by Alan Quick

THE second Charity Car Show held in the car park at Crediton’s Tesco store at Wellparks proved to be another success all round with an increase in the number of cars, spectators and in the amount that was raised for the charities involved. The event raised a fantastic £1,258.

About 340 cars from across the South West attended the event with a vast array of vehicles of all ages, sizes and cost.

Lavish Life, the Car Club that co-hosted the event with Tesco took along nearly 100 cars.

As well as all of the Car Clubs attending there was a significant rise in non-car club members attending who, although the event started at 6pm, were still arriving at 8pm.

Crediton Fire and Rescue attended with a fire appliance and Devon and Cornwall Police’s "The Honest Truth" team attended with Road Safety Education.

Crediton Army Cadets provided extra stewards for the evening and both Lavish Life and Tesco thank them for their tremendous effort and the time that they willingly put in to help out.

Andrew Drayton, the Tesco store’s Community Champion said: “I was so pleased with the event. The variety of cars was reflected by the variety of people that came down to see the show.

"People of all ages from very young children with their families to older guys who were interested to see what was going on.

"It’s very satisfying to be able to hold an event that so many members of the community are interested in and that has the added bonus of benefiting charities that people care about and will have a direct impact on the safety of Crediton residents.”

This impact Andrew talks about is the purchase of a defibrillator that will be mounted on the Council Offices opposite the Town Square.

From the proceeds of the event, £400 will be donated to the Town Council to enable it to buy the machine.

The remaining proceeds are to be split between; Help for Heroes, the charity of car club Lavish Life, and The British Heart Foundation and DiabetesUK, the Charity Partners for Tesco.

Billy Elder, the Founder of the Lavish Life Club, was equally as enthusiastic about the show.

He said: “I was genuinely overwhelmed by the support shown by other car clubs and the people of Crediton that came to the show.

"One of the aims of the event was for the public to engage with car enthusiasts so that they can see we are not all ‘boy racers’ but just ordinary people with a love for cars.

"To be able to do this and at the same time raise loads of money for some brilliant causes made all the hard work and worry worth it.

"I’d like to thank the sponsors of the trophies that we gave to the various winners and a list of them can be found on the events page on ’Facebook’.”

Police reported that there were no incidents or problems in and around the event with everyone leaving safely and quietly.

The superstores new Store Manager, Simon Anbany, was delighted with the outcome.

He said: “This is the first big community event that we have held since I moved to the store and to see such large numbers, how local businesses were involved, the amount raised and that everyone both had fun and were safe is a testament to everyone that worked hard to make it happen.

"I hope that the future events that we have planned are as successful as this one was.”

Andrew finished by saying: “We now have a bit of a decision to make. We would love to hold another some time show next year but have to decide whether to hold it again in the Tesco car park, where we pretty much reached the capacity of what we can do, or take a big step in finding a larger venue and expanding the show.”