Ravenna’s local Mongoose Motorsports, will host its annual Octane Nights Car Show in downtown Ravenna on East Main Street on Aug. 5 beginning at 3 p.m.
“The event has become very popular online,” Mongoose Motorsports owner Tricia Krause told The Weekly Villager in an email. “We have participants come from all over the United States and Canada. We even had some of our Mongoose Motorsports customers come to the show from out of the country.”
The annual rain-or-shine local car show will start receiving cars at 6 a.m. so the registered cars can claim their spot in the parking lots and East Main Street will close at 2 p.m.
According to Krause, the road will be reserved for prepaid VIP parking, with 90% of the parking spaces in the half mile road closure being free in all of the parking lots.
She added that the local annual car show will also give back to the community by donating the proceeds of the show to many community organizations. The event will include two performances by the Ride4Life motorcycle stunt crew and will offer a live performance by D.J. Bobby Seplivita, who will play music from the 1950 and 1960s.
Krause said that the car show’s popularity has extended out-of-state, as the event has frequently welcomed cars from Arizona, Texas, New York and from out of the country.
As the day concludes, all cars will participate in “The Ravenna Rumble” which involves every car stating their engines at the same time in honor of Krause’s late husband, Gary Krause, who started the annual car show in collaboration with then-Ravenna Mayor Joe Bica.
Krause detailed how much the show has grown over the last 12 years, as the first one in 2013 only occupied 1/8 of a mile of State Route 59 and welcomed 700 cars. She recalled how her husband took note of how many cars attended the event and told her that this could become an annual tradition.
Octane Nights took a year off in 2020 and Gary soon passed away. When it returned, Krause extended the road closure to half a mile to hold a memorial show honoring her late husband. Since its return in 2021, the road closure has remained at that distance.
In Krause’s email, she said that last year’s show received an estimated 6,000 cars and 20,000 spectators.
Octane Nights’ growth has required the need for VIP parking, beginning in the Mongoose Motorsports parking lot, and VIP parking has expanded beginning from Hazel Street to New Milford Street, with last year’s show expanding VIP parking to the west entrance of Marc’s parking lot.
For this year’s Octane Nights, the VIP parking has expanded to Linden Street with the approval of the City of Ravenna.
Krause acknowledged in her email that all VIP parking spots were quickly reserved upon being made available but there is still a waiting list available for anyone interested in obtaining space in the event of a cancellation.
She credited the support of businesses for helping Mongoose Motorsports continue to make the annual car show a summer tradition each year in Ravenna.
“The revenue generated from VIP parking also helps to offset the added expense of professional traffic control, allowing us to provide a safe and enjoyable experience while keeping admission free,” Krause added in her email.
She added that the show has been about more than just classic cars but als to support the community of Ravenna.
“In addition to donating proceeds from our annual 50/50 raffle, funds remaining after the event have been reinvested into our community in many ways,” Krause said in her email.
Krause listed several causes that Mongoose Motorsports has donated to with the money raised from the car show such as Big Wheels for the Ravenna Parks & Recreation Kindergarten Safety Town Program, helping purchase new uniforms for the Ravenna Ravens High School football team, sponsoring children in the Ravenna Youth cheerleading program whose families could not afford participation fees and supporting numerous community fundraisers and charitable organizations over the years.
