HARLINGEN — The downtown streetscape is gearing up to be turned over to the 12th Annual Jackson Street Car Show, which will deliver hot rods, rat rods, antiques and some muscle.
This year on April 13, as usual, coordinators expect about 200 cars to be parked up and down Jackson Street from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The number of vehicles entered is limited by parking space.
The show is organized by the Rio Grande Valley Chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America. Moses Mendoza, president of the Valley chapter, says he’s hoping to match or even exceed that number this year.
“We’re up to 23 categories so we added some more stuff this year, so we’re looking at close to 60 individual plaques, three plaques per category,” Mendoza said.
“Number two, is that the main thing that I’m looking at this year is when the car owner comes up to the registration table, they’re going to tell me which category they want to be judged in,” he added. “The AACA will still go out there and we’ll judge all the cars but the owner at the registration table will tell us, ‘I want to be judged in this category.’”
Mendoza said not only will this eliminate confusion about a car’s category — some can be entered in one of several slots — but it also will make things easier for the judges. Among the categories are classic, modified, antique, muscle, import, exotic, low rider, street rod, rat rod and trucks.
“We have close to 200 cars along Jackson Street so we don’t have time to be guessing,” Mendoza said. “Some cars are easy. Others we’re not so sure of. There are some cars that actually can be a custom, or it could be an original, or a muscle car because it could be one of those nice, beautiful Camaros from the 60s, a 68-69-67, or a Mustang. So OK, you tell me which category you have and we’ll go from there.”
Owners who wish to display their cars or trucks along Jackson Street can register them the day of the event from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Awards to the winners, including the Carl Johnson Award for best of show, will be distributed at 2 p.m.
There is no fee to register a vehicle for the show, but organizers request a donation of food items to be routed to the Harlingen Neighborhood Food Pantry.
“That’s the registration fee for the car owners,” Mendoza said. “Sometimes we know with human nature we do forget, some of the guys will forget, and we’ll just put a jar there for a $5 donation. … We don’t keep any of the money, we turn it back into the community.”
If You Go
WHAT — 12th Annual Jackson Street Car Show
WHEN — April 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
WHERE — Downtown, from Commerce to 4th Street
WHO — Antique Automobile Club of America-Rio Grande Valley Chapter
OWNERS — Registration between 8 and 10 a.m.
COST — Free
