Preview Of The 2021 Chattanooga Motorcar Festival With Corky Coker

For three days this October, a section of downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, will be transformed into an automotive lover’s paradise. The highly-anticipated second annual Chattanooga Motorcar Festival returns Friday the 15th of October through Sunday the 17th.

Make no mistake. The event isn’t just returning for 2021 – it’s evolving before your very eyes.

This bonafide motorcar festival will include all four significant aspects – a Concours d’Elegance, a road rally, a Mecum car auction, and a race-track competition.

For example, they designed a new 2.1-mile road course that winds through the picturesque riverfront in downtown Chattanooga. To ensure the new layout struck the right balance, they brought in retired Formula 1 driver Brian Reman.

In addition to the wheel-to-wheel racing, Mecum car auction, and a bevy of other events, there will be nightly street festivities in the West Village. The great news? Everything at this event is centralized and within easy walking distance.

To give us a deeper perspective of this upcoming event, we talked with this year’s legendary Grand Marshall, Corky Coker. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Growing Up In The Tire Business

Rod Worley – Editor –  Before we delve into the upcoming Chattanooga Motorcar Festival, I wanted to ask about how you got into your Dad’s tire business, Coker Tire.

And of course, we have to ask about how you picked up the nickname, “Corky.”

Corky Coker – Grand Marshall – Well Rod, you know, when I was born, my Mom gave me a biblical name, which my real name is Joseph. My Dad said, “Fine, that’s great. No problem, but we’re going to call him Corky.”

Dad got my name from the Sunday morning comic strip in the funny papers called Gasoline Alley. Corky was the character that rode on the cart behind the mule, picking up junk and collectibles. 

So I was destined to be around gasoline fumes, tires, and cars. I grew up in my father’s shop changing tires as a young man, and even before that, washing white walls when my Dad first opened Coker Tire Company in 1958. 

The original equipment tires that he sold in his tire shop we now manufacture in the original B.F.Goodrich molds for collector tires. So yes, I’ve grown up in this business. 

Early on, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, but Dad pulled me back from college. Instead, he wanted me to take over the vintage tire business, a minor part of the business back then.  

So I grabbed hold of it, took it, and just fell in love with the vintage tire business. My Dad used to say, “You only need to do one vintage show and swap meet every year, and that’s the one in Hershey, Pa. 

I’ve been going to the Hershey’s show since 1963. Since then, I’ve only missed a couple of years.  

Besides Hershey, I started going to swap meets and shows all over the country. It wasn’t long before I approached B.F. Goodrich, Firestone, U.S. Royal, Michelin, and others to do licensed products.  

I’ve traveled the world to find original tire molds and develop relationships with clients and distributors. Ultimately, we moved into a manufacturing facility with 160 employees doing business in over 80 countries.

Because we needed the vehicle that the vintage tire went on, I’ve acquired a substantial collection of cars over the years. For us, it wasn’t always about profit; we just loved what we were doing.

Exciting Vintage Racing

Rod Worley – Editor –  Congratulations on being named the Grand Marshal for the upcoming Chattanooga Motorcar Festival. This year’s event will start on Friday, October 15th, and run through Sunday, the 17th.

How did you come to be a part of this event initially? Also, can you share more about the Pace Grand Prix at the Bend on Friday and the West Village Road Rallye?

Corky Coker – Grand Marshall – Thank you. Being named this year’s Grand Marshall is quite an honor for me. 

I got involved in this event back in 2019 when the DeFoor brothers asked me to help them put on and promote this show. Before that, I had prior experience developing and promoting car events in the area.

The 2019 Chattanooga Cruise-In we put on drew upwards of 3,000 cars and over 20,000 people to downtown Chattanooga.  

Byron and Ken DeFoor had experience in vintage racing but were looking for help with promotion and attracting hardcore car collectors to the event. Our first Chattanooga Motorcar Festival in 2019 was wildly successful, even though it landed on the same weekend as the Hershey swap meet.

We’ve planned three days of fun this year, starting on Friday, the 15th, with the Jim Pace Grand Prix at the Bend. This race event is a friendly style wheel-to-wheel racing competition.

We hold it on a street circuit in a historically industrial area along the riverfront in downtown Chattanooga.

The classes range from Brass & Tin, Pre-War Era, all the way to electric cars. In addition, some categories will include small and large bore sports cars, prototypes up to modern GT, and supercars.  

I’m a real fan of early NASCAR racing cars and have four cars entered in the field. We even have exact replicas of the 1911 Marmon and the 1911 Lozier cars that finished one-two at the first Indy 500 in 1911. 

We will also have the West Village Road Rallye. This is a timed speed endurance rally on the back roads of Georgia, North Georgia, northeast Alabama, and Tennessee.

There will probably be 60 to 75 vintage rally cars participating in the Rallye. In addition, we’ve got race cars coming in from all over the country to join in our vintage racing.

Mecum Auctions Comes To Chattanooga

Rod Worley – Editor – In addition to the Pace Grand Prix at the Bend and the West Village Road Rallye, you got a host of other activities planned.

Can you shed some light on the other events, especially the Mecum Auctions on the 15th and 16th?

Corky Coker – Grand Marshall – You’re right. We’ve got many family-friendly events happening over the three-day weekend.  

We’re excited to have Dana and Frank Mecum bring their famous Mecum Auction to Chattanooga for the first time. There will be over 600 vehicles for sale at the Chattanooga Convention & Trade Center, located just a little north of the Coker Museum and Honest Charlie Speed shop.

I would recommend taking some time to go in and look at the beautiful vehicles they’re bringing for the auction. Also, the general Chattanooga Motorcar Festival & VIP admission tickets grant you access to the Mecum Auctions for the two-day event.

We’ll have an automobilia display and market there plus parking for attending car clubs for all three days.

There will also be a “Gathering of the Greats – Ferrari Edition” on Sunday that you won’t want to miss, and of course, our Concours d’Elegance Awards Ceremony.

The Chattanooga Motorcar Festival focuses on vehicles of all types. We want an event that engages, excites, and entertains the entire family.

The Action Starts Friday, October 15th

During the three days from Friday, October 15th through Sunday, October 17th, Chattanooga will earn its moniker of “The Dynamo of Dixie.” This small city nestled in a rolling valley surrounded by the mountains of the Cumberland Plateau will rumble to life.

Ultimately, the cars themselves will stand out as the main attraction as they should. Moreover, based on early reveals, the concourse-quality offering will probably impress even the most jaded of historical experts.

On top of everything, this Festival has its heart in the right place. Proceeds from the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival support neuroscience research through Fifty Plus Racing Foundation, Inc.

Fifty Plus Racing Foundation, Inc. has been raising funds since 2011 through a racing team called Highway to Help. This team was started by Byron DeFoor and Brian Johnson of the rock band AC/DC.

For three days this October, a section of downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, will be transformed into an automotive lover’s paradise. As for us, we’re counting down the days till the event.