The NMRA made its fourth stop of the season in Joliet, Illinois, for the Keystone Automotive Ford Nationals, held at Route 66 Raceway in conjunction with the NMCA Edelbrock Muscle Car Nationals and Motive Gear Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing III presented by Nitto Tire. Whew! That's a mouthful. Perhaps we should shorten it to the NMRAKAFN, NMCAEMCN, and MGSBSLDR Nationals. On second thought, even that's too long.

Round three of the NMRA's '08 season rolled into Ford's backyard for the Aeromotive NMRA Ford Nationals June 13-15 at Milan Dragway in Milan, Michigan. Located just west of Detroit, the Milan event always attracts plenty of great Mustangs for the drag racing and the Laurel Mountain Mustang All-Ford Auto Show.

I joined Mustang Monthly for the first time in March 1984, just in time to watch Editor Donald Farr thumb through our first press copies of the April-May 1984 special edition celebrating the Mustang's 20th anniversary, cover-blurbed with "Twenty Years of Mustang." .

Every year when Jim Wicks invites me to the Mid-America Shelby Meet, I initially decline because I need to attend some of the other June events around the country. Then Jim names the special cars and people coming to the show. In the end, I find myself on my company's travel website looking for a Southwest Airlines ticket to Tulsa.

As the '08 show season approached, the conversation around the Mustang water cooler speculated that high fuel prices and a slumping economy could hurt attendance at the summer shows. The June 6-8 All-Ford Nationals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, gave us our first glimpse of how Mustang and Ford fans would react to the higher costs of traveling to major events. If what we witnessed at Carlisle is any indication, then we have to assume that everyone is scrimping and saving in other areas in order to get their fix at the shows.

Here is the 2008 events schedule for Mustang & Fords and Mustang Monthly Magazines. We're adding dates all the time. If you know of a show that's not listed, email the information to mustang.monthly@sourceinterlink.com and we'll list it here.

North-central Florida in January can be an iffy proposition. It can be Chamber of Commerce beautiful with temperatures in the 80s, or it can more closely resemble the frozen tundra from farther north. For this year's rendition of the Mustang and Ford Round-Up at Silver Springs, the Chamber of Commerce must have special-ordered the spring-like weather--well, except for Sunday afternoon's rain--that no doubt contributed to the record-breaking attendance.

It all started in Columbus, Ohio, in the mid '70s when the Performance Ford Club of America held its Ford Expo show on Labor Day weekend. Originally, the show was held at Ricart Ford, with drag racing just down I-70 at National Trail Raceway. Later, everything moved to National Trail for the newly named U.S. Ford Nationals. Today, the NMRA has joined forces with the track to produce the Nitto Tire Ford Expo. As in years past, it's two days of action with drag racing on the National Trail quarter-mile, an all-Ford car show, and a 10-acre swap meet.

The Mustang Club of Tampa hosted its 26th Annual Mustang, Shelby & Ford Roundup at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa on October 14, 2006. This was our club's sixth year at the museum, and the main sponsors of the show were MOSI and Bill Currie Ford of Tampa.

For the first time in the sanctioning body's history, the National Mustang Racing Association made a mid-June visit to Milan Dragway in Milan, Michigan, about 50 miles southwest of Detroit.

For 33 years, the Oklahoma Region of the Shelby American Automobile Club has been celebrating the cars from Shelby American during its annual Mid-America Performance Ford and Shelby Meet. Known simply as the Mid-America Shelby Meet when Jim Wicks organized the first event in 1974, the gathering was originally an opportunity for owners of '62-'70 Shelby vehicles, including Cobras and Mustangs, to share camaraderie and advice. Later, the group added driving events to the program and began welcoming other performance Fords, igniting the tradition of an early June Shelby meet in the middle of the U.S.

At one time during it's 26-year history, the annual Mustang Roundup in Bellevue, Washington, was simply a Mustang show. That time has long since passed. The Roundup now qualifies as a true event, and your intrepid scribe hit the full four days full bore on July 13-16, 2006.

You just never know in Florida. As the residents say, "If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes-it will change." That statement held true for the week prior to the National Mustang Racer's Association, when cold temperatures and rain marred the Chamber of Commerce marketing pitch. By the time the NMRA gang rolled into Bradenton Motorsport Park for the Nitto Tire Spring Ford Nationals March 9-11, the nasty weather had slid off into the Atlantic and was replaced with spring's typical warm and tropical sunshine.

