At the end of every year the editors here at Mini Truckin' vote for our favorite club, show, and truck. To win any of the three categories, you've got to be the best of the best, or at least do something that stands out above the rest that year. Our 2004 "Club of the Year" trophy went to Pebble Pushers out of Charlotte, NC. Being that they are the recipients of such a highly honored award in the mini-truckin' community, you can bet they know what it takes to put on a great show. They also make sure that they add all the elements to their show that they would like to be part of if they were showing and not judging.
Just like any big event, tons of planning took place before the show, but due to unforeseen circumstances, this year's show took even more planning than expected. The previous seven years the show was held at the Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium (a minor league ballpark) in Kannapolis, NC, but at the first of the year the park was sold and the new owners didn't want to renew their contract for the third weekend of September, like it had always been. This led the PP crew to come up with a Plan B. This wasn't an easy task, considering that by the time they found out the bad news, the show season was pretty much underway. Luckily, they came across the Rowan County Fairgrounds in Salisbury, NC, only nine miles north of their previous show site. This location was perfect, but along came another snag: The date they normally had their show was already booked and the only weekend they could use the site would be the weekend of July 4th. By the time the date and location were set in stone, it was only a couple of months away, so getting the word out would take some work. With a few posts on the Internet, some flyers passed out at a handful of shows, and just word of mouth in general the new show date and location quickly got spread like an unknown bump on your lower regions. Knowing that Scr8pfest is always one of the top shows on our calendar, we made sure we hit it this year to bring you the coverage.
When we got up Saturday morning and headed off to the show, to our surprise, there were already a ton of people there, which was unheard of for a bunch of mini-truckers, considering a lot of them were hanging out late at the hotel. The show field quickly filled up, while a few of the lucky ones got to park inside one of the buildings at the gate. As for vendors, you could get everything from your favorite show DVD to wheels, accessories, and even clothes. We even had a chance to check out some of the new Drop 'Em Wear designs. Being that Pebble Pushers is a large club that believes in doing things as a club, the club games were something that was a must. They had the normal tug-o-war and egg toss, but they mixed it up a little and did a golf cart push, where two clubs each pushed a golf cart in Neutral across a field and back with one person riding and steering. That, along with the dizzy tricycle races, made for some serious laughs from the spectators. They had originally planned to do a second round of club games to get a winner, but that had to be cancelled when the crew from Xtreme Lowz dominated every event. After winning, one member even challenged one of the PP members to see who could eat a whole egg (shell and all) the fastest. After some quick peer pressure from the crowd, and a $10 prize being thrown in for good measure, they quickly tried to down the eggs - not a pretty sight. In place of the second round of games, later that night they wound up having a beer chugging contest, and even a milk chugging contest for those not of legal age. Right as the sun started to set, the sparks began to fly and continued well into the night. As the Pushers are known for dragging, and their show is known for their dragging contest, they made sure that draggin' was a part of this year's event. One of the most unique drag competitors was a juiced hearse that had a coffin dragging behind it. The winning trophy for best dragger, which read "Hell yeah, I drag my truck," went to a chick, so guys, you better step things up because the ladies are right on your tail when it comes to showing off. The Pebble Pushers once again brought out their one-of-a-kind "unfinished" awards. Each of these trophies were taken apart and primered and put in a box - without instructions, of course. This way they matched the vehicles they were given for. They also made sure plenty of the over 300 entries took home one of the trophies. For more info on the next show, make sure you keep up with the website, www.pebblepushers.com. From what we hear from the plans being made, next year's event will be even better than this year!