After the car show and charity auction at Coker Tire on Saturday and the beautiful drive through the Smoky Mountains on Sunday, the Tour continued on Monday morning with a visit to Lokar Performance Products in Knoxville. The folks at Lokar have been major supporters of the Road Tour program since the first Tour way back in 1996. Lokar is the only company whose products have been used on every Road Tour car for the last 14 years. Just like their ads say, Lokar means quality and there shifter cables, brackets and aluminum products are second to none.
On Monday morning we were greeted at Lokar by Debbie Walls who, with her husband Skip, own Lokar and by Lokar President Rick Craze. A Road Tour stop at Lokar is always a treat and good food and goodie bags can always be expected. After a great breakfast buffet of fruit and croissants we were given a tour of the manufacturing facilities to see how quality goes into every Lokar product. Debbie greeted everyone personally and we all received a goodie bag and Lokar umbrella. It was a real treat for me to get to visit the 1996 Road Tour coupe. The 1934 Ford with its distinctive blue and white paint scheme has been owned by Debbie since 1998 and she has put many miles on it since the inaugural Road Tour season in 1996. The stop at Lokar was a great way to kick off our week of travels on the Coker Tour.
From Lokar it was a short drive to the hot rod shop of Bobby Alloway. Alloway's has been know for their high quality street rods and street machines for many years. There are very few folks who have won a Ridler Award, the AMBR Award at the Grand National Roadster Show and Good Guy's Street Machine of the year. With Bobby out of the shop on business, staff memer Joe Baily gave us a behind the scenes look at the current projects that are underway at Alloways. After our brief visit it was obvious that the shop has many more awards in their future.
From Knoxville our journey continued to Charlotte, North Carolina. The drive to Charlotte is about 5 hours long and took us through the beautiful mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. Our travels were a bit damp with light rain but we arrived at our hotel in Concord at 4 PM. The Hampton Inn folks treated us to a dinner of chicken pasta and we headed out to Fatman Fabrictions in nearby Mint Hill. We were greeted at Fatman by owner Brent Vandervort and we go a tour of the Fatman facilities. Known for many years for their frames and suspensions, the Fatman folks continue to add to the huge line of well engineered products. After the shop tour Brent lead the group to what can be described as the most incredible collection of Pontiac muscle cars on the planet. Zeb Morris is a man possessed with Ponchos and he possesses some of the best. His collection is a sea of GTO's, rare Judges and high performance Pontiacs of all years. It was a privilege and a treat to be able to have a look at this private collection of a man that really knows what he likes in cars. Thanks to Brent and Zeb for quite a Road Tour evening.
Tuesday after the 7:30 drivers meeting we made a stop for a photo at the Lowes Motor Speedway. The facility was a sea of activity has they prepared for he All Star race on Saturday and then the Coca Cola 600 on the following weekend. Around the corner from the Speedway is the Hendricks Motorsport facility. We were able to get a look at the home base for the entire Hendricks team and saw where the cars of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhart Jr. and Mark Martin were prepared for their battles each weekend. We were also treated to a look at the Clevite Engine Building challenge where teams competed in assembling NASCAR motors to see who was the fastest. It was a very interesting stop at Hendricks.
Our next visit was an important one and the most emotional of our week. The Victory Junction Gang Camp was a dream of Adam Petty and that dream was realized by Adam's parents Patti and Kyle Petty after Adams untimely death. Each year hundreds of children with crippling diseases are treated to a week in the country at the Camp where they can experience the fun of spending time with other children who are also challenged. We were very pleased to present the folks at the Victory Junction Gang Camp $2500 that we raised at the silent auction the previous Saturday at Cokers. The amount represents the cost of one child's visit to the facility for a week. The Road Tourians were proud to be able to help this wonderful cause.
Tuesday evening we were special guests at Classic Auto Restoration Specialties facilities just north of Greensboro, North Carolina. Owner Jim Barber and his crew were ready with hot dogs and hamburgers and we got a tour of what has to be one of the largest and busiest restoration and custom build shops in the nation. The shop covered 35,000 square feet and every area was filled with resto-mod and restoration projects. The quality and care that the folks at C.A.R.S. put in to every build was very evident. Thanks to Jim and the crew for a fun and informative evening.
Wednesday the Coker Tour heads to Virginia Beach and then on to our final destination of Ocean City. Check back here and follow our travels on the Road Tour.
Jerry Dixey