SPARKS, NV (Aug. 31) – Hot August Nights (HAN) 2018 is in the history books and now it’s time for a recap. Even though the post event reviewing and evaluations will take some time Executive Director Mike Whan did share his insights about this year’s edition.
Hot August Nights Executive Director Mike Whan stands by the foundation’s sign in front of their office.
“It was good, we actually had more people sign up this year for cars than we’ve had in the last few years,” he said. “Which was interesting to have it be more than the 30th anniversary, which is a good trend and shows we’re continuing to see an increase in cars.”
One aspect of Hot August Nights he mentioned is the demographic change of those coming to participate or just enjoy the event.
“The biggest change we’ve seen over the past couple of years isn’t the cars it’s the people that are coming. Not only the car participants but just people that come to see the cars, people that come see the entertainment we have and all the other events going on,” he said. “We talked to most of the vendor sponsors at the Grand Sierra through out the day as I check with them to see how they are doing.”
Among the properties involved in Hot August Nights the Grand Sierra has the largest Show N’ Shine area that’s ringed with vendors.
One of those vendors that’s been here for 15-years is Adams Polish. The owner said, “Mike, the demographic is so much different now than it was 10 years ago it’s younger. So instead of 60 and 70 year olds now I’m seeing 30 and 40 year olds coming in my tent and buying the product.'”
Over the next few weeks and months the HAN staff will be busy tracking everything and seeing if anything needs to be enhanced or maybe changed.
“We always look at everything to see what we need to do but we’re not ready for those determinations. We’ve still got to meet with the team, with our sponsors and see what took place at their properties. We always do our own things like our Vintage Trailer Revival, Drag Races, Drifting, Swap Meet, he said. “Once we meet with people involved in that we’ll see what we can do better but you’re never perfect.”
He also commented on some of the high points for this year’s event including starting on the Comstock.
“Virginia City is absolutely wonderful, it’s the best decision we’ve made, people love going up there, the city of Virginia City loves us going up there,” he said.
Whan added that over the past two years they’ve sold out the space available on C Street and crowds of spectators are increasing.
“Friday crowds were like Saturday crowds the year before, Saturday crowds this year were like no other. So it’s a fun place,” he said.
Once Virginia City is done the event moves back to Reno and this year had its kick off at Rancho San Rafael. In addition local casinos, like the Peppermill, Atlantis and GRS started their own events.
Among the properties starting their own Cruise and Show N’ Shines is the Atlantis Casino with their Cruise of Champions.
Another growing bright spot is the vehicle auction, at Reno Sparks Convention Center.
“The auction is doing great, they’ve increased their car count every year, increased their participation with spectators. They’re really focusing on putting a great show together, I’m very happy with what I’ve seen with them,” he said. “The best part is they are really part of our community.
“They did some things this last year, helped out the Reno Police K9 Division with some stuff that went across the auction. They’re local, Motorsport Auction Group, and really help our local community out.”
The Hot August Nights auctions is growing and these are just some of the cars getting ready for this year’s event put on by the Motorsports Auction Group.
Drifting is another part of Hot August Nights that’s growing as well as bringing different participants and spectators to the event. This year there was not only a bigger area but for the sports car types an autocross course was set up next to the drifting track.
“It’s a different draw and a different demographic as well just cause they aren’t classic car girls and guys, they’re car people. So they like looking at cars, playing with cars and driving cars,” he said. “It is a little bit of a change but I think overall our customers and visitors like it. It’s something different, if they’re not interested in looking at classic cars they come to town, they stay in the hotels, they get rooms to look at the drifting events and the trailer events and drag racing”
Another growing part of Hot August Nights is the drifting held at the Livestock Events Center.
Another new event was “Tomorrow’s Classics,” which featured cars that fell outside of the normal range of the classics. It was held at the Livestock Events Center and will probably be changed a bit next year.
“It wasn’t as busy as we thought it was going be but it was the first year,” Whan said. “Probably need to change the times as we had it during the daytime, which you’ve got to remember if someone is going to participate they might be locals, they might be working so we’re looking at 5 to 8 p.m. Most of the shows like Summit has and A&W has during the week are at nighttime.”
Another change was the elimination of the free Tuesday Cruise. Whan explained the high cost of city services as well as the low turn out were two factors driving that decision.
Cruising in Reno and Sparks is another big part of Hot August Nights.
This year he noted that the cruise numbers picked up towards the end of the week for both Reno and Sparks.
So his overall impressions were very positive.
