2021 Lincoln Homecoming Show Day – A Field of Lincolns!

We’ve paused our blog of the Lincoln Homecoming for a few days to post important announcements of upcoming Western Region events requiring advanced registration and because, frankly, we were flat out exhausted! “We” refers to JIm Ayres, driver extraordinaire, LCOC Western Region Director, and owner of a 1998 Mark VIII, and Elayne Bendel, scribe, blog author and Western Region Board of Managers member.

There’s a lot to cover and we’ll be posting regularly over the next few days. We want to share our excitement over the Homecoming event, the Lincoln Museum and Foundation, and our long journey from Kalamazoo back to California in succeeding posts. So here goes.

At most general car shows we are lucky to find even a Lincoln or two, so you can imagine how thrilled we were on show day at the Homecoming to view an entire field of gorgeous Marks and Lincolns representing all four of the clubs that sponsor the Lincoln Foundation, the Lincoln Motor Car Heritage Museum and this wonderful annual Homecoming event at the Hickory Corners, MI, site of the museum. Here are just a few examples.

Here are a few more.

The theme of the 2021 Homecoming was “Marks Through the Ages,” to recognize all Lincoln and Continental Marks, from the first in 1940 to the Mark VIII, but Lincolns from all eras were welcome and members of each of the four sponsoring clubs–the Lincoln Owners Club, Lincoln-Zephyr Owners Club, Road Race Lincoln Register and Lincoln and Continental Owners Club–displayed their prized collectibles. Dozens of Lincolns covered the field in front of the Lincoln Museum ranging from a 1928 Lincoln L to a pair of 2017 Continentals, a 2020 Corsair and all eras in between.

Some cars trundled in on trailers, but most arrived under their own power from locations as far away as Florida, New Jersey, Alabama, and of course, California. Although there was no long distance participant award given, the winners would have been Jim and Elayne who drove the 23-year-old Mark VIII 2,226 miles from Orange County, CA to Kalamazoo. Second place would have gone to Chris Dunn, who drove a 2001 Town Car from Clearwater, FL.

Below are more selected images of the show field. Enjoy!

This was not a judged concours, but a less formal People’s Choice event. All parties who registered for the Homecoming were eligible to cast ballots for their favorite vehicles by decade. The car receiving the most votes was declared “Best in Show.” That honor went to Charles Wood, who displayed an original, unrestored Encino Yellow 1964 Continental convertible with black top and interior bought new by his grandmother when Charles was just 13 years old. This amazing vehicle still has its original engine, interior, top and rear plastic window!

As the ballots were counted the cars lined up for a parade lap around the Gilmore campus passing in front of the Lincoln Museum. Click here to view a video of the parade.

Later in the evening a buffet dinner was held under a special tent adjacent to the show field, where the People’s Choice awards were presented, as were the awards for the Virtual Car Show associated with the Homecoming. The evening ended with a wonderful concert entitled Ode to Joy under the stars by the Kalamazoo Symphony just a short walk away.

Many of the vehicles entered in the Virtual Show also were physically present at the actual Homecoming, but some were not. Special thanks to Homecoming co-chairs Bob Johnson and Dennis Garrett and to Paul Temple for organizing the Homecoming and to Bob for the list of award winners of both shows.