By Shannon Edinger
The changing of the season marks the return of AutoFest, hosted by Zephyrhills Festivals Inc. and Zephyrhills Auction Inc. The 26th Annual Fall AutoFest will take place Nov. 11-14, and will open at 8 a.m. each day.
Tim Sierra, who works for Zephyrhills Festivals and Auction, says the Fall AutoFest will have an antique collector car auction, swap meet, car corral and exhibition racing on a quarter- mile dirt track.
The antique collector car auction will take place Friday, Nov. 12 and Saturday, Nov. 13. The auction will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday and 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. It will be a gathering of buyers and sellers with special vehicles such as street rods, muscle cars, classics, racecars, specialty trucks and motorcycles up for auction. A total of 290 cars, both domestic and foreign, will be accepted at the auction for both days. There is an array of consigned auction vehicles so far ranging from Ford coupes to fully loaded Chevy Corvettes.
The swap meet is one of the festival’s highlights.
“There are a lot of new and used auto parts and accessories found here,” Sierra said. The swap meet is held in a massive area where people can find car parts and collectibles ranging from engines and transmissions to souvenirs such as T-shirts and old gas pump signs.
The car corral area of the swap meet is where there are vehicles for sale. There are primarily domestic and some foreign cars ranging from fair to excellent condition for sale at the car corral. “Unlike the auction, the car corral allows people to deal with the owner directly,” Sierra said.
There is also a vintage auto-racing event that takes place Friday through Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Warm-ups will take place on Thursday. There will be stock cars, sprint cars and midgets racing in the event.
Stock cars have the appearance of typical family sedans, but are built to race. Sprint cars are single-seated, open-wheeled racing machines that vary in appearance, and midgets are similar to sprint cars, but they are more compact. The older midgets are typically narrower and taller than the newer midgets.
General admission grants access to all events.
The festival park is located at 2738 Gall Blvd. (US 301) in Zephyrhills. Admission is $8 Thursday, $10 Friday and Saturday and $5 Sunday. There is free admission to children 12 and younger with paying adult.
For more information about the festival or to find out how to register, visit www.zephyrhillsauction.com or call the park at (813) 782-0835.
