| EVENT:. | Ponies In The Sun |
| SPONSOR:. | Sun Country Mustang Club |
| DATE:. | September 14, 2003 |
| LOCATION:. | Yakima, Washington |
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By Jim Compton In spite of somewhat reduced participation this year, Cascade Cougar Club members who attended the 2003 Ponies in the Sun event in Yakima on September 14 enjoyed a pleasant day. The show's field of 118 vehicles included eleven Cougars, along with 84 Mustangs, seven Thunderbirds, and five non-Fords. |
| Ponies, Cougars and a variety of other marques under the sun at the annual Sun Country Mustang Club show in Yakima. |  |
| The CCC again won Club Participation Award, edging out the Pacific Northwest Mustang Club by two (13-11). This victory was largely due to entries in the model car competition by Roman and Cameron Benoit. They each entered a model, which made them show participants, preventing a tie and giving us the participation victory. The case of Gala apples that comes with this award went quickly. |
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Elaine Pinkerton (left) and Cameron Benoit (right) enjoy the "fruits" of our Club Participation Award, while chatting with show visitors. |
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Our club also did quite well in the People's Choice balloting. In fact, every CCC member who attended the show took home a trophy. Ken and Ruth Hogenkamp took first place in the 1967 Cougar class with their red and black XR-7. The 1968 class was probably a very close election with Jeff and Carol Bingaman's red XR-7 wining the first place trophy, John and Susan Benoit's black cherry XR-7 taking second and Larry Wagoner's gold standard winning third place honors. Ted and Lucie Both's maroon '69 XR-7 won first place in the '69-'70 coupe class while Jim Compton's white '69 XR-7 took second. For convertibles, Elaine and Jim Pinkerton's black '69 XR-7 won the first place trophy with Bill Herbert's black '69 standard taking second. Eric and Judy Anders won second place in the '64-'73 modified Mustang/Cougar class, but the Mustang that beat them out also won the judged Best Mustang award, so the competition was stiff in this class. |
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Who says the Pacific Northwest isn't convertible country??? On the left we have Elaine and Jim Pinkerton's 1969 XR-7 and, on the right, Bill Herbert's '69 standard. These rag tops took first and second place in the Convertible Class. |
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The judged Best Cougar Award was won by Jeff and Carol Bingaman. Meanwhile, CCC members, Jim and Sandy Hall, took first place in the '67 Mustang convertible class with their tan beauty. New CCC members, Marv Heath and Cindy Steely, won second place in the '64-'73 Shelby Mustang Cobra class with their white '65 Shelby GT 350. In the model car category, Roman Benoit's Mustang won first place while Cameron's Cobra took second place. Former CCC member, Larry Longee from the Yakima area, entered two other Cougars. Larry won third in Modified with his bluish-purplish '69 XR-7 and took first in the '74-'03 Cougar class with his white '99 Cougar. |
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A couple of modified Cats: Eric and Judy Anders' "Top Cat" (1969 standard) on the left and Larry Longee's '69 XR-7 hardtop on the right. |
| CCC
members also did well in the raffle drawings. Jim Hall won a homemade
wooden cap rack with a Mustang emblem on the top. Larry Wagoner won an
identical cap rack with a Cougar at the top. Bill Herbert won a travel
tool kit in the trivia contest.
Doug Mallory stopped in to see the show with his 1967 Cougar race car in tow. Doug raced his car at a Saturday night event and did a respectable job of upholding Mercury's performance tradition. Saturday night also saw the second annual CCC Chinese and Pizza Feed with homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert, courtesy of Sandy Hall. |
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Doug Mallory's 1967 Cougar race car wasn't an official entry, but it attracted a lot of attention when Doug stopped by to see the show. |
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| The
2003 edition of Ponies in the Sun had several things going for it that made
the event even more enjoyable than it had been in previous years. For one
thing, the eastern Washington weather was more cooperative this year, giving
us cooler temperatures—a real relief from the blistering summer heat
we normally associate with the area.
A change in show procedure also added to our enjoyment of the event. The awards ceremony was revamped to speed up the normally lengthy process of handing out trophies. This was especially appreciated by those who planned to make their long treks home immediately after the show. Another change in event policy was that members of the host club (Sun Country Mustang Club) did not participate in people's choice voting. This change added an element of fairness to the judging that gave those who traveled some distance to participate a better shot at winning a trophy. Sun Country Mustang members still took home their share of awards, but the honors they won were based more on merit than on the sheer number of club members at the show. It was a gracious change for Sun Country Mustangs to make and their efforts to improve the event in this way and many others were appreciated by this year's participants. Ponies in the Sun has always been an enjoyable event for CCC members and the 2003 edition is proof that the show is well worth a drive over the mountains to be a participant. I encourage all CCC members to include this annual event in their 2004 calendars. |
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Hail, hail, the gang's all here! Most of the CCC members who participated in the 2003 Ponies in the Sun event pose for a group shot during their Chinese and Pizza Feed Saturday night. |
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Photos
courtesy of Jim Compton
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