Ranee and her husband, Jerry Maddox, brought their Mustang from Alabama to the auction block at the 35th annual Leake Car Auction in Tulsa.

Their Mustang is one of about 700 classic cars going to auction Friday through Sunday at the Exposition Center at Expo Square. The auction is one of the largest classic-car auctions in the nation and draws thousands of bidders, sellers and visitors who come to see the rare collection.

The Maddoxes hope to get about $22,000 for their car.

But $22,000 only scratches the surface of some of the cars' going rates.

Richard Sevenoaks, president of Leake Auctions, said one of the show's gems will be a rare 1969 Chevrolet Corvette L-88 that should go for nearly $500,000.

David Burris, the car manager for the owner of the '69 Corvette, said the forest green Stingray rr was made to race.

Burris, the Maddoxes and others were polishing their cars to their best shine Thursday as more and more vehicles arrived at the indoor facility for Friday's opening.

Some of the highlights at the auction include several Shelby series Mustangs, a collection of classic Cadillacs and a few Rat Rods, custom cars that are old and rusty but house shiny, new engines.

The rustier a Rat Rod is, the better it is.

As a tribute to Oklahoma's centennial, a display at the entrance to the auction will showcase a 1907 Maxwell, built the same year that Oklahoma became a state.

The auction has more than 1,000 registered bidders so far, but thousands more are expected to attend the event as nonbidders just to see the cars.

The Leake legacy: Seven- oaks' wife, Nancy Sevenoaks, is the daughter of the late Jim Leake Sr., the original owner and creator of Leake Auctions.

Nancy Sevenoaks said she and her family have been helping to run the auction all her life.

During the auction's first year in Muskogee, Sevenoaks said she and her siblings ran the concession stand.

"We made $650 on our concessions, and we just thought, 'That is it.' That's how we got into it," she said.

As she helped operate the concessions, her father was selling parts of his collection of classic cars for tens of thousands of dollars.

Sevenoaks said car collecting "was always a hobby for all of us, but then it became a business, too."

Leake sold the business to the Sevenoakses about 20 years ago, she said, but he continued to work there until he died in 2001.

Sevenoaks said Leake's hobbies and business ventures included radio, television, grocery wholesale, piloting and classic cars.

"He was interested in anything that anyone else was interested in," she said.

Sevenoaks said her father's first car is still at the Leake Auctions office.

Leake bought the American Austin Bantam when he was a student at the University of Oklahoma.

She said he painted it crimson and cream himself.

Jarrel Wade 581-8300
jarrel.wade@tulsaworld.com

35th ANNUAL LEAKE CAR AUCTION

Where:
Expo Square

Doors open:
9 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Auction hours:
noon to 7 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday

Admission:
$10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and children younger than 12

For more information:
(800) 722-9942 or www.leakecarauction.com