Great Race award

Cape Girardeau is on quite a roll when it comes to tourism.

In the last few weeks alone, we've had the Great Race, an air show and a fireworks show.

Last week it was announced Cape Girardeau had won the 2013 Hemmings Motor News Great Race's Best Overnight Stop City award.

The Great Race organizers were savvy. This award is just the type of marketing move that motivates cities to put their best feet forward. And Cape Girardeau certainly did. The winners thanked Ford Groves for doing transmission repairs that helped them finish the race.

With as many as 5,000 or more people gathering downtown, the energy of the city was undeniable on that hot and sultry Tuesday.

Local businesses hosted pit stop parties along North Kingshighway and Broadway, and welcome parties in the downtown district on Main Street. The car enthusiasts in the greater Southeast Missouri region put on their own car show, and the old autos were as brilliant as they were nostalgic.

The award is quite an honor for Cape Girardeau. The organizers did a great job at getting the word out to Cape Girardeau and surrounding communities. It serves notice to other event organizers that Cape Girardeau can handle an event.

Along those same lines, Cape Girardeau sparkled in its handling of the filming of the movie "Killshot" in 2006. The movie proved to be something of a bust; the movie never made to the big screen, and Cape had very little presence in the movie.

But it quite possibly opened doors. Another motion picture is expected to be coming to Cape Girardeau, this one with even bigger names.

So while a little award acknowledged with a plaque like the one Cape Girardeau received from the Great Race may not be huge news, there's no telling what the city's collective welcoming spirit may mean to the city down the road.

Congratulations, once again, to the Great People who rolled out the red carpet for the Great Race.