by Natalie Tripp
STAFF WRITER
Tracks Brewing Company is commemorating Armed Forces Day this Sunday with the sixth-annual Armed Forces Car, Truck, and Bike Show and $1,000 Poker Run along with Miller Motorsports Park, the Utah National Guard, Operation Give and Utah's largest World War II private military collection in association with the Utah Grand Prix.
Although this isn't the first Armed Forces car show and poker run, it will be the first time a specific charity will benefit from the contest. In previous years, the show and poker run have been geared specifically towards supporting the troops overseas, but this year half of the prize money will be donated to Operation Give, an organization that supplies humanitarian aid to civilians in combat zones.
"There's a very good chance that this could be the biggest car show we've ever done," said Dayne Applegate, vice president of Tracks Brewing Company. "We should have between 150 and 200 cars and participants."
The event starts with registration at Tracks at noon on Sunday with the car, truck and bike show at 1 p.m. Show entries will be judged in categories ranging from classics to new models, and a burn-out contest will be held as well. After the contest, participants will begin the $1,000 poker run.
A poker run, also known as a poker derby, is an organized event using a motorcycle, boat, car or other form of transportation where participants travel over a designated route and at each designated stop on the route draw a playing card. The object is to have the best poker hand at the end of the run.
The first stop of the poker run after starting at Tracks is at Tooele's Veterans Memorial Park, where Tooele's Veterans of Foreign Wars will conduct a flag ceremony. After the flag ceremony, the poker run continues to the Tooele Army Depot, where participants can peruse Utah's largest private collection of World War II armed vehicles and utilities, and watch a tank crush another vehicle.
"The World War II collection has a lot of different pieces of military equipment," Applegate said. "It has tanks, jeeps -- anything that was used in the war. And it's not just limited to the United States. The collection has artillery from different countries like Russia."
Following the stop at the depot, participants will head to Miller Motorsports Park in time to catch the end of the Utah Grand Prix, which starts at 1 p.m. Participants will take a parade lap around the track and the winners of the car, truck and bike show will be announced, as well as the total amount raised for Operation Give.
"The winner of the event will get half of the $1,000 and the other half will be donated to Operation Give in the winner's name," said Applegate.
Tracks is also giving the community a chance to contribute to Operation Give. A storage pod will be placed at Tracks for collection toys to send to children in combat zones. Toys will not be accepted if they will not work without batteries, require electricity, are violent, shoot projectiles or are Barbies or similar action figures. Donations can be dropped off after 4 p.m. on Thursday.
"We're really excited about this event," Applegate said. "We're hoping to make this a bi-annual event in the future."
The cost of tickets for the event is $10 for the show and lunch, or $15 for the poker run, show and lunch with 100 percent of all proceeds donated to Operation Give.
ntripp@tooeletranscript.com