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Fair Baldwin Hot Rod Association, Irish Pub host car enthusiasts
Attendees show off their classics at meet-up
Baldwinites showed off their classic cars at the Baldwin Hot Rod Association’s first car club event of the season last Sunday morning.
Dozens of people socially distanced in the parking lot behind the Irish Pub, on Merrick Road, where Shawn Sabel, the pub’s owner, offered drinks and a free buffet.
Steve Burke, one of the founding members of the Baldwin Hot Rod Association, had planned the event since February. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic delayed the meet-up.
But many of the event-goers said it was a great opportunity to see their friends, and to support a local fixture like the Irish Pub. Many local businesses have struggled throughout the pandemic, and Burke said he was happy to partner with someone like Sabel.
“To me, it’s all about getting the guys from the car club out doing something positive,” Burke said, especially after everyone has been cooped up inside for so long. “Shawn really cares about this community. And for me to see my friends, you can’t go wrong. We haven’t seen each other in a while.”
In May, Burke and other members of the Hot Rod Association, in collaboration with Baldwin American Legion Post 246, organized a car parade that led to the veterans memorial in Silver Lake Park to commemorate Memorial Day. The parade featured military vehicles, classic cars and motorcycles.
“When I got involved in doing Memorial Day to do something for the community,” Burke said, “Shawn then went back to me and said he wanted to go ahead and still do it.”
And Burke said he was planning more events for the future.
“It was from 10 to one — I’m going to start thinking of the next thing at 1:05,” he said. “I’m working hard on it. This is my passion; these cars have been around Baldwin for a while.”
He thanked Baldwinites John Cools and Jerry Brown, of the Baldwin Fire Department, for their help in organizing the meet-up.
“It’s not all me,” Burke said. “It is me — it’s my heart, it’s my ideas, I’m the architect of great ideas — but I need guys to help me execute it.”
“This is the first time since the pandemic that we actually were able to get together,” Brown said, “and it gave us an outside venue so we can still do social distancing and still see everyone and have a good time, so it ended up being a great thing.”
Burke showed off his gray 1967 Chevy Super Sport, with its original drivetrain still intact. The car belonged to his late brother, Tommy Burke.
“Hopefully one day my son gets to drive it,” Burke said. “It’s going to stay in the family. Hopefully the right person drives it. Who knows? My daughter could drive it.”
Burke’s friend Rich Baldassano, of Baldwin, brought his 1955 Chevy Nomad, a black two-door station wagon that he said he rebuilt.
“I modernized it with a different engine transmission,” said Baldassano, a mechanic. “Power steering, power brakes, power windows — I put all that in.”
The car has been in Baldwin since 1976, Baldassano said. It even has fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror.
“Without Steve Burke, we wouldn’t have been able to organize it in such a big fashion,” Sabel said. “I am proud to be partners with him on this event. I love this town and I just want to keep continuing to be part of such a supportive, beautiful town. It was so refreshing to finally start seeing familiar and new faces again.”
