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Super Nats are returning to Canfield Fairgrounds
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
CANFIELD
After a 10-year absence, the Super Nats are returning to the Canfield Fairgrounds.
The annual event, which draws about 3,000 hot rods, muscle cars and street machines from more than a dozen states, moved to Quaker City Motorsports Park in Salem in 2006. The weekend-long event typically attracts about 15,000 people per day and features concerts by national rock acts.
Corey Ward, promoter of the event, said the spacious and paved Canfield Fairgrounds are better suited to a large gath- ering of people, vendors and hot rods, and are fully equipped with plumbing and electricity. “It ran its course [at the Salem location] and people were always asking me, ‘When are you bringing it back to Canfield?” said Ward.
But Boardman officials are wary of the return because of past problems with the evening car cruise that choked traffic on U.S. Route 224.
The 2016 Steel Valley Super Nationals, as the event is formally known, will be June 24-26.
One of the reasons why the Super Nats moved to Quaker City Motorsports a decade ago is that the facility is a drag strip, which allowed the owners of muscle cars and dragsters to show off their speed on the quarter-mile track.
Drag racing will not be possible at the Canfield Fairgrounds. But Ward said he is launching a second Super Nats next summer that will include drag racing Aug. 5-7 at Pittsburgh Raceway Park, which is in New Alexandria, Pa., about 20 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Ward also said he will launch a third Super Nats in another state in 2017.
“The Canfield event will mainly focus on street machines, hot rods, muscle cars and car enthusiasts celebrating their love of high-performance excellence,” said Ward. The Super Nats took place at the Canfield site from 1987 through 2005.
The new location also will include a massive manufacturers’ midway where participants and spectators can find the latest aftermarket parts and other accessories.
The evening car cruise is an offshoot of the Super Nats – but not part of the actual event – in which hundreds of drivers slowly paraded through downtown Salem every evening. The city welcomed them with open arms and even started a festival, the Salem Super Cruise, to coincide with the Super Nats.
The Super Cruise will continue to take place even though the Super Nats are leaving town.
“Their moving won’t affect us at all,” said Ken Kenst, Salem service director and the overseer of the Salem Super Cruise. Muscle-car owners at the Super Nats will be more than welcome to return to the city each evening to cruise and show off their vehicles, he said.
The Canfield Fairgrounds are about 10 miles from Salem.
Salem Mayor John Berlin confirmed Kenst’s comments. “We are undeterred,” he said. “We are appealing to anybody in the tri-county area with a car they fixed up and want to cruise.”
The 2016 Salem Super Cruise will be June 23-26, the same weekend as the Super Nats. Berlin noted that the Super Cruise did not coincide with the Super Nats last summer but was still a success that drew many hot-rodders.
The Super Cruise also serves as a homecoming for city residents and raises money for charities, said Berlin.
When the Super Nats were at the Canfield Fairgrounds, the nightly car cruise took a route up and down U.S. Route 224 through the heart of Boardman.
Spectators would pull up lawn chairs along the heavily traveled commercial strip and watch the cars go by, but some merchants and residents in the township bemoaned the clogged-up thoroughfare.
Ward said communities and merchants in the area should welcome and take advantage of the influx of people. “I expect Boardman businesses will welcome it back and line up to get their share of the business,” said Ward. “Anything that is a positive economic development should not be turned down.”
Joe Warino, Canfield city manager, said the increased traffic in his city was minimal in the past.
“The city has welcomed the event in the past and would be supportive of its return to the fairgrounds,” said Warino. “The city’s restaurants have been the greatest benefactor of the three-day event.”
Boardman officials, however, were not so keen for the possible return of the nightly car cruise, citing issues they dealt with in the past when participants essentially took over U.S. Route 224.
“It was near-riot conditions there,” said Police Chief Jack Nichols. “It was like a free-for-all.”
Nichols recalled incidents when people gathered for the muscle-car procession threw beer bottles, abandoned couches on the roadside and started fights. He said the event also represents a significant cost to the township; his department once spent $30,000 in one weekend on overtime for officers to patrol during the event.
“If there was more of a benefit to the community, I would say it’s a great thing, but the truth of the matter is, there wasn’t a big benefit,” Nichols said. “I would be just as happy if it stayed in Salem.”
Township Administrator Jason Loree voiced similar concerns.
“That’s a nightmare if that traffic pattern returns,” he said. “It’s a substantial cost to the township if it has to be policed like it was in the past, and it’s unfortunate that that gets passed on to Boardman Township.”
Contributors: Staff writers Jordyn Grzelewski and Amanda Tonoli