13, 2007
)
The Atlantic
Nationals Automotive Extravaganza is Canada's
largest classic car and special interest automotive
festival. In July 2007, its seventh year, the
four-day festival drew over 1,600 show vehicles
from across North America and was enjoyed by
an estimated 140,000 spectators at various
venues throughout Greater Moncton. Highlights
include a gigantic Downtown Cruise-in street
party FREE to the public, a 15 kilometre Super
Cruise Route where thousands set up lawn chairs
along the way to view an endless stream of
hot rods, custom and classic cars; and a two-day
activity-packed show at Moncton’s picturesque
Centennial Park. Organized by seven dedicated
automotive enthusiast volunteers, the Atlantic
Nationals is a registered not-for-profit organization
dedicated to supporting the community.
The
Atlantic Nationals is a family-oriented automotive
festival centered on the appreciation of vintage,
restored and special interest vehicles. The
human or people aspect of this event is, what
the organizers believe, has had such a powerful
impact on word of mouth promotion of the event
and the welcoming atmosphere they experience
in our beautiful city. In just seven years,
it has become the country’s largest automotive
event of its kind and has become a tourist
destination hailed as the "show not to
miss" in North America’s leading
automotive hobbyist magazines.
The Atlantic
Nationals has received outstanding local, regional
and international media coverage for the scope
of this huge tourism event. In 2003, the host
of Speed Television’s "My
Classic Car" series Dennis Gage, who invented
Pringle’s Potato Chips and Boost Energy
Drink, filmed events at Centennial Park for
broadcast in early 2004. Mr. Gage returned
to the Atlantic Nationals this year to film
the Downtown Cruise-in. This segment will air
early in 2008.
Courtney Hansen, TV host and
international automotive writer, attended the
2006 Atlantic Nationals. The Atlantic Nationals
has been nominated for a Tourism Industry Association
of Canada award for the outstanding event it
hosted in mid July, 2007.
In 2006, the Atlantic
Nationals was nominated for a Tourism New Brunswick
award. Show organizers and the supporters of
this event, namely The City of Moncton and
the Codiac RCMP, provide enormous in kind support
to assist in making the Atlantic Nationals
a safe and fun event for all. Organizations
like Downtown Moncton Inc. focus their efforts
toward ensuring that downtown businesses maximize
their opportunities for exposure during the
event.
What the general public is not really
aware of is how few people are at the helm
of this massive undertaking. The show is organized
by seven local business people who describe
themselves as "car guys". The organizing
committee members are Chairman Bill Doherty,
Terry Malley, Tom Miller, Gerald Wortman, Mike
Perry, Richard Wood and Darren Walsh. They
meet every week throughout the year to plan
the Atlantic Nationals and each has taken on
enormous organizational tasks to carry out
in between meetings. All are members of the
host club, the Greater Moncton Street Rods.
Under the leadership of club president Clarence
Breau, the Greater Moncton Street Rods Car
Club maintains a close relationship with the
Atlantic Nationals organizers. In the weeks
and months leading up to the show, including
throughout the event itself, the 25 Greater
Moncton Street Rods car club member families
volunteer in countless ways; from organizing
and manning registration, handling the logistics
of parking show cars downtown, and setting
up show events such as the model boat regatta,
model car contest, the participant dance (which
draws over 1,500 attendees), and a 10 hour
lawn tractor race. This event is affectionately
known as the 10 hours of "LeLawns",
a parody of the famous 24 Hours of LeMans.
Now go get a snack and sit tight because there
are over 1000+ pictures from this event on our
web site. Enjoy!
