Photos by Robert Cutler

Text by David Boyd

The Apex Motorsports show took place in sunny Santa Clara California and marked the Grand opening of this new Ford performance Shop. The first annual show was a success with over 100 cars showing up for the event. Quite a few Saleens made it out to the show including two of us from Orange County California.

Robert Cutler driving his 1995 S351 "R" White Coupe #11 and my self (David Boyd) driving my 2004 S281-SC Black Coupe #62 decided to make the five and a half hour drive to the bay area. Neither one of our Saleens had a nice long road trip under its belt, so it was about time.

To do this in under 6 hours and make it to the show before 10:00 am, we had to get an early start. The road trip started in Costa Mesa at about 4:15am where we met at a designated meeting place and then started the drive. We figured that if we cruised at about 75 or 80, we would make the show in time and avoid a ticket along the way.

While heading up the 405 to the 5 freeway towards Bakersfield, it was a beautiful site to see the sun rise and the morning fog clearing away while driving down an open stretch of highway.

There were few close calls heading through Bakersfield as the police were out in full force. At one point I saw Robert in my rear view mirror along with red lights and sirens, luckily it was an adjacent car getting pulled over that was going much faster than we were.

Driving through Bakersfield, we also found out that our clean cars would not be clean for long, the high concentration of Cows and dairy farms made for a lot of big juicy bugs. A quick stop at a gas station just before arriving at the show allowed us to view the damage.

It took a few light swipes of the gas station squeegee to remove the thick layer of bugs off the front of the cars and windshields.

We then arrived at the show at about 9:45 and had 15 minutes to get the cars show ready again. Wheewww, what a morning!!

Throughout the day there were many cool cars to see as various Saleen, Mustang, Pantera and Ford clubs attended the event. Along with judging cars, raffle prizes and Suspension/Chassis seminars, it made for a fun active day.

After the show it was time to make the long road trip back home.

Special thanks go out to Mike Mak and the Apex MotorSports group for putting on a great event. We all look forward to doing it again next year.