Back to the Bricks®
July 2021 Newsletter
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The latest from the Chairman of the Board
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Hello all,
It would be an understatement if I said the Back to the Bricks® was just getting started. As many of you know our calendar is highly active with fourteen (yes, you read that correctly) 14 separate events planned and on the calendar to still attend this year! The next event planned is this month’s ‘Road Rally’. We will be visiting eighteen towns with a mid-point stop for food, music and the all-important porta-potties. If you have not registered yet, you can do so by visiting our event page. Click on Road Rally and you can register you and your car. There is a minimal fee of ten-dollars for each participant with 100% of the registration fees going to the ‘Back to the Bricks’ youth scholarship fund.
August will be here before we know it and beginning the second week of the month, we kick off two straight weeks of auto events. The ‘Tune-Up’ Week which is the second week of August will feature a new stop this year. The City of Flushing. Car enthusiasts will gather in Flushing at the Flushing A for the fourth Tune-Up Party of 2021. Also, for the first time our ‘Main Event’ week will begin with a True Car Driving Experience at the Birch Run Speedway. Tuesday night the famed US-23 Drive and Cruise In. As usual, we will be showing a car related movie. Then comes two nights of the ‘Rolling Cruise’ from the historic bricks in downtown flint to Grand Blanc. And some great news for the cruise route! The City of Burton has rebuilt South Saginaw Street from Bristol Road to Maple Road, and it looks great. As we have come to learn this section of the cruise route is without a doubt the most popular area for viewing the cruisers.
Once again the Friday night Cruise N Concert will be held on the ‘Bricks’ in downtown Flint. This year’s featured act is the ‘Motortown All-Stars’ and as in past years these guys put on a heck-of-a-show, and you will be dancing on the ‘Bricks’! Friday’s concert is followed by Saturday’s ‘Main Event’ which should turn out to be the best attended event of the year and by far Flint’s biggest gathering.
In closing, I would like to personally thank every Back to the Bricks® sponsor. We have been extremely blessed with a group of dedicated sponsors who rode out a very rough past year with us and we can’t thank each of our sponsors enough. The same goes to the dedication of the Back to the Bricks® committee members who have collectively donated thousands of hours of their time. Frankly put, if it were not for our sponsors, the BttB committee members and a few hundred volunteers, there would not be a show.
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Drive safe and we will see all of you over the next several weeks,
Steve Hobson
Chairman of the Board
Back to the Bricks®
stevehobson@backtothebricks.org
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The excitement continues in 2021 with another Road Rally!!!!
We've partnered again with Shea Automotive and Halo Burger, to bring an all-new route, a fun filled day of adventure for all to enjoy.
Full details to register click HERE
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Tune Up Week
August 9-14th 2021
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FREE Concert
Friday August 20th 2021
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Main Event
Saturday August 21st 2021
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Hotel Accommodations for Main Event
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We are excited for our out of town guests to come to Genesee County. We've listed a few hotels that would love to have you stay. We are even exclusive partners with two hotels offering some great deals.
Click HERE to visit our Hotel Accommodations website page for more details.
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Back to the Bricks Race Night at Birch Run Speedway
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Back to the Bricks "Race Night" at Birch Run Speedway!!!!
Get your classic cars ready, drive to the Speedway and let's have some fun.
Any person that wears anything with Back to the Bricks on it will get $5 off the admission price at the front gate. Offer can not be combined with other offers and online tickets not available for this offer. General Admission is $15 without discount.
The CRA All-Star Tour, Pro Late Models will be hitting the track after a Covid Hiatus in 2020. The All-Stars will have two-time Champion Dan Leeck racing against the field at home. While the 2020 Rookie of the Year, Chase Burda, may have a couple of Birch Run victories on the 1/4 mile, he’s looking for his first Victory on the High Banks of the Dixie. It’s going to be racing action at its finest on Birch Run’s Dixie Speedway.
Come on Car Fans, come out and celebrate with us, a FUN NIGHT with Back to the Bricks and Birch Run Speedway!!!!
The official Back to the Bricks Merchandise Trailer will be on hand selling general merchandise for all.
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What's new with our Executive Director
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Hey everyone!
Who's been enjoying the nice weather? I know Peyton and I have. What's fun is picking between the Harley and the Truck. I'm truly blessed with an adventurous daughter. Over the 4th of July weekend we drove over the bridge to Munising. We hiked over 20 miles seeking as many waterfalls as we could in three days, we kayaked 5 miles around Picture Rocks, which took 5 hours but Peyton was awesome and never complained once, we explored Tahquamenon Falls, visited the Garlyn Zoo in Naubinway, stopped at Castle Rock near St. Ignace and had Ice Cream in Mackinaw City. It was a nice getaway, making memories, enjoying the amazing sites and attractions in our very own Upper Peninsula and the much needed relaxation before it was back to work preparing for what's to come.
With that said, have you been following us on Facebook? We have SO MUCH going on. It's awesome. We are thrilled to be partnered with the Birch Run Speedway for a FUN Race Night on July 31st. Bring the family, and don't forget to wear your Back to the Bricks® merchandise. I know everyone has an old t-shirt or hat, you will get $5 off your entry to the race wearing any Back to the Bricks® swag. Don't have anything? That's okay, our amazing merchandise trailer will be there before the race with the latest merchandise. Come see Bob and Linda and the entire merchandise team, get your new T-shirt and let's have some fun at the Speedway!
