The McMinnville Cruisers will have a new place to park for their monthly cruise-ins.
After 12 years at the downtown location of Security Federal, the McMinnville Cruisers are moving their events to Tim’s Motors at 1414 Smithville Highway. The first cruise-in of the year is this coming Saturday night, May 5.
“The downtown traffic on Saturday night is just not there anymore,” said Len Murray, a McMinnville Cruisers representative. “I don’t know if that’s the reason, but our participation has fallen way down. We’ve had as many as 125 cars for a cruise-in before, but we only had about 25 at our last one in October.”
Murray believes the change of scenery could inject new life into the cruise-ins and create more interest.
“We feel like we needed to do something,” said Murray. “Tim Floyd has been great here at Tim’s Motors so we’re looking at this as a good change. We’re shooting to have 75 vehicles here for the first one.”
Cruise-ins are held the first Saturday of every month from May till October. The dates for this year’s cruise-ins have already been set – May 5, June 2, July 7, Aug. 4, Sept. 1, and Oct. 6. Cruise-ins are held from 5 p.m. till dark.
Murray says the new location puts the cruise-ins close to several restaurants.
“At the old spot, sometimes we would have a food vendor show up and sometimes we wouldn’t,” said Murray. “Now we don’t have to worry about whether a food vendor will show up because we can walk to KFC and McDonald’s, and Taco Bell, Rafael’s and Applebee’s are just across the street.”
The cruise-ins will feature a live DJ, door prizes, and a 50-50 drawing. Murray says McMinnville Cruisers is an organization devoted to raising money for several charities including the Rescue Squad Toy Ride, and Share A Christmas Dinner.
“We’ll have a box for toy donations at our last two cruise-ins in September and October,” said Murray.
For more information, call Murray at 808-9812, or visit www.mcminnvillecruisers.com.