It’s the end of the road for Northwest Deuce Days, an automotive love-in that saw thousands of hot rod enthusiasts descend on Victoria.
The three-day gathering, held every three years, attracted a variety of vehicles converted into hot rods, street rods and rat rods, but the star of the show was the 1932 Ford — commonly referred to as a Deuce, an abbreviation of the car’s year of manufacture.
The show was hosted by Al Clark, who had turned his passion into a successful business, creating sought-after hot rods in his Fairfield garage since 1966.
He announced the event’s cancellation on social media and spent all day Wednesday on the phone explaining why.
“I wanted to go out on a high note. Although it was successful, organizing it was a lot of work. It takes a team of us two years of planning and six months of full-time work just before the date,” said Clark, 75. “It could very well be the city’s largest spectator gathering — and everything is free.”
He said that he plans to use his newly free time to finally do some golfing and spend more time with his wife, Judy.
The event, which started with a handful of cars at Gorge Kinsman Park in 1998, became the granddaddy of car shows on Vancouver Island, moving to Oak Bay Village in 2001 before settling at the Inner Harbour in 2004.
In 2019, the last year the event was held, almost 1,400 colourful modified classics — all built before 1951 — travelled to Victoria from across Canada and the United States, with one even coming from New Zealand.
The event drew crowds of upwards of 100,000 spectators, many of them out-of-town visitors.
Apart from the main event, there were various show ’n’ shines, processions, exhibits and other events associated with the show, which filled up hotel rooms, restaurants and tourist attractions.
Reid James, general manager of the Hotel Grand Pacific, said while saddened by the news, the hotel was grateful for the opportunity to have hosted the event four times, starting in 2010. “Our destination did very well, with half of the hotel booked by participants. The economic impact for us was well in the six figures.”
He said news of the event’s demise didn’t come as a complete surprise, since Clark had declared the event over after 2016, but later changed his mind and held Deuce Days in 2019. “But it does take a lot of work and all of it is volunteer labour,” said James.
The blow of losing a major event such as Northwest Deuce Days will be tempered by the fact there are many other things to see and do in the city, said Paul Nursey, chief executive of Destination Greater Victoria.
“We had a great run. We are grateful for having had the opportunity to host the event in the region,” said Nursey.
Although in his Facebook post, Clark mentions bike lanes as one of the reasons he decided to pull the plug, he said he was just “having a dig” at the city. “We had an issue around the city erecting a bicycle rack the night before the event and the threat of having a participant’s car towed,” said Clark. “I am sure that it wasn’t anything that we couldn’t have solved, as we have worked well with them in the past.”
The City of Victoria issued a statement saying that had it received a permit request for the next event, it would have “worked with the applicant to manage any and all traffic impacts just like in previous years.”
Others have expressed interest in hosting the event and Clark said he wishes them well.
He said he has received calls from California-based participants who indicated they were still planning to come to Victoria the third week of July 2022, when the next Deuce Days would have taken place.
“I told them to come on up, event or not,” said Clark. “If they do, I might actually be able to join in and have fun myself.”
parrais@timescolonist.com
