Classic car and truck show at Clinton Fall Festival brings more than 140 entrants

By Brad Heineman

Nearly 30 awards were handed out to those who participated and entered a historic or souped-up vehicle that caught the judges’ attention in the Clinton Fall Festival’s 36th Classic Car and Truck show held on Saturday, Sept. 27.

The car and truck show, which also received a handful of motorcycle entrants, has traditionally been held down in Tate Park, but due to gradual enhancements and upgrades being made throughout the park grounds, the car show needed to find a new home. That’s where Eden Foods stepped in.

Headquartered in Clinton since 1980, Eden Foods at 701 Tecumseh Rd. and its facility lot across from Solid Rock Church at 829 Tecumseh Rd. has been the home location of the Fall Festival’s car and truck show for the past couple of years.

“We were bounced around for two or three years and we landed here,” car and truck show organizer Tiffany Voll said. “We’ve been here for four or five years now, and it’s a great facility — it’s big and it’s close to town. I’m fine with this setup, I have no issues with it — if you look at the suggestion box, everybody wants it down at (Tate) Park because it’s the park, they are on the river and in the grass. Some people just enjoy parking on the grass. But I think they’re coming around to this location.”

Voll said the car show committee is open to any and all feedback — the good, bad and ugly — as well as any and all makes and models of vehicles at future shows. A suggestion box was present at Saturday’s show in which guests could jot down their thoughts prior to exiting.

“I want to see those low-riders here with their loud music and their loud exhaust, but I also want to see the old classic cars,” she said. “We welcome all makes and models. We don’t discriminate just because you have loud speakers.”

You wouldn’t have known it by visiting the car show throughout the morning and afternoon on Saturday, but nearly all aspects of this past weekend’s show — from the awards, the raffle gift baskets and the involvement of Serenity Equestrians 4H Club — came together in only a matter of weeks.

Voll, who helped organize several of the car shows down at Tate Park, stepped aside from the organization duties for a little bit of time. When the most recent organizers were unable to shoulder the load of this year’s event, she stepped in with almost two weeks left until the date of this year’s classic car and truck show.

Voll said she credits her knowledge of past car shows for getting everything in order in such a short amount of time. She also praised her local connections and those on social media for creating Facebook pages and Facebook groups that aided her in bringing things together.

“(Clinton) Fall Festival is very well known for its car show,” she said. “The weather was absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t have asked for a better day and we had a really good turnout. Next year I would love to hit 200 cars. We had 144 registered cars and I would really like to set a goal next year of 200 and expand into more bikes.”

Becky Peck and Leanne Bear were two additional volunteers Voll made mention of. Her husband, Shane, who is an avid car enthusiast and is involved in auto body and paint work, also helped in the show’s planning.

Past car shows during Fall Festival have surpassed 200 vehicle entrants; some have neared 300 entrants. This year’s show was still a vast increase from 2024, which is largely due in part to the rainy weather that left much of last year’s festival weekend waterlogged. No such rainy conditions were even in the forecast this past weekend.

The vehicle categories being judged and earning first- and second-place prizes included vehicles from the 1940s or older, the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, 2000-10, 2011 and newer, other (rat rods), all motorcycles, best of show car, best of show truck, best of show bike, overall best of show, furthest distance traveled and the people’s choice award.

Clarkston resident Mike Haislip and his wife, Kim, won the overall best in show award for their 2012 Ford Mustang GT, which has been custom-built to look like a 1969 Mustang. The Haislips’ award-winning car, named “Boogeyman” in tribute to the “John Wick” film franchise starring Keanu Reeves, has been registered at several car shows including the Detroit Autorama and the IDIDIT Car Show in Tecumseh.

Shad Harris’ 2010 Ford Mustang was named the people’s choice winner, and John Schmidt earned the title of furthest distance traveled, bringing his 2004 Lincoln Town Car to Clinton from Alabama.

By expanding on future award categories, Voll said the Fall Festival car show could hand out trophies for more custom awards such as vehicles with the best paint job, fabrication, motor, interior, underbody, etc.

“This year we really focused on doing (awards) by decades,” she said. “And next year I would like to expand more into like ‘custom best paint,’ ‘best motor,’ ‘best fabrications.’ This year, like I said, was on such short notice. I didn’t have the time. Literally, the very next morning, I had to call and order trophies or they wouldn’t have even been here.”