“We’re very pleased, we meet with the Casino properties over the next few weeks and get some feedback from them. Preliminarily very happy with the results, what they saw I think it was a very successful event,” he said. “We’re the only event in Reno and Sparks that NDOT tells everybody you can’t do road construction during our event because we’re too busy. You don’t see that at the Air Races or Street Vibration.”
Of course any event this big has challenges but Whan pointed out a couple that need to be addressed especially if HAN continues to grow.
“I would say the challenge I’m facing is space. We’re continuing to look at things to grow the event however we don’t have the parking lots and places to do it. Drifting is a prime example, you know the prime place to do drifting is on that lot but it might not be the right location. It’s difficult and I know there are some plans in the future for that whole facility to change,” he said.
He added the planned expansion of the Livestock Events Center is planned for the area where drifting is now being held. But that will probably take some years to be resolved.
The next challenge also concerns space.
“Parking trailers, everyone brings their cars up here and a lot of them bring them up in trailers and they need place to put those trailers. We used to put them on lots that are now being built on. Legends used to have a lot of extra land, now all those places that had extra land are being developed. So we’re having a hard time finding places for that so that’s kind of our biggest challenge,” he said. “It’s key for us because this just doesn’t take our group and our volunteers to make this happen, everybody is involved in this thing.”
An event as large as HAN does have a positive economic impact on this region. Asked about this Whan cited a study done a couple of years ago with UNR.
“It’s approximately 100 million dollars economic impact for this region and that’s just Tuesday through Saturday night,” he said. “That’s pretty powerful.”
Over the next few months the review and gathering feedback process is taking place. Once completed that gives a blue print of what, if anything needs to be changed, enhanced or just left as it is.
One important part of the review is getting feedback from the legion of volunteers that make this event possible. They are after all the people that deal directly with both participants and visitors on a daily basis.
“First of all they are most important for feedback, to see how it went in their different departments and their areas and to see what we can improve on. Are we trying to do too much? Should we scale back on certain things they are involved in? We’re always looking to do better. The feedback hasn’t come in yet and there are still people in our back parking lot putting away stuff,” he said.
Another important source of feedback is from the various properties involved in the event.
“It’s what we’re seeing with our attendance and with our customers and visitors more so than just the cars itself,” he said. “Casinos asked me ‘how many cars signed up this year,’ A little bit more than last year. But they’re seeing the difference in the crowds that’s because they’re filling up the hotels early as we bring in all these other events so it’s just more things to do,” he said.
Even thought he doesn’t have the full picture at this time, Whan is optimistic about the future.
“We always look forward seeing on how we did on everything from out feedback and if we need to make changes. If we don’t need to make changes we’re not going to make changes just to do something. We want to keep our standards with our basics, just improve the experience for not only our car participants, visitors but more importantly our volunteers.”
Even though Hot August Nights is over there are two more related events this year. On October 5 the Fall Frenzy will be at Baldini’s Sports Casino in Sparks, then on October 20 its time for the Classics and Cocktails.
For further information and schedules please check Hot August Night’s website at www.hotaugustnights.net.
OTHER RACING NEWS:
• Once again I’ll be on Teresa’s Garage Radio Show that runs from 2 until 3 p.m. Tuesday. We cover all things automotive on this show.
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My preview part comes on around 2:15 and hope all of my readers will either listen to it or stream the program.
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We now have six very appreciated sponsors that are helping support this site. Please patronize them as they support your sport.
Our newest is Moto Source located at 3180 Mill Street, unit C. They stock accessories and have a large service department.
The shops website is www.moto-source.com and their phone number is 775-856-3855.
Big Valley Honda is the first dealer in our family of sponsors. They sell everything from motorcycles, UTV’s, ATV’s and about anything else things one could want.
Their location is at 2225 Market Street in Reno and their website is www.bigvalleyhonda.com and they have a Face Book page, www.facebook.com/bigvalleyhondareno.
Our first sponsor is a full service motorcycle shop, Reno Motorsports and they too have a full service shop as well as about anything a rider could want.
They are located at 964 Terminal way, by Mill Street and their website is, www.rms-renomotorsports.com.
Sponsor PJ & Co Restaurant and Saloon located at 1590 Wells Avenue in Reno is familiar to most in the riding lifestyle.
Good food, great place and they have Bike Night every Wednesday. For further information please check their website at, www.pjandco.net.
Concours Body Shop, owned by racer and race supporter Gil Grieve, is a business doing quality repair work on cars and trucks.
The business is located at 240 Telegraph Street in Reno and their website is, www.concoursbodyshop.net.
If you are into karting or want the most cost effective way to start racing then check out Nevada Kart Sport, our only full service kart shop in this region.
The shop has moved to 894 Deming Way in Sparks and their website is, www.nevadakartsport.com.
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