The National Mustang Racers Association put an exclamation point on the '06 season with a season-ending bash at Beech Bend Raceway last October. While racers scrambled on the quarter-mile in attempts to nail down season championships-or at least climb up the standings-local Mustang and Ford owners from all over the east participated in the Laurel Mountain All-Ford Auto Show, sponsored by Mustang Monthly and our sister title, Mustang & Fords.

For nearly three decades, the Ford faithful have converged in Columbus, Ohio, during Labor day weekend for the Ford Expo at National Trail Raceway. For many, traveling to Columbus has become a Labor Day ritual, a grand ending for summer before the northeast weather turns too cool for cruising.

We couldn't believe people were complaining about the heat. After chilly or downright freezing weather for the past three years, temperatures in the 80s were a welcome change for National Parts Depot's 13th Annual Mustang and Ford Roundup on January 6-7, 2007. Held at Silver Springs, home of the famous glass-bottom boats, warm temperatures and sunshine made it feel more like spring than winter-well, except for Saturday afternoon's rain showers. T-shirts and shorts were the preferred attire, as opposed to jackets and sweaters.

The National Mustang Racers Association rolled into Atco, New Jersey, on August 11-13, 2006, for the sixth event during the NMRA's eight-race season schedule. While the drag racers battled it out on the quarter-mile-after all, there were only two more races to go-the show 'n' shine crowd from around the Northeast piled into Atco Raceway for two days of awards in the Laurel Mountain All-Ford Auto Show.

A collectible classic right off the showroom floor, the '01 Mustang GT Bullitt is among the coolest factory-built Mustang specials of all time. With clean styling, a quasi-movie-star status, and excellent balanced performance, the Bullitt GT is possibly the best overall SN-95 Mustang produced during the platform's 1994-2004 run, a fact not lost on the passionate "Bullitt Heads" who recently held their fifth Bullitt Nationals.

After nearly 15 years of attending the Specialty Equipment Market Association's annual tradeshow in Las Vegas, the bumper crop of new goodies never fails to generate interest from us and thousands of others during the week-long, aftermarket-industry show every November.

It was a dark and stormy night-really. The weather on Friday, July 28, at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, was dreadful. To make it worse, it was the eve of the biggest and baddest drag race and car show of the '06 season-the Motive Gear NMRA/NMCA Superbowl of Street-Legal Drag Racing. Tornado warnings and a torrential downpour sent everyone on the manufacturer's midway running for cover. Fortunately, Saturday morning was bright and beautiful.

While watching heads-up and/or bracket racing or perusing a field of killer show cars of all the same make or model is fun for many die-hard enthusiasts, we'll often hear people comment that they'd rather see their favorite Fords beat up on a Chevy or Mopar for a change. The crew at the National Mustang Racer's Association (NMRA) also holds the keys to the NMCA series (National Muscle Car Association), and they're crazy enough to put on both event series at the same time in the same location. With this in mind, the first-annual Motive Gear NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, presented by Nitto Tire, was born.

The third annual Toyo Tire NMRA Ford Nationals on July 7-9 officially wrapped up the first half of the season for the series' racers. Held at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, the event showcased great racing and great weather-notably, no snow, unlike last year's late-spring event.

It's strange to recall that in 1976 the last of the first-generation Mustangs were only three years old. Back then, used-car lots and newspaper classifieds were loaded with barely used '65-'73 Mustangs for sale, including dirt-cheap Shelbys, Mach 1s, and Bosses. At the same time, traditional Mustang enthusiasts were not excited by Ford's newest Mustang offering, the Mustang II. For that reason, many shunned the new Mustang, instead finding cheap entry into Mustang ownership by purchasing a used '65-'73.

Mustang owners are as varied as the available colors on a '67 convertible. Some like shows; others prefer drag racing. Many drive vintage Mustangs; some want the comfort and convenience of the late-models. Most like mainstream convertibles and musclecars, but there are always the ones who enjoy something different from the crowd with a Mustang II or SVO. Heck, even show participants can't agree; some crave the competition of concours judging while others are satisfied with the votes of their peers.