By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
NEWPORT — The town of Newport will be hosting their second annual Wings & Wheels Car Show this Saturday, June 24, 2022.
The event aims to bring together automobile lovers of every kind to town. Between 11 AM until 2 PM, spectators are invited to come and enjoy the festivities. Located at the grass runway of the Parlin Field Airport, Wings & Wheels will see not only cars from several different classes but also planes, trucks, and motorcycles. Entry fees for the event are $20 in advance and $25 at the gate for anyone entering the competition. General admission will be $5, with anyone under the age of 12 entering for free.
Wings & Wheels is a fundraising event whose proceeds will go back to the Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Parlin Airfield. At the event there will be a number of different car classes being shown, including Pre-War (cars made before and up to 1941), Domestics (cars made from 1945-1954), Corvettes, T-Birds, Mustangs, Mopars, Foreign Models, among others. It will be an opportunity for car enthusiasts to come down and show off their hard work and beautiful automobiles. The event will also feature a DJ and food trucks.
“People love to come down and show off their cars, it’s nice to be able to take home a trophy and tell their friends and family they won the event,” said Chamber of Commerce member Steve Smith.
Hosts of the event ask that car owners arrive early and have their vehicles parked by 10:30 AM, in order to accommodate the event. A panel of judges, whose names have been kept secret from the public, will decide who will take 1st and 2nd place at the competition. 1st place in motorcycles will also be decided by the judges. The award of Best In Show, however, will be decided by a vote of spectators. Last year there were 200 cars in attendance, a beautiful weather forecast has the hosts of the event hopeful to see even more this year.
“We’ve done any number of events with the Chamber of Commerce and we are really looking forward to this one. The last Wings & Wheels event was really one heck of a show,” said Rick Kloeppel, Co-Manager of Parlin Airfield.
Before becoming Newport’s Wings & Wheels event, the car show was hosted by the Sunapee Lions Club. It took place at Mount Sunapee annually and was disbanded a few years ago. The Sunapee Lions Club then passed the torch to the Newport Chamber of Commerce, particularly to Brandy Waterman and Shannon MacMichael, the President and Executive Director for the Chamber. Wings & Wheels is a collaboration between the Chamber of Commerce and Parlin Airport Field, volunteers from Parlin as well as their Board have been instrumental in creating the event.
“Parlin’s always been a friendly palace. It’s important for us as we are part of the town of Newport to be a part of events. We think it’s a value and an asset to the town and we like being here. These events are important to us, we have a phenomenal core of volunteers here. It’s rare you ever see a volunteer group like we have here,” said Kloeppel.
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