The 2024 Route 66 JDM Classic was a HUGE Success!

After a year of planning, coordinating and promoting, the 2024 Route 66 JDM Classic is over. It comes and goes so quickly!

This year, we surpassed our previous record for attendance, with 131 vehicles displayed! Of course, that many registrations means a huge turnout, and we had absolutely incredible weather.

This year, rather than loading up our entire fleet, we decided to let the participants be the stars of the show. After all, transporting 13 classic Datsuns and Nissans up the hill last year was a miraculous feat in itself. We loaded up and left Friday morning in the official Datsun Ranch Hauler, with Alice the 411 Wagon in tow. James Horne ran interference in his 2024 Z and James Sisson flew out from New Hampshire to drive our newest addition, a 1992 Silvia Q’s. Becky rolled out soon thereafter in her 1998 240sx.

As usual, we held our Meet & Greet at Cruisers on Route 66, a great place for everyone to pick up their show credentials and goodie bags. It’s nice to relax and catch up with old friends (and meet new ones), share a drink and a meal, and get ready for the following day’s event. A little side note: Out of our first 100 registrations, FIFTY were from people who had never attended the event. Welcome to The Route 66 JDM Classic Family!

Saturday morning, Tom Neely and his sidekick Ian were out on Route 66, long before dawn, to assist with parking – and by 8am the street was full!

If you’ve been to this show, you know that our philosophy is simple: Bring people and their families together through a mutually shared love of classic Japanese vehicles. The show is peer-judged, which means everyone who registers a vehicle gets a ballot.

Our focus is less about competition and more about camaraderie, and we sincerely believe that a low-stress, casual event helps to build a community of lifetime relationships. If you’re chasing clout, desperate for attention, looking to add to your trophy collection, or overly competitive, this isn’t the show for you. The tribe is more important than the individual, and the individuals are more important than the cars.

As the hosts of the event, Becky and I rarely get to wander the entire show. This year, we actually got to stroll about a bit, since the Smith family went WAY above and beyond their usual helpfulness. Patrick (from High Impact Motorsports in Las Vegas) was our lead Event Staff, and with the help of his sidekicks Darren Lawrence and Tim Eull, spent the day answering questions and helping people learn about the array of vehicles on display. Kalyssa Smith (Patrick’s daughter) drove Klunker, the infamous Datsun 1200 that she built herself – and she was irreplaceable in tallying votes and organizing the class winners. Aaron Hofferber and Lily Smith graciously handled raffle ticket sales and the drawing, and the “Lily Special” (her height in tickets) was a huge hit!

This year’s shirts were contributed by Brandon @az_hmdesigns (https://azhmd.com/) Not only do they do amazing printing, but their wraps, graphics and other business branding services are top-notch. If you’ve got a business and need promotional ideas, he’s the guy to contact!

By 9:00 am, all registered cars were in place (including some that registered the morning of the show) and the crowd was unbelievable. Car owners and their families milling about, catching up with old friends and meeting new people, made the event amazingly active. Even more awesome were all the tourists who were in Williams for a Grand Canyon excursion – they got an unexpected surprise stepping out of their hotels! I really enjoyed watching the group of eight Japanese tourists on their first trip to the US, squealing with glee over the cars from their home country. That in itself made the event totally worthwhile!

As always, our headquarters is at the Route 66 Dairy Queen. Debbie (the owner) and Tim (city manager) have assembled an amazing team, and the DQ was rocking all day, serving up burgers, dogs, cold drinks and frozen treats. If you missed them this year, make sure to stop in and indulge your sweet tooth – the girls working there were 100mph all day and took great care of everyone! We absolutely could not do this without them.

Around 1pm, we started awarding the raffle prizes (and there were a LOT). It’s fun to watch the “horse trading” that goes on during the raffle, and there are always a lot of swaps and re-gifting in the crowd. Literally HUNDREDS of contributions from our generous supporters were awarded, with all of the proceeds going to Raising Special Kids. I’m certain I’ll overlook someone, but raffle prizes were contributed by the following:

ANplumbing.com
Duke City Datsuns
510bendor
HMDesigns
Westside Billet
Skillard
Modified Racewear
Vintage Motorsport
RockAuto
NICOclub
Zpowersteering

If your company would like to get in on the action, make sure to reach out to [email protected] before next year’s event.

We also had a cool impromptu display of a brand new 2024 Heritage Edition Nissan Z (Gregg Rogers) and a 2024 Performance model Z with mild mods (James Horne). Suffice it to say, they drew a LOT of attention and questions!

