The inaugural New Jersey Truck Invasion will be held on Friday, June 22 and Saturday, June 23, the weekend before the Jeep Invasion.
Both events will be run under the newly-organized Blinker Fluid Productions banner.
The new event will be open to all 2-wheel drive and 4-wheel drive trucks and jeeps. Participating 2WD vehicles will be displayed both days on the boardwalk, while the 4WD's will be on the beach.
The beach area will also host a vendor area and an obstacle course, and a Show & Shine competition will be held, with trophies awarded to the top show vehicles.
"The Truck Invasion was born out of request, basically," said promoter Jamie Longmuir. "People asking if they could come to the Jeep Invasion with different vehicles. Toyota people and Ford people asking, 'What about us?'
"We wanted to keep that event for the jeeps only. So, after speaking with the city a little bit and running some ideas by [Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano], he thought it would be a good idea to try a truck event."
As with the NJ Jeep Invasion, steady growth is the goal.
"We'll see what the first year brings," Longmuir continued. "We'll be happy with a couple hundred trucks then will go from there. The goal is to get it up to where Jeep Invasion is, around 1,500 to 2,000 vehicles.
"If it grows as we expect, then we'll have back-to-back event weekends with jeeps and trucks all over the place. It can be a great boost for the local economy, for the city and local motels, restaurants, the boardwalk, everything."
The first NJ Jeep Invasion was held in Ocean City in 2013, with 250 jeeps on the boardwalk. When the total doubled the following year, Longmuir decided to it had outgrown itself and moved the event south to the expansive sands of Wildwood.
It became an instant hit here, with participating numbers jumping from approximately 800 jeeps and 40 vendors in 2014 to 1,500 jeeps and 80 vendors in 2017.
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