John Castle actually finished his Blazer while at the show, which worked out because we also got it away from the show to shoot a feature on it. Talk about fresh out of the box!
When a show promoter gets plans together for their first-ever show, it's a mind-rattling experience. After helping out with another show in Eastern Tennessee last year, Jeffrey Dillard decided to go all out and put on a show that could rival any show that had been around for a decade. Jeffrey knew that in order to do this he needed to have the perfect location, plenty of advertising, and enough organization to make any neat freak jealous. The first thing to do was to land the spot that would provide plenty of parking for not only the show competitors but for spectators and tow vehicles, as well. The perfect location for the event was the Frank Lorino Park in Morristown, Tennessee. Now that the location was set, it was back to the drawing board to decide upon the name. This part came easy-Lay'd Out at the Park was the perfect fit for such an event. As for advertising, Jeffrey made sure that this show was listed in every show calendar known to man and that anytime you Googled the words car show, his show would come up. With everything in line and the flyers made up, all he had to do was sit and wait for the second weekend in April to arrive for the show-well, there was more to do, but sitting and waiting just sounds cooler than all the mayhem he had to go through. Luckily, Jeffrey had the help of his club, Low Trenz, to finish up all the details.
Late Friday night before the show, the hotel parking lots started to fill up, as dedicated participants came in early to beat the rush that was expected. Bright and early the next morning, all of the local car washes began looking like miniature shows, since most of the vehicle owners gave their trucks a good old-fashion cleaning to ensure that the judges would be impressed enough to send them home with a trophy. Once the car wash detailing was done, it was time for participants to head off to the showgrounds, which wound up filling up a lot quicker than Jeffrey and the Low Trenz crew could even imagine. They even had to cut off registration about an hour early because they ran out of room with more than 500 vehicles that were up early enough to snatch open spots in the show.
To keep the spectators and show participants busy throughout the day, several vendors set up shop and provided that last minute addition to make any show vehicle complete. These vendors, along with the sponsors, such as Xtreme Illusions, Concrete Video, Mahle Inc., Jerry's Automotive, Audio Concepts, US Motors of Maryville, Performance and Electronic Connection, Jimmy's Auto Parts, Advanced Auto, O'Reilly's Auto Parts, Royston Dodge, Morristown Chevrolet, and Low Trenz, made sure that the show was a success.