PENDLETON — With a thunderous boom of engines and the smell of rubber filling Pendleton’s hazy air, the city welcomed thousands of attendees from around the country to the revival of HotRod-A-Rama Thursday, July 29, through Aug. 1.

The hot rod show, a classic and iconic event throughout the Pacific Northwest, brought in hundreds of cars from pre-1965 in all makes and models. From beat-up muscle cars to freshly painted roadsters and drag racers with beefed up back wheels, there was a little bit for everyone.

“We’ve been having a blast out here for sure,” said Rod Wilkinson, an attendee who drove from Puyallup, Washington, and brought two 1932 Fords — a three-door coupe and a roadster.

Like so much in the hot rod community, the event was a family thing when it first began, said Dale Seaholm, but it snowballed into something much bigger.

Father-son duo Terry and Dale Seaholm started HotRod-A-Rama in 2002 to bring together people who shared their passion for traditional hot rods and old-school customs. The show stopped in 2010, however, and attempted a resurgence in 2020 before COVID-19 shut down the country.

This year, thanks in part to the efforts from Rodney Bullington from the Oregon Grain Growers Distillery, Pendleton, and his cousin Hugh Tucker, HotRod-A-Rama came back with a force, drawing in 425 cars and an estimated 2,000-2,500 people, according to Dale Seaholm.

“We are really thankful for how everything went,” Seaholm said. “We couldn’t be happier with the way that the town received us and how everything went smoothly and there was no trouble with anything.”

For some, HotRod-A-Rama was a day trip starting at 3 a.m., while others, including Wilkinson and his friends, one day wasn’t enough. Attendees were welcomed with multiple days of events, from a “meat and greet” and drive-in movie on July 29 to a swap meet that had old classics filling the streets July 30.

Pendleton on July 31 barricaded off Main Street so that, if selected by invitation, attendees could show their cars and line up among the downtown’s historical red brick buildings.

“It’s not about coming and getting a trophy like a lot of shows,” Seaholm said, adding that it’s mostly the people who make the event special.

“They’re really, really great people,” he said.

For Joe Debattista and Bill Ganahl of South City Rod & Custom in Hayward, California, the renowned show was well worth the trek. They drove three of their cars, a ‘40 Ford convertible, a ‘40 Willys Tech Americar and a ‘57 Chevy 150, well in excess of 700 miles from the Bay Area.

“It’s restarting an old show, that was a good show,” Ganahl said. “We wanted to come out and support it.”

With quarantine and COVID-19 keeping car shows closed down for much of the last year and a half, this was the first opportunity for many, like Ganahl, to get back on the hot rod circuit that had raised him.

Ganahl, whose father was the former editor of Hot Rod Magazine, had grown up around cars and hot rods but had never intended to start South City Rod & Custom.

“I actually went to college and studied English literature, got a master’s degree in English literature, and then decided to be a grease monkey instead,” he said.

Debattista, meanwhile, also went to college and worked a government job before getting tired of the rat race and followed his love of cars.

“Now I get to do something I love,” Debattista said.

For some, car shows are an opportunity to show off their pride and passion, while for others it is a time to let loose and have fun. In the parking lot of Heritage Station Museum, Jimmy Jeffries parked his beat-up, spray-painted and tiki-inspired 1951 Chevy Styleline.

With the top removed and a bamboo umbrella shading a manikin in the back seat, Jeffries’ car stood out among the muscle cars and low-riding hot rods. Jeffries, who started adding knickknacks to the car with his wife, such as an ooga horn and a “do not touch” button that sprayed water at people, just wanted to release some pressure and not worry about having the nicest car.

“We just have so much fun,” he said. “This is the funnest car I’ve ever had.”

“There’s great camaraderie,” said Wilkinson, who drove to Pendleton with Jeffries from Puyallup. “We’re just sitting all over here just having a good time meeting new people.”

The revival of the HotRod-A-Rama was such a good time, in fact, that Dale Seaholm said the event would return next year and be even bigger and better.

“We will be back,” Seaholm said.