Numbers Down at This Year's Albaugh Classic

Rain dampened the numbers at last weekend’s Albaugh Classic car show, but organizers are still calling it a successful event.

The third annual attracted close to 2,000 people, said Catherine Tyson, executive assistant to Dennis Albaugh at Albaugh, Inc. A total of 309 cars participated.

These numbers were down from the last Albaugh Classic held in 2009 that brought 446 cars and 4,300 spectators to the event.

The event raised a total of $45,360 for the Ankeny Schools activities.

“People came out to see the car collections and support our schools,” said Catherine Tyson, executive assistant to Dennis Albaugh at Albaugh, Inc. “We couldn’t ask for anything better than that.”

The funds will be used for buying new uniforms for the high school band, among other things.

Kevin Biggs, Ankeny Community School District's athletics and activities director, said the event's founders, Dennis Albaugh and Carl Moyer, clearly spared no expense when it came to creating an event to raise money for the school.

"It was a great pleasure for me to be able to work closely with them and to see the passion and commitment they have for students," Biggs said.

Ankeny High School Principal Brenda Colby said the district will be "eternally grateful" to those who organized the event.

Tyson said the original goal for this year’s show was to attract 4-6,000 spectators and 600 cars, as well as raise $75,000 for Ankeny Schools.

“This year was not a failure – we controlled everything we could control,” she said “We just got a lot of people that said they would have come out were it not for the weather.”

Organizers were pleased with those who did attend the show and also with the effort put forth by those who helped throughout the day.

“I feel like everyone did an exceptional job on our team, with the exception of whoever ordered the weather,” Tyson said. “Anyone who came out in that rain was extraordinary.”