Local and out-of-city car clubs cruised their way into Watsonville High School on Saturday afternoon with their low riders for the first annual Hustle Hit Never Quit Car Show all in support of the Watsonville Jr. Wildcatz football teams.
All of the slick and colorful cars lined up on the big grass area normally used as a practice field for sports and hundreds of folks made it out to come see these unique pieces of artwork.
The basketball courts were converted into a small area full of tents where people sold shirts, hats, jewelry, CDs, DVDs, low rider magazines, car and bike accessories, and food stands to help raise money for new football equipment and upgrades to Emmett Geiser Field.
Chris Rene also made a brief appearance to the event and a swarm of fans or curious people took a glimpse and pictures of the local celebrity from Santa Cruz.
Awards were given out in several categories that ranged from Best of 1930s car to Best of Bikes. But the main award the contestants look forward to winning is the Best of Show and Gilbert Casares from Watsonville took those honors for his purple 1958 Chevy 3100 truck.
Before he turned his step side truck into a slamming low rider, Casares originally bought the truck for $700 in 1983. He painted it once, but it wasn’t up to par to enter it in any shows or contest. Then he decided to paint it yet again, only this time it was the shiny metallic dark and light purple colors that it holds today.
Apart from taking home the top prize of the day, Casares was all for the Hustle Hit Never Quit Car Show.
“It’s a good car show and I really liked it,” he said. And when asked if he would return if the event were to go down next year, he simply replied, “Oh yeah.”
Javier Vasquez from the Ranflas Car Club was alos pleased with the amount of people that showed up to support the car show as well as the Jr. Wildcatz.
“The turnout was spectacular,” he said. “It was more then I anticipated and hoped for, a lot of people came out to support the cause and the kids. It was perfect, it’s been nothing but positive feedback that I’ve been getting from everybody.”
The show was such a hit that some of the guest had already asked Vasquez if there would be any shows in the near future.
“They want to see this again next year already and the event hasn’t even happened yet,” said Vasquez.
