What’s up everyone! All I can say is, let the shows begin. It’s May and the show season and good weather is finally upon us. We will be attending several impressive events through out this month, come join us for the Gauge Magazine 2003 Show Tour.

We will be making our first stop in Carlisle, PA for the Carlisle Custom Compact Nationals presented by Quaker State. The event will be held at the Carlisle, PA Fairgrounds on May 2-4, and is expected to pull in over 3000 vehicles. Come be part of all the special activities and crazy entertainment, see you at the show!

The next stop is one of the wildest shows held in the mid west, The Cruisefest Nationals. Cruise on into the Ross County Fairgrounds in Chillicothe, OH on the weekend of May 9-11. Come experience the Ultimate Party held 2 nights back to back with Gauge Magazine. The 4th Annual Gauge Magazine Lifestyle Party will be held on vendor row in the show grounds on Friday and Saturday evening. Spend your night life with Gauge Magazine, listening to the sounds of DJ Kidd Kut tearing up the turn tables, with appearances from The Sinister, DJ Splice, and special guest Switch Blade. To add to the entertainment Ian Harris the human fire breather, will be making his second guest appearance at our ever popular Lifestyle Parties, and is guaranteeing one hell of show. For more information, visit www.cruisefestnationals.net.

If you’re able to recover from the wrath that the Cruisefest Nationals brings, you just can’t miss the third stop of the month in Greenville, MS. Just the visions alone of custom vehicles hitting the switch’s to send every bit of rocker to the ground, to display a 20 foot shower of sparks and have the local police promoting and cheering them on. That’s right, it’s time for Showfest! The ever popular Showfest will be held on the weekend of May 17 -18, come visit the Gauge booth to grab a free sticker and get your picture on Gauge Magazine.

To round off the month of May, we visit Lebanon, TN for the 10th annual Slammin & Jammin presented by Falken Tire and Godfather Customs. Come see how Charlie Cobble does it, on the weekend of May 23-25 at the James E. Ward Agricultural Center. Major Magazine coverage will be present throughout the weekend, to catch the excitement of this extraordinary event. For more information, visit www.autoshows.cc.

As you can see it will be a very busy, but exciting month of May to kick off the summer show season. Catch up with our photographers at events; I’m sure they’ll have some Gauge goodies to pass along. Stay tuned for the months to come, summer has just begun.

As always we have another stunning issue for you this month. Appearing on this months cover, is Matt Shuler’s jaw dropping 2000 Honda Civic EX. Just the paint alone on this clean ass Civic is enough to make you throw on some shades.

To top off Matt’s Civic we bring you our gorgeous May Gauge Girl, Pamela Whirley. If you would like to get up close and personnel with Pamela, see the sexy over 18 yrs old section.

As if Pamela’s over 18 section wasn’t enough for everyone, we’ve brought you a fine selection of events. I had the pleasure of covering the 37th Annual Carl Casper International Auto Show in Louisville, KY. The event was held at the Kentucky Fair& Exposition Center, on February 22-23 2003.
Photographer Chad Jesse was throwing sparks on his way over to shoot Scr8pefest, hosted by Pebble Pushers on September 28th 2003 in Kannapolis, NC.

The coverage you’ve been waiting for is here! Spring Fling 2003 which was hosted by Vital Signs, pulled in a stunning crowd to the Frank Brown Park in Panama City Beach, FL. Photographers Michael McGill, Smalls, and I attended this awesome event on March 15-16 2003, which just so happen to be dead in the middle of Spring Break. Remember the Bucci Twins last month; they were a fine example of Spring Fling 2003!

We’ve lined up an aggressive selection of vehicles for you this month. Aaron Webster representing Negative Camber, brought us his 1995 Chevy Blazer to show off “Da Short Bus”. Jeremy Lilly pulls out an aggressive feature with his laid out 1972 Chevy Suburban. Scott Wilson pulled out this photo shoot before the reconstruction of his 1994 TOY, be sure not to miss out on the details of these awesome vehicles.

We are currently putting together a Gauge Team Freelance, which is a program designed to allow you, our readers, to be more involved with how Gauge Magazine tics. Gauge Magazine has always prided ourselves on being for the auto enthusiast by the auto enthusiast, therefore we want die hard photographers/enthusiasts to show off their skills and give them the opportunity to have their work published in a world renowned magazine. Gauge’s 2003 Show Tour Schedule is starting to get jammed packed and we would like to bring the readers as much coverage as possible, please if you are interested in participating on Team Freelance or have any questions contact me at Bigwood@GaugeMagazine.com.

As usual if you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me at bigwood@gaugemagazine.com, until next month keep your heads up and at least one frame rail on the ground! Peace!

BIG WOOD
bigwood@gaugemagazine.com