What a great weekend at the 44th Annual Cañon Car Club Car Show! Thank you to everyone who chose to join us here in Cañon City, Colorado. We had 221 cars on the field this year. That is down from last year, but with at least 25 other shows across the region that same weekend, we are grateful you picked ours. If you could not make it, here is what you missed.

The Friday picnic went off without a hitch. We had plenty of hot dogs, chili, sides of all sorts, and more cookies, cakes, and pies than ever. The club ladies (and a few husbands!) did a fine job. There was plenty to eat and plenty of Pepsi products to drink – thank you, Andy and Pepsi! With this year’s larger tent, there was room to sit, eat, and visit. Thank you, Cañon Rental.

Thanks also to Applewood, including our own Mark Whitmore, for providing the music through the afternoon and early evening. It was much appreciated by all.

Saturday morning came early. Club members were on the field at 5:30am, and a few cars were already on the grounds – the early bird gets the worm! Thanks to Mark Dennison, our greeter, and to Don Whitson and his crew for getting every car parked on the field. Yes, all cars parked on grass, with room to open doors and set up your favorite tent or pop-up.

Kathy Byrd, Sandra Dozzo, and Kim McCain managed registration and t-shirt sales. Many thanks for getting nearly every car processed before 10am!

While the number of cars was down, the quality was way up. We saw a wide variety of (mostly) American iron from the 1920s to the 2020s – a century of automotive excellence. We could easily expand to a Top 10 or Top 20 to reward all the best cars and trucks.

But that also brings us to a discussion of how the best are chosen.  First, no Canon Car Club member cars are eligible for any awards or door prizes – our show is for the selected charity, Loaves and Fishes this year, and you, the car owners, builders and drivers.  One of the challenges we always face is how to regulate and ensure fair voting so the best, most deserving cars are shown the respect they deserve.  It’s only human nature to think our own car is “best” so a couple years ago we expanded participant voting to select 3 cars.  Sorry, no public voting, participants only.  But this approach is not without its limitations…  While each registered car is allowed one ballot, we have found block voting still goes on…  This year, at least 5 ballots had the same cars in the same order in the same distinctive handwriting – pretty clearly some organized block voting going on.  The Canon Car Club doesn’t support this but we are not in a position to police this, each registered car gets a vote and how they choose to exercise that vote comes down to the owner – it really comes down to the honor system.  Sadly, some VERY worthy cars get left out and some others have a hollow victory.

OK, off the soapbox and on to some of this year’s winners!  The table below shows your selections and some of ours:

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Our Long Distance winner, from Corrales, New Mexico, is an 8.8 to 9.0 second race car with 632 cubic inches of Hemi power. We are not sure we have ever seen a race car so clean. Thank you, Bruce, for making the trip to Cañon City. Also on the field was another beautiful racer – entry #175, a 1971 AMC Javelin Trans Am.

The Rodder’s Choice, entry #23, was also a 632 cubic inch Hemi, this time shoehorned into a 1962 Chevrolet Bel Air bubble top. Congratulations, Rick. The design, engineering, workmanship, and execution are truly spectacular. Your car will feature in all our 45th Anniversary Cañon Car Show advertising.

As we wrap up this year’s 44th Annual show, we leave you with a photo of this year’s and last year’s winners together. Thanks, Brad, for bringing that beauty back for an encore!

Please mark Friday and Saturday, 11 and 12 June 2027, on your calendars for the 45th Annual Cañon Car Club Car Show. And a big YES – we will be back at the Abbey in 2027.

Again, a heartfelt thank you from the Cañon Car Club and our featured charity, Loaves and Fishes. We hope to see you all next year. See more photos from the weekend in the gallery below.