The Mopar Nationals were held August 7th,8th and 9th at National Trail Raceway Park as it is every year. Thousands of Mopar car owners, collectors, spectators, racers and parts vendors flood the Columbus/Hebron/Heath area every year. The hotels are booked for miles around and there is such a demand that hotels raise their prices for this weekend.

After the track shuts down for the evening the car owners usually head for the legendary Brice Road for a cruise. Thousands of spectators line the streets to see the cars and a few burnouts. This has been going on for years. This year the local police pretty much shut down any activity other than normal driving down the street.

Word must of got around very fast, because the turn out of muscle cars was very, very low on Brice road. A criuse was scheduled in the town of Heath. Many people will do both, but not this year. We heard from fellow car owners that Heath was really rocking this year.

We talked to some of the spectators and they were all disappointed. The police had cars stationary in some intersections with there lights flashing. They also were pulling people over and we saw one officer on a bicycle among the crowd.

The past cruises we have been to were fun with vehicles of all types and makes showing up. There were spots on the street where people would throw out some water and cars would do burnouts. A real crowd pleaser and the police previously just monitored the traffic and only pulled over people who were getting carried away.

Now, they are going to drive all those dollars right out of there community. We made a trip to Heath Sunday morning and scoped out all the hotels for next year. You could tell all the action was in Heath as there was enough rubber on the road for a Nascar race!

All of our spendable dollars next year will be going to Heath. We will shop there, eat at the restaurants and hopefully stay there in one of the motels. No more spending on Brice Road for us. Many Mopar owners will be doing the same. Sure the Brice Road police kept order in their way this year, but their community will lose revenue next year for sure. Sad for them really as it was a tradition for us motorsports fans and we loved going there.

Mark Potes
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