Aerial footage of the Route 66 JDM Classic

Handing out the awards is a a bittersweet part of the show. It’s exciting to see the participants pumping each other up and applauding their peers, but it also means the day is drawing to a close. There were a lot of TIGHT races this year, but without further chatter, here are your award winners:

Best Datsun 510:
#1 – Jose Garcia 1978 510 wagon (green)
#2 – Sebastian Hill 1971 510 (yellow)

Best Datsun Z (70-83):
#1 – Danny Slagle 1971 240Z (orange)
#2 – Mike Wodopian 1974 260Z (green)

Best Nissan 300ZX:
Daniel Cohen – 1990 300ZX (white)

Best Nissan/Infiniti:
#1 – Thomas Jorgensen – 1991 Silvia S15 (white)
#2 – Mike Lee – 1993 240SX (maroon)

Best Honda / Acura:
#1 – John McKenzie – 1972 AZ600 (orange)
#2 – Trevor Gill – 1999 Civic (red)

Best Isuzu: Darren Lawrence – 1977 Chevy Luv (blue)

Best Mazda:
#1 – Tim Eull – 1993 RX7 (yellow)
#2 – Paul Wodopian – 1981 RX7 (silver)

Best Toyota:
#1 – Frances Tuason – 1977 Celica (silver)
#2 – Junior Diaz – 1983 Corolla (copper)

Best “other” Datsun:
#1 – Ryan Romaine – 1974 610 Bluebird SSS (white)
#2 – Bill Ockerlund – 1966 411 SSS (white)

Best Subaru:
Scott Kirk – 1996 Subaru Legacy GT-B wagon (white)

Best Suzuki:
Kelly McKendrick – 1971 LJ10 (green)

Best Truck:
#1 – Darin Aragon – 1979 620 QuadCab (blue)
#2 – Leroy Kyger – 1964 L320 (red)

Best Interior:
Darin Aragon – 1979 620 QuadCab (blue)

Best Paint:
Mike Wodopian 1974 260Z (green)

Diamond in the Rough:
Zach Hoobler – 1977 Datsun 280Z (multicolor)

Presidents Choice:
Gary Tomlin – 1995 Toyota Starlet GT (black)

RSK Choice:
Jose Garcia 1978 510 wagon (green)

Best in Show:
#1 – Danny Slagle 1971 240Z (orange)
#2 – Darin Aragon – 1979 620 QuadCab (blue)
#3 – Ryan Romaine – 1974 610 Bluebird SSS (white)

One of our favorite awards is the “Iron Butt Award” for the participant who drove their car the furthest to join us. Once again, Aaron Hofferber and Tina the Two-Door (510) took the prize, traveling 2282.2 miles round-trip from Bend Oregon! But this year, we had ANOTHER award – The Diaz Family (all the way from New Jersey) trailered their phenomenally-restored 1983 Toyota Corolla to join us!

We also presented the Johnnie Gable Memorial Award, which goes to a person who epitomizes the spirit and enthusiasm of the Japanese Classic car community. This person goes above and beyond as an ambassador for the hobby, promoting events and connecting people. Past winners were Patrick Smith, Aaron Hernandez, and Randy Lewis. This year the award went to Tim Eull. Thanks, Tim, for all you do to promote the hobby!

We raised more money than ever for our chosen charity, Raising Special Kids. We appreciate @raisingspecialk so much for everything they do for families and children. Please check out their website, and if you know someone raising a special needs youngster, please feel free to share their link.

After the awards, the staff headed over to Grand Canyon Brewing Company for a much-needed dinner and beverage to unwind and reflect on the day. This gave us a chance to share and discuss the helpful suggestions (welcome as always) to make the show even MORE amazing for 2025.

If you would like to order a t-shirt from the 2022 and 2023 shows, we still have some available on the Route 66 JDM Classic website. Also, if you didn’t get a shirt this year, or would like to order extras, contact [email protected]. We’re doing another run of 2024 shirts, and they’ll be mailed out later this month.

OK, so now that 2024 is in the books, let’s talk about next year. The 2025 shirt / sticker design is ready to print, and we think it’ll be a hit! We’ll have 2025 registration and t-shirt availability posted shortly on the Route 66 JDM Classic website.

So many thanks, and so much love to all of our people who showed up in force to help out:
@papasmurf2k3 @510bendor @starry.1200 @lv3950 @da82kc @rotordaddy @scottbondelli280z @lwrnc_drrn @toywagon @azhitman (and all the others not on IG or FB).
Give them a follow and a high five for all their help!

To everyone who showed up to the event, thank you for joining us. We’re sorry we didn’t get to spend more time with everyone. The only downside to being in charge is you don’t have enough time to visit.

To our new people: Welcome to the family. We hope you’ll make plans to be here in 2025.

Lastly, thanks to ALL the participants who sent us their photos of the event for the attached gallery.

Route 66 JDM Classic gallery of cars, winners, and videos below – Enjoy!