A new Oak Harbor-based automotive organization is taking to the streets down south for its very first festival at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds.

When Taylor Register, founder of [REDLINE], heard about the need for a car event to roll into the fairgrounds on Aug. 19 after organizers of a previous show backed out, he hit the gas pedal and seized the opportunity.

Back in May, Register started the car organization [REDLINE] with friend Noah Pieniadz. What began as an informal meet for car enthusiasts – also known as “gearheads” – in the Walmart parking lot has since turned into weekly meetings at Windjammer Park, and a bimonthly collaboration event with DownBadCrew, another automotive organization from the Skagit Valley.

“In Texas, we called it Cars and Coffee,” Register said. “It was once a month at the local mall and thousands of people would show up.”

Register grew up in Houston, which is known as the street racing capital of the nation. Car culture in the Lone Star State is especially prominent; he attended many festivals, including TX2K, a massive, one-week event taking place at a venue with a track.

The Navy brought him to Oak Harbor last summer, where he soon learned car meets don’t have a good reputation, and are often associated with disruptive behavior such as burnouts and doughnuts, which can cause damage to private property. Oftentimes, people can also get hurt.

But Register is setting out to counteract the stigma with clean, respectful meets that do not promote those negative aspects of car culture.

“I would like there to be a (good) reputation for the car community,” he said. “It’s not just my club. I want [REDLINE] to be the push for that.”

Slowly, he has been working hard to bring the parts of the car scene he loved from four or five years ago to Whidbey Island, which includes the regular “Park N’ Chill” meets every Friday at 8 p.m.

“I love going out there and seeing all those people,” Register said. “I can’t remember all their names, I really can’t. I try so hard. Something that many car people will tell you is we don’t remember people by the face or by the name, but by the car.”

Lifted trucks, dropped cars, race cars and cars with slicks – drag tires designed for track use – come to the local Oak Harbor meets, where vehicles park and owners mill about to see what new thing a friend has done to their automobile.

“You’ll even see people pulling up on sports bikes faster than sin. It’s incredible,” Register said. “I want to see all that, in Langley, on Aug. 19 and more. I know there’s the potential for it too.”

The upcoming car show, known as SHAKE N’ BAKE, opens at noon on the fairgrounds and is expected to run until 8 p.m. Walking in and viewing the cars is free. Participants wanting to show off their cars must pay $10 at the gate. An additional $15 enters the driver in the three competitions. Besides judging of cars, drivers can compete in a revving contest in which the audience decides which car sounds best, and the classic game of limbo. Register said it is fun to see people try to get their cars as low as possible to pass under the pole, with methods such as placing people on the hoods and trunks to weigh the vehicles down.

“I want to see every car under the sun there,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s a little truck imported from Japan or if it is something straight out of NASCAR with a full roll cage.”

Like most gearheads, Register enjoys tinkering with his car and adding modifications.

“Any person that loves to work on a car will also tell you it is a love and hate relationship, because it’s really fun working on them, but then when things go wrong, you start to hate it very quickly,” he said.

His own current set of wheels is his third silver Ford Mustang – the first crashed, the second flooded.

“It was owned by two other military members prior to me, in the Air Force, and one time it was actually registered in Germany,” he said. “I actually have pictures of it on the Autobahn in Germany, which is very surreal.”

Register planned the upcoming show in Langley with the help of fellow car enthusiast Katelyn Mcfarlin. He has big dreams for the future of [REDLINE] as an automotive event and planning company. The word “redline” means to push a car to its absolute limit, which he hopes to do with the car community.

For more information about [REDLINE], visit redlineonlinestore.myshopify.com or on Instagram @redline_whidbey_island.

Taylor Register is the founder of automotive organization [REDLINE] and the lead organizer for the upcoming SHAKE N’ BAKE car festival at the Whidbey Island Fairgrounds in Langley. (Photo by Kira Erickson/South Whidbey Record)