Cruise night suffers from burnout

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The classic car enthusiasts behind RetroFest say some changes will need to be made prior to next year’s event: Fewer burnouts.

Len Langlois of the Kent Historic Auto Association, which teams up with the Historic Downtown BIA to put on RetroFest each year, said the cruise night was marred by too many people squawking their tires along the route.

“We have some concerns with people doing stupid things on the road in the cruise. We had a lot of people encourage drivers to do burnouts. We don’t need that,” he said.

Langlois said the main concern is over public safety for the spectators who come out to see the vehicles on parade.

“If a brake line ruptures or the car gets away, it could take out 10 people,” he said. “Some people were also pouring bleach on the road to help make tires spin and smoke.”

A few burnouts were issues in past years along the old cruise route out Riverview Line. This year, Bloomfield Road became home to the smell of more burnt rubber and tire smoke.

“Bloomfield, it’s all marked up. It’s just a dangerous practice,” Langlois said.

He added there were about four points along the cruise where spectators were encouraging the burnout stunts.

Burnouts aside, he said turnout for the cruise, from a vehicle and spectator perspective, was solid.

“We had a fair number of people out watching the cars, along Indian Creek Road, Lacroix Street, and in South Buxton. I think the people really enjoy the cars,” he said.

“We just don’t need the foolishness.”

Downtown was memorable, Langlois said, for cruise night and for the RetroFest vehicle showcase on the Saturday.

As for the weather, there was “one little sprinkle, but that was about it. We called it dust control,” Langlois said. “I don’t think anybody left because of it.”

The Friday night cruise also saw club members take in donations of food and money for Outreach for Hunger food bank.

“I’d like to thank the people for supporting us. Without the public, we wouldn’t have a show,” he said.

And that includes the out-of-town auto participants. Langlois said people came from as far away as Sudbury, Kingston, Michigan and even Pennsylvania to showcase their vehicles.

“We had 29 members of the Piston Pushers (auto club) from Brantford. They stayed overnight for the whole weekend. It’s the third year they’ve come to the show,” he said.

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