photo by Jason Schoonover

Cars line up for the Low Bucks Car Cruise at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds Saturday as part of Eddie Cochran Weekend in Albert Lea.

Eddie Cochran Weekend: Cruisin'

Reporter goes along for the ride

Published Monday, June 15, 2009

“Hope you’re not afraid of burnout,” were Eric Hershey’s first words to me as we entered his 1972 Chevy Camaro Z28 for the 23rd annual Low Bucks Car Cruise.

By 6:30 p.m. Saturday, more than five rows of cars had lined up from the main entrance of the Freeborn County Fairgrounds all the way back to the north end of the fairgrounds. About 200 of the cars had been there to compete in the afternoon, but people arrived after 4 p.m. to talk and see the other cars.

“Be ready to wave,” said Kraig Schuhmacher before the cruise began. Schuhmacher is the president of Low Bucks Car Club. “People are going to wave; kids will be screaming — it’s cool.”

More than 350 cars participated in the cruise, Schuhmacher said.

Just after 6:30 p.m., Freeborn County Sheriff Mark Harig led the cruise in a 1969 Pontiac GTO out of the fairgrounds south onto Bridge Avenue.

People waved, but many of the people along the 26 mile route spun their index fingers to ask Hershey to burn out. One man on Bridge Avenue yelled, “yeah, light ‘em up” and many people along the route yelled things like “come on” and “let it go.”

The cruise felt like the Third of July parade, and people lined to west side of bridge from Security Bank across the bridge over the channel. The cars moved down Fountain Street and onto Broadway Avenue heading south.

Hershey’s silver Camaro with black stripes was the eighth car from the front. Not all the vehicles in the cruise were classic vehicles, and there were many newer vehicles. Hershey followed a yellow special edition 1999 Dodge Ram in the cruise, and he said the truck was a show car.

Right before HealthReach, Hershey slowed to increase the space between his Camaro and the Dodge truck. He flicked a switch to turn off the muffler, and the humming engine growled louder and cleaner.

Hershey accelerated to a roaring crescendo that ended with a sigh from the engine as he shifted down — a few seconds to give Hershey and the crowd a taste of the 452 horsepower engine.

The cruise continued south on Highway 65 and moved east on 170th Street at about 30 mph. Hershey complained about the speed of the group, and said he asked Harig to drive faster on the country roads because the cars heat up. Hershey said he’s had to pull off in previous years.

Every few miles, Hershey would slow to build the space between his Camaro and the Dodge truck, and the engine snarled as he pushed the car to 60 mph and then slowed.

The cars turned back south at 810th Avenue. Between Albert Lea and Glenville, cars would park at the end of gravel roads and driveways. Some people sat in lawn chairs and others watched from the bed of a truck.

More than 30 people gathered in a yard northeast of Glenville. Hershey said there’d been a sign requesting burnouts there in years past, but a sheriff’s deputy was parked across the street to discourage the act.

Hershey drove his Camaro into Glenville from the east and 150th Street at about 7:05 p.m. The cars snaked through Glenville and drove around the park, where people gathered for Glenville Days. Most of them spun their index fingers requesting a burn out.

“I’d do it more often if they wanted to pay for tires,” Hershey said, he added his tires are designed for drag racing and each cost more than $200.

A group gathered in a yard on 150th Street to the west of Glenville, and one person yelled, “get going, come on.”

“They asking for it, too?” I asked Hershey.

“Oh yeah. They all do,” Hershey said.

From there, the cruise turned onto Highway 69 and drove north into Albert Lea. The cruise turned east onto Fountain Street. After driving on back roads, the sound of the engines echoed off of the houses on Fountain Street.

The cruise ended in the parking lot by the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center, where many of the cars stopped to prepare for the street dance.

Hershey is originally from Albert Lea but now lives in Burnsville. He is a utility operator for the city of Bloomington, and he is a member of the Low Bucks Car Club.

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