NIGHT OF FIRE BENEFIT CAR SHOW 2010
Sept. 3, 2010 at the Salem Evangelical Event Center

Looking for some fun on Friday, September 3? Then kick off your Labor Day Weekend by attending the Night of Fire Benefit Car Show! It's a spectacular family event, the circus of all car shows and with Ed 'the Outlaw" Jones, one of the biggest showmen in racing of all time coming to this year's Night of Fire, it's sure to be the biggest event yet! Ed Jones is coming all the way from Canada to be a part of the Night of Fire. Watch Ed do a spectacular fire show see the coach shoot out 20 foot flames after dark!

In addition to Jones, Salem race fans will experience the only Top Fuel Dragster to be fired up in the state of Oregon this year as Dean Alexander will be in the house making a special trip here from Spokane. And just added is The brand new High Bucks funny car driven by Russ Parker. They will join the Capitol Auto Group Race team in one of the biggest gathering of race cars found any where other than a race track.

You want a celebrity? how about Hot Saw Bill from the popular History Channel show the Ax Men! Bill will be on hand with his V-8 engine, two-man chain saw and saw logs in seconds!

On top of all that there will be Hundreds of the best muscle cars, street rods, hot rods and race cars from around the state! Plus, activities for the kids including an inflatable and face painting! New this year is a car bash and engine blow up but there is more! The National Guard is bringing in three attractions, a Go Cart track, a Climbing wall and a bouncing attraction. Plus there will be the usual vender booths and concessions provided by our friends at Adam's Rib Smokehouse.

Wheelie Wagon and Cackle Car Just added!

Just added is Rick Klampe's newly restored front engine dragster that will do a push start Cacklefest just prior to Ed Jone's fire show. Also just added is the motorcycle wheelie wagon simulator where spectators and can climb on a motorcycle that does a wheelie.
Driving Directions:
The Night of Fire takes place in the Salem Evangelical Event Center parking lot across from Applebee's on Liberty Street near the Salem Parkway, just south of the North Salem Fred Meyer store and one block north of Pine Street.

For folks out of town: take the Salem Parkway exit off of I-5 follow it through Broadway, Past Fred Meyer to Hickey Street, just past Applebees. Take a right on Hickey and you will see the event on Liberty.

Event Hours:

Gates open at 2PM and continues until dark (approximately 9 PM)

Admission and Car Exhibitor Information:

Admission is free for spectators!

Car Exhibitors: 10.00 to display a car, or 20.00 that includes a t-shirt and 5 raffle tickets. There is no pre-paid or advance registration just show it.

Contact:

Have a question? Contact Us Here

Or call 503-370-9164

Click here for details

 

Capitol Racing Along with the Assistance from a Host of Others Have Helped People in Need Throughout the Mid-Valley
Community events have become a cornerstone of Capitol Racing. Besides individual car displays, Capitol Racing's Rich Bailey in partnership with Jim Billings, Mike Adams and Lee Morgan promote two major car shows a year. All of the profits from our outdoor show, the Night of Fire and our indoor show, the Winter Rod and Speed Show goes to people in the community with cancer and other diseases that are catastrophic and require a lot of financial needs. If a person is not chosen the money goes to a community program. Check back here for future car show dates.

The Night of Fire

The Night of Fire is our signature event and happen every summer in the parking lot of the Salem Evangelical Event Center parking lot on Liberty Street across from the North Salem Applebees. Our shows are unique as they have a drag racing theme that includes dragster fire ups and at the end of the night a jet car fire show. We usually attract over 100 of Salem's nicest cruisers.

It's truly an incredible show that has grown to become one of Salem's marquee summer events. The events started out very informal and never very well organized although every event has been a big hit and have gone over well with the cooperation of the city of Salem.

The Night of Fire is a family oriented event and includes such attractions as "Crater" the mascot from the Volcanoes baseball team, a dunk tank, a jump tent from Funland Inflatable's, a 30 foot tall rock climbing wall from the National Guard, a clown, a mobile studio doing live remotes and even some of those LA-style sedans that are lowered and jump up using hydraulics which generated a lot of interest. We also have some short on-the-spot auctions which kept things pretty lively.

WILD NIGHT OF FIRE BIGGEST AND BEST EVER!
2009 Night of Fire: Just Give us a Shot of Nitro and it will be a Success!



The 2009 Night of Fire Benefit Car Show was simply the biggest ever and exceeded everyone's wildest expectations. It was a wild show period! The turn out of people was incredible and likely the biggest spectator turnout of any car show ever staged in Salem. The car turnout was also stellar as the lot was half full by 3:30 and by 5 PM street rods had to be double parked as there were no more places to park cars. Besides race cars, and over 180 street rods and hot rods, there were three movie cars in the house including two from the movie American Graffiti and the black car from the popular film Mad Max.

Sadly, the jet car had to cancel because of a crash but it should be noted that even though we poked some fun at our situation, we wish the jet car team well and understand why they chose not to do our event. One thing for sure, we learned that we no longer have to depend on a jet to make the event successful.

The silent auction and vender row was as popular as always.

While the flames weren't as big as advertised, the people didn't care as hundreds surrounded Twig Zeigler's Pizza Haven Funny car as it put on a great show. "I changed the timing and hoped for flames over the roof but it didn't happen" Zeigler said after the show. Still, the fans gave the funny car star a well deserved applause as it was a rare and spectacular experience in site, sound and smell. A giant crowd surrounded one of the most famous nitro burning funny cars to ever race in the northwest, It should be noted that the drive line was taken out of the car so it could not take off.


Twig Ziegler 's car warmed up in front over a giant crowd.

