Thursday, June 23, 2016
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
CANFIELD
Thousands of hot rods, muscle cars and street machines will roll back to their original gathering spot this weekend after a 10-year detour.
The Steel Valley Supernationals will rumble into the Canfield Fairgrounds Friday, bringing car builders and afficionados from across the Midwest with it.
The annual summer hotbed of horsepower had moved to Quaker City Motorsports Park in Salem in 2006. It typically draws about 3,000 vehicles from at least a dozen states, and packs in up to 15,000 people per day.
The return to Canfield means the event will settle back into its roots of being all about the cars, and less about the ancillary attractions. Youngstown, and the whole Midwest, has always been a muscle car mecca, and the purists should find the fairgrounds version of the Supernats more to their liking.
“We’re going back to the original formula,” said Corey Ward, who owns and operates the Supernats. “In Salem, we had to be more creative. We had to do fireworks and have rock bands at night because we were marketing to a different spectator, a different type of participant.”
So there won’t be rock concerts this year. “In Canfield, the show draws on its own, without concerts,” said Ward, noting that the Salem location was less attractive to casual fans.
“The timing was right to return,” he said. “The people have spoken and they want it in Canfield.”
Another element of the Salem era that won’t happen at Canfield is the ear-splitting drag racing, but that has a big upside.
“The hot rodders didn’t like the drag racing facility,” said Ward. “There was not a lot of room, not a lot of paved area.”
The Supernats will have a children’s area, with a bounce house, a monster truck to explore, and other features. At 1 p.m. Saturday, a helicopter from Akron Children’s Hospital will land on the site as an attraction.
In addition to the cars on display, the festival will have scores of vendors — close to 200 — selling everything for cars, plus food and beverages. The event will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, and there will be afterparties at Chili’s in Boardman at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, a police escort will lead a parade of muscle cars from the fairgrounds to Quaker Steak and Lube in Austintown, for another after-party. Cars will begin to line up at 3 p.m. at the fairgrounds, and when they get to the Lube, there will be ample parking in neighboring lots.
Of course, the evenings will also be devoted to a Supernats tradition: the cruise, which traditionally is a slow-moving parade along U.S. route 224 through Boardman and Canfield. Spectators are expected to line the boulevard as they used to in the past.
It can be an inconvenience if you’re in a hurry, but it’s hard to argue with the economic impact brought to the Mahoning Valley by having thousands of visitors in town for a weekend. Motels, restaurants and stores generally see a spike in business.
One Supernats stalwart is glad to see the event return to its roots.
“What you had in Salem was drag racers,” said Dick Frost of Austintown, a lifelong car afficionado who has been going to the Supernats since day one.
“Canfield always was for the hot rodders, the old car guys, the classic cars. There are a lot more spectators, too.”
Frost knows firsthand the Valley’s love for cars. He runs a Sunday night car cruise at Quaker Steak and Lube in Austintown that typically gets 400 to 500 vehicles.
That passion translates into benefits.
“The event is wonderful for the community,” said Frost. “Every motel is filled, and it brings dollars to the community.”
Frost, who calls himself a tinkerer and not a car builder, will be showing a 1999 Ford Mustang GT convertible, and a1993 Pontiac Firebird Formula at the Supernats.