COLUMBIA, MD – My car show season for 2025 got off to a fine start when I began displaying my then 6-month-old 2015 Ford Fusion, which was also my daily driver, at five events in central and southern Maryland, but I soon realized that my 2011 V6 Mustang was only getting short, routine weekly test rides to charge its battery and keep its internals lubricated. I needed a better plan for rotating my two Ford vehicles for show duty, and so I decided that my criteria would be to review what each show offered as far as their judging and classes, and then pick the car that had a good chance for success.
For example, if a given event used popular voting and there were usually more higher-performance or classic cars there, then maybe my Mustang was the better choice. But if it was a judged show with a long drive, then my nice-riding Fusion may be better, although both cars are detailed. At any rate, I needed to take my Mustang out to a few events soon as my show friends were always asking, "Are you ever taking your Mustang back to the shows?"
Last year I had attended the Hot Rods at Lincoln Tech event, an excellent popular-vote show hosted by the Royal GTOs and Pontiacs Car Club, that was held next to the Lincoln Tech campus in nearby Columbia, Maryland, a short 20-minute ride away. When I got notice that the show was returning for 2025 and again was open to all makes and models of domestic and foreign cars and trucks, I decided to return. There were Top-50 trophies available, as well as several 'Best Of' special awards. Their show area is located on a huge, wide-open macadam parking area next to the school that was striped with the entrants spaced out, and the parking was directed by club members using walkie-talkies. It was a perfect location for a large event!
On the last occasion the club had invited several other organizations devoted to different manufacturers' vehicles. There was an excellent assortment of Mustangs, Model A's and many other interesting Ford products in attendance, so I was sure to take a camera again this year. For this event, I met up with two other Mustang friends offsite so that we could drive in and park together. We all felt this was an excellent show to go back to for a second time.
The weather check at O-Dark Early on that June Saturday morning showed that we would be playing the dreaded rainy day roulette game once more for most of the day. The forecast said that there was a possibility of intermittent light rain at the beginning of the show, and that thunderstorms would most likely occur by two or three o'clock that afternoon, and that it would also be generally cloudy for most of the day, although the temps were in the '70's and low '80's. There was nothing heard about postponing the show because of the weather, so I launched at 7:15 a.m. and met my friends near the observation area south of BWI Airport, watching several 737's land while I was waiting. We were soon parked and setting up at Lincoln Tech less than a half-hour later.
I had parked my Mustang and completed its first wipe down when sure enough, the first rainy sprinkles came, but just enough to let us know what may be in store – and fortunately there were no more surprises. The good news was that it never rained again that morning, and the cloud-cover kept the macadam parking area reasonably comfortable. The bad news was that the threat of afternoon storms severely reduced the number of entries for this otherwise excellent and well-run event. As the morning passed, the parking area was only moderately filled as compared to what we remembered from last year when there was also an excellent assortment of all makes and models, and a few very rare cars, such as a '54 Kaiser Manhattan and an '88 Avanti, that were there.
We checked the weather as the morning passed, and the forecast was still calling for storms by three o'clock. At first the club said that trophies would be awarded at 1:30, but they moved that up to 1 p.m. so that we could finish early and beat the storms. On the Thursday before this show, I completed a three-hour clean-up of my Mustang in 90-degree weather, and I was hoping to return home before the downpours arrived to try to get a second show out of that effort before the next weekend's event. As it turned out, the number of show entries (from what we heard) only reached a total of 49 cars and trucks. This was unfortunately way down from last year – but with a Top 50 set of awards, everyone received something, and that was a nice plaque, as well as the three other 'Best of' awards.
And those unpredictable thunderstorms that we were trying our best to avoid all day? They never came! Eventually the cloudy skies cleared, and we had a bright and sunny late afternoon and evening.
