TMCP #397: The Greatest Little Car Show Ever – Old Iola Wisconsin Car Show; June Pro-Touring Update with Larry Callahan
This week our guest was Joe Opperman, Director Public Relations and Marketing at the Iola Car Show and Swap Meet in Iola Wisconsin. Iola is a very small mid-western town that once a year transforms into a massive car show that hosts around 120,000 people and is considered one of the best in world. Joe says he has worked with the show for around 29 years, and he is only 33. If you live in Iola you will either be working for the show or have left town for that week. It is a full community effort to put on the event.
TMCP 393: Jo Coddington: Women in Racing and Hot Rods, Promoting Automotive Products, and Life with Boyd Coddington on and off of TV!
This week I spoke to Jo Coddington, racer, car enthusiast, TV celebrity, and Motorsports spokesperson. She became a household name along with her husband Boyd Coddingon on the television show American Hot Rod, but that was not at all where she really gained her start in the industry. Jo was born in Woodvine Iowa, but grew up “out west” in Phoenix Arizona due to allergies that had no known cure at the time. She was raised in a racing family and after graduating from a go kart, she moved into dirt sports. Jo tells the story of her dad not allowing her to come home until she had rebuilt the race engine she had blown up. She worked on it at a friends garage and thought she could talk him into fixing it, but he was in on the plan with her dad. Years later Jo admits that making her build that engine just reinforced her desire to be involved and could not keep her out of the garage.