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Hot-rod show gets a new driver
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
CANFIELD
When the Supernats returns to Canfield Fairgrounds next month for its annual show, it will be with new owners, a new sponsor and some family-friendly attractions.
Lee Hartman of Warren is the majority partner in the new ownership team, which also includes Rose Seitz of Poland.
The presenter and main sponsor will be Chuck Eddy automotive group, which has car dealerships in Austintown and Grove City, Pa.
The Hot Rod Super Nationals — formerly known as the Steel Valley Super Nationals – will be June 23-25. One of the most-popular annual events in the car-crazy Mahoning Valley, the Supernats draws thousands of hot rods, muscle cars and assorted street machines and motorcycles, owned by collectors and car buffs throughout the country. Throngs of car afficionados numbering in the tens of thousands attend as spectators to bask in the automotive energy.
Each day of the 2017 Supernats will again morph into a hot-rod parade down U.S. Route 224 into Boardman, said Hartman. The nightly tradition will start with a police escort at 5:30 p.m. and head for the Southern Park Mall parking lot, where there will be vendors and a carnival atmosphere.
Sunday, June 25, will be Kids Day, said Hartman. Children 12 and under will get in for free. Attractions that day will include a monster truck, the Batmobile, the Ghostbusters vehicle, the “Back to the Future” DeLorean and a superhero or two.
Hartman, Chuck Eddy and others from the new ownership team were at the fairgrounds Tuesday to talk about the show. They brought with them a dozen muscle cars, which were on display.
Hartman said he approached Corey Ward, the previous owner of the Supernats, over the winter with an offer to buy and operate the event. The two worked out the details in the ensuing months.
“It was time for a change,” Ward told The Vindicator. “The Supernats is a great event and I hope the show is as good to Lee and his staff as it was to us.” Ward, owner of Ward Core Promotions, said his company will focus on its other events.
Hartman grew up in Canfield and has been attending the Supernats since it started almost two decades ago at the fairgrounds. The event was moved to Quaker City Raceway in Salem for a decade but returned to the fairgrounds last year.
Hartman is the owner of Carrier Services, a Valley-based telecommunications company that he started in 2003. He’s been a car buff most of his life. “I got my first car at age 15,” he said. “It was a 1969 Chevelle.” Hartman collects and works on hot rods in his spare time.
Eddy, who is also a collector of muscle cars, said “it’s my privilege to hook up with the Supernats. We’ve always been a part of the Canfield community. We’ve been selling cars in the Valley since 1957, and have been in our Austintown location since 1969. It’s a natural fit.”