GINA B. GOOD / PVT Nye County School District Route Specialist Dottie Krake, points out one of the 606 school bus stops in Pahrump to Joanne Applehans, school psychologist, during last week's tour of the district transportation department. Visitors were shown the expanded drivers' training and mechanic's room, the fueling station and bus yard. Advertisement

Gary Michalsky, a local car enthusiast, entered the Mesquite Motor Mania 2009 car show, representing the Valley Cruisers of Pahrump, and took home a second-tier prize.

His replica 1964 Cobra roadster won the Eureka Casino Hotel Pick award for favorite car of the casino's employees. There were only four of these awards given from the Mesquite hotels: The CasaBlanca, the Oasis, the Virgin River and the Eureka.

Michalsky's Cobra won out of a field of about 400 entries in the show. Entries came from as far away as San Diego, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City for the event, which is co-sponsored by the Mesquite Resort Association and the Las Vegas Cruisin' Association Inc.

The roadster is bright red with white stripes down the middle and is usually a crowd pleaser. It took Michalsky 18 months to build in his local tool and die shop.

The roadster has been seen in Pahrump's Fourth of July and Fall Festival parades, representing Channel 41, KPVM-TV, and can be seen at Valley Cruisers Cruise Nights in Pahrump.

"I'm really pleased that the Cobra has taken home a prize from each of the three car shows it's been entered in," Michalsky said. "Some of these people put thousands of dollars into these cars and it shows what an incredible job they have done."

The first round of prizes included the top vehicles in the show, then the Dignitary and Hotel Casino Sponsors, Specialties and Crowd Pleasers awards, People's Choice and Participant's Pick as well as the Best In Show as the top award.