EDGEWATER, MD – By the time the midpoint of the 2024 car show season arrived here in central Maryland, the spring classics events were over as we moved into the hotter but usually drier time of the year. This meant fewer rainouts and more weekends that featured sunny and much warmer weather. The next event I planned to attend on my local show schedule was the Bay Side Mustangs and National Capital Region Mustang Club’s All Mustang Show, held at the Greene Turtle restaurant parking area in Edgewater, a location I have visited numerous times over the years for various events held by different clubs.

This was a popular-vote show from participants that was held on the last Saturday of June. There were nine different classes, and my 2011 V-6 Mustang was placed in Class H for the 2010 to 2014 Mustangs. There were 75 trophies available, and I was fortunate to take one home! I had attended this excellent event several times over the years and had greatly looked forward to going again. This was a much more relaxed show compared to some that have strict judging guidelines and points scales. With the show a combined event managed by two different Mustang clubs -- one based near Annapolis, Maryland, and the other from northern Virginia – it gives each group a chance to see the other’s cars. I have been a member of the NCRMC off and on, going back for more than 40 years. In fact, they hosted the first car show I ever attended in April of 1982. This year’s event was just over a half-an-hour away from home and an easy ride.

The weather, however, was its usual unpredictable self, right up through the start of the show. On the Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, the forecasts called for showers and thunderstorms all day on that Saturday, but by Thursday and Friday, this changed to cloudy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon with temps in the high '80's. Now that last forecast seemed like a perfect show day, with no rain predicted. So we all arrived by 8 a.m. and had our Mustangs cleaned and ready to show within the next hour or two. And then we saw dark clouds forming to the south on two back-to-back occasions traveling north with a light shower each time, just enough to mess up our cars again! Out came the towels and Windex for a second time, until finally the weather stayed put for the rest of the day. But yes, it was hot!

The trophies that were given out were great-looking awards, with the popular-styled golden 1970 Mustang Sportsroofs on top. These are always a fan favorite in many Mustang owners' collections. But as we went through the morning, it was clear that our attendance was down from past years. Everyone expected 75-100 Mustangs and several specialty Mustangs such Shelby and Roush variants, but the number of registered cars only reached 58 -- far short of the anticipated number. In fact, there were two classes out of our nine where there were no cars entered at all.

I spoke with several people trying to figure out why this dedicated and well-run Mustang show did not have a larger draw, but no one could come up with a defining reason. It seems that there are owners who want the absolute perfect weather day to take their cars out to a show. That may be possible in the western or southern areas of our country, but here in Maryland we cannot count on perfect weather weekends all the time. We have many rainouts in the spring and fall, any many other car shows during the summer that are on hot days, so we take these events as we find them. Most of us know that our Mustangs will not melt if they get a few raindrops, and not going to an excellent show like this one because of dark clouds in the sky would be missing a great opportunity.

One of the most enjoyable parts of this show was catching up with friends from southern Maryland and northern Virginia who I do not see often. Another great aspect was speaking in-person with some of the people in the National Capital Region Mustang Club who will run the Mustang Club of America's Grand National in Fredericksburg, Virginia over Labor Day weekend in 2025. It takes a great effort and many years of planning to develop and run an MCA Grand National, so getting to know these people at a lead-up show like this was time well-spent.

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY RICK MITCHELL