By nickwindsorGas City held its annual Ducktail Run Rod and Custom Car Show this year, where residents of Gas City and outsiders can come and show off their custom muscle cars.
Many people who were showing off their cars were returners like Jarred Lucky, Ducktail staff, a resident of Gas City and owner of a blue 1960 Ford F1 500 truck.
He has been participating in Ducktail Run with his truck for five years.
“It’s a good atmosphere. It’s fun to look at all the cars and all the people you see, people that you hang out with the year before you see them that next year. And it almost becomes like a family, almost,” said Lucky.
Lucky has been a frequent attender of Ducktail since the early ‘90s when it was still called Rebel Run.
Ducktail run has been around for almost three decades and goes on around the same time as Fairmount’s James Dean festival.
“So, James Dean is a classic car show, where this (Ducktail Run) is a rod and custom show. So that’s difference, whereas it’s only classic cars that go into James Dean and classic cars and cars that are chopped, channeled, tubbed and highly customized are allowed in here,” said Lucky.
Lucky said both festivals benefit their hometowns in different ways.
“It brings a lot of revenue to the community through the businesses, convenience stores, hotels, parks, they do a good-sized donation to the parks department from this,” said Lucky.
There are some other benefits that can be seen by first timers like Noah Richey who helped build a 1968 red Pontiac GTO.
“I think it just really is a very important thing that just kind of brings the community together. Obviously, we have James Dean, that’s just down the road, and we have Ducktail here, and there’s a lot of people here who you get to hear their stories and hear how they built the car with the history is of the vehicle, and it’s just a good community event that brings everybody together,” said Richey.
Reilly Gaunt 
Emily Bontrager