10-4 Magazine August 2023

Truck Show Report: By Eric Hill Living in a neighboring state, I have visited Wisconsin more times than I can count. It is an especially beautiful state to visit in the summer. I looked forward to traveling to the AMCAN Truck Fest in Union Grove, WI on June 9-10, 2023, to experience this beautiful state once again. It was my third time attending this event, which was held at the spacious Racine County Fairgrounds in southeast Wisconsin, near Kenosha. This event was planned, organized, and put on by Nick Kimball, Julie Mors, and the marketing team at JX Enterprises. The event drew in over 5,000 people, using up all the allocated free admission tickets. The designated charity for this show was the JX Gives Back Family Foundation, focusing on an organization called Children’s Wisconsin. The AMCAN Truck Fest is a wash and show, customer appreciation, and family-oriented event. It is a relaxed environment, where truckers come to display their pride and joy and fellowship with like-minded people. In attendance is a blend of well-maintained, sharp looking, work trucks that are on the road every day, best in class truck builds, and everything in between. A total of 85 bobtails and combos made the trip to Union Grove and participated in the Truck Fest. Racine County fairgrounds is a spacious and well-groomed facility. All the participating trucks were quickly and efficiently parked by Nick, Don Wood, and the rest of the parking crew. All trucks were parked in the lot beside the track where the truck and tractor pull occurred on Friday night. The schedule for the two-day event was Wash N Show truck show, open Beer Garden, Kids Zone all day Friday, along with the Truck and Tractor Pull starting at 6:30 pm, and Truck Light Show beginning at dusk. The Saturday schedule was the continuation of the Wash N Show truck show, Beer Garden, Kids Zone, Awards ceremony, JX Gives Back Family Foundation Silent Auction at 4:00 pm, and then wrapping up the weekend activities with a concert by the Lunchmoney Bullies. The music that echoed over the show field for the two days of the event was provided by Jerry from Best Time DJ Services. I arrived at the fairgrounds late Thursday afternoon and approximately 20 trucks had already registered, parked, and were being detailed, even though it was a wash and show event. The space for the 10-4 Magazine booth was in a great location on the main road coming into the show field. It was a perfect spot for taking photographs of the incoming trucks. Plus, the booth was situated right beside the lot where all the bobtails and combos were parked. The weather was nearly perfect on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning. There was a lot of sunshine and warm temperatures on Thursday and Friday, albeit breezy at times both afternoons. By the time the event was winding down on Saturday afternoon, clouds started rolling in, with rain forecast for later that night. Friday night was the busiest of the Truck Fest event. The Southeast WI Showdown Truck and Tractor Pull took place that evening, and attendees started arriving at 5:00 pm. As people were walking to the truck and tractor pulls, they passed by all the beautiful trucks participating in the Truck Fest. These attendees are a natural draw that exposes them to the trucking industry. With the booth located on the walk to the stands, several curious people stopped by. I had the opportunity to tell them about the Truck Fest, 10-4 Magazine, and a little bit about the trucking industry. Midway through the truck and tractor pulls, many local fire trucks and ambulances were called to the track. The next day I was informed that a person attending the pulls had a massive heart attack and passed away. I like to believe that many 64 10-4 Magazine / August 2023 WISCONSIN GIVES BACK