McPherson College debuts ‘The Path To Pebble’ documentary

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — It’s been six months since a small college in the middle of Kansas rolled across the world stage at Pebble Beach.

The McPherson College Auto Restoration program fulfilled a dream ten years in the making by earning a trophy at the world-famous Concours d’Elegance. Thousands of applicants enter every year for a spot at the Concours, where automotive aficionados, industry professionals, and collectors gather on the West Coast of Northern California to see the best of the best in classic cars.

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Last year, a vintage car completely restored by McPherson College students was accepted in the competition.

A documentary film chronicling McPherson’s path to Pebble debuted earlier this week at McPherson’s historic Opera House. Thursday night, the documentary telling the complete back story of the auto restoration program and the restoration of the 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300 S Cabriolet was shown in Wichita.

“Ah, look at this. The McPherson car. Isn’t that great? All done by our scholarship students,” said the announcers as McPherson’s Mercedes-Benz rolled in front of the podium during the livestream of the 72nd Concours d’Elegance.

Back in August, a decade-long dream born in McPherson of winning an award at the world’s most prestigious automotive event came true. Thursday night, Bulldog alums and friends gathered at Wichita’s Mark Arts for a reception and a screening of the 30-minute documentary “The Path To Pebble,” with the star of the show on display.

“So, it covers not only the path to Pebble Beach and this project, but a little bit of history of the program. So, the program has been around 57 years, and it’s got an interesting history. In fact, back in the late 90s, the college just about canceled the program. And then Jay Leno called and changed everything for us,” said McPherson College President Dr. Michael Schneider.

Brian Martin was the Senior Director over the entire 10-year project.

“It’s a little surreal. The best parts of it are watching the students come back from their jobs. Taking a few days off to come back and see each other and relive some memories with the car,” said the executive director of the college’s auto restoration program. “We have all the photographs from throughout the seven-year restoration, and so just going back and looking at all the team members that were a part of it and all the different memories. It’s been great.”

“I came all the way back to Kansas just to celebrate this incredible event with all of my comrades and the faculty and staff of McPherson College. This experience means so much to me. It helped build my foundation as a restorer,” said Victoria Bruno, a 2024 graduate of the auto restoration program.

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Bruno was one of the full-time students who were dedicated to the restoration, which began with an 80-year-old classic car with 13,000 parts. The goal all through the years was to win an award at Pebble Beach, and they did. Second in class. The excitement from that day hasn’t gone away.

“It’s still, it’s hard to believe that it’s only been six months. It’s actually six months to the day that we showed up on the peninsula today,” said Martin.

“It was such a surreal experience. It’s one I’ll truly never forget it. I now work full-time as a vintage Ferrari mechanic and restorer in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it’s because of the college and because of this specific experience on the car that I’ve been able to get to where I am today,” said Bruno.

“You gotta imagine that you pour yourself into a project like this at this level for ten years, and then you make it into an event like that. And not only do you make it into the event, you win an award. I mean, spectacular! So people are pretty, pretty excited,” said Dr. Schneider. “It’s like we’ve won the national championship, really, in a lot of ways.”

The next time “The Path To Pebble,” which is narrated by Leno, will be shown will be this spring at McPherson College when the school hosts its annual “Cars Club Motoring Fest” on Saturday, May 4th. Otherwise, the documentary won’t be available to the public for at least a year.

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