Four members of the Soo Line Cruisers Car Club attended the 56th Annual Majestics Car Club's Car Show, held April 27th and 28th at Evraz Centre in Regina. Three of them came away with some awards, including two for Weyburn's Jarrod Stroeder, who said the Soo Line Cruisers try to have a presence every year at the Majestics, as it is one of the biggest car shows in Saskatchewan.  

Brian Dunham and his 1984 Monte Carlo SS won first place in the stock muscle, intermediate 80's class. Christian Sequin and his 1999 mustang SVT Cobra won second place in the stock muscle Mustang class, and Jarrod Stroeder and his 1968 Chevy Impala won second place in the street machine/street touring 1962 to 1968 class. Stroeder also won the Saskatchewan Association of Automobile Clubs Corp. (SAACC) Directors Award in recognition of promoting the automotive hobby.

Stroeder said the judges group the cars into classes, and then they inspect everything.

"They look over your engine bay, they look over your paint, they look under your vehicle to make sure the underside of your vehicle is clean. They look at any extras or add-ons you've done, any upgrades you've done to your vehicle, is it 100 percent original? Have you added some things? They also look at your display, how you present your vehicle, and they add it all up, and then there's some sort of huge score sheet, I imagine, that they calculate and figure out who wins and who doesn't," he explained. "They hand out probably 60 or 70 awards in the classes, they call them the class awards. So then they hand out other awards for different things like best paint, or best in show, best display, things like that."

He said with the good weather that weekend, they drove up on the 26th, and cleaned their cars that night, and "You get it parked in your location where your display is going to be, then you've got lots of different products that you use to put that final shine on it and dust it off and make sure everything's nice."

Stroeder said he was also honoured with an award he was not expecting: the SAACC Directors Award in recognition of promoting the automotive hobby.

"It was kind of amazing, actually," he commented. "The SAACC is kind of like the overseer of all the car clubs in Saskatchewan, and they work with SGI on legislation, and they do things like that."

He said they hand out one of these awards at the show to someone who engages with the fans of the car culture, who has a nice car, and who represents the car club culture well.

"Apparently I checked all those boxes because I was the recipient of this award this year," he shared. 

In addition to spearheading the Care Home Cruises, Stroeder also helps with promotions for other events for the Soo Line Cruisers.  

"I also do a lot of video blogging when I'm at these car shows, just to highlight other vehicles that are there and things that catch my eye and just to bring awareness and interest into the automotive car culture," he explained. "When I'm video blogging at these car shows, it's going through the Soo Line Cruisers [Facebook] page, and that allows us to just reach a larger audience."

In fact, he said he was video-blogging at a Saskatoon car show at the end of March, which was shared on the Province of Saskatchewan's Facebook page.

"So that was kind of really cool to see that the province of Saskatchewan shared a video of mine." 

Stroeder said the award was a surprise to him.

"It was a very big surprise to be recognized for this award, but also really satisfying. It felt really good to get an award for this. It's special to me because they only gave out one for the entire show, and I wasn't even trying to win it. I didn't even know it existed until that day when they said I was nominated for it. So someone from the SAACC, I guess, walked around looking for people who would be nominees for this award, and obviously I did something that caught their eye."

Car culture is a passion for Stroeder.

"I love it, and I love the people in the car culture, and it's just a lot of fun. It's kind of giving me a purpose here," he shared. "The community in the car club culture is really awesome. Everyone's very positive, especially in the Soo Line Cruisers. Everyone is very positive."

He said the Soo Line Cruisers are close to record engagement and record membership this year. 

"We're getting up there. We've got over 50 members in the Soo Line Cruisers this year so that's been really motivating, as well as to kind of see that what we're doing in our promotions, these things are really starting to gain in popularity, so it's nice to see."

He added they are planning another Care Home Cruise later this month, and their annual Show & Shine event is coming up on June 15th in downtown Weyburn.