The 2012 Detroit Autorama Don Ridler Memorial Award Winner
We are proud that our own Tylerite, Dwayne Peace won the coveted 2012 Ridler Award for his '55 T-bird in Detroit this year. The competition for the 49th Ridler award at the 60th Detroit Autorama was as stiff as it has been in many a years. The Pirelli Great 8 could have easily been the Great 10 or even more! But there can only be eight cars to select from for the Ridler award and the '55 Thunderbird belonging to Dwayne Peace and built in conjunction with Greening Auto out of Nashville, Tennessee and Torq'd Design Lab out of Tyler, Texas stood tall on this night. Dwayne is not a stranger to the East Texas Auto & Cycle Show in fact he was one of the participants a few years back. Now, his '55 Ford T-bird Award Winning Car is the feature car for our 2013 show. We are happy and honored for his participation for the upcoming 2013 East Texas Auto & Cycle Show.
The History of the Don Ridler Memorial Award
In 1957, the MHRA hired Don Ridler as promotions agent and publicist for the show. Ridler booked bands that were popular at the time to play at Autorama. Popular acts like Duane Eddy and The Big Bopper helped gain attendance at the show. Ridler died an untimely death in 1963. The Ridler Award was established in 1964 in his honor. Essentially Autorama's "best in show" award, the Ridler Award is named after Don Ridler. The winners of the prestigious Ridler, judged "most outstanding from among the cars being shown for the first time".