GREAT FALLS — The annual “Cruisin' the Drag” car event happened on Saturday, May 11th, on Central Avenue in downtown Great Falls.
“Cruisin' the drag is a huge get together of car people that have the same passion that I have,” said Roy Ingram, President of Cruisin' the Drag, “They like to get together, show off their cars, because these people put thousands of hours into some of their cars, so it's really a lot of fun.”
The nonprofit event has been going on since 1999 and brings hundreds of cars and thousands of people to Central Avenue to show off and admire their four-wheeled beauties, with a chance to win fun trophies for certain car types. This year, each car involved brought two cans of food for the Great Falls Food Bank, and the money raised from the event is going to My Neighbor in Need.
“So this is what's important. And if you can bring a bunch of folks together to have that same passion that you do, they love doing it, and we do it all for free,” Ingram said, “We get no money for this, we get enjoyment from seeing the people having a great time. I love that. I love giving back to what I love so much.”
People showed up from around the west to show off their cars, with a few even coming from Canada. This year’s Cruisin' the Drag had special guest Steve Darnell in attendance. Darnell’s resume includes tv personality and “Rat-rod” builder, but now he is focusing on his new endeavor to teach new welders the craft.
“I've kind of created a welding school that you can come to about every five weeks,” Darnell said, “And I'm teaching young guys and even older guys to come and weld at the WelderUp shop.”
The car and hotrod building community is a tight knit one, and one that understands that you only get to where you want to be with hard work.
“It's a self accomplishment, because to build something like this is not easy,” Darnell said, “It's not going to be easy. There's nothing easy from this end to that end.”
Click here to learn more about Steve Darnell, and WelderUp.