This year we honored one of our local Hero's, and selected Dr. Bobby Mukkamala as the official Grand Marshal. He will kick off the Rolling Cruise at Factory One on Wednesday August 18th at 4pm. We have a TON of surprises this year, and one will be at the Ribbon Cutting on Wednesday. The cruise will take off and head down the historic bricks to our Mega Site at the corner of Hemphill and Saginaw. Then venture off to the Grand Blanc Chamber of Commerce "Roll on In" event at Grand Blanc High School. For more details on that click HERE
Then we continue all the fun on Friday with our Cruise N Concert. BOY do we have a Surprise for you all. Special Guests will take the stage before the concert, we can't wait!!!! Then who doesn't love a good car show? How about one of the BIGGEST in Michigan? That's right, Back to the Bricks® Main Event draws thousands of cars which will line Saginaw Street from 5th to Court. PLEASE see the website, we have all the details. Too much to list here.
Well, that's all for now. Have a GREAT day, a GREAT month, and see you at the Road Rally... if not sooner!
Amber Taylor
Executive Director
Back to the Bricks®
Direct: 810-877-8383
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Scholarship Winners Have been Selected
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For the past few years Back to the Bricks® has continued its pledge to education by offering a scholarship program for high school seniors who will be continuing their education in the fall. This year twenty some students who will be pursuing post-secondary study at a college or technical school in a STEAM discipline (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and/or Mathematics) applied for one of our scholarships.
A HUGE Thank You goes out to our Scholarship Committee for all their hard work this year on collecting applications, reviewing and rating each one, and making the final selections.
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Please help us CONGRATULATE the following 5 Scholarship Winners!
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Ladies Essential Flowy Tank
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Port & Company Essential Tie-Dye Tee
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This month's Newsletter WINNER is:
Mark Gager of Millington
Congratulations on winning!
This month's special prize is a Back to the Bricks Hat, and Collectors Shirt!
You will receive an email with more details!
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Al’s Garage
Vol. #2, Issue #7
The weather being as it is and currently raining outside, what better time for me to get busy on the July 2021 edition of ‘Al’s Garage’. I have been reflecting on the early days of the auto hobby here in the Flint area. For me, at least, it was the late 1950’s and early 1960’s that still stands out. One could argue that at this period it was straight out of the laurels of ‘American Graffiti’. One aspect of this time in our automotive history was naming your car. Many of the cars we thought were cool, was to have the moniker painted on the front fender or the rear quarter panel and of course on both side of the car. Names like White Lightning, the Blue Knight, Red Baron, Bloody Mary, the Black Pearl, Sour Grapes and on it went. By the mid-sixties, the naming of the cars began to fade yet even today you see an occasional car with a name painted on it. Most of the time the name reflected the color of the car as in the Red Baron or White Lightning and the challenge was to come up with a name that no one else had laid claim to. Many customized cars had names painted on them, but not always. It seemed to me when looking back in time, that owners of the hot cars cared less about painting a name on their ride. For them, it was all about getting the most horsepower out of the engine, rather than paying a pin striper to letter their car. This was not something that would get you more speed and besides, the local police paid attention to those names. They got to know the cars and owners well and recognized who owned them and what cars were considered a menace on the streets. If you had a hot ’57 Chevy with the name of ‘Night Stalker” painted on it, you became an easy target for the police to spot.
Switching gears, I would like to move onto another topic, driving your collectible cars. Over the recent 4th of July holiday weekend, my wife and I did not have much to do so we decided to take a day trip to the southern part of the state. With no agenda in mind, we chose not to travel on expressways, instead driving on the back roads (paved of course). Our journey took us thru many small towns of which most we had never been thru or had heard of. One that I will never forget was the town of Stockbridge, Michigan. A quaint little village in southern Michigan that possessed all the charm of small towns thru out our entire country. Getting a little hungry we came across the ‘Double Deuce Diner’ on the outskirts of Stockbridge. The ice cream portion of the diner was open but unfortunately the dining section was closed due to the owner, Doug Mills, being unable to hire help. We struck up a conversation with Doug and before we knew it, we were in the garage next to the dinner looking at his ’32 Deuce Coupe’ painted bright yellow. You would have sworn it was the original deuce coupe that was used in the movie ‘American Graffiti’. Doug also started to show us pictures of himself with the ‘Beach Boys’, George Barris, Gene Winfield, the original cast member from ‘American Graffiti’, and pictures of other cars he owns. Eventually, the customers began to back up at the ice cream stand and the young gal he had working for him called him on his cellphone pleading for help. Doug will remain in our memories and most importantly, this experience probably would not have happened if it were not for the fact that we got one of the collector cars out for ride. If you are ever in Stockbridge, Michigan, stop in a say ‘Hi’ to Doug. The ‘Double Deuce Diner’ is located on state highway M-52 just north of the village limits. Like my wife and I, you may conclude that Doug is still stuck in the ‘60’s which when you think of it, is not all that bad.
Don’t save your car for the next guy to enjoy; drive ’em until the wheels fall off!
Keep on rollin’
Al Hatch, ‘Back to the Bricks’ founder
Chairman Emeritus
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Friends of Back to the Bricks® Program
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WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!
We are getting everything together, and the one thing that keeps coming up is VOLUNTEERS!!!! We need them. Have you ever wanted to be apart of the Main event? Why not volunteer and help make it Possible!
We are in NEED of second shift volunteers for the Main Event. Two days of helping in the late hours. If you can help, please consider writing in the comments, Main Event 2nd Shift.
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