Motorheads held out hopes that the Dream Show \u2014\u00a0held outdoors at the M1 Concourse, a private race track and grounds in\u00a0Pontiac \u2014 would be immune to the wave of cancellations. But the governor\u2019s restrictions on public gatherings were too tight for the event to go forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a difficult decision, but based on the ever-changing business environment and health concerns in Michigan and across the country, we have decided to postpone the inaugural Woodward Dream Show to 2021,\u201d said Tim Hartge, CEO\u00a0of Pontiac Motorsports Exposition, organizer of the event.<\/p>\n
The Dream Show organizers instead promise to kick off Dream Cruise week\u00a0next year, the first of a twin bill of big events at M1 Concourse that will include the American Festival of Speed in early October. The events are\u00a0explicitly modeled after the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival, England’s world-renowned motoring exhibitions.<\/div>\n
The 2020 Dream Show had planned three days of events that included\u00a0a \u201cBest of the Best\u201d automobile show, a point-to-point timed race on M1\u2019s 1.5-mile Champion Speedway race course, food trucks\u00a0and a fashion show.<\/p>\n
Organizers worked with state officials to provide proper safety protocols including ticket-only admission and hand sanitizers across\u00a0the 87-acre facility, but social-distancing requirements meant the numbers didn\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n
Dream Show organizers then briefly flirted with the idea of doing an invitation-only event that would be live-streamed. But that was deemed insufficient for the show’s ambitious goals.<\/p>\n
“We certainly appreciate the capabilities that online car shows have to offer,” said Hartge, “but no matter how we scheduled it, the final product wasn\u2019t going to be all we hoped to bring to the car enthusiast public.”<\/p>\n
The M1 car club also traditionally plays host to Roadkill Nights sponsored by Dodge \u2014 legal drag racing on Woodward Avenue \u2014 the weekend before the Dream Cruise, but that was also canceled this year.<\/p>\n
The Dream Show\u2019s struggles come as car enthusiasts across the country are grappling with the new COVID-19 environment. IndyCar announced over the weekend that it is postponing its event next weekend at Mid-Ohio race track north of Columbus as Ohio has tightened its health rules.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Road America race track in Wisconsin hosted an IMSA sports car race last weekend that brought thousands to its 600 acres. And\u00a0some 10,000 fans attended a NASCAR race in New Hampshire where facility capacity was limited to 20%.\u00a0In Phoenix, Barrett-Jackson auctions announced that it will open again to the public this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe level of premium cars that people were bringing is something that the public should get a chance to experience first-hand,\u201d Hartge said of the Dream Show. \u201cPostponing our debut will allow us to better plan for next year\u2019s show and allow the public to experience our \u2018best of the best\u2019 philosophy of an automotive event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The inaugural Woodward Dream Show at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, which was scheduled to go on Aug. 12-15 despite the cancellation of the Aug. 15 Woodward Dream Cruise, is the latest casualty of the coronavirus. All of the traditional city- and corporate-sponsored events \u2014 from the Berkeley Cruise Parade to\u00a0Ford’s Mustang Alley \u2014 have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25788,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25787\/revisions\/25788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}