One car that managed to give the fans some fire was the last minute entry of Greg Lawrence who fired his nitro-fueled dragster up three times including a final time right after Twig's exhibition. The other unexpected showstopper was a burnout contest with hundreds of people looking on. It was quite spectacular but a little too dangerous to do next year under similar conditions. Still the unplanned contest gave the fans a great show.

The Capitol car also fired several times to the delight of the crowd including a night cap. As usual the Night of Fire, which was a cancer benefit for Daisy Keefer had all the trappings of the circus and a side show including raffles, auctions, food venders including Adam's Rib, and the back and fourth friendly banter and antics between Jim Billings and Rich Bailey. This was not a gentleman's car show. Friday night was a hoot by the comments we received with zero complaints, nobody seemed to miss the jet car. It was just that kind of night.


Capitol team gladly rented out the seat for fire-ups and always drew a crowd.

See A video of the Capitol Car Fire Up Here

It was a tough situation. A young boy named Mason has an aggressive form of cancer, a grim thirty percent survival outlook and no health insurance. Rich Bailey saw Mason's plight on a flyer at the Mail Depot, a local postal outlet. Knowing his connections, he could think of only one thing to do to help the boy: have a benefit car show for Mason. So, Bailey called Jim Billings for help. Where Billings goes the cars go, Bailey figured. Billings, a Salem-area car show organizer and DJ, agreed to help as did Rock-n-Roger's a local nostalgia-themed burger joint that had a fairly large lot.

Bailey then went in to Anderson-McIIlney Florist and personally made the offer to Mason's extended family who owns the Florist to put on the fund raiser. the McIllnay's, not knowing Bailey enthusiastically agreed and suddenly one of the first Night of Fire car shows was in the works, only then it was called "Hot Rods for Mason". A lot of work was ahead as there were fliers to be made, contacts with car owners and racers to get the show moving. Bailey even got help from the morning weatherman on FOX-12, who publicized the event on the morning newscast.

After three weeks of promoting, the night finally arrived and attracted some of the nicest rods and race cars came from all over the area. There were eight drag cars all in a circle lighting up one at a time in what Bailey called the "Ring of Fire". Then they all lit up at once. Even Gregg Lawrence rented out the seat in his A Fueler to raise money for Mason. It was a night like no other as over $7,000 was raised that evening to help Mason fight cancer. In fact, the event became a blueprint for event bigger shows to come.

Hot Rods for Mason was seven years ago and since then the event has become an annual show promoted by Bailey, Billings, Mike Adams of Adam's Rib fame and Lee Morgan of Roberson Chryser-Jeep. The four meet every spring and decide when the event will happen and who is most in need of the proceeds. The events now are more organized than the first few as the events use to bounce around from location to location, outgrowing the previous venue each time.

As Rock-n-Roger's proved to be too small, the event moved to GI Joes after a one year hiatus. The following year the event was relocated to the Rite Aid and Albertsons store in South Salem (pictured) and was the first year for the jet fire show, which almost didn't happen due to the space and the size of the crowd! The next year the event moved to Morning Star Church which had almost to much room but then had to move again when there was a conflict in the date the following year.

The event has finally found a permanent home in the Salem Evangelical Church Event Center parking lot in North Salem which is the perfect size and location. The foursome of Adams, Bailey, Billings and Morgan needed something more to do in the wintertime so they added the Winter Rod and Speed Show in January at the Linn County Fair and Expo.


Bryan Poli (pictured) was last year's Night of Fire beneficiary

This past July 4, the fruit from the labor of all of these events finally came home to Bailey as he ran into Mason at the fireworks show at the Salem waterfront. Bailey hadn't seen Mason in several years and didn't recognize the now 13 year old cancer survivor. Mason had gained size and weight and had a full head of hair. While everyone is quick to credit (and rightly so) the doctors and modern day medicine that has steadily increased the survival rate for children's cancers, Mason's family also credits the Hot Rods for Mason event and The Capitol Race Team's "crew for a day" program in helping Mason overcome the odds. The events were encouraging and allowed Mason to live and keep his mind off some of the ordeals he suffered daily as a child dealing with such a horrific disease his family said.

The Night of Fire isn't just four people that put on a show, it's the racers, the car exhibitors and the vendors. It's the volunteers, the media, donors and the support of the community that make it successful so that families in Mason's predicament can get through the pain and suffering just a little easier.

The Winter Rod and Speed Show

The Winter Rod and Speed Show is an indoor show we added last year when Capitol Racing crew chief had a stroke an money was needed to help pay his morgage. The event was such a hit that we did the show again in 2009. This year's show attracted over 100 cars and over 3,500 spectators for the one day show.

Community Involvement:

Capitol Auto Group Racing is affiliated with the following organizations: Race Against Drugs, Racers For Christ and the Crew for a Day program. Crew for a Day is our own program where we invite children with cancer and other serious illnesses to be a guest at one of our races. While at the track with their families, we introduce the kids of the other drivers and can provide them indoor seating in a hospitality room if necessary. We want to credit Woodburn Dragstrip for being a partner in this important program. Without their support, this program wouldn't be possible. If you know of a child with a serious illness in Oregon or Southwest Washington that would like to be a guest on our team for a day, email us at capitolracing@hotmail.com



To Book the race car for an event:

Community involvement is a big part of Capitol Auto Group Racing. Each year, we do numerous visits to schools, scouting events, cruise-ins, and fairs. If you live in Oregon or Southwest Washington and would like to book the Capitol car for your event, shoot us an e-mail at capitolracing@hotmail.com. While we try to do as many events as our calendar and work schedule will allow, sometimes other considerations prohibits us from agreeing to do an event. We don't normally charge a fee to display the car, but we may request a small fee to cover traveling costs depending on the location of the event.