The Heartland MG Regional has a rich and varied background over the last 21 years. To read more about where we started, where we've been...

Way back in 1988 two MG owners, Ben Munday from the KC MG Car Club and Phil Collins from the Midwest MGA Club, began to develop a plan to draw greater attention to the fun of both owning and driving an MG. Both clubs had previously participated in the Kansas City All British Car and Cycle Meet each fall and MG's always fielded more cars there than other makes. However, being mixed in with all the other makes of cars, they just didn't get to stand out like they should. Additionally, there were only a few significant car shows in the mid-west in those days, so the calendar surely had room to add one more.

Ben and Phil envisioned a slightly smaller version of John Twist's Summer Party for the general template as the work began. Other dedicated MG enthusiasts quickly joined to form a committee to help take on the task of bringing the show to life. Eventually the group selected the name Heartland to identify the Regional flavor, and the MG logo was prominent to clearly identify the primary scope of the show. Since this start, many good men and women have become involved to keep the dream alive.

The show was envisioned to be an all MG show that would attract hundreds of cars from the central US. Additionally, the new Heartland Park Raceway in Topeka was about to open and preliminary plan included the possibility of a few laps on the new track. Dream big if you are going to dream! While this turned out not to be, it did bring the Topeka All British MG-T Club into the planning process and resulted in the first year's show being held in Topeka. After mass mailings, the group waited for registrations to come pouring in and hoping that the grounds of the Governor's mansion in Topeka would be large enough to contain all the cars. Less than 100 cars made that first show but everyone seemed to have a good time so it was decided to try again the following year.

In evaluating the first year's results, it was decided we needed a show location closer to a larger population center, the historic City Square in Independence, Missouri, seemed like a terrific site. This site served the Heartland Regional MG Show well for the next 11 years. In 1999 the show was moved to St. Joseph, Missouri where the city welcomed us and arranged for the show to be held on the grassy public grounds of the City Hall. Our attendance still wasn't as large as we had hoped but we did pick up some cars from areas north of KC.

In 2006 the Show was moved to the Kansas City area and was held at the parking lot of the then new Cabella's near the Kansas Speedway. In 2007 the Show was moved to the Santa Fe Commons Park in downtown Overland Park, Kansas. This grassy park, with loads of big shade trees and the easy walk to shops, make this a great location and is currently a real crowd pleaser.

Please select the "Show Location" button to see and read more about this great location. The park is also the location of our very popular "Saturday Morning Pancakes in the Park" feature of the show weekend. Come and join us as we hold our 21th Annual Regional Heartland MG Car Show!