STREET, MD – With much of the nation’s snowy and cold weather beginning to subside, Ford enthusiasts are starting to think about the upcoming car show season that’s just around the corner. To help put you in the midsummer mood, we’re offering a look back at a memorable Mustang outing that proved to be just as rewarding as participation in any local 4H Program.
Last July, we put the Baltimore area’s annual 4-H Camp Car Show / 100th Year Anniversary event on out local car show schedule, hosted at the Harford County 4-H Camp and Deer Creek Overlook in Street, Maryland. This location was northeast of our Baltimore beltway for a 48-mile ride or one-hour trip, combining driving through our impressive Fort McHenry Tunnel under the Baltimore harbor, and then heading away from the city, and next going deep into the country – making for an enjoyable ride.
This event's site was at a grassy field surrounded by trees, with the 4-H's activity building located off to one side, complete with kitchen facilities and air conditioning to cool off, if needed. There was usually an excellent assortment of Ford products in attendance at this show for pictures, along with an extensive awards package available, including a Top 50 as well as 22 other 'Best of' trophies. But best of all this was a judged show using points, which I prefer. I was at all three prior 4-H events in my Mustang with good success, and I was looking forward to the opportunity go to this anniversary show, held on Sunday, July 6, 2025, which was a make-up date after it rained on the originally scheduled June 8 show date.
The weather for this date was sunny with some passing clouds, and the temperatures climbed to nearly 90 degrees, making for an excellent day for a car show. I arrived by 8:40 a.m. and spent the next hour and a half re-cleaning everything on my Mustang. Despite sitting in my garage all week, my car needed a good once-over to get it back up to show-worthy standards. After that it looked fine and showed quite well. But what happened at this event was almost a perfect storm, where several conditions came into play all at once making this competition especially difficult.
For this show, it seemed the weather had people eager to get out, despite it occasionally getting hot when there were no clouds. From what I read, this show wasn’t competing for attendees with other shows that day as I found no other nearby events. That meant if a given owner was looking for a show to drive to on this Sunday, this event was essentially the only game in town. In fact, there was at least one owner there from Delaware, and another drove up from North Carolina, which was quite a long distance. Finally, this was a judged show, which often takes the voting bias out any given show, as can happen with participant-voting events.
As a result of these factors all lining up perfectly for this 4-H Camp show, there was a strong showing of 210 cars, trucks and motorcycles in attendance, and the vast majority were in excellent condition. The 4-H's show field was filled to capacity. From this high turnout, the 4-H camp received a donation of an incredible $5,530, making this a very successful event for them.
As for me, my car was not selected for an award, but here is another important aspect to consider: I’ve been able to contribute car show coverage to FordRacing.com from time to time, which helps tell the story of the joys of Ford ownership. By capturing good images of Mustangs and other collectible Ford vehicles on display at these events, as well as developing narratives about participating in the Mustang hobby, we celebrate being Ford fans. And with the primary racing vehicle at Ford Racing being various iterations of the Mustang, bringing real-world car show experiences to you in my Mustang can only be considered a successful day!
FORD RACING PHOTOS / COURTESY RICK MITCHELL
