Coolest of Cool Cars
Strong City firm makes the prize in new lotto game
By Bobbi Mlynar
Thursday, October 26, 2006
The Kansas Lottery has turned Mike and Nancy Swartz’s lives into a Willie Nelson song: “On the Road Again.”
The couple owns Swartz Motorsports in Strong City, which is taking part in a Lottery scratch-ticket promotion that ultimately will give away four of the company’s custom-made golf cars.
Swartz returned this week from another outing to help the Lottery promote “Cool Cars,” a $2 scratch ticket game that began last week.
Today, they went to Topeka.
“We’re taking one of them up to West Ridge Mall,” Swartz said. “It’s going to be out there on display through the holidays.”
Each car will be displayed at the mall for three weeks, then another model will be brought in to show. The Kansas Lottery will sell tickets, which picture the golf cars, at the display throughout the season.
The golf cars in the giveaways are replicas of four classic vehicle models: a 1947 Chevy Street Rod pickup, a 1957 Chevy Bel air, a 1965 Ford Mustang, and a 2005 Hummer 2. The value of the cars range from $16,500 to $27,000. Along with the golf car, each winner will receive a new trailer to carry it and $750 gift certificate.
Lottery Director Ed Van Petten said that he expects Cool Cars to be a hot ticket.
“We surveyed some of our retailers and showed them the sample tickets, and they all went nuts over it,” Van Petten said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon. “I think it will be a real big success.”
Van Petten said that so far all of the “Made in Kansas” theme tickets have been exceptionally popular with Kansans.
“The worst of them sell better than average,” he said. “I think Kansans are very proud people” and support their home-state products.
The Cool Cars tickets can win up to $10,000 instantly. A non-winning scratch ticket can be filled out and remitted to the Lottery for a second-chance drawing for the golf cars on March 30. The person whose name is drawn first will choose one car from the four; the second person will choose from three cars, and so on until all cars have been awarded.
In addition to the golf car, trailer and gift certificate, each of the four winners will receive another bonus; the Lottery will pay the mandatory federal and state income withholding taxes on the prizes on behalf of the winners.
Swartz said that one of the most exciting orders the company has had come through advertising done by the Lottery and involves a North Hollywood, Calif., man named Ray Claridge.
“He is the guy that built the original Eleanor Mustang for the movie “Eleanor,” Swartz said. “We are building him one off the pictures that he sent me of the original Eleanor.”
The Swartz family has been in the golf car business since 1992.
“We were selling regular cars and paced ourselves into custom cars,” he said.
Parts for the specialty bodies are provided through a franchised outlet that sells molded Fiberglass parts; Swartz does the metal and frame work, painting and everything else involved in creating the custom cars. Swartz Motorsports also is a franchised dealer for new Club Cars.
Cool Cars is the latest in a series of “Made in Kansas” Lottery games that offers Kansas-made products or Kansas-themed attractions and events as grand prizes.
Other Lottery partners in the “Made in Kansas” series are the Flint Hills Tourism Coalition, RangeRunner by TerraTrack of Clay Center, Cobalt Boats of Neodesha, General Motors of Kansas City, Kan., Big Dog Motorcycles of Wichita, Kansas Speedway of Kansas City, the U.S. Senior Open in Hutchinson, 3i Show of the Western Kansas Manufacturers’ Association, and Cabella’s of Kansas City.
The Kansas theme Lottery promotions are the result of a strategic alliance between the Kansas Lottery and the Kansas Department of Commerce, according to Sally Lunsford of the Lottery.
jimboydcloquet (anonymous) says...
Can you please e-mail me the address, website, or e-mail address of Swartz Motor Sports? I live in Minnesota and now own one of these precious cars? Jim Thanks!
January 10, 2010 at 3:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )