THUNDER BAY — Fat Guys’ 13th Annual Car Show returned to Memorial Avenue on Saturday in support of the George Jeffrey Children’s Foundation.
The car show has raised $50,000 since 2018 and featured special guest Avery Shoaf, a Ricky Bobby impersonator, kids’ activities, a beer garden, draws, a hot dog eating contest, food and local vendors, a variety of music, a dunk tank and specialty vehicles.
“Fat Guys Auto Parts has really enjoyed being (in) a local community in Thunder Bay and we place a lot of importance on bringing all these car enthusiasts together to put on this event,” said Nathan Pickard, Fat Guys Auto Parts’ vice president of operations and strategic growth.
In the past, Pickard said they have welcomed thousands of people from the Thunder Bay community.
However, even with their whole crew having started setting up for the car show at roughly 5:30 a.m., he explained that they got hit with a huge storm at about 9 a.m., which had all of their tents “uprooted and blowing everywhere.”
“Luckily, all the registrants for the car show that had already (shown) up wanted to stick it out and… we did the same thing,” said Pickard.
Dave Dolph, an automotive service technician at CRS Automotive, was one of the many car enthusiasts who stuck around despite the morning’s weather and showcased his all-original 1947 Dodge Special Deluxe with matching numbers.
“My dad’s first car was a ’47 Dodge, (an) identical car, and before he died, it was his last ride in a car,” said Dolph, who has since restored his car in 2010 and painted it again two years ago.
“And every year I put it in here because it’s my baby. I paid for it.”
Dolph said he has been at the event since the owner, Doug Wilson, first started doing car shows.
“If you look on the seats in my car, I got actually t-shirts from every car show that Doug (Wilson) has actually given t-shirts out,” Dolph said, adding that he also has plaques from registration.
Dolph’s car took him six months to get on the road and was one of just over 250 cars registered for this year’s event.
It was also a family project that Dolph started to work on with his son Andrew when he was around five or six years old and received some help additionally from his other two kids before they grew up and started families.
While Dolph said he has been hit three times in the last year, the car is a daily driver and he loves his “car to death.”
“The cars you see… you’ll see different walks of people’s lives because every man… and woman… puts themselves into their vehicle. And it’s a labour of love,” Dolph said.
Michael Vita also helped to showcase his grandfather’s red and black 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS at the car show. He said they were having a great time over at Fat Guys.
“It’s pretty much rebuilt from the ground up… everything’s brand new on it. It’s got a 454 big-block on it and I helped a little bit with it, but not too much with it,” Vita said.
Vita said it was “awesome” how they host them every year.
“It’s one of the best car shows in Thunder Bay and that comes from the heart,” Vita said.
However, he added that they need more people down at the car show because there were not enough from last year.
“It’s really amazing to see all these cars out here and all the work and effort that these guys put in to putting these special vehicles together,” Pickard said.
