By JORDAN IKEDA
Rafu Contributor
Editor’s note: The Rafu Shimpo is giving away 25 pairs of tickets to this event! For more information about the contest, click here.
The Motion Auto Show & Expo is revving up for Sunday, May 20, when thousands of enthusiasts from all over the U.S. will be heading to the Long Beach Convention Center to take part in what has become the largest show of the sports compact kind on the West Coast.
After helping to jump-start two other car shows, Mike Morita has been the man behind the wheel driving Motion. Owned by BelShore Enterprises, which also owns Promotion Distributing, the largest after market distributor in the industry focused on sports compact performance parts, Motion is becoming what Morita had always envisioned the perfect car show to be.
“It is really a beacon of what our community, our culture and business is all about,” said Morita, who is Motion’s president. “It’s like an automotive nirvana, the definitive place for manufacturers, hard core car show competitors, and automotive enthusiasts to meet, listen, learn, and share.”
This year’s event will feature over 130 first-class vendors like Falken Tire, NOS Energy Drink, Nitto Tire, Mobil 1 and AERO International products; over 350 cars competing for one of the most sought after trophies on the car show circuit, a custom-designed architectural piece by Troy Sumitomo from 5 Axis; a dozen of Decipher TVs best urban dancers competing for cash and prizes; and over 20 models competing in Jeri Lee’s bikini contest.
Whatever you personally think about sports car culture, from the bikini contests, to the obsessions with exhausts, intakes, and going really, really fast, one thing can’t be emphasized enough—for Japanese and Asian Americans, it’s definitely something that we own, something we created.
“My passion for cars goes way back to high school,” said Morita who was a teenager during the ’90s. “Back then it was the hot thing to do, to fix up your car. It was cool for Japanese Americans and Asians in general because that was kind of our thing. It was something that our community and our culture created, embraced and evolved.”
So, if you’re interested in the inner and outer workings of cars, or in discovering a youth movement created and developed by Japanese America, or perhaps you’re just into dancers and models, Morita wants you to come out to the Long Beach Convention Center on May 20 and check out the Motion Auto Show & Expo. Space is still available for vendors and car show entrants. Visit www.motionautoshow.com for details.