MECA Hot August Nights in Kentucky

By: MECA Car Audio

Team H.B.I.C. and E² Audio made MECA history with the Hot August Nights sound-off event in KY on Saturday, August 23rd, with the first ever all female Judge Team.  SPL, Drive-by SPL Parade, Sound Quality, Install, Show & Shine, MECA Kids, & "Ride the Light" MECA formats were offered at the show.  MECA Kids entries were free with a parents entry.  The event was hosted by X-treme Fitness in their parking lot in Columbia, as a promotion for their gym and health center.  After the sound-off and Ride the Light contests, the festivities were relocated to the Campbellsville bowling alley, where "Bass & Bowling" lasted until the wee hours into the next day.

At the contest, the ladies were business-as-usual as they performed their judge duties, working with some heavy hitters and MECA veterans.  Rick Washabaugh (Team-Loco/Xstatic/Zapco) won Best of Best of Show and SPL Best of Show with a 155.2 dB at the headrest, and a Drive-by SPL Parade Best of Show score of 129.5 dB.

David Lane (Team JL Audio) from Columbia, IN returned to the lanes to take his stack of trophies home in SPL and SQL contests, with an impressive 1st place in DB5 scoring 126.8 dB.  Snoop Dan Rydzewski of Team Daily scored 150.6 dB in MX2, won SQL Phat Truck, and did a great pink and purple hair trick with Minde Ramos, H.B.I.C. team leader, that you can see at Team HBIC's MySpace page.  Cory Bradley (Team Innovative) won the SQL Best of Show award.

Lehna Elder, co-captain of Team H.B.I.C and the first woman in MECA to hit 150+ dB this season, continued her run with a 150.4 dB in Street 5.

Rachele Cochran took the pink 5’ H.B.I.C. Best Of Show award and astounded the crowd with her Aztec’s neon display, which took 1st in both Neon Interior & Neon Exterior.  Minde Ramos took Phat 12 away from Corey Mitchell of Carlisle Acoustics, with at 146.3 dB, with 1 Lanzar 12” woofer. 

That score was also good enough for her to take 1st place in Modified 1.  The ladies set 4 Kentucky SPL and Drive-by SPL Parade records and 1 SQL State record.

When E² Audio and Team H.B.I.C sponsored $300 dollars worth of entries at the show at Freeman Lake, before Hot August Nights, they didn’t believe they would have over 60 entries while making MECA history.  With 26 SPL and 17 Drive-by SPL Parade entries, the SPL Judges were very busy.  Jennifer Washabaugh added to her SQL Judge credentials with 10 Sound Quality entries in an extremely hot parking lot. 

 

Teams and Manufacturer Members were represented:
MECA Teams:  Team Autosound, Team Carlisle Acoustics, Team Daily, Team DC's Most Wanted, Team H.B.I.C., Team Innovative, Team-Loco, Team No Limit, Team Public Disturbance, Team Sparky, Team Street Waves
Manufacturers:  Team JL Audio, Team Lanzar, Team Pioneer, Team Sundown, Team Xstatic, Team Zapco

 

Four Competitors experienced car trouble but they still came to the show and partied with the ladies and MECA:
1) Cory Harrod (Team-Loco) power steering pump went out on way to show but still made it and competed.
2) Jeremy McCord (Team Carlisle Acoustics) car not drivable and unable to compete, but he still made it down with his team to show support. 
3) Fredrick Simpson (Team DC’s Most Wanted) had to replace a compressor on his car, but still made the show and competed.
4) Randy Houghton (Team Innovative) had a tire blow out after the show on the way to the bowling alley, but Team Innovative stepped up and got it fixed.

 

The show was much bigger than expected with judging over after dark.  The bowling alley owner in Campbellsville closed the bowling alley, but kept half the alley open a few hours after closing just for the MECA party!  Ed Ramos, E2 Audio owner, working with wife Minde of Team H.B.I.C., organized the event with the help of MECA members in the area.  This was the second time that MECA worked with the bowling alley for a sound-off event.

 

The ladies of Team H.B.I.C. are looking forward to more shows in Columbia & Campbellsville at the bowling alley next season.  Plans are being made to rent out the entire bowling alley for a show in the parking lot, plus trophies for a bowling tournament during the event. 

 

Check out www.myspace.com/team_hbic for over 400 pics from this event.  Results are at www.mecacaraudio.com on the Event Schedule.  Contact the MECA Commissioner at 615-851-PHAT or mecacaraudio@comcast.net for information on hosting MECA car audio contests in your area.

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