By Breven Honda
For car fans in Mesquite and all across the country, start your engines. 
From Sept. 19-21, the CasaBlanca Resort & Casino is hosting its ninth annual Super Run event.
CasaBlanca Resort & Casino Assistant General Manager Christian Adderson said he cannot wait for this year’s Super Run event to commence.
“This is a great annual event that we have each and every year,” said Adderson, who has been the Assistant General Manager for five years. “We get around 700 cars that participate in the event.
“A true car fan is really going to enjoy the Super Run show because they’re going to see just about everything at the show, and the best part is it’s free to the public to attend, so we make it really easy for car fans to come and enjoy a great event with us.”
The show begins from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 19 and 20. On the final day on Sept. 21, the event runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Those in attendance will see different generations of cars, including hot rods and muscle cars to custom builds and vintage rides from in-state places such as Las Vegas and all across the Western United States, including from nearby states such as Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho and California.
As result, different generations of car fans come together for the weekend-long event.
“I think that’s the other neat part. It brings the car culture all together,” Adderson said. “Whether you like the classics or you like the newer cars, custom cars, it brings all those people together.
“And at the end of the day, they’re car fans. It really boosts community with the car folks. But also, those folks are also equally willing to talk to the spectators about their cars and share the stories with them. To me, every time we have a car show like this, it grows the car culture and the car fans that come to the event.”
And it is not only the adults that interact with one another.
Because this event is open to the public and family-friendly, kids and adults of all ages come together. As a result, Super Run has the chance to be the site of kids seeing their first vintage car.
“You see the older generation act like kids because of the nostalgia of seeing that car that they had in high school,” said Adderson, who has been with the CasaBlanca Resort & Casino for 20 years. “Then you see the young kids and their eyes light up with these beautiful cars. Everyone’s so welcoming to everybody that they want to show the kids the cars. They want to get them excited about cars and that car culture.
“I feel like every time we do these shows, it grows the audience of people. It may be that six-year-old’s first time to a car show, and now they’re going to go to a car show every year because it was so cool, and they got to see these beautiful cars to look at.”
One of the great things about this event is that there are always new cars coming to the Super Run every year.
Having the new feeling to be wowed every year is what brings the crowds every year to the CasaBlanca as well as impact to the rest of Mesquite.
“When an event like this comes to the Casablanca, Mesquite as a whole takes over the whole town,” Adderson said. “The CasaBlanca, the Virgin River become that nostalgic place with cars in them.”
In addition to showcasing the cars, there will be different contests and activities throughout the weekend to engage the crowds.
Some of the competitions include a Burnout contest, Slow Drags and a Roaring Engine contest. As a result, there will be more than $15,000 in prizes to be handed out for different superlatives, voted on by the fans in attendance.
“We actually set up a burnout area, a slow drag area, or an engine area,” Adderson said. “We have cement barriers all the way around, and safety is number one. We want people to come out, enjoy the event, but we also want them to know it’s a safe environment for people to check out these events.
“We give away over 250 awards at the award ceremony (at the conclusion of the event). Best in the show is the top car. They get the most votes. But we also do a People’s Choice Award where we want the public to be interactive with the event, so there’s voting opportunities for the public while they’re there. We do like, best Chrome, best flame job on a car, best engineering. There’s so much that goes into these cars, and the engineering is fascinating.”
As a result, the awards give fans the chance to interact with a car by choosing their favorite or even the one that has the best story, such as a comeback journey a car has taken to return to show form.
“Awards like that really pay off,” Adderson said. “Car aficionados that know how tough that was to get that piece on that car or get that car back up to running and be able to show it off. So, all the awards are really fun and neat for the people to see.”
As the event arrives next month, discussions have also already begun for next year’s 10th anniversary of the Super Run.
“We definitely will be doing a big blow for 10 years,” Adderson said. “The Mesquite Motor Mania event, we’ve been doing that event for 18 years now, and we always did some special stuff for the 10-year anniversary, the 15-year anniversary. We’ve already started some plans on the 10-year anniversary next year for Super Run, and we’re excited to share that with the spectators and the participants.”
