Lauren Bowyer (centre) with winners of the best flex at last year’s event.
WITH huge interest in the inaugural muster held last year as part of the Cooktown Discovery Festival, organisers have expanded the Cape York Ute Muster to a full auto show and are hoping it will reinvigorate the annual festival.
Organiser Lauren Bowyer said she hadn’t expected the overwhelming response to last year’s event, and this year’s show was looking to be even bigger.
“We had 30 people register last year, and already have people registered for this year,” she said.
“We have added extra categories this year, so it will be a full automotive muster, not just for utes.”
This year the event is being re-branded as the Cape York Automotive Muster, with categories for hunting rig, ladies’ rig, classic rig, best flex, roughest rig, street ute, motorcycle, truck, sexy standards, B&S ute and muscle cars, as well as the people’s choice “best in show”.
“There is something for everyone, from the sexy standards category which is just a good-looking car that hasn’t had many modifications done, to the other end of the spectrum with the roughest rig,” Ms Bowyer said.
“So far I’ve only had a handful of sponsors come on board, and we are getting pretty close to the wire, so I may have to pull some of the categories if we don’t get a bit more support.”
If support from both those wanting to show off their vehicles and businesses providing sponsorship continued to grow, Ms Bowyer said she envisioned the muster growing into a fully-fledged car show that would attract a huge crowd to Cooktown for the annual Discovery Festival weekend.
“Eventually if I keep getting support and I can secure sponsorship, I’d like it to be a big car show, maybe based at the racecourse and all the vehicles can be parked up with people able to walk in and out and have entertainment at night,” she said.
“This just gives another element to the festival, it could be as big as the Cooktown Hog Hunt which is now one of the biggest feral animal eradication events in Australia, and bring all those people here to enjoy the car show and the festival.”
