Sweet rides: More than 300 classic cars entered in River Tales show

More than 300 classic cars converged Sunday on downtown Cape Girardeau for the River City Rodders' 40th annual River Tales Classic car show.

Thousands of locals attended the free show to view vintage vehicles, which included Cadillac coupes from the 1940s, Chevrolet Impalas from the 1960s and Dodge Dart Demons from the 1970s.

River City Rodders president John Mayfield said the car show drew competitors from Indiana, Tennessee and Illinois, including one who drove his hot rod 220 miles for the competition.

While many children attended the event as spectators, Austin Lukefahr, 2, participated in the show.

Austin's miniature 1964 Murray project car sat next to his grandfather's 1964 Chevrolet Impala SS with matching indigo blue paint jobs.

Mike Shaver looks over a Chevrolet hot rod with a triple carburetor Sunday during the 40th annual River Tales Classic car and motorcycle show in downtown Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

The classic car show also raised money for Safe House for Women with a pin-up contest.

Despite an afternoon rainstorm, more than 100 trophies were awarded to cars in about 40 classes by the end of the show.

"We were ready to give trophies out and everything, but we didn't want everybody sitting out in the rain. We just kind of waited until the rain quit, and then we got her done," Mayfield said.

Gene Sanders of Scott City won the Old Town Cape award with a yellow 1941 Lincoln convertible.

The award for best engine went to a 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle owned by Bruce Briley of Collinsville, Illinois. The award for best paint went to Kurt Richter of Aviston, Illinois, for his tangerine-orange 1941 Willys.

Larry Purdue admires a 1947 Dodge truck Sunday during the 40th annual River Tales Classic car and motorcycle show in downtown Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

Best of show, called Boyd's Pick, was given to a red 1969 Chevrolet Camaro owned by Christy Dawn Sanders of Paducah, Kentucky.

While the antique automobile competition took place on Main Street and in the parking lot of Hutson's Fine Furniture, motorcycle enthusiasts got their fix one block away on Spanish Street at the World Wide Bike Show at Grassroots BMW.

Music spilled over from The Library's Playground as the motorcycle competition took place, awarding trophies based on a people's-choice system in bagger, cruiser, custom/chopper, vintage, sport and dirt bike classes.

A teal 2014 Indian motorcycle owned by Bob Hartline of Belleville, Illinois, won the trophy for Best in Show along with $50 gift certificates to Grassroots BMW and Lawless Harley-Davidson.

Dave Hutson, owner of Grassroots BMW, paired with Lawless Harley-Davidson in Scott City to host the motorcycle show and aimed to give people a chance to see bikes not normally on the street.

"It was a good show. I'm sorry it rained -- we didn't have that planned. But we'll be working with [River City Rodders] next year to make it even bigger," Hutson said.

bmatthews@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3652