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Crowds begin arriving for the 2017 Wheels "N' Windmills Car Show in downtown Solvang. The show this Saturday will be the last one.

The principal planners of the Wheels 'N' Windmills Car Show can be seen waving goodbye in this year's event poster.

Crowds begin arriving for the 2017 Wheels "N' Windmills Car Show in downtown Solvang. The show this Saturday will be the last one.

The principal planners of the Wheels 'N' Windmills Car Show can be seen waving goodbye in this year's event poster.

When some 300 custom and classic cars filling the streets of Solvang this Saturday pack up and roll out of town, it will mark the end of an event that has donated more than $400,000 to charitable organizations over the past 16 years.

But organizers of the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Show said it’s time to hang it up so they can devote more time to their families, travel and spend time on some of their own projects.

Since about 2006, the annual car show has been planned and organized by a committee of 10 to 15 volunteers put together by three men — Bob Stokes, the current president; Dan Hoagland, vice president; and Ed Grand, treasurer.

“We’re the last three members of the original committee,” Stokes said Monday. “We’re just at a point where the three of us got together to begin planning the 2022 show at the first of the year, and we said this is it.”

He noted the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the main issues that took a toll on the show, hitting early in 2020 just as the committee was getting together to plan that year’s show and forcing them to cancel the event.

The 2021 show was also canceled, although after the restriction on large, uncontrolled gatherings was lifted by the state, the group managed to put together a “reduced version” they dubbed the Solvang Fall Classic, which drew about 250 cars instead of the more than 350 Wheels ‘N’ Windmills usually pulled in.

But Stokes said they lost several committee members for one reason or another.

“It’s easy to get people who want to work on the day of the show,” he said. “To get people to commit to six months of planning is not. And we’re a nonprofit organization, so it’s all-volunteer. Nobody gets paid.”

Stokes, who will turn 75 in a couple of months, has actually been organizing annual car shows for a lot longer than the 16-year run of Wheels ‘N’ Windmills.

Originally from San Jose, Stokes moved to the Santa Ynez Valley in 1998 to be closer to his parents and found there were no car shows in the area.

The closest thing was a Thursday night gathering of hot rod and muscle car owners at the Big Bopper drive-in in Solvang, so he cruised on down there in his 1967 Oldsmobile 442.

“Since I was the new kid in town, I got a lot of attention,” Stokes said.

Jerry Renilli, who just happened to own a 1968 Olds 442, was one of the first who came up to greet Stokes, and they became good friends.

Lamenting the lack of a car show, the two decided to put one together, and in 1999 they staged their first Avenue of Flags Car Show in Buellton, drawing a total of 85 cars.

The show was held annually for six year, with the last one drawing 240 cars, Stokes said.

“But the Buellton City Council decided they wanted to renovate the Avenue of Flags islands, which would take away our show space,” he said.

They asked the city to close off Avenue of Flags for a day so cars could be parked there for the show, but Stokes said they were unwilling to close the Highway 101 off-ramp to the avenue, so they sought a new location.

“Solvang welcomed us with open arms,” Stokes said, so in 2005 they moved to the Village, where the city closed the streets for what was renamed the Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Show.

It was about that time Renilli moved away, and the shows were put together by the committee.

Stokes said he had three things he wanted included in the organization’s charter: The shows had to be “for the car guys.”

All the work for the show — poster printing, banner making, trophy purchases and so forth — had to be done within the local area if possible.

And all proceeds from entry fees had to go to charity.

“I said we had to support charities,” he said. “We pick new ones each year so we can spread the wealth, so to speak. … When this last show is over, we will have eclipsed more than $400,000 [donated] to local charities and a couple of national ones.

“The results from the last 16 years of work are way, way beyond anything I imagined,” he added.

In 2008, the organizers began raffling off a brand-new V-8 engine each year to benefit the Pirate Garage automotive program at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School.

The engine for the first raffle was donated by Jon Stephen, an alumnus of the school program, but since then, the engines have been purchased with grant funds.

The raffle became so successful it produced more revenue than the Pirate Garage could handle, so proceeds were also extended to the Santa Maria High School automotive program and, at one point, to the Lompoc High School program as well.

In recent years, the show has also been raffling off a custom-built automatic transmission from Steve Presta at Goleta Transmission.

Stokes said the success of the show and the funds raised for charity would not have been possible without the dozens and dozens of people who have volunteered and otherwise supported the show.

“Without their help and without their commitment, it never would have been possible,” he said. “Many thanks to the dozens of people who supported the event and to the longtime workers. I owe them a lot.”

Although he won’t be planning another car show next year, Stokes will still be involved with show cars, as he intends to finish the frame-off restoration of his metallic green ’67 Oldsmobile 442 he began in 2019.

He’s owned the car since 1970, when he bought it from a guy he went to school with who had purchased it brand-new.

He started showing it in 1990, and once the restoration is complete, it will likely go back on the show circuit.

“If you’ve been to any car shows around here, you’ve probably seen it,” he said. “It’s won a lot of awards up and down the coast.”

The 16th and last Wheels ‘N’ Windmills Car Show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in downtown Solvang will include about 300 pre-1991 stock and modified classic cars, trucks, hot rods, sports cars, motorcycles and special interest vehicles of all makes and models.

Admission is free to the public.

This will be the final Wheels ‘N’ Windmills show because the last three members of the original organizing committee have decided to retire. If you check out the show poster, you can see them — Bob Stokes, Dan Hoagland and Ed Grand — waving goodbye.

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