By James Chevrette
Have you ever thrown a car audio event that was so big that cars lined up for over 3 blocks and spectators filled the streets? Well, Okanagan Car Audio figured it out. I am sunburnt, dehydrated, tired and loved every minute of it.
In Kelowna, BC, Canada, Okanagan Car Audio owner Chris Storfield, threw a huge party back in April as a “Scott Parsley Memorial.” The event corresponded with a Triple Point dB Drag Event (first of the 2025 season), and it drew competitors as far as Southern California.
The event attracted the next generation of competitors, with a father and son duo “Western Insanity” competing separately against each other. The son was victorious that weekend, but I am sure that dad, Kurt Sr will be back!
Keira Christensen, daughter of the former 3-time World Champion Cory Christensen, competed to qualify for her 3rd world championships in db Drag Racing this fall. Christensen is a 2024 World Record holder in the class Psychlone and she set another World Record for 2025 at this event!
A competitor who drove the furthest was Joel Ybamit from Southern California, who drove 25 hours one way!
The event drew 35 competitors in all, who entered 87 categories. It was a long day. There were lots of spectators throughout, and after 5pm, it was standing room only. A parking lot 2 blocks down became the overflow parking area. Okanagan Car Audio also leveraged a neighbor to hold (on private property) a burn-out contest.
One thing that stood out was the number of young women participating, supporting and spectating. The dB Drag judge Peak Freq Bassgirl, joined Ray Choy’s judging team. Genevei Choy (Ray’s son), wearing a colorful bucket hat, represented the under 25 crowd in the judging lane. With the event lasting well into the night, the amount of energy judges Team Mini and Peak Freq Danny gave to the spectators and the crowd did not go unnoticed.
This event really reminded me of how fun car audio was and is today, with people hanging out, talking about cars, builds and sharing their love for car audio. I saw people I had not seen in over 10 years; an old friend was competing on his 47th birthday with his now 20+ year old kids – Happy Birthday Gerry! The people celebrating Scott Parsley’s love for car audio made for a great weekend.
To answer the question of your first sentence James, YES I have, for over 30 years, LOL!. What’s best about this story is that it attracted the youth that, at least at my shop if not the industry, has been missing for several years. That would be the 16 to 24 year old male. For decades SBN proved it’s efficacy to court youthful Spring Breakers (what once was our target) to be exposed to products in a funfilled event, while drawing the trade for the camaraderie, but more importantly, to place orders from distributors and other suppliers, and to attend educational seminars. Many forget that premise of Soundoff was marketing to stimulate sales. MORE than many call for a resurgence of SBN. Will it gain industry support, is a good question. I’ve been thinking…
Paul, I think you should do it. I would open it up to Motorcycle Audio comps too! I miss SBN
It’s so great to hear of an event like this still happening. I have very fond memories of attending dB Drag shows when I was too young to drive, coercing my parents to drive me an hour away, drop me off at a random stereo shop for the day, and come retrieve me at dusk. (It was the late 90’s/early 2000’s, I turned out ok… I swear. 😉) It’s especially great to hear about the young energy at the show- our industry needs it to survive. Thanks for the article, great